A lot of celebrities have homes in New York, especially on the Upper West Side, where we live. Here's a list of the Upper West Side celebs we've spotted and/or have dish on:
• Al Franken (comedian) -- walking his black lab on W86th Street and Broadway. Wilson once saw him at the New York Sports Club on W80th Street and Broadway. We've also seen him around the area with his young son. The out-spoken liberal funny man was one of the original writers on Saturday Night Live.
• Art Buchwald (columnist) -- all dressed up and by himself at the Tower Records next to Lincoln Center one Saturday night. Art is the funny columnist for the Washington Post. He is also a best-selling author and spent many years in Paris with his family. TV journalist Mike Wallace is his good friend. They play tennis in the city and vacation on Martha's Vineyard together.
• Bill Moyers (TV journalist) -- Having lunch at Pappardella on Columbus Avenue and W75th Street one Sat afternoon. We've also seen his fellow PBS broadcaster Robert MacNeil walking into the same restaurant before. The two respected journalists live near each other in the neighborhood. Bill was a deputy director of the Peace Corps in the Kennedy Administration and later a special advisor to President Lyndon Johnson. He also served as Johnson's press secretary briefly for two years.
• Billie Jean King (tennis legend) -- leaving E.J., a diner, on Amsterdam and W82nd Street with three unidentified women. We've seen her before when we lived at W79th Street and Columbus Avenue: she lives at one of the penthouse apartments there. Wilson has said "Hi!" to her and our dogs Liz and Jaeger have given her kisses! Our old doorman told us that Swiss tennis champ Martina Hingis has stayed at her apartment before...
• Billy Baldwin (actor) -- taking his Cocker Spaniel to the dog run at W81st Street on Saturday morning. He was wearing a white T-shirt and jeans and no sunglasses. We've seen Billy and his wife Chynna Phillips a few times at the dog run but he usually wore a black leather jacket and sunglasses even when it was cloudy. They live at an apartment on 15 W81st Street facing the Museum of Natural History and the dog run.
• Bruno Kirby (actor) -- walking into the Patagonia store on Columbus Avenue and W80th Street one afternoon during the week. He was dressed in all black: black trenchcoat, black umbrella, and black over-the-shoulder briefcase. Bruno's real name is Bruce Kirby. He and ex-friend Billy Crystal had some arguments and they haven't spoken to each other in a long time.
• Carole Simpson (TV journalist) -- eating at Shun Lee Cafe near Lincoln Center one night with two young men. Since their table was close to ours, we couldn't help but hear that she was explaining to them being a news anchor was a lot more work that it seemed. Simpson went to journalism school at The University of Michigan and she opened up in a Barbara Walters special on adoption saying her son was adopted.
• Catherine Zeta-Jones (actress) -- walking with husband Michael Douglas and baby son Dylan in Central Park one Sunday morning. Catherine was wearing a cream color wind jacket, sunglasses, and a hat which made her hard to recognize. The star, currently shooting the film version of the hit Broadway show Chicago, was pushing the stroller while baby Dylan was falling asleep on Michael's shoulder. They have an apartment on Central Park West and W75th Street.
• Chris Cuomo (former NY Governor Mario's younger son) -- walking his Rottweiler, Cosmo, on Columbus and W77th Street one evening during the week. We used to live in the same building on W79th and Columbus. He didn't tip the staff when he moved out (it was early Dec) and he had the nerve to call and ask for his mail! He asked the doorman to paint his apartment but instead of paying him cash, he offered him his USED sofa that guests slept on! According to the doorman who walked our dogs and his dog, Chris moved in with his then-girlfriend and now wife near Central Park West and W64th Street. Once a lawyer, Chris is now a ABC News reporter. A few years ago, he was chosen by PEOPLE magazine as one of the most beautiful people.
• Chris Noth (actor) -- riding a bike with an unidentified blonde woman in Central Park around the reservoir one sunny Sunday afternoon. The Yale Drama grad got his big break when he was cast on Law and Order but it's his role as Sarah Jessica Parker's on-again and off-again love interest "Mr. Big" on HBO's Sex and the City that got him the attention in newspapers and gossip columns.
• Chris Rock (comedian) -- driving a silver Porsche Carrera convertible up Broadway and W72nd Street. A few days later, he was spotted shopping at Barneys with wife and baby girl in stroller. A few years ago, we saw him shooting a bicycle scene for the remake of Warren Beauty's Heaven can wait (Rock's version bombed at the box office) on Amsterdam Avenue and W92nd Street one night. When fans waved and yelled hello to him, he was gracious and acknowledged them.
• Darren Star (TV producer) -- clutching a copy of the Sunday New York Times at Columbus and W67th Street one Sunday early afternoon. The creator of Sex and the City, Melrose Place, and 90210 was wearing a black leather jacket and was walking with an unidentified blond male companion. Star came out not too long after the New York Times interviewed him for an article about his successful career.
• David Hasselhoff (actor) -- walking north on Broadway and W69th Street one Sunday afternoon. The star of Baywatch and Knight Rider was wearing beige shirt and pants and eating some kind of hot dog or chili dog (its sauce was dripping all over his shirt). Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Hasselhoff became a huge music star in Germany when he released his first record Looking for Freedom there just at the end of the Cold War.
