In California celebrity sightings are a common thing. It seems less likely that celebrities would be walking the streets of D.C., but many students testify to not only star-gazing but brushing shoulders with a variety of celebrities including musicians, politicians and professional athletes.
Sophomore Alexandra Tagle said she met Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough last Friday in front of the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Tagle said she saw tour buses outside the hotel and thought it might be the Backstreet Boys’ tour buses because the group was in town for a concert that night. Tagle went to the concert at the MCI Center and saw the same tour buses sitting outside the building.
Tagle said she rushed home to her Aston Hall room and waited for the tour buses to arrive back at the hotel. Fifteen minutes later one of the tour buses arrived and Tagle went running.
“I threw on my shoes, grabbed my coat and camera and ran across the street,” Tagle said.
Tagle was able to get a picture with Dorough, the only member of the band riding the bus back to the hotel. Tagle said she was sad she could not get a picture with all of the Boys, but was so shocked she could barely believe it.
Sophomores Kim Gulko and Jessica Seigle said they have seen their fair share of celebrities around town. Gulko saw Vice President Dick Cheney at the GW Hospital’s Ambulatory Care Center. He came out with his wife and gave thumbs up, signifying that he had a good appointment, Gulko said. She said she could not actually talk to Cheney because bodyguards surrounded him.
The sophomores said they also ran into an Oakland Raiders football player last weekend in Georgetown near Wisconsin Avenue. The two women asked if they could see inside the player’s limousine. Seigle said the football celebrity was friendly and let the women go inside the limousine even though they weren’t sure who exactely he was.
Gulko and Seigle also met the Clintons at Bill Clinton’s farewell address at Andrew’s Air Force Base last month. Gulko and Seigle even ended up on C-SPAN, they said.
“We were the girls holding the big `Please Don’t Go’ sign,” Gulko said.
They said the Clintons where very friendly and welcoming and they talked to Hillary, Chelsea and Bill for a while. The two women also got pictures of the former first family. In one of the pictures, Gulko and Seigle are posed hugging Chelsea.
Seniors Brion Tingle and Alex Schwartz ran into singer Dave Matthews of The Dave Matthews Band last weekend. The students said they were at Cities restaurant in Adams Morgan for a Playboy.com party when they saw Matthews. Tingle said he did not recognize Matthews, but Schwartz figured that he must have been someone famous considering the entourage of people following him.
After talking to Matthews at Cities, Tingle and Schwartz said they later met up with the singer at Club Five. They walked in with him, had a few drinks, took some pictures and then parted ways, the students said.
Sophomore Jordan Usdan said he ran into several political celebrities when he slept outside the Supreme Court awaiting the decision for Bush vs. Palm Beach County case last fall. He said he ran into Judge Charles Burton, anchors Bill Daily, Wolf Blitzer, Roger Cossack and others.
The capital of the United States may not be as star-packed as California, but D.C. does have its fair share of celebrities. Special events such as legal battles, movie shoots and concerts mix actors, rock stars, athletes and politicians. Students simply need a watchful eye to catch a glimpse of them.
