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Jesse Richards
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Everyone's Your Friend in New York City
Celebrities Spotted | 100 Best Things | Humble Buildings | Restaurants | NYC Photos | Intro

Celebrities Spotted

After a decade in the city now, I've seen lots of famous people. You might notice below that there is a disproportionate number of attractive women in this selection (Mila Kunis, Keri Russell, etc). Sorry about that; somehow, they must be more noticeable to me. Who knows how many male celebrities I've missed walking on the streets of New York? Note: Click on some of the photos to see larger pictures.

Ric Ocasek

Ric Ocasek, the lead singer of The Cars, can not possibly be mistaken for anyone else. He's gaunt, tall, and wears all black. He wandered into Big Daddy's the other day.

Mila Kunis

A highlight of my celebrity brushes - Mila Kunis, star of That 70's Show and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. And really really short, which is nice. Marc and I saw her walking in the Village with an albino-esque guy. He was most likely Macauley Culkin, but I didn't add him to this page as we didn't get a good look at him for some reason.

Paul Giamatti

John Adams himself was waiting in the (unmoving)taxi line with us at Union Station in Washington during the blizzard of December '09. 2 feet of snow. No taxis. Sad Paul.

Scarlett Johansen

Scarlett sat next to Rachel and me at the good ol' Lyric Diner. She was with a friend and wore a black coat and fedora that she pulled down over her face when she stood up. She was obviously trying to stand out by pretending to be inconspicuous. I did not notice what she ordered for dinner.

Larry David

Larry David sat behind us when I saw the not-cheesy-at-all Broadway show Little Women with my girlfriend. No laughs - clearly the show was awesome enough that he wanted to see it too.

Keri Russell

I saw Keri Russell walking along Sixth Avenue and it only took me about three blocks to work up the nerve to say "Hi" to her. She also said, "Hi." And that was the end of that. The picture here (along with the words) was one of the first that came up after Google Image searching Kerri Russell. It cracks me up.

Spike Lee

Lawrence M. of New York, New York, writes: "This morning I saw Spike Lee in the Dunkin Donuts in my office building. He was buying breakfast for his kid. He is short and wears thick glasses."

Kirsten Dunst

I passed Kirsten walking on Broadway. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt and looked like she was coming from some type of yoga or dance class.

Sarah Silverman

I passed Sarah on Broadway too, right outside the Meetup office. She was very casually dressed, with a baseball cap and backpack. She was smirking. Mike later claimed to have made out with her.

Jason Schwartzman

My friend Viviane and I sat next to Jason Schwartzman and his wife, clothing designer Brady Cunningham, at Cafe Gitane in SoHo. They had a dog that was friendly to Viv and wisely steared clear of me.

Julia Roberts

I didn't get to see her, but Lawrence and his friend saw a movie with Julia Roberts, star of "Hook" and "Eat Love". She was actually in the theater in Union Square with them watching "The Other Guys." When she left she climbed into a black SUV with her entourage.

Mario Batali & Emeril

Maya and I went into the just-opened Eataly, Mario Batali's mall of a restaurant on Madison Square, and saw him and Emeril sitting on stools chatting.

Kristen Schaal

We saw Mel from Flight of the Conchords jogging in Hudson River Park during one of our sketch Meetups.

Boone from Lost

Yesterday I saw Boone from Lost (Ian Somethinghander) walking down the street talking on his cell phone, presumably to my friend Ji. Or perhaps, to one of Ji's friends, asking them to see if Ji "like" likes him.

Of course, it's unlikely he could even form complete sentences since due to his untimely death this was most likely Zombie Boone. Perhaps he was asking about Ji's brains.

Jay Baruchel

Jay Baruchel was filming Sorcerer's Apprentice near where I work. He was in Tropic Thunder, Undeclared, and is shown here with Kristen Bell in Fanboys.

Elisha Cuthbert

Elisha Cuthbert of TV's 24 sat next to Rachel and I at a restaurant down the street on 3rd Ave.

Moby

Moby of being Moby fame, was eating at the table next to us at Rice restaurant (which is delicious, fyi imho btw lol.)

Seth Rogen

Saw someone who looked just like Seth Rogen on 5th avenue one night, so I'm going to assume it was him. This means there are actually two people named Seth on this page, weird.

Harvey Keitel

I just saw Harvey Keitel shooting a scene for Life on Mars on Bleecker Street where I work. It felt like I walked into the 1970s. Except Mila Kunis wasn't there.

Carrie from that girls show

Spotted Sarah Jessica Parker outside our apartment packing clothes in a wardrobe trailer. At least, it looked like her from above. The staff was wearing Sex in the City shirts - kind of a tip-off.

The Flash

Saw John Wesley Shipp, of the ol' Flash TV show (and Dawsons Creek), at a comic book show. A very nice guy.

Mayor Adam West

We saw Adam West at the same show, but we didn't want to have to wait in line to actually meet him. He seemed so special, with his fancy security detail and all.

Jimmy Fallon

Saw Jimmy Fallon one night at The Copper Door - right down the street. It was very late - presumably after an SNL taping! He was talking to us and everything, basically because there was no one else in the bar.

Jane Krakowski

We passed Jane Krakowski, from 30 Rock, at WholeFoods - but she did not look like Betty Rubble.

Ali Larter

Marc and I saw Ali Larter a while ago walking her dog downtown. This was long before her 21 annoying characters on Heroes.