• Diane Sawyer (TV journalist diva) -- getting wet one day walking in the rain without an umbrella on Broadway and W64th Street near the ABC Studio. The news anchor was once a low-level staff in the Nixon White House. Before she married director Mike Nichols, she used to go out with Richard C. Holbrooke, the United States Representative to the United Nations under the Clinton Administration.
• Dianne Wiest (actress) -- voting at the next booth in the 2002 election! Dianne lives at W79th Street and Broadway and we've seen her before in the neighborhood: carrying a Filene's Basement shopping bag and going into the discount store across the street from her place. And walking a small black terrier sometimes with her granddaughter.
• Don Hewitt (TV producer) -- walking on Broadway and W75th Street into Fairway with his wife one Sunday night at around 9pm, about an hour after his show 60 Minutes ended. They must live on the Upper West Side like Ed Bradley, the journalist on his show, who we've seen shopping at Fairway, too. Don produced the very first Presidential debate on TV between JFK and Nixon.
• Dustin Hoffman (actor) -- holding hands with daughter and wife on Columbus Ave and W76th Street one evening during the week. The tiny Oscar-winning actor was wearing blue polo shirt, khakis, and sunglasses. We once saw him and his wife walking in SOHO on a Saturday afternoon. They have an apartment on the Upper West Side at the San Remo on Central Park West and W74th Street. The tough co-op board at the San Remo once rejected application from Madonna, who wanted to buy an apartment there. Calvin Klein also couldn't make it.
• Ed Bradley (TV journalist) -- dining with his wife at restaurant North on the corner of Columbus Avenue and W79th Street. We've also seen him shopping at Fairway and Citerella on Broadway and W76th Street in the evenings. He's always a dapper dresser when we see him at the two grocery/gourmet stores.
• Edward Norton (actor) -- walking an Akita-like dog at Central Park West and W96th Street one day during the week. His other Japanese connection is building low-income housing in Japan after graduating from Yale. The Oscar-nominated actor was involved with Drew Barrymore for awhile.
• Eric McCormack (actor) -- having brunch on a Sat with his wife and another couple at Good Enough to Eat on Amsterdam and W83rd Street. The following night, he attended NBC's 75th Anniversary special at Rockefeller Center. We spotted him in the summer of 2001 walking north on Amsterdam and W77th Street (one block from our place!) and talking to two women one Sunday at around 12:30pm. The star of Will and Grace was in the Broadway production of The Music Man for the summer then.
• Forrest Sawyer (TV journalist) -- waiting in line with an unidentified woman at Good Enough to Eat, where we once saw Eric McCormack (see above), on Amsterdam and W83rd Street one Saturday morning. An anchor for both the NBC network and MSNBC cable, Forrest Sawyer has been with NBC since 1999. Before that, he was the primary substitute anchor on Nightline, World News Tonight, and other programs on ABC. We read some place that he lives in the Apthrop apartment building on Broadway and W79th Street.

• Frank McCourt (author) -- the best-selling author of Angela's Ashes was at the lobby of the multiplex Sony Lincoln Square on Broadway and W68th Street one evening during the week. He helped Paul Newman with the Irish accent in the movie The Road to Perdition.
• Fritz Weaver (actor) -- walking at W72nd Street and Broadway one evening, just outside the subway station. He must live on the Upper West Side since we've seen him waiting for the cross-town bus to the Upper West Side at W86th Street and Madison Avenue one Sunday afternoon in December with his wife. He was holding a shopping bag from Peter Elliot, a traditional English clothing store on Madison Avenue. We saw him once at a panel of character actors at the 92nd Street Y with Estelle Parsons (Roseanne's Mom on Roseanne), and another actor. Fritz (not related to Sigourney) has appeared in numerous stage productions as well as TV and film roles.
• Geena Davis (actress) -- wearing a sharp color outfit (bright yellow blouse and overcoat with red shirt and gloves) while shooting Stuart Little 2 at W76th Street and Central Park West. Her stand-ins with similar physique were wearing the same outfit! The production was quite elaborate. They setup a fake outdoor cafe outside the W77th Street Central Park entrance and had extras sitting at its tables. A bunch of cabs, including one that was cut in half, parked by the Park entrance. Plants and red carpet were installed for the Central Park entrance of the New York Historical Society at W77th Street. Two white kitties (a white kitty is in the first movie) and several dozen white pigeons stored in cages were used as props.
• George Stephanopoulos (pundit) -- walking in white tennis outfits on Columbus and W76th Street one Sat morning. He was last seen doing shoulder press at New York Sports Club at Broadway and W80th Street. The former Clinton senior aide now works for ABC News. George used to live above Kramer's Book in Washington, DC where he liked to read newspapers and magazines Sunday late afternoons at the News Room on Connecticut Avenue and S Street.
• Geraldine Laybourne (media mogul) -- carrying a L'Occitane shopping bag and talking with an unidentified woman (a fan?) on Columbus and W67th Street one evening during the week. Gerry was credited with the success of Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite before starting a women-oriented cable channel, Oxygen, with partnerships from Oprah and the Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner duo who developed TV hits like Roseanne and The Cosby Show.
• Hugh Grant (actor) -- re-shooting some scene for movie Two Weeks Notice on Columbus and W76th Street with co-star Sandra Bullock one early evening. He was wearing a suit and faning himself with a little battery-operated fan! They were shooting the scene in the back of a car. Hugh is a godfather to former girl-friend Elizabeth Hurley's son. Elton John is also a godfather.
