Fame Spotting

Milan is one of those cities I guess you can expect to see the odd famous person now and then - if for no other reason than they're swinging through Gucci or Armani HQ on their way through Europe. To date, here are the famous people we've seen (or we're at least pretty damned sure we've seen):

Lenny Kravitz - Seen with an unidentified woman having a coffee sitting at an outdoor cafe table near the Duomo; he played the Sanremo Music Festival the next day. At the time, I thought, "Wow, that guy looks an awful lot like Lenny Kravitz," assuming it couldn't possibly be him. It wasn't until he took the stage at Sanremo (roughly 260km from Milan) that I thought, "Wow, that was Lenny Kravitz!"

Silvio Berlusconi - Seen getting into a car in Turin (roughly 140km from Milan). I actually only saw the top of his little bald head, but Chris (the tall one) was able to see that it was, indeed Berlusconi. Silvio may only be famous in Italy, but for those who don't know he's been the Prime Minister a couple times and is currently running again. He's also been under investigation for any number of things (I can't keep track, and I'm not sure most Italians can, either) and is, in my everso humble opinion, a scumbag.

Antonio Banderas & Liam Neeson - Seen walking through Milan's Galleria and going into the Prada store. There was a big film camera set up at one end of the Galleria, and Chris looked it up later online and discovered the pair are in town filming a movie right now. But honestly, we couldn't tell if they were actually filming something at that precise moment or just going shopping. It looked more like the latter. Chris (again, the tall one) took the camera and tried to get a few shots of them leaving the store (he was the only one of us who could see above the throng that had gathered outside the store, where no less than five people asked me who was inside), but he learned that being a paparazzo is actually kind of difficult, what with all the jostling and such. I'll say this about Antonio and Liam - the former is short, the latter is tall.

Laura Linney - Seen walking by herself down a street near the Duomo. Now, at the time, I thought, "Wow, that woman looks an awful lot like Laura Linney." But I figured I was dreaming. (I should know better now, after the Infamous Kravitz Sighting of 2008.) Then when Chris looked up the Banderas/Neeson sighting online, he said Laura Linney was also in town filming the same movie. So, who knows? Maybe it actually was Laura Linney I saw walking like an average human being through central Milan.