haha Marlene! You've always been so sweet to me! HUG

Love your list, Mtn.. as always, you have it all covered!

Adam Levine

Chris Botti

The cast (and corpse) of The Big Chill

Albert Camus

Oskar Schindler

Viktor Frankl

Jimmy Carter

Iris Apfel

Anderson Cooper

Joy Behar

Barbara Walters

Golda Meir

Margaret Mead

Malala Yousafzai

Oh wait, I want Melissa McCarthy too! And David Letterman. Oh and Bill Murray.

blfenton, great thought!

My parents

My paternal grandfather

My maternal great-grandmother

John Oliver

Django Reinhardt

John Lennon

Ellen Gilchrist

J D Salinger

Golda Meir

Jimmy Carter

David Tennant

Woody Allen

James Dean

Dalai Lama

Oh yes to John Oliver! And Stephen Colbert! How could I have forgotten him on my original list?!

Can I brag? I have actually been to a party w Colbert; former neighbor.

I didn't read people's answers before I wrote mine, and I feel like such a heel for not thinking of lost family members, how sweet is that idea?

John Oliver, yes, brilliant. And Jimmy Carter, what a man.

Fun thread.

Oh boy, jealous of Mtn. How could one NOT brag about that!

Technically, the list is really to find out what famous people one would have since that is much more of an indication of the personality of the list the person is making, and at first I was going to restrict it to just famous people, but it occurred to MOI that my father is a great conversationalist and so intelligent and smart that I felt I had to put him at the table, and then how does one say, "I may have a relative at my party but you may not!"? But, no one can glean much about the host(less) from people one does not have any knowledge of!

Very interesting how many times Jimmy Carter has shown up here.

***Btw, most of us are females here, so it is permissible to regress to age 14 and uninvite a guest (if a better one comes along! or if that guest steals our boyfriend) and add another or others***

I'm pretty sure Anderson Cooper stole my boyfriend, but he's still invited to my party.

Why dont we just have one big party and invite everyone on the lists!

I am very lucky to have had my dream gathering about ten years ago. My mother invited six very close friends of mine for a dinner party at her house. It was very dress up and everyone looked marvelous----my mother's decor is designed to make women look their best. We had delicious cocktails and food and wine, and during the dinner each of us named the woman we most admired and explained why and what impact that woman had on our lives and the lives of all women. The answers ranged from Maria Montessori to Queen Elizabeth I, and there was a lively, thoughtful discussion afterward. I hope to give my own daughter a dinner party like that some day.

Ok, I am inviting KSWL's Mom now. Oh and KSWL can come. ; )

She gives a pretty good party :-). The people present that night still mention it as one of their best evenings out, ever.

I would love to have my parents and grandparents, siblings, certain aunts and uncles, and other extended family and some of our close friends from different parts of the country... AND, I would love for us to be all around the same age.

if going the celeb route... I would love to have david bowie too! Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby and Bob hope for my dad. jon stewart, david letterman, bill murray, duff goldman (for a few cake tips:), and Elton john... this would be a starter list without giving it much thought!

I would choose

the Dalai Lama

Robert Gould Shaw

Chief Joseph

Sojourner Truth

Frederick Douglass

Albert Camus

Gertrude Stein

Dorothy Parker

Erma Bombeck

My grandfathers

I find it hard to choose really. There are so many.

So hard to choose.

My mother and maternal grandmother (both wonderful cooks)

my youngest brother (could be a pro chef)

John Besh (went to a cooking demo he held & love his simplicity)

Jay Leno

Ellen DeGeneres

My good friend who is great at choosing wine

Sheryl Crow

Stevie Nicks

Paul McCartney

My husband, DD and a bunch of other family members & friends too most likely

Oh wow, Ellen DeGeneres! Great choice. She can bring Portia with her to mine!

Friends and family. How I would love to have family members who are no longer here to a dinner. Celebrities don't do it for me, but I can think of several musicians I would love to have!

Leaving out family and friends, I've gone for people who interest me, are good conversationalists, and have led fascinating/exciting lives.

Tim Gunn, to help me pull it all together

Georgia O'Keeffe

King Abdullah of Jordan

Simone de Beauvoir

Albert Camus

Shimon Peres, of Israel

Samantha Power

Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, President of Egypt

Teilhard de Chardin (the French paleontologist and Jesuit priest, charming, a great conversationalist, a perfect dinner guest; am currently reading his biography)

Dick Cavett, who could wittily discuss it all afterwards!

David Grohl

Just me and David.

LOL ML!