• Jackie Mason (comedian) -- eating onion rings with a blonde woman (his wife?) at Opera Expresso on Broadway and W63rd St on a Saturday afternoon. Rob is a big fan of the controversial comedian who probably lives around Lincoln Center near W68th Street. Rob's seen him twice before. One time Jackie was waiting at W72nd Street and Broadway for the traffic light to change. Another time Jackie was walking in mid-town one afternoon during the week, Rob told him he was a big fan and Jackie was very nice and they started talking. Jackie was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He comes from several generations of rabbis. In fact, he was one himself until he decided to go into comedy at the age of 28.
• Jann Wenner (media mogul) -- carrying a tennis racket one evening walking north on Columbus Avenue and then turning to W64th Street by himself. But where was Matt Nye? The Wall Street Journal was the first mainstream publication to report that Jann left his wife and kids for Matt a few years ago. For business purposes, Jann remains married to his wife. After being rejected for a co-op apartment at the Kenilworth on Central Park West, Jann and Matt bought a brownstone on W74th. Yoko Ono, who still lives at the Dakota two blocks away, likes to hang out with them.
• Jason Biggs (actor) -- talking to a friend two blocks from our place at Amsterdam and W78th Street one Saturday late morning. He was wearing a blue shirt and carrying a red vinyl bag over his shoulders. The actor from the American Pie movies has been doing the stage version of The Graduate on Broadway.
• Jerry Orbach (actor) -- chatting with two women, presumably his wife and mother or mother-in-law, on Broadway and W76th Street. They were all holding Zabar's bags. We once saw the star of Law and Order and his then co-star Benjamin Bratt shooting on Madison Avenue in the 70's a few years ago. Benjamin was happy to have his pictures taken with his lady fans. That was before he started going out with Julia Roberts.
• Jerry Seinfeld (comedian) -- walking down on Columbus Avenue on W81st Street with a man and a woman one night during the week. Was that his now-wife Jessica Sklar, who left her newly wed husband Eric Nederlander of the Broadway theatre empire for Jerry? They live at a duplex apartment he bought from violinist Isaac Stern at The Beresford on Central Park West and W81st Street. They spent more than 30 million dollars for a Hamptons pad that used to belong to Billy Joel.
• John McEnroe (ex bad boy tennis star) -- wearing a white baseball cap, navy blue wind jacket and pants and walking on CPW and W76th towards his apartment building, the Beresford, on CPW and W81st on a Tuesday morning. The French Open just started the day before and apparently he wasn't there to cover it for one of the networks. When he published his autobiography and talked about drug use between him and his ex-wife, Tatum O'Neal, she responded by talking to Barbara Walters and charging that he used steriods.
• Joy Behar (comedienne) -- waiting for her turn at the meat counter at Citarella, the gourmet food store in our neighborhood. She noticed Wilson looking at her and smiled and asked if she knew him. Wilson said no but we've seen her conducting celebrity interviews at 92nd Street Y. The sassy co-host of The View didn't get a ticket at the meat counter so another woman behind her was served. That prompted Joy to whisper "Bitch!" We've seen her interview celebs like Mary Tyler Moore and Nathan Lane at the 92nd Street Y (not to be confused with YMCA) on Lexington Avenue and E92nd Street. Speaking of the 92nd Street Y, it turned down Madonna's daughter Lola for its prestigious and highly competitive pre-school program. That was before she married Guy and moved to London.
• Kevin Bacon (actor) -- talking on a cell phone on Columbus Avenue and W68th Street one weekday morning. The thin Footloose star was wearing a baseball cap and a plain T-shirt. He and his actress wife, Kyra Sedgwick, and their kids have been living on the Upper West Side for a long time. Perhaps as well-known as his film roles is the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game that was invented by three University of Pennsylvania students in 1994. The idea is that any actor, no matter how famous or obscure, can be traced to Kevin Bacon within six degrees. The three wrote a best-selling book about it and there's also a real game that you can buy.
• Kurt Loder (MTV reporter) -- walking on Columbus Avenue and W79th Street one weekend with an unidentified woman outside the American Museum of Natural History. Kurt has been doing music news on MTV for a long time. He's also interviewed Madonna a number of times on MTV.
• Liam Neeson (actor) -- walking south on Amsterdam Avenue at 9am one morning by himself, more than 10 blocks from the apartment he shares with his wife, Natasha Richardson, who is Vanessa Redgrave's daughter.
• Lily Tomlin (comedienne) -- getting into a taxi on Central Park South one late afternoon. Ms. Tomlin was on Broadway in her smashing one-woman show The search for signs on intelligent life in the universe in 2000. Unlike another funny Lebanese woman Ellen DeGeneres, Lily Tomlin doesn't want to be a poster child for anyone and only recently disclosed to Jann Wenner's US Weekly magazine that she's been living with her show's writer for the past 30 years.
• Liz Smith (gossip columnist) -- being "stalked" by Wilson who followed her half a block from behind one day during the week. Wilson finally caught up with her and told her we named our dog after her and she seemed to get a kick out of it as she walked inside the Starbucks on Columbus Avenue and W67th. In her autobiography Natural Blonde, the gossip queen writes about her 15-year relationship with another woman and yet she declines to label herself, partly because she's from another generation. This is not news to her circle and to us: the wife of a top editor at the New York Post told us about her at a New Year's Eve party a few years ago.