Oliver Platt

Marc, Lawrence and I saw Oliver Platt walking between 5th and 6th Avenue on 22nd street. Probably headed towards Barnes & Noble, like any reasonable person. He looked cool, but not as attractive as Ali Larter.

Sayid from Lost

We saw Naveen Andrews - Sayid of TV's Lost - an hour before we were about to watch the show. Ji and Lawrence and I saw him at some movie premiere in Union Square. There were other actors there too, giving interviews to the cameras, but he was the only one we recognized.

Jean Grey

Famke Janssen is our second celeb spotting at the delicious restaurant Rice on Elizabeth St. in NoHo.

John Glover

John Glover, hero of Gremlins 2*, was next to us at the counter of Banana Republic today, arguing over a coupon. That's how he made that Luthor fortune!


*The New Batch.

Joshua Jackson

Marc and I also ran into Joshua Jackson, star of Dawson's Creek. He walked out a movie theater with us after we saw Big Fish. He held the door for us, which was nice. His date was unsurpisingly attractive. (In the photo at left, I went to college with the other guy, James Vanderdawson.) The only question is, was it Joshua Jackson from Earth-1 or Earth-2?

Kristin Davis

Kristin Davis is gorgeous, and apparently prone to walking along Fifth Avenue, next to Central Park. An equally gorgeous walk.

Illeana Douglas

Illeana Douglas is in a bazillion movies, such as Ghost World. She was at Union Square's modelly Coffee Shop.

Matt Pinfield

Matt Pinfield (not to be confused with Penfold, whom we did NOT see, unfortunately) and his posse were in a BBQ place where my boss and I were eating. Antwan and I were very embarrassed when Jon talked to him, but he seemed a good sport.

Kelly Clarkson

Lawrence saw Kelly Clarkson, who is his Idol. Ha ha Ha! Whew.

Scott Wolf

Scott Wolf and his wife, Kelly something from the Real World, were shopping at Banana Republic in SoHo. They are both attractive, and like many of the folks here, much shorter than you'd think.

Dear Scott - I love Lost!

Cousin Larry

Mark Linn-Baker, best known to non-theatre-goers as cousin Larry on Perfect Strangers, walked by me on the way to work ... for both of us. He's in a show now across the street from Meetup, where I worked. Here's a great caricature by the indomitable Al Hirschfeld (with Nathan Lane on the left, I think).

Scott Adsit

Hey - it's that guy from 30 Rock! You know, that guy. He was at a restaurant on Bleecker across the street from Qdoba. The guys who work at Qdoba are so nice. And they have little chip strips that can go on your taco salad - an important edge over their bitter rival, Chipotle. What were we talking about?

Danny Strong

Here's Danny Strong, who played Jonathan for many years on Buffy. He's very short. I passed him in the West Village on the way to work one day. This was the funniest photo I could find of him online, on a Jedi Chefs site. Yes.

Julianne Moore

Julianne Moore, or her bizarro twin because I swear it looked just like her, was standing by me on 3rd Ave. She was with some elementary school kids. I wonder if she has kids, or was just kidnapping some. I guess I could look that up if I felt like it.

This photo is a brilliant recreation of a Sargent painting.

Cynthia Nixon

Cynthia Nixon makes my Sex in the City celebrity bump-intos almost complete. She was in the Met with people who looked like her parents, and a baby. It may have been a fake animatronic baby, or a pig; I didn't get that close a look.

Joe Perry

This guy has crazy hair. He's Joe Perry from Aerosmith. We saw him talking on the phone on 3rd ave a block away from our apartment. No doubt discussing with Steven Tyler how to make Amazing into another song.

Ja Rule

Lawrence also saw Ja Rule. I have no idea who he is, but he looks pretty tough in this photo, much like Lawrence himself.

Chris Robinson

AND, Lawrence saw Chris Robinson, from the Black Crowes and married to Kate Hudson fame. Oddly, his friend saw the lead singer from the Counting Crows the other day. Next we plan to see Ray Bolger, Brandon Lee, and Cillian Murphy.

Elaine

I saw Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the Rodeo Bar two blocks up from our old apartment. Lawrence didn't believe me since his back was to her.

Paul Dano

This is Paul Dano, who was in The Girl Next Door with Elisha Cuthbert (see above) and Little Miss Sunshine. We saw him at the good ol' Lyric Diner.

Seth Green

Ji saw Seth Green (not his action figure version) on NJ Transit and ALSO on the subway! It's like he was stalking her.

They Might Be Giants

I was lucky enough to run into John Flansburgh and John Linnell of one of my favorite bands, They Might Be Giants, in Union Square. Of all these celebrities, they were the only ones I stopped to say hi too, and shake their hands. They were nice and had at least one Dan from their band of Dans with them too.

Hayden Panettiere

I saw Hayden Panettiere at ComicCon a few years ago. I bet just writing the words Hayden Panettiere will help with search engine placement. A lot more people are interested in Hayden Panettiere than the other 500 pages on my site. Which is kind of sad. Hayden Panettiere.

(I found this picture online. It's ... odd. When I saw her, she was singular.)

Kristen Bell

Wow, I also just happened to run into Kristen Bell of TV's Veronica Mars and Heroes in the park one day! What are the chances?! ...

... Ok, I saw her at ComicCon too.

Map of all these celebrity sightings