What are your prized pop-culture possessions?
Jul 23, 2008, 02:19 PM | by Mandi Bierly
Categories: Books, DVD/Video, Film, I'm Just a Geek, Inappropriate Crushes, Merchandising, Music, PopWatch Confessional, Stage/Theater, Television
As I read our PopWatch Duel with Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, who revealed their geekiest/most-prized possessions, I started wondering what mine would be...
If we're talking about something that I own and wouldn't want to have to pay to replace, it would be my 20-disc Kids in the Hall Megaset. If we're speaking of things that are priceless, I would say my now-abandoned collection of "Thanks for last night!" autographs, some of which decorate my office door. (Note to impressionable young EW staffers and all aspiring journalists: I did not obtain any of these autographs while conducting an interview. I am a professional.)
I've mentioned my collection before on PopWatch. It started 10 years ago, when I was at a book signing for Jon Stewart's Naked Pictures of Famous People. We were given Post-its to write our names on, so he'd be able to spell them correctly. I heard him ask the person in front of me what he should sign in his book, so I wrote "To Mandi, Thanks for Last Night!" on my Post-it, and when it was my turn to hand my copy to Stewart, I told him I'd made it easy for him. He wrote it, added "Va Va Va Voom!," and we were both happy. Two days later, I went to a signing for Steve Martin's Pure Drivel, and asked him to sign "Thanks for last night!" He looked at me, in silence, then finally said, "Just don't hold me to it in court." A collection was born.
Other autographs include:
• Stephen Colbert — A 30th birthday present from a colleague three years ago.
• Trey Parker and Matt Stone — A present for being a friend's maid of honor four years ago.
• Anthony Stewart Head (that's him, dressed as Frank-N-Furter) — I got that one myself, at a Buffy fan convention, five years ago.
• Jimmy Fallon — He and his sister both signed a copy of their 2003 book I Hate This Place: A Pessimist's Guide to Life. Twisted, but funny!
• Ryan Seacrest — A present from a colleague, from the early days of Idol.
• Dave Coulier — A present from a colleague, just because he was friends with Coulier's publicist.
• Justin Timberlake — This was back in, like, 2000, maybe. He signed it "Thanx 4 last night!" — how cute was he? — and told the colleague who got it for me not to let it fall into the wrong hands.
• Coolio and Smash Mouth lead singer Steve Harwell: I put them together because they were dining, separately, at a restaurant in D.C. years ago, when a friend had them each sign a cloth napkin (that I have framed in my office). Coolio wrote, "Thanx 4 last night & yesterday & the day B4. It was good!" Harwell added, "You bend like no other!"
• John Wesley Harding — He signed "Thanks for last night... when you
let me play 'Little Musgrave'" because I'd had the friend who met him
ask him if he really wanted to play that song at every live show or if
he just did it because there was always someone in the crowd yelling
for it.
• Rudy Boesch — I accompanied a friend to the former Survivor contestant's book signing (The Book of Rudy: The Wit and Wisdom of Rudy Boesch) in 2001. He kept repeating it: "Thanks for last night?" "Yes." "Thanks for last night?" "Yes." But he did it.
• Dave Karpen — A former colleague, also obsessed with Paradise Hotel, got it for me when she ran into him doing a signing at Sephora five years ago.
Your turn. (After the jump, a guide to my door.)
Row 1: Ryan Seacrest, Anthony Stewart Head, John Wesley Harding
Row 2: Stephen Colbert, South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Dave Coulier
Row 3: Paradise Hotel's Dave Karpen
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