Too funny, Maddie!

Oh, Dick Cavett-absolutely!

Maddielee....that's the AFTER-dinner party! AKA "Dessert".

What a fascinating question, Tibbie!

i could make this list three times as long, but here goes:

Ellen Degeneres

Michael Strahan

Katharine Hepburn

David Niven

Julia Child

Tony Bennett

Sandra Bullock

Ray Charles

Betty White

George Bush

Pope Francis

Condoleezza Rice

What a diverse, interesting group that would be!

oh oh, another brush with celebrity! I had Michael Strahan's dirt in my yard. Yes, I know that is terribly exciting and you are all just green with envy. We were levelling out part of our yard and he was digging his up to add another garage. Our houses were in the same town and we had the same crew so it made sense for both of us.

We did also run into each other when we both were trying to preserve an historic structure in town, and he was very sweetly complimentary about my testimony at town hall. He has done such an impressive job transitioning to talk show host, from what little I have seen.

Ohhhh, I want to be invited to Delilah's dinner party! Barbara Walters, Chris Botti, Adam Levine, etc., etc. Great picks all!

I meant to add David Niven and forgot! A keen observer of people and places, and a great, witty story-teller. And a gentleman, which is always nice at a dinner party.

Katharine Hepburn! Excellent addition!

Can anyone here one-up Mtn., please? We could stand a little more shameless name-dropping and tales of brushes with celebrities, including anointed soil. Okay, I'll start. Our neighbor (my family's) in Provincetown was Stanley Kunitz, with whom we were very good friends and remain so with his daughters, who now have the house since Stanley's passing. We share the deck on the water; Kunitz estate pays the taxes, and we do all maintenance and repairs. It's a friendly arrangement.

Another neighbor was once told by a realtor that Elton John wanted to rent his house for a summer season. I nearly fainted. It was Elton's poster I had on my bedroom wall as a teen (as if I had any chance there!). Ray turned him down! We share the beach with Ray's house. Imagine swimming with the Sir! I was planning on doing a lot of baking that summer so that I would have to constantly be borrowing cups of water from Mr. John. But, no go.

I was once invited to a salon at which the likes of Gore Vidal, who was a regular, and Joyce Carol Oates were frequent participants. Talk about being intimidated! Yes, I think that would have shut me up!

Which brings me to another guest I'd definitely have at my dinner party: John Waters (another Ptown spotee, although I have yet to catch a glimpse).

Um, I've seen Steve Martin twice. In passing. No chance for even a cup of tea. We were in an elevator with Paul Shafer once. My longest celebrity encounter was with Mary Louise Parker, who stayed at our hotel in Nevis a couple years ago. We were at the same pool most mornings, and we sat at the next table at breakfast one morning (SO close to "eating together"!). I became obsessed with her and her whereabouts the whole time. Made for an interesting vacation!

Dennis Franz and his wife once exited a hotel in NYC just as I was walking by. He nodded at me and said hello.

And my sister's neighbor in Boston is the actor who does the voice-overs for the Dos Equis "Most Interesting Man in the World" commercials, as well as narrating "Frontline". I saw him a couple of days ago, and he said hello to me in "that voice". I swooned. An amazing voice, like butter.

When we lived on the UES in NYC we saw celebrities all the time---in the grocery store, at restaurants, in the park. Our oldest two children started school there and there were the inevitable private school celebrity kids at both schools. We saw famous parents at school fundraising auctions and they were pretty much like all the other parents. This was in the mid eighties and early nineties, and I don't remember anyone ever seeing hordes of photographers following anyone, not even people like Christie Brinkley. I never saw anyone approach them or ask for autographs, either. The nature and price of Fame certainly has changed over the years!

My favorite sightings were of Jackie Onassis, I saw her often on 80th St. near our son's school, which was around the corner from her Fifth Ave. apartment. I was either pushing our daughter in a stroller or later, the baby in a pram with the other two in tow and she always graciously smiled and nodded or said hello. We usually went to the park nearby after school and occasionally saw Caroline with her child there.

OMG, Kswl, Jackie O . . . What a memory!

