So this is my second-last Celebrity Encounter post. Tomorrow is the doozy – my best and favorite tale. Today I just wanted to mention a few Canadian celebrities I met while co-producing “Robson Arms” here in Vancouver.
I got to work with two former Kids in the Hall, Mark McKinney and Dave Foley. I was (and am) a huge Kids in the Hall fan, so working with these two was a dream come true. Mark was in the very first season, in 2 episodes. I had to convince him to do it, since it was an unknown entity. This involved meeting him for lunch. I had never met him before. I was so nervous. When I saw him, I stood up, put out my arms – and kissed him on the lips.
Oh, god. I don’t know what I was thinking. I wasn’t thinking. I hope he doesn’t remember that moment. Miraculously he agreed to do the show, and he was fantastic.Dave came on in season 3. He was very fun to have around. He has those boyish good looks, but he is very acerbic and darkly funny. He told us at dinner when we first met that people with his upbringing either become porn stars or comics, and he didn’t have the looks to be a porn star.
In season 2 I had the great pleasure of meeting the legendary Leslie Nielsen (I used to joke that he was my long-lost father). Everyone on set was just tickled to meet him, and he didn’t disappoint. He actually carried his fart machine with him wherever he went, and would let it off behind unsuspecting individuals. Maybe he felt he had to; that it was expected of him. But he was a very gracious, lovely man.
Gabrielle Rose, Leslie Nielsen, Helena Yea, Gary Harvey, John Cassini, me, Terry David Mulligan
Robin Nielsen (Leslie’s nephew), me and Leslie in the Robson Arms foyer.
Then there was Margot Kidder. Margot!! She appeared in Season 1. Yes, yes, she was Lois Lane – but I had to tell her that it was her movie, “Black Christmas,” that had turned me into a fan and scared the crap out of me. I saw it when I was 16 and had to sleep in my mother’s bed that night, no joke. Margot was incredible. She’d been through a lot, and yet she’d come back stronger than ever. She was a hilarious and easy-going woman to work with. Just before she had a make-out scene with Fred Ewanuick, who is much younger than her, she told him, “I’m a grandmother, you know.”
I was desperate to have a photo taken with Margot, and it had to be inside, and I take terrible photos, especially inside. I always close my eyes when the flash goes off. So after a couple failed attempts, Margot held my eyelids open for me.
Bless her!
Lastly, I have one minor celeb-regret. I was staying at the Four Seasons in Yorkville in Toronto a number of years ago (I promise you, someone else was paying), and having breakfast in their restaurant. Who was sitting a few tables over but Cloris Leachman. She was with what looked to be her daughter and granddaughter. Now – I’ve seen other celebrities while out and about – probably the biggest being Madonna, at a restaurant in New York, just as she was becoming HUGE – and believe it or not I’m pretty good at just experiencing some internal excitement, and leaving the person alone. But I kind of regret not having a word with Cloris. I just would have said thank you for making me laugh throughout so many periods of my life – from Mary Tyler Moore, to Young Frankenstein, to Malcolm in the Middle. But it’s a small regret – mostly I think I did the right thing. She was with her family, for god’s sake. To be honest I was also a little scared of her!
OK – my siesta resistance, as a character in my new manuscript would say, comes tomorrow …
