CS/27

Having left the Equinox gym in Greenwich Village (which provided me with numerous celebrity sightings) for a tiny private gym here on the Upper West Side, I figured my days of spotting anybody famous working out were done. But, lo and behold, that wasn't true. On Friday (not my normal day of working out, but my trainer had been on vacation), I saw Conan O'Brien as I was heading to the locker room after my workout. Luckily, my trainer, Charlotte, pointed him out - otherwise, I'm sure I would have missed him. See, she's seen him at that gym before, but I always leave as soon as I can and I pay little attention to who might be on the machines on my way out the door. I didn't want to stare too much as this gym doesn't leave room for faux stalkings, but I did notice that he's quite thin and of course, tall...especially when standing on a Stairmaster.

SCANDAL ON THE UWS

I was reading about the Madonna/A-Rod scandal in my "Us Weekly" yesterday (in between my "Scientific American" and "Wall Street Journal") and the article mentioned them working out together back in October 2007. It rang a bell with me and then I realized that we had run across the paparazzi outside the gym on the day mentioned. Remember this post (scroll down to the 10/10 entry). The article even claims that Madonna offered to have her bodyguards escort A-Rod out the front, but he took a different exit, which explains why she's the only one leaving in the photo. Fascinating!

BACK TO ABC

When we were in California in early June, I received a call from "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" asking if I was interested in participating in a rehearsal they were having for the upcoming season. Unfortunately, I was still going to be in California on the date they stated, but in the message I left for the girl who had called me, I made clear that I would definitely be interested if they ever needed people on some other date. I saved the original message, because who knows when you might need a direct number to a "Millionaire" employee, right? Well, yesterday, I pulled out my phone to make a call when I noticed that I had just missed a call, and the number rang a bell instantly. I listened to the voicemail message, and sure enough, they were having another rehearsal next week, on Thursday, and they wanted to know if I could participate. Since we'll be driving back from visiting Taj and his family in Philadelphia that day, I wasn't sure if I could do it, but I figured there was no way I was going to pass up this second opportunity - we'll just leave Philly early. I called the girl back and she explained that I wouldn't be filmed, I could wear casual clothes, I would simply be meeting with certain executives in executive offices to discuss the game (and I crossed my fingers that Meredith is considered an "executive"). I would still have to sign some confidentiality agreements and be there for three hours. I have no idea what sort of rehearsal this will be, but it will be exciting to find out. And don't worry, Mark, I'm going to do my best to get you on that show, dammit!