• Macaulay Caulkin (former child actor) -- walking past Fairway with his then-wife to their apartment at the Ansonia on Broadway and W74th Street one Saturday night. Last time we saw them was at Woody Allen's Celebrities at the Sony Lincoln Square. They were both dressed in all black. The young lovers were married for about two years before going their separate ways. Macaulay enjoyed success on stage in London but when the play moved to NY off-Broadway, it closed only after a short run.
• Mandy Patinkin (actor) -- walking south on Broadway and W86th Street one Saturday evening by himself wearing a baseball jacket and cap. The Chicago native started his showbiz career on stage while attending the University of Kansas and the Juilliard. Theatre credits include Evita which he earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in 1979, Falsettos, and the most recent The Wild Party. The star of TV's Chicago Hope lives in New York with his family. They have two black labs.
• Martina Hingis (tennis star) -- a couple of unidentified female tennis players getting out of US Open vans in front of the Parker Meridien Hotel on W57th Street between 6th and 7th Avenue. The hotel features a rooftop swimming pool and sweeping views of Central Park from some of the rooms. Not sure if more established players were staying there also. For example, we heard the Williams sisters were staying at the Essex House on Central Park South. And Martina Hingis usually stays at Billie Jean King's spacious penthouse apartment at our old building.
• Martina Navratilova (tennis legend) -- standing at the lobby in our old apartment building on W79th Street while our dawgs Liz and Jaeger gave her kisses. Martina is a good friend of Billie Jean King's, who has an apartment in our old building. The tennis star had great reflex: when Jaeger tried to jump up on her, she quickly moved back without a beat!
• Matt Dillon (actor) -- walking on Columbus Avenue and W80th Street with an unidentified woman one evening during the week. Rob's once saw him at an Italian restaurant in the Village several years ago. Another friend saw him recently in the neighborhood also. Is he living on the Upper West Side now?
• Michael Douglas (actor) -- walking on W76th Street and Columbus Ave one Sat morning. He was probably going to one of the garages on W76th Street to get his car -- he was carrying a bag of golf clubs. Just a few weeks ago, we saw him walking with wife Catherine Zeta-Jones and baby son Dylan in Central Park one Sunday morning. Michael's hair was dyed reddish orange which made him easily spotted. The Oscar-winning actor was wearing a bright yellow wind jacket and no sunglasses. Michael and Catherine were invited to Liza Minnelli's wedding to David Gest the day before but they were no show probably because of the media circus. However, Michael's father, Kirk, did attend Liza's wedding party at the Regent Hotel on Wall Street.
• Mike Tyson (boxer) -- eating by the window at City Grill on Columbus Avenue and W73rd Street one evening. The former heavyweight boxing champion was once married to actress Robin Givens (The Cosby Show). His second marriage to Dr. Monica Turner, a pediatric resident at Georgetown University Medical Center, ended in divorce also. Big surprise!
• Nathan Lane (actor) -- wearing formal attire and eating a wrap sandwich with an unidentified man at a little wrap place on Broadway and W68th Street one Sat early evening. From the time The Birdcage helped propel him to national stardom and during subsequent failed attempts on big and small screens, the Producers star was coy about his personal life. But not any more, he's now proud to be out. We saw him once at the 92nd Street Y being interviewed by Joy Behar. A long-time Upper West Side resident, he moved to Tribeca shortly after he moved back to NY from California.
• Nora Ephron (writer and director) -- walking east on W79th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam one morning during the week. She was wearing an all-black outfit: silk-like blouse and pants and black sunglasses. She lived at the Apthrop, a pre-war apartment building on Broadway and W79th Street, with her Italian-American husband, for a long time before moving to the Upper East Side. They also have a country house in the Hamptons. Nora wrote the screenplay for Silkwood and When Harry met Sally. She was the writer/director/producer of Michael, Sleepless in Seattle, and You've Got Mail.
• Paul Mitchell (hair-stylist) -- getting into a limo with his people. He has a penthouse apartment in our old building -- across from Billie Jean King -- which he lets celebrities use all the time. One Sat night, we found ourselves in the elevator with Roger Daltry. The Who member was with a young blonde model-type woman. One time, Rob was in the elevator with another Paul Mitchell's house guest, Alan Thicke from TV's Growing Pains. Our doorman told us Cher has stayed there also. Paul's name is actually John Paul DeJoria. He and the real Paul Mitchell, who died of pancreatic cancer in 1989, formed the Paul Mitchell company back in 1979.
• Paul Simon (musician) -- getting coffee at Starbucks on Columbus Avenue and W67th Street one late morning. He was confused about the sizes of coffee and finally ordered a grande latte that the staff suggested. He was wearing black baseball cap, black leather jacket, black pants, and brown shoes. The legendary singer song-writer looked tiny and skinny and seemed like he'd just got out of bed without taking a shower. He married Edie Brickell in 1994.
• Peter Jennings (TV journalist) -- walking down south on Columbus Avenue and responding to teenagers who yelled "Hi!" to him. We've also seen him walking with an unidentified woman one weekend afternoon around the corner of Tiffany on W57th Street and Fifth Avenue.
• Peter Riegert (actor) -- eating by himself one night at Good Enough to Eat on Amsterdam Avenue and W82nd Street. He's been involved with a lot of projects on the small and big screens (e.g. Animal House) and on and off Broadway. He was born in Manhattan and studied English at the University of Buffalo. Before he started acting, he was an English teacher, a social worker, and a campaign aide to legendary Congresswoman Bella Abzug.
