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Stateside star-spotting with Justin Timberlake, Vinnie Jones, Marc Wootton and American Idol

Celebcity goes to La La Land!

Having been stranded over in the US for an extra nine days due to the volcanic ash cloud had its ups – and spotting celebs was one of the them for sure. Spending over three weeks in Los Angeles, you cannot fail to bump into at least one or two. I did quite well; even on the second day I was lunching with the girls from the office when we spotted one of the UK’s hottest comic talents – Marc Wootton.

Anybody who caught Marc’s performance as the hilarious Mr Poppy in
the Christmas hit film Nativity would instantly become a fan, trust me.
Marc was having a laid back lunch in cult downtown Mexicana restaurant Clifton’s – until we screamed across the room, “Helloooooo Mr Poppy!”

Marc chatted to us about his US opportunities, and can currently be seen on his new BBC 3 three series, appropriately titled La La Land!

My eagle eyes also spotted actor Ewan McGregor, duly queuing up for food. Having met him a couple of times before with Suzi Perry at the Moto GP at Brands Hatch, I couldn’t resist saying hello!

Timberlake time

My best spot of the trip has to be the Trousersnake, Justin Timberlake, who attended an event we were hosting the media for. Justin arrived around the back door with girlfriend Jessica Biel – but I managed to grab a snap (much to the dismay of his PR) for my mate’s son! Justin was completely at ease and chatted before sneaking off in his blacked out SUV with Jessica in tow.

Victory for Vinnie

While in LA I went to see Vinnie Jones and his football team, the Hollywood Allstars, play a match in the California beach resort of Santa Monica. Vinnie was looking a little worse for wear as the night before he had got into a fight with fellow Brit actor, Tamer Hassan.

The pair had been drinking at celeb hangout Chateau Marmont and were due to start filming together. Vinnie, 45, told a tabloid, “Me and Tamer had words and a bit of a scuffle, like a lot of blokes do on a weekend after a drink and a curry.”

As you can see from my pictures, Vinnie didn’t play in the match but stood on the sidelines shouting encouragement to his fellow team mates who stomped home to a 4-1 victory. Vinnie as you imagine was quite charming and even kicked a ball about with my son after the match!

Eastbourne Idol anyone?

One of the biggest TV shows in the States – well, apart from Glee and the Superbowl – is American Idol. The tag line for this year’s show, which airs to over 40 million people, is that it is head judge Simon Cowell’s last ever show.

Whilst dining in an all you can eat Italian restaurant next door to
the CBS Studios where the show is filmed, my son spotted one of the finalists, Katie Stevens, eating the biggest slice of cheesecake you can imagine.

Taking after his mother, my son shouted out her name and she duly rushed over and made us speak just to hear our “Adorable English Accents”. It turned out that Katie has relatives in Eastbourne! We, of course, were the kiss of death as Katie was booted off the show the very next night!

Later that week we cycled past other judge Randy Jackson, wearing DayGlo sportswear on Venice Beach.

Have you spotted a celeb in the city? comment@thelatest.co.uk

This entry was posted on Monday, May 10th, 2010 at 11:31 am and is filed under Celebcity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.