A Very Brief Encounter with Jack Nicholson

My wife at the time had just joined me and a friend at some shops and restaurants at this rather elegant outdoor mall positioned at the crest of the Hollywood Hills where Beverly Hills’ people congregate. We were sitting at a table outside the Starbucks. I had just seen Harry Dean Stanton walk by headed for the Italian Restaurant and told my wife as much – she said she didn’t know who that was and I chastised her for not knowing one of the greatest character actors of all time.

A moment later, here comes Jack, very dapperly dressed, up the sidewalk and my wife stops him in his tracks with: “Hi Jack!” He in turn nods to each of us individually and starts to move off – we are all in shock – but then he comes back around the table and looks directly at me over his sunglasses, holds out his hand: “Well Hello There!” I pause briefly and come back with “Nice to Meet You” we shake and he replies “Nice to Meet You Too”.
Hah, he didn’t know me from Adam!
At that moment I detected the slightest look of chagrin on his face, that he aptly hid in the next moment, well, because he can, cause he’s Jack. Anyway, he rambles off to go meet Harry Dean Stanton I presume, and we just fell about the place. Life Lesson = #1) Always marry someone who has the balls to accost icons on the street and #2) it is nice sometimes to be mistaken for a “somebody”.