• Rachel Weisz (actress) -- graciously signing autographs and having her pictures taken with fans outside the Promenade Theatre on Broadway and W76th Street. The star of The Mummy movies was performing in The Shape of Things. Written and directed by Utah native Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men), the off Broadway play also starred Paul Rudd (The Object of My Affection) and Gretchen Mol (Rounders).
• The Real Kramer (self-employed) -- passing out flyers in the theatre district as our car came out of the Holland Tunnel from New Jersey. Hit TV sitcom Seinfeld's Kramer character was based on him, who was Seinfeld's co-producer Larry David's neighbor. The Real Kramer runs a Kramer's Reality Tour where he takes people on his tour bus around his Upper West Side neighborhood. Seinfeld even did an episode spoofing his tour when Cosmo Kramer started The Peterman's Reality Tour in "The Muffin Top" episode.
• Richard C. Holbrooke (diplomat) -- walking on W83rd Street one Sunday late morning with his wife toward Central Park West and holding a shopping bag from Barnes and Nobles. The United States Representative to the United Nations under the Clinton Administration has an impressive resume: professional diplomat, Managing Director at Lehman Brothers, Vice Chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston, and Diane Sawyer's old boy-friend.
• Richard Dreyfuss (actor) -- walking on Broadway and W84th Street in a baseball cap and brown leather jacket and carrying a Barnes and Nobles shopping bag one Sunday afternoon. The star of such modern classics like Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind is originally from Brooklyn but moved to L.A. with his family when he was nine.

• Robert De Niro (actor) -- talking on his cellphone outside of North West restaurant on Columbus and W79th Street one Wednesday evening. He was wearing a light blue button-down short-sleeve shirt, white khakis shorts, and everyday shoes with no socks! In other words, a very waspy style. His legs looked quite skinny and his hair was short and unkempt. After the cellphone conversation, he went back inside the restaurant which has a cigar and wine lounge upstairs. There've been reports that he is renting a $20,000 a month penthouse apartment on the Upper West Side while his Tribeca loft is being renovated.

• Robert MacNeil (TV journalist) -- walking into Italian restaurant Pappardella on Columbus Avenue and W75th Street with company one Sat night. He co-anchored The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS for 20 years. He's written a nice article in the New York Times about his son, who has embraced the "love that dare not speak its name."
• Rupert Jee (deli owner) -- walking on Broadway and W72nd Street one Sunday afternoon in a blue wind jacket and jeans. The Hello Deli owner is made famous by David Letterman whose Late Show studio is next to Rupert's humble deli. Rupert, who has a brownstone on W74th Street, is a friend's friend's second cousin! He cashes in on his 15 minutes of fame by selling his signature T-shirts and other souvenirs on his own website and at his store.
• Samuel L. Jackson (actor) -- walking on W79th Street and Central Park West towards Columbus Avenue with a woman one Sunday evening. Is that his wife, LaTanya Richardson, whom he met at drama classes in college? The Pulp Fiction and A Time to Kill star is originally from Washington, DC but moved to New York in the 70s to pursue acting career.
• Sandra Bullock (actress) -- re-shooting Two Weeks Notice on Columbus and W76th Street with co-star Hugh Grant one early evening. She was wearing a floral dress in beige. In interviews for this romantic comedy, she told reporters that she felt more comfortable as a producer (she co-produced this film) than an actress. Before she made it big in Hollywood, she was a struggling actress/waitress in New York City.
• Sarah Jessica Parker (actress) -- shooting the last and final season of the HBO hit Sex and the City on on W67th and Columbus one day. She and husband Matthrew Broderick (and their baby) live in the West Village. They recently bought a country house in the Hamptons.
• Sigourney Weaver (actress) -- casually dressed walking in Central Park with an unidentified woman one afternoon. Our friend Charlie saw her once at his church on the Upper East Side. In fact, he walked down the aisle alongside her (and her lovely daughter) to take the Holy Communion. Sigourney's father was president of NBC and helped create shows like the Today Show. She was educated at Stanford and Yale. We liked her in the Aliens movies, Working Girl, and Gorillas in the Mist. She and her family live on Park Avenue.
• Timothy Hutton (actor) -- taking his dog to the W81st Street dog run. He lives in the nicely-renovated apartment building next to our old building. His credits include Ordinary People, French Kiss, and The General's Daughter. He was once married to actress Debra Winger.
• Tony Randall (actor) -- carrying a large Duane Reade drug store shopping bag and getting into a car with his much younger blonde wife in front of the Beresford on W81st and CPW where they live. Jerry Seinfeld lives there also. We've seen Tony a few times before in the neighborhood and he's looking quite old. He's eightysomething and his wife is barely 30! They have a young child together. That's even more interesting than the fact that his real name is Leonard Rosenberg and he's from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• Treat Williams (actor) -- Hailing a cab with an older gentleman (his father?) on Broadway and W78th Street one evening. His most famous work is probably the movie he co-starred with Michelle Pfeiffer in The Deep End of the Ocean, which didn't do well at the box-office. What do you know? He is a descendant of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, on his mothers' side! He and his family live on a penthouse apartment on W78th and Broadway.
