A Celebrity I'd Like to Meet

This week's Long & Short Reviews prompt asks for posts about "A Celebrity I'd Like to Meet."

Meh. I'm not really fangirly about any living celebrity. I think, if the life and work of someone who's become well known interest me, I'm likely to learn more by reading person's books, listening to per music or even watching per videos, than by meeting face to face at some reception where people have the opportunity to exchange thoughts like "Good afternoon."  

Sometimes it's more interesting to meet people who work for the famous and infamous. The King of England is obviously not going to tell someone he's only just met anything about himself or about England that we didn't know, but one of his entourage might.

Generally when one meets celebrities they're bland and polite, coached by their public relations agents. I have met one exception: the actor known as Michael Caine. He used actually to work in a cancer research charity he ran in Washington, a point in his favor; he advertised for help often, and I answered several ads and always thought Caine seemed like a disaster to work for--not only irascible, but also careless and not very competent. (So why answer another ad? Because I did hear good things about the organization and figured the acting office manager probably did excellent work.) But most people who've made a career of being well known have practiced being easy to like without being even possible to know.

On a scale of celebrity I don't know that Gene Weingarten rates very high, but he comes to mind as someone I'd like to meet...because I have enjoyed his work for most of my lifetime, and there may not be a great deal of time left to tell him so. But I'm sure he's been told so by hundreds of other readers.