Celebrity Sightings

My friend NH and her husband are having a debate about whether some man sitting across from them is Morgan Freeman or not. It is remarkably easy to believe you see someone that is not that someone.  I recently had a similar issue.

I was in Ogunquit with the BFF.  We were upstairs at the piano bar at The Front Porch and I swore that Richard Gere was sitting at the table next to us.  I tell BFF this and he humors me as all good BFFs should but he does not believe it is Richard Gere.  Our friend BG arrives and also does not believe it is Richard Gere.  I am 95% sure it is and I declare it so.  So my BFF goes up to this man and asks him.  While he does not deny that he is Richard Gere is does not confirm it.  All he says is that he is flattered.  Now, this man has an accent.  Richard Gere is from Philadelphia.  I recognize that at this point I should admit that perhaps this man is not Gere but my brain is so addled by the celebrity sighting that his lack of direct denial turns into even greater certainty on my part that the man we are looking at is indeed the star of Pretty Woman and other such films.

BFF and I leave to go see the Chris Francis show but later find out from BG that he was indeed NOT Mr. Gere.  He was Charles Shaughnessy, the man that played Mr. Sheffield on The Nanny with Fran Drescher.  Well, that explains the accent.

Still counts as a celebrity sighting and someday when I hear on the television that Mr. Gere has passed, I may tell the story a bit differently.

Okay, so on side by side examination I can see that they don't look exactly alike but I think there are some similarities and I think I can be forgiven for believing that Mr. Sheffield was Richard Gere.