Over the years I've met some celebrities. Back when I was single and living in the Ft. Lauderdale area, I got to know Jayne Marie Mansfield, who is the daughter of Jayne Mansfield and older sister to Mariska Hargitay. She was shooting a movie close to my then boyfriend's boat, and came over to hang out with me there. That same boyfriend and I had dinner a few times with the actress Terry Moore. Also with a very famous billionaire, whose name I don't feel comfortable mentioning, as he was with his mistress those times, while still very much married to his longtime wife. Same boyfriend, same billionaire and mistress and I met up with Ray Charles at the Bachelors III restaurant and nightclub in Ft. L. That's when Ray Charles sat next to me and held my hand as we all chatted. A lovely, lovely gentleman. I adored him. BTW, my boyfriend was the son of a very famous football coach, and that's how I came to meet all of those people. A year or so after that, I ran into Keith Richards at a nightclub in Ft. L. Sweet, sweet bad boy. Nuff said.

Fast forward to my married life here in New Mexico. DH & I were staying at the Bishop's Lodge (Santa Fe) one Fall weekend. We had a lovely large duplex casita on the property there and Gene Hackman was staying in the other half of it. We shared a covered porch and he used to smoke out there. Very handsome guy in real life, and a lovely man. I also met Willie Nelson and Charley Pride at a dinner party and impromptu concert DH & I were invited to. Nice guys and so talented! I love both of their music. I've seen the golfer, Notah Begay, around town a number of times. I've never talked to him, though. I ran into Lou Diamond Phillips in the gift shop at the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe. Freddie Prinze Jr. & Sarah Michelle Geller used to hang out next door to us here. Freddie and the guy next door were best friends (they probably still are, but those neighbors have since moved). And, last but not least, Neil Patrick Harris used to live very near me here in our mountain village (post "Doogie Houser" and before "How I Met Your Mother"). I used to run into him at our local grocery store. Nice guy and so incredibly talented.

Hmmmm, brushes with celebrities? I've had quite a few on airplanes. Especially when I used to fly quite regularly to Washington DC. I saw several and was fortunate to have a few as seatmates but I don't like to impose on the seatmates unless they open up. Seatmates have been Coretta Scott King (so elegant and she and I spoke briefly), Dan Rather (not at all friendly, had terrible table manners & heavily salted everything), and June Scobee (wife of astronaut Dick Scobee who was killed in the Challenger disaster & not really a celebrity herself but was so interesting). Also saw Wolf Blitzer and a whole host of senators and congressmen (who I don't really consider celebrity). Can't remember the actor's name but he was one of the 'bad guys' in Home Alone. Also usually see celebrities in Harrod's in London or Knightsbridge area (Keira Knightly, Pierce Brosnan were fairly recent sightings).

But my most memorable was on a flight to Honolulu when Robert Wagner & Jill St John were in the seats behind me. It was all I could do to keep from sitting in his lap!

All my pets ever, Jane Goodall, James Herriot, Kevin Richardson and maybe Caesar, we would all sit outside in lawnchairs and on blankets and grill and play.

I think we had an entire post on this once, ie brushes with celebrities? I have a lot. It's mostly about geography, ie time spent living in or close to NYC (and LA I guess), but I agree hotels and airplanes are also good opportunities.

I won't relist all of mine again, but my two favorites are my "celebrity dirt" (above) and "I slept with OJ". Which is kind of a grammatical stretch, but he sat behind me on a plane once, and we both did fall asleep.

Like KSWL, I've never seen anyone bother a celebrity.

I have a bunch of musician brushes and acquaintances - DH is a musician.

However, my most recent brush was Neil deGrasse Tyson. It was a couple of months ago on a flight from Austin to Newark with my mom. He was seated a row behind us and across the aisle. As he was stowing his bags, Mom says, "Neil, is that you? How are you doing?" As if they were old friends. I was mortified but Mr. deGrasse very kindly said, "I'm very well thank you."

Magdalena, That is so cute! who could mind that?

Mtn, I feel like I should belong to a support group. "Hi, I'm Magdalena, I'm 46 years old and my mom STILL embarrasses me."

One day in LA (my only time there), within the span of about 2 hours, we saw Sean Hayes in a diner. I stood 2' away from him while I waited for the (single, unisex) rest room -- DH was in there and when he opened the door I pushed him back in, closed the door, and said much too loudly I'm sure, "OMG you'll never believe who's right outside this door!" I was a babbling idiot. Then we walked down the street to a Starbucks. My DS, who was probably 18 at the time, was standing in line for the rest room behind the musician Ryan Adams. Maybe two months before this, we had taken DS with us to a Ryan Adams concert in Boston, so he recognized him right away. When Ryan came out of the men's room and handed DS the key, DS chatted with him for a few minutes. Ryan was really nice to him. I was outside and knew nothing until DS2 came out to tell me what was happening. I ran in, again like a big idiot, and stood watching while Ryan got a straw for his iced coffee, then I went back outside to wait for him, fully intending to ask him for a photo, but he escaped out the back door. So sad. THEN, in the next store we visited, we saw "Janice" -- Chandler's girlfriend from Friends. This may have been the best day of my life. I am a total dork about celebrities (in case you can't tell).

