The last one to check in with her star connections is Elletu, and she defines hers as a 'friend of a friend' kind of thing, but most are closer than that. This will do.
To begin, she says she has a friend who was friends with and went to high school with actor Josh Lucas, now co-starring with Debra Messing in "The Mysteries of Laura." When I wrote about Josh Lucas recently I had no idea that Elletu had a friend who has a friend who was friends with and went to high school with him. See how this works? It is amazing what we find out about each other through this latest theme of this blog.
She has a friend who 'went steady' with Gary Puckett, he of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap fame. Hearing this, I had to do my research on Gary. He was raised in Yakima---j's daughter lives near Yakima!!--which is close to the town of--get this--Union Gap! He went to college in San Diego, then quit college to play in several local bands before joining the Outcasts, a local hard rock band that ended up touring the Pacific Northwest. The band was renamed the Union Gap in 1967, just one year after j and I graduated from high school. Soon came their big hits, such as "Woman Woman," "Young Girl" and "Lady Willpower." Although they never had a #1 hit song in the U.S., "Young Girl" did become #1 in the UK. The band was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1969 but lost out to Jose Feliciano. I still have some Feliciano LP's. Love him. But I digress. On June 20, 2010, Gary Puckett performed for the first time in Union Gap, WA, the namesake of his former band. He married Lorrie, not Elletu's friend.
Elletu has a friend who was once a body guard for William Shatner. Another friend used to work at KOMO-TV and knows everyone there. He has an Emmy for camera/photography work. Elletu has a friend who has an Emmy!
Another friend of Elletu's considers himself an 'Indy director' and collects pictures and autographs of the famous. Elletu has no idea what autographs he has in his possession. (I have Mary Pickford's, but that's a whole other story.)
I have heard first-hand from Elletu's close friend Sandy about her connection to KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer. Sandy's sister won a wine tasting with him at an auction, and Sandy went along--for the wine tasting, not the auction. I remember something about a limo, and it was a pretty impressive story. Of course I had to do my research on Tommy Thayer before writing about him, and lo and behold, I have a connection! Tommy Thayer graduated from Sunset High School in Beaverton, OR. When I read that it rang a bell. My niece Dayna, who lives in California, was a cheerleader and Homecoming Queen at Sunset High School.. I checked with her, and Tommy Thayer was a senior when she was a sophomore, but his brother Mike was in her class and was her friend. After high school hey both went to the University of Oregon, and he lived in a fraternity across the street from her sorority. Dayna said they are both great guys. She added, "I have seen Mike from time to time over the years, and I hear about Tommy too." As she said, "Small world."
And as I mentioned before, Elletu has a connection to actor James Caviezel. We like to refer to him as Jesus, but that's because he portrayed Jesus in the 2004 movie "The Passion of the Christ." Elletu's boss at the time (and friend) is his cousin! Caviezel now co-stars in the TV show "Person of Interest," leading me to say, "Jesus is a Person of Interest" which could be taken two ways. Like Josh Lucas and Gary Puckett--and let's not forget Jimi Hendrix--Jim Caviezel was born in the state of Washington. In fact, he was born in Mount Vernon and raised in the small community of Conway, not far from where my father and stepmom lived as children and later as a married couple. He attended Mount Vernon High School for two years before moving to Seattle to live with family friends in order to play basketball at O'Dea, a Catholic High School (he was an is a devout Catholic). Then he transferred to John F. Kennedy Memorial High School in Burien--near where my sister and two nieces live--where he was a basketball star. He went on to play basketball at Bellevue Community College, but an injury ended his dream of having an NBA career. He transferred to the University of Washington and turned his focus to acting, and the rest is history. He moved to Los Angeles, where he has his successful career and a successful marriage.
Elletu's children have their own star connections. Her son talked to both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett when he worked at Microsoft. Her younger daughter met the guy who played Tumnus in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" at ComicCon in San Diego. And let's not forget that Elletu's older daughter was in Acting Ensemble at South Kitsap High School with Zoe McLellan of the new hit TV show "NCIS New Orleans."
Elletu, you are the one who ties all of these connections together. You thought you had nothing to give me, but you were wrong, proving it's not what you know but who you know that counts.
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