• Vanessa Redgrave (actress) -- wearing white tank top and jeans and talking to her daughter Joely Richardson at W76th Street and Broadway in a warm Sunday afternoon. Joely, Natasha's younger sister, was in a play with Home Alone's Macaulay Culkin at the Promenade Theatre on Broadway and W76th Street, a block from our apartment. Vanessa, who is very tall in real life, won the Golden Globe for Best TV Series Supporting Actress for her excellent performance in HBO's If These Walls Could Talk 2 in 2000. God Bless her for her dedicated support on progressive issues.
• William Fichtner (actor) -- talking on his cell phone while waiting in line at Citarella one Saturday afternoon. The Long Island native has appeared in a lot of films ranging from The Perfect Storm (playing one of the fishermen) to Contact in which he played the blind astronomer opposite Jodie Foster.
• Yoko Ono (grieving widow) -- dressed in all black and wearing her signature black sunglasses at 9:15pm, talking to a much-taller man and walking north on W79th Street. Was the man next to her the bodyguard? Turns out that Yoko is associated with an art gallery RIGHT ACROSS the street from our old apartment building. She still lives at The Dakota on Central Park West and W72nd Street.


Other celebrities we've spotted around NYC:
• Amy Tan (author) -- reading at the 92nd Street Y an excerpt of her best-seller The Hundred Secret Senses. Amy and her Italian-American husband live in the San Francisco Bay Area. We've also attended a round-table food discussion with star chefs Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, and Daniel Boulud at the 92nd Street Y. Plus (one-on-one) interviews with Nathan Lane, Barbara Walters, Sandra Bernhard, Bob Dole, Mary Tyler Moore, Ed McMahon, and Joan Rivers.
• Bette Midler (diva) -- wearing brown leather gloves (it was freezing) and hair tied in a ponytail speed walking in Central Park with her personal trainer. Always gracious, she said "Thank you!" when Wilson said "Hi Bette, we love ya!" That night, Matt Lauer honored her at the Waldorf for her tireless efforts to clean up local parks and highways. Don't ask us how we know but we know! We used to see her when we lived on the Upper East Side. One time, we saw her at Sarabeth's on Madison Avenue and E92nd Street with her teenage daughter. She moved from the Upper West Side to the tony Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side a few years ago.
• Billy Crystal (actor) -- shooting Analyze That, the sequel to the 1999 hit Analyze This, at the Riverside funeral home across the street from our apartment building on W76th Street and Amsterdam. While two film crew members were picking up their power cables from the sidewalk, Liz peed on them! The two union guys were not amused. We didn't actually see Billy and Robert De Niro because the shoot was inside the whole time. But we did see Billy filming in the East Village once.
• Bruce Willis (actor) -- walking on Madison Avenue outside the back of toy store FAO Schwartz one morning during the week, . He was wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a black leather jacket. Although he and his Moonlighting co-star Cybill Shepherd made up after their turbulent relationship on the successful TV comedy drama, he never guest appeared on Cybill's now-cancelled sitcom Cybill. Bruce is one of the few Republicans in heavily Democratic Hollywood.
• Calista Flockhart (actress) -- having lunch at the downtown eatery Mayrose on W21st Street and Broadway one weekday. Rob was sitting at the next table and saw the star of Ally McBeal only nibble the toast that she ordered. And yes, she was pencil thin. She recently adopted a baby boy.
• Calvin Klein (designer) -- walking past us at the SOHO hot spot Balthazar on Spring Street and Broadway one Saturday night. We were in the area and were wondering if we could get a table (no, the wait list was too long). Calvin walked right past us from the direction of the bathroom to his table, a booth with several people. He was wearing a plain white T-shirt and blue jeans and was very skinny. He and his wife, Kelly, separated a few years ago. No word on whether he's seeing a woman or a man. Recent pictures show a muscular Calvin who's clearly been working out. To be honest, that's kinda repulsive!
• Charlie Rose (TV journalist) -- hailing a cab on Park Avenue in the 60's. The host and executive producer of the popular PBS late-night talk show that bares his name is from North Carolina. He has degrees in history and law from Duke University and MBA from New York University. He entered TV journalism through his first wife, who was doing research for the CBS television show 60 Minutes. He's been re-married to socialite Amanda Burden, who was CBS founder Bill Paley's step-daughter.
• Danny Glover (actor) -- sitting behind us with a friend in the Broadway revival of Our Town starring Paul Newman. The San Francisco native is perhaps best known for his role in the Lethal Weapon movies. A few years ago he staged a public campaign in NYC to raise racism awareness after cab drivers repeatedly refused to pick him up because of his race.
• David Gergen (former adviser to Presidents) -- on a shuttle flying from New York to Boston one evening during the week. He served as an adviser to four Presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. Since Clinton left office, Gergen has been editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report and professor of public service at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He has his own website!

• David Rosengarten (food critic) -- jogging in Central Park one morning. He has some TV shows on the TV Food Network and has written several cookbooks including the Dean and Deluca cookbook. We've seen him in our old Upper East Side neighborhood before. We guess he lives near E92nd Street, the same tony Carnegie Hill neighborhood that has attracted the likes of Woody Allen and Sanford Weil, the powerful CEO of Citicorp.
• Donald Trump (mogul) -- being mopped by tourists outside his Fifth Avenue building one weekend afternoon. The crowd all wanted a piece of him including a woman who asked him to sign her check! The flamboyant mogul seems to get more headlines from his personal life than his real-estate deals.