I love, love the singer Lori McKenna. Maybe no one here has heard of her but she is local from MA and does a lot of performing and song writing in Nashville as well. We have seen her in concert probably 12 times. She plays a couple times a year at a very small concert venue in the Boston area, and we always go. The first time I spoke to her it was because we, and our friends, were among the last to leave and Lori came out from backstage to get her guitar. My friend asked if she would take a pic with me, and she did, and we chatted for a minute. The second time I met her, it was at the same concert venue, and I had brought a CD for her to sign. After the show, I managed to be standing right in front of a door she was coming out of, and I asked her to sign my CD. She said 'yes, but a bunch of people are about to come out of there (the concert area), so come with me' -- she grabbed my hand and brought me backstage. She signed my CD, then had her DH take a bunch of pics of us. She was super nice.

I have had many celebrity brushes, to name a few...Tom Hanks (he waved at me). At flea markets- Mark Harmon and Pam (he nodded hello), Madonna, Diane Keaton, Dennis Franz. No one seemed to bother them.

Magdalena, that is so sweet . . . and funny! That will keep me smiling all day thinking about it. He sounds like a nice guy, though.

So mtn is our resident dirty girl? haha!

Frank Howard (Washington Senators baseball; pre-game practice); Isaiah Thomas (Detroit Pistons; O'Hare airport); Tom Selleck ("Ferrari salesman"; on the street in HI); William Conrad ("Jake & The Fat Man"; North Shore, HI restaurant); David Soul ("Starsky & Hutch"; Battle of Bull Run re-enactment in VA); Kevin Costner (filming The Untouchables in Chicago); Julie Andrews (Montauk restaurant); Iris Apfel (Montauk shop).

My father was served sandwiches and coffee by Jacqueline Kennedy at the White House. He was supervising broadcast set up for her to introduce the Mona Lisa exhibit at the National Gallery . Although I was able to accompany him for similar services during sports events in DC/MD, I doubt he could have gotten me clearance for the White House gig.

I forgot someone very important to me, one of my all-time favorite authors, Tony Hillerman. He and his wife, Marie, and DH & I used to vacation up in Taos every Fall at the same time, for Taos' Fall Arts and Wool festivals. We all stayed at the Fechin Inn there and would to chat. DH and Tony were both from Oklahoma, and had a lot in common. The year I came up there on crutches with my broken foot, he actually traded rooms with us, as he said theirs had a nicer patio and he could see that I'd be spending a lot of time in our room that trip. Such a sweet, thoughtful , very interesting man. Incredibly talented, too! I bought every book of his the first day they came out. Not because I knew him, but because I loved his stories.

What a cool story about him giving their room up for you, Linen!

Thanks, Tibbie. Yes, he was a great guy

Delilah, your father must have had an incredibly fascinating life!

I really needed to think on this one!

JC/spiritual

Carol Burnett/humor

Abraham Lincoln/past historian

Coco Chanel/fashion icon

Nostradamus/astrology

Julia Child/food

Madame Curie/science

Martin Luther/religion

Claude Mone/artist

Joe Dimaggio/sports

Paul McCartney/music

Al Frankel/present historian

And on standby should the conversation lag, Mae West.

I met Al Franken -- before he was in politics. We hired him to entertain clients at an event. He wanted to add things into his act that related to our industry, so I was asked to sit down with him and talk to him about the business. He is such a terrific guy, so likable. I actually also met John Cleese and Darrell Hammond and Dennis Miller for the same reason (we had big conferences once or twice a year and a healthy entertainment budget). When they do corporate gigs, they personalize their act a bit. It was all pretty cool!

Coco Chanel, that is another really good one. Just last week told my girls about the "take one thing off" rule.

Mtn, you have been in the company of some very interesting as well as influential folks....you're a lucky duck! I find Al Franken so interesting to listen to. How does one's brain hold so much information?lol

As for Chanel, i've worshipped her since I first read about her as a teenager, and still today, even though she hasn't been on the forfront re:fashion for years. I loved her signature pearls, and when I first began my retail career, wore my 'faux' pearls almost every day. If there were one fashion item I could chose it would be an original Chanel bag, but unfortunately, it's a tad cost prohibitive 'in my world'. ;)