Best autograph story ever, Andy.

And Dave...is that you in that first pic, or had you cut and skedaddled by that point?

Thanks for sharing those stories Dave P. and Andy. Very nice.

Three of my favorites in my collection:

• The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told (signed by John Byrne, Curt Swan, and Julius Schwartz)
• X-Men # 1 (signed by Stan Lee)
• The Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol. 1 (signed by Stan Lee)

This story is another rather embarrassing one, I'm afraid. I was once fortunate enough to win a contest through my knowledge of film trivia. Among other things, I got a trip to LA, and attended the Oscars and an Oscar party thrown by Miramax at the Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel. I met a bunch of celebrities. I was trying to be cool though, and just hobnobbed and glad-handed everyone. Only on my way out did I decide, what the hell, I'll get a few autographs as momentos. I was a little bit prepared. I had the note pad from my hotel in my pocket, for just such an emergancy. However, I made a very embarrassing faux pas by calling Malcolm McDowell, "Terence" when I met him in the party and again when I bumped into him at the concierge desk, and asked for his autograph. In my (feeble) defense, I had a few too many free drinks, and confused him with Terence Stamp, because they're both distinguished actors, very tanned, with white hair, and have similar accents, but that's no excuse. Anyway, he was very gracious and signed for me (getting my name right, btw) but his wife was rather miffed, and told me my mistake when I said Terence (again!). "Yes, but it's Malcolm", she said. I said, "Of course! Malcolm McDowell. I confused you with Terence Stamp. That must happen all the time, right?" He just smiled and signed, but her response was an icy, "Well, it's happened twice today." Wow. Very embarrassing, but I got his autograph! What a guy.

Then, I went out on the red carpet and waited for my limo (maybe it's not such an embarrasing story after all), and bumped into Don Rickles again. "Don, can I get your autograph?" "Sure kid, sure."

Michael Caine was out there too, but he was clutching the Oscar he won that night for "The Cider House Rules" so I didn't bother him with an autograph request. I could have held the statue for him while he signed. Ah, well. Did I mention that the contest I won was from the ABC tv show "Norm" which was a funny show with a good cast, but I never met them while I was out there. The publicist from the show did get me a signed shooting script though, which is pretty cool. It's not the script of the show that was the contest show "Norm vs. Fear", http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0662148/, but that doesn't really matter. It's a nice little bonus. Top to bottom, it's Nikki Cox, Norm MacDonald, Artie Lange, Ian Gomez, Laurie Metcalf and Max Wright.