• Estelle Parsons (actress) -- walking near the Angelika movie theatre in SOHO on Houston Street one morning during the week. Wilson asked her if she played Roseanne's mother on Roseanne, she politely said yes and accepted Wilson's kind words about her. Turns out she's been in showbiz (she was in Bonnie and Clyde) for quite awhile. She's the creative director at the New School's famous Actors Studio in the village.
• Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin (actors) -- working on the set of the remake of The Out-of-towners in the Village one evening a few years ago. The movie was a big disappointment.
• Issac Mizrahi (ex-fashion designer) -- supporting her good friend Sandra Bernhard by being in the audience when Joy Behar interviewed her at the 92nd Street Y. Isaac spent the first eight years of his schooling at the Flatbush Yeshiva in Brooklyn, then he attended the High School of Performing Arts before choosing a career in fashion design over performing. When Chanel stopped investing in his money-losing company, Isaac shut down his company and became a cabaret singer!
• Jaclyn Smith (former Charlie's Angels star) -- walking south on Madison Avenue on E59th Street one evening with her husband. It's been over 20 years (the series ran from 1976-1981 and she was with it the whole time) since Charlie's Angels and she still looks great! She's been very successfully with made-for-TV movies and also with her clothing line for KMART.
• Jeanne Moos (TV reporter) -- talking to a young couple about the National Enquirer coffee table book in front of the Virgin Megastore in Times Square one afternoon during the week. The New York-based CNN reporter with quirky sensibilities uses her segment to examine off-beat subjects like the pains of pantyhose runs.
• Jennifer Lopez (diva) -- appearing live on Carson Daly's TRL show at MTV's Times Square studio. Wilson was able to get a glimpse of J Lo from across the street on Broadway outside the MTV studio. According to someone we met at a recent party, J Lo's reportedly diva demands are not over-exaggerated. This fellow works at one of the top radio stations in NYC and he said J Lo requested cases of bottled water plus special decorations in her dressing room for a 15-minute interview! He also said Sean Puffy Combs aka P. Diddy is really nice and down to earth. When he's on the show, he treats everyone at the radio station to catered food.
• Jeremy Irons (actor) -- wearing dark sunglasses and walking south on Madison Avenue in the 60's with a young woman. He first became internationally famous with his brilliant work on the acclaimed BBC series Brideshead Revisited in 1981.
• Jimmy Fallon (comedian) -- wearing long black jacket outside a building on Broadway between 21st and 22nd Streets on a Friday afternoon. According to his bio on the Saturday Night Live site, he was born in Brooklyn but was raised in upstate New York. He was doing stand-up comedy at a local club and won a Best Impressionist contest there at 17.
• Julia Roberts (actress) -- shopping at chic Barney's old downtown location one day. Rob spotted her a few years ago and thought she looked like a little mouse trying to hide from other shoppers at the knick knack section. She showed her support for Al Gore at a Radio City Hall fundraising event during the 2000 Presidential election.
• Kathy Ireland (former model) -- being interviewed by an unidentified woman at the Astor Place K-Mart in a Monday afternoon. Was the shiny green pant-suit she was wearing part of her collection sold at K-Mart? The former model has turned her popularity into a vast business empire that ranges from clothing line to exercise tapes. Kathy Ireland was named by Women's Wear Daily as America's 7th most popular women's apparel brand in its category. She is petite in real life although the sexy covers she posed for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues made her look bigger...Not that we read the Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issues!
• Kevyn Aucoin (celeb makeup artist) -- at the TWA terminal at JFK in New York with two unidentified men. Kevyn Aucoin did make-up for celebrities like Martha Stewart, Madonna, Cher, Tina Turner, and virtually all the supermodels. Unforunately he passed away in 2002. Cause was brain tumor. He had a cameo on an episode of the hit TV show Will and Grace that featured Cher as a special guest.
• Mary Tyler Moore (actress) -- walking in Central Park with her personal trainer one afternoon during the week. She beamed when she saw Liz and Jaeger. She and her younger doctor husband have an apartment on the Upper East Side and a country home upstate. We once saw the TV sitcom icon at an 92nd Street Y interview. Everybody loves Raymond was her favorite TV sitcom before it became popular with the rest of the country.
• Michael Caine (actor) -- walking on 5th Avenue in Midtown across the street from Saks Fifth Avenue one day. Knighted in 2000, Sir Michael Caine is from a humble English working class background. He's definitely one of the best actors of all time. His beautiful wife is of Indian heritage and maybe partly due to her influence, he's invested in upscale Indian restaurant in England. Don't ask us how we know these things, we just do!
• Michael J. Fox (actor) -- pushing strollers with his wife on E92nd Street from Park Avenue to Lexington Avenue one afternoon. The 2000 Presidential election was the first time the native Canadian voted as an American citizen. He didn't disclose who he voted for.
• Paul McCartney (singer) -- having drinks at the Royalton Hotel with an unidentified man one afternoon. Part of his long-time feud with Yoko Ono is her refusal to grant him sole credit to the song Yesterday. Paul claimed that he wrote it without John's collaboration.
• Paul Newman (actor) -- driving his station wagon on Fifth Avenue and almost ran Rob over a few years ago! He and his wife Joanne Woodward have an apartment on Fifth Avenue in the 90's near our old apartment and they also have a house in Connecticut. His Newman's Own brand of products such as pasta sauce, popcorn, and salad dressing has raised over $100 million dollars for charities.
