Here's actress Maria Bello Friday evening upon arriving in St. Louis for her appearance today at the Working Women's Survival Show. Bello commented this was her first trip to St. Louis and was excited to check out some of the sights during her weekend visit. Bello, best known for her work in Coyote Ugly, A History of Violence, and the TV drama E.R., signed two 8x10s and posed for this shot.


A couple of hours later, I ended up meeting actor/comedian/musician Brian Posehn following his set at the Funny Bone Comedy Club in St. Louis. Posehn, best known for his appearances in the Sarah Silverman Show, Just Shoot Me, and Rob Zombie's The Devils Rejects, took pictures and signed hundreds of autographs for everyone who asked. For you Seinfeld fans, Posehn was in the episode entitled, "The Burning." His character, along with Kramer, was instructed to "act out" to a group of medical students. While Kramer got gonorrhea, his character had a sponge left in him post surgery.

Here's country music legend Charley Pride as he gets ready to leave following last night's concert at the Effingham Performance Center in Effingham, Illinois. Pride is the biggest selling artist for RCA Records since Elvis Presley. Pride has an amazing 39 number one country hits to his credit.

The Country Music Hall of Famer visited with me for a few minutes and signed an album for my collection. We also talked a little baseball as he proudly showed me his 2011 American League Championship ring from the Texas Rangers. Pride is a minority owner in the major league team.

Legendary film director Oliver Stone was in Normal, Illinois, this evening to promote his current Showtime series and companion book, The Untold History of the United States, at Illinois State University.

The Academy-award winning director stopped to sign his book, along with his co-author, Peter Kuznick, upon arrival in Bloomington-Normal. He was excited to see I had the book. While signing the book next to the Adlai Stevenson statue seat, he mentioned he was hungry after two flights today. I told him the folks at ISU would probably take care of him, to which he responded with his wide grin, "What are they going to feed me? Corn on the cob? Meat loaf?"

Here are the first two celebrity photos for 2013.


Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter Marc Cohn was in concert last evening at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. Cohn stopped for the photo and some autographs upon his return to the venue following dinner. In addition to a couple of 8 x 10s, he signed a rare promo CD single of Silver Thunderbird, the follow-up single to his biggest hit, Walking in Memphis. Silver Thunderbird is one of my favorite tunes.


Here's last night's opener for Cohn, British actress-singer-songwriter Rebecca Pidgeon. Pidgeon, who has appeared in such films as The Spanish Prisoner, The Winslow Boy, State and Main, Heist, and Red, met fans in the lobby following the show. She signed her Grammy-nominated CD and some movie stills for the collection. Her husband is a pretty famous guy too. He's playwright-director-writer David Mamet.

Here's the last celebrity photo for 2012 taken on the year's last day.



CNN's John Zarrella was setting up for his first live shot on Duvall Street in Key West, Florida, when I walked by in search for an evening meal (I was in Key West for vacation). Zarrella has been CNN's correspondent in Key West for the past ten New Year's Eve celebrations. We exchanged small talk and he asked me to stick around for an upcoming live shot which turned out to be during "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer. He asked me where I was from and a little bit about the weather back home. I also included a "shout out" to Blitzer telling him what an honor it was to be in "The Situation Room." Zarella said Blitzer got a chuckle from my comment.

Restaurant Impossible Chef Robert Irvine was possible this evening at the Caseyville Cafe in Caseyville, Illinois. Irvine and his crew were in town to transform yet another failing restaurant in two days and with $10,000.

Irvine posed and signed a couple of 8x10s in the bar after taping the closing segment for the Food Network show. And, he posed for pictures with just about everyone else in the bar as he finished a couple of Coronas.

 
Here's the show's builder Tom Bury following the taping. Another good guy. Even invited me to have a beer with him.

Remember the Lexus SUV you see Chef Irvine driving in each episode? It was parked right by the front door.

Here is actress Carrie Fisher upon her arrival in St. Louis last night for an appearance later today at the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival. After taking her dog, Harvey, outside the terminal for a potty break, Fisher returned to pose and sign for those waiting.

Fisher, best know for her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars trilogy, is promoting her newest book, Shokaholic, at the Festival. Read a great article about Fisher and mom, Debbie Reynolds, here in today's St. Louis Post Dispatch.