Thursday, October 01, 2009
10 famous people in 5 days
While I'm not one to run around stalking celebrities and politicians, I must admit there's always a secret thrill in meeting famous people. The idea of breathing the same air and claiming those bragging rights is a reward in itself.Here are some of the people I met over the F1 weekend. And although I didn't get up-close with some of them, well, at least we breathed the same smoggy air.
1) No Doubt
My boss gave me a pair of complimentary tickets to watch F1 Rocks on Friday (thank you British Airways) and on top of that, Dannel was kind enough to invite Hil and I to an exclusive meet-and-greet session with No Doubt. I'm officially a fan after watching this 40-year-old rock chick jump around non-stop on stage like a 14-year-old.
2) Lindsay Lohan
Ok, I wasn't hot about meeting her and neither were the thousands of booing fans at Fort Canning. But I definitely know I'm getting old when I reminisce about cute little Lindsay from The Parent Trap and wished she hadn't grown up so fast.
Photo source: http://www.daylife.com/photo/04NIah6dUL6Il
3) Lewis Hamilton
Slinging the all-important media pass around my neck, I was given full access to most areas of the tracks and while walking around, I spotted pre-race Hamilton (and eventual race winner) with girlfriend Nicole (so they didn't break up after all) getting cosy at the Mclaren suite, totally oblivious to the crowd of people staring at them stare at each other.
4 & 5) Nicole Scherzinger & Will.i.am
More commonly known as the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls (at least that's how I know her), Nicole was later making her presence felt on the grid, walking around with Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. Actually, errr, I didn't know he was Will.i.am until I googled to find out who's that cool dude beside her.
6) Chaka Khan
This is the woman who sang 'I'm every woman', which was later covered by Whitney Houston. (Betcha didn't know that.) I didn't either, till I went on wiki to find out more about her. And while we're at it, you may like to know that she's also a 10-time Grammy Award recipient.
7 & 8) Bernie Ecclestone & PM Lee Hsien Loong
Doing their pre-race formalities, these two were bigger than the F1 drivers, inspecting the tracks with an entourage of ministers, bodyguards, photographers, and ushers. Oh, and I saw PM Lee again on Tues night at another function where he looked at me and smiled. =)
9) Backstreet Boys
Performing at the Padang after the race, the BSB were a bunch of disappointing has-beens. Belting out songs from the comfort of their stools, they moved little and perspired buckets. Hmmm. Maybe I'm biased after watching the high energy No Doubt performance that same weekend.
10) MM Lee Kuan Yew
I sat through a 45-minute dialogue session with our founding father and was in awe of his authoritative presence. Although he spoke slowly, he held my attention throughout the entire time and his speech showed his sharpness of mind and vast knowledge of world politics.