• Ralph Lauren (designer) -- having Sunday brunch with his wife and three daughters at 44, the restaurant at the Royalton. One of the daughters was holding a giant teddy-bear. God bless him and God bless America! With hard-work, luck, and sharp business instincts, Ralph, a former neck-tie salesman from the Bronx, now owns a multi-million-dollar empire by selling his Jewish version of WASP lifestyle.
• Ringo Starr (ex-Beatle member) -- shopping at Barneys on Madison Avenue one Sunday afternoon with his wife Barbara Bach (one-time Bond girl). He was trying on different jackets by Comme de Garcons on the second floor of the men's department. He looked amazingly well. Short and thin and showing his age but well. Luckily it was not crowded at Barneys that day and nobody noticed or bothered him. And to think that he and Paul are the only ex-Beatle members alive...
• Ron Perelman (mogul) -- smoking his signature cigar while walking south on Madison Avenue in the E60's with a young woman one weekday afternoon. He is the President of the company that owns Revlon and was NYC's richest man a few years ago with an estimated fortune of about $6 billion then. The Orthodox Jewish billionaire married his fourth wife, actress Ellen Barkin, in June 2000. During the nasty custody battle between him and his third wife, Patricia Duff, it was disclosed that his end tables cost more than $1 million each in his Upper East Side townhouse and yet he suggested that his daughter could live on for as little as $20 a day.
• Scott Rosenberg (writer) -- Scott is (Rob's) Cousin Jimmy's childhood friend and has established himself as a hot writer in Hollywood. John Cusack has said in an interview that Scott didn't write one word of High Fidelity and didn't even do spell check but he gets film credit. Cousin Jimmy told us that Scott was the original writer but then John Cusack got interested in the movie and he brought in his team from Grosse Pointe Blank who re-wrote the script. Scott sued and won to have his name attached to the film. But Jimmy said he lost his case (he polished the script) when he sued for The General's Daughter starring John Travolta. Gone in 60 Seconds reteamed the producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Armageddon, Enemy of the State), actor Nicholas Cage, and Scott himself, who all worked in Con Air. We saw Scott at Jimmy's party in SOHO a few years ago.
• Spike Lee (filmmaker) -- leaving Frank's barber shop on Spring Street in SOHO one evening. The provocative (people either think he's offensive or a movie genius) actor, writer, director, producer, author and entrepreneur moved from Brooklyn with his family to the Upper East Side a few years ago. The son of a successful jazz musician, Spike Lee's films are not the formula-driven Hollywood movies that have taught the audience when to laugh or cry. Instead, his films are unpredictable and always deal with complex social issues such as race and class.
• Star Jones (talk show co-host) -- showing cleavage and wearing a lot of jewelry in the audience with an unidentified Caucasian man at the 92nd Street Y one night when her The View co-host Joy Behar was conducting an interview. A lawyer and former Brooklyn Senior Assistant District Attorney at the Homicide Bureau, Star Jones found her TV calling when she got a gig as a studio commentator for Court TV during the William Kennedy Smith rape trial in 1991.
• Steffi Graf (tennis star) -- hanging out at the weekend artists' street fair in the Village one summer afternoon. Wilson said "Hi, Steffi! We love ya!" but she barely acknowledged and walked on. She and hubby Andre Agassi live in Las Vegas. Steffi took part in an anti-Nazi march in Berlin on the anniversary of Kristallnacht one year. You go, girlfriend!
• Sumner Redstone (mogul) -- having dinner at the Four Seasons restaurant (not related to the Four Seasons hotel chain), where the term "power lunch" was created, in mid-town on E52nd Street and Park Avenue one night. We were a few tables away but Rob recognized him. Sumner's portfolio includes CBS, Blockbuster, MTV, Paramount Pictures, and Simon & Schuster. The horny seventy-something multi-billionaire has a reputation of being a ladies man. His wife of more than 30 years tolerated it until she filed for divorce recently and demanded a big share of his wealth.
• Ti-Hua Chang (reporter) -- doing a report in Chinatown on Mott and Bayard. The veteran reporter for the NBC station in NY has won quite a few awards including the Peabody Award and three Emmys. Chang, a graduate of University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, was a national and local New York Board member of the Asian-American Journalists Association.
• Tom Hanks (actor) -- standing outside dessert-coffee place Cafe Lalo on W83rd Street and Broadway at the shooting of You've Got Mail. Unfortunately, we didn't see Meg Ryan. Poor Tom had an unstable childhood: his parents split when he was five. He and some of his siblings lived with his father, who moved them from town to town to look for jobs as a chef every six months. Tom went to the drama school at Cal State Sacramento. Writer Scott Rudin got the inspiration for the hit movie In and Out starring Kevin Kline when Tom Hanks accepted the Best Actor Oscar for Philadelphia and thanked his gay drama teacher and outed him in the process.
• Woody Allen (filmmaker) -- using the apartment next door to our old place on E92nd Street and Madison in his movie Celebrity. Wilson has seen him before on one Saturday morning on Madison Avenue in the E60's. He was walking arm in arm with Soon-Yi. Someone on the street recognized him and said, "Hey, that's Woody Allen!" and then a few seconds later added, "and the girl, too!" He and Soon-Yi, who got married a few years ago, have adopted a baby girl and have moved from an apartment on Fifth Avenue to a giant townhouse in our old neighborhood on E92nd Street.