Brushes With Future "Fame"

As I'm watching the season finale of Nip/Tuck tonite (probably the only series I watch on TV) they had a little "wrap party" at the end, hosted by F/X and the anchor covering the event was a woman named Jill Arrington.

I laughed. Not like "ha ha" but more of a "heh". I know Jill. Well....actually... I know who "Jill" used to be. (not her real first name). "Jill" was Seeps roommate freshman year of college and we hung out a lot.

This wasnt the first time I saw her on TV. That was about 4 years ago while ASF and I were watching the US Open on TV. She was up in the stands doing feature commentary. I remember being TOTALLY shocked and called Seep immediately. Then while on the phone w/Seep, I googled her and confirmed that yes, this was the girl we knew in college.

"Jill" was a VERY different person back then. Yes she was a total hottie. Blonde, blue-eyed, thin, tan, southern. Good athlete. Good student. Her dad was a pro-football player back in the day and he was a Hurricane booster so this made her well known amongst the football team - for reasons totally in contrast to how girls get "well known" amongst teams.

Freshman year, while we we're all being irresponsible, skipping classes, staying up till all hours and drinking mass quantities of cheap beer and even cheaper liquor.... "Jill" stayed in her room, studying, reading the bible and listening to hip christian music. Her half of their room was fully decked out in Laura Ashley and Seep's half had the regulatory Absolut ad posters covering the baby poop brown dorm walls.

When Seep would stay overnite in some boys room, "Jill" would be disapproving, being the conservative christian she was, she was saving herself for marriage. The football team loved her - and she just thought they were very nice boys. I remember one of the few nites we got "Jill" to actually leave the room and go out with us to South Beach. We were driving on Collins past one of the many gay nite-clubs and "Jill" gasped and almost wrecked the car (she was good for being the designated driver) b/c she saw two men kissing and one of them had assless chaps on. She screamed, in her loudest southern voice "there are 2 men (pause for breath) kissing (pause) each other!!!!!!!!!!

I think our "fondest" memory of "Jill" was at lunch one day, in the middle of the cafeteria she blew up, wigged out and totally chastised this Jewish guy.....for being Jewish....saying he was going to hell b/c he didnt believe in Jesus. All eyes were focused on her (and sadly our table) that day - for totally different than usual reasons. Ahh...yes.... and now she works in entertainment. Ironic? Maybe she has Mel Gibson on speed dial. (joking here).

Seep and her didnt room together sophmore year - we all had an apartment on campus where lots more drinking and irresponsibility took place. She moved in w/some sorority sisters. But we still went out now and then.

As these things generally go...."Jill" did not stay as pure as the driven snow. By junior year I think she started dating one of our All-American divers (another total hottie - those hotties have to stick together) and it all went downhill from there. We saw her out senior year at some bar, drinking, smoking and looking kinda slutty. We cried....our little girl had grown up. It's a day every parent dreams of. Sniff sniff.

As Seep and I were talking that day - Seep was furiously going through her photo albums for a picture of her that we could sell to the tabloids :-) 'Course....after I went to her website and saw some of the photo shoots she had done for Maxim and other pubs....well....lets just say none of our beach pictures from 1990-91 could compete.

That made me think of another future quasi-famous person I knew when they were a nobody. This one totally escaped me till I was watching "Driven" on VH1 like 6 years ago and this one was about "The Rock" (the wrestler turned actor). I wasnt like really watching it - it was just on and I was just blankly staring at the televison.

They went through his past, yadda yadda. Showed him in college....and...wait...WTF!!!!! Thats Dwayne from the UM football team. OMFG!!!!!!! The Rock was Dwayne w/the big 'fro!!!!!!!

I screamed and ASF ran into the living room (not often he heard me scream like a little girl) and I was like "OMG!!!!! I partied with The Rock!!!! I played drinking games with The Rock!!!!! I made The Rock drink for being stupid!!!!"

I called Seep and we were both just OMFG!!!! Seep went to those albums in search of incriminating photos. Alas we had little. Just drunken photos that would barely get us a TV-MA rating.

How was The Rock part of our extended circle? Well...our friend The Swede was roommates with a walk-on, 3rd string placekicker for the Hurricanes. (and its sad how much play this asshole got for being a walk-on, 3rd stringer - stupid women). They used to have parties alot...and other pine-riders used to attend. The stars of the team didnt attend - ha. They wouldnt be caught dead at a 3rd stringers party. Shit - back then Luther Campbell of 2LiveCrew fame had those guys out on South Beach every weekend.

Anyway... The Rock did start a little bit until he got injured and couldnt play anymore. Then I guess he started slumming w/the pine riders and hung out w/our friends roommate. We partied a lot there b/c a) we never had to pay for a thing b) their high rise had a pool and jacuzzi that never closed and c) most of the guys were geniunely nice and The Swede was our bodyguard in the event anyone wasnt.

My favorite memory of The Rock is when I saw him desperately going after every last crumb from a plate of "brownies" (wink wink). That plate was licked clean and he went hunting on the floor for more crumbs (and this was a floor I was sometimes hesitant to put my shoed feet on). Had we had a photo of this moment - would have made for a classic anti-drug poster. (mmm...maybe not).

Thinking of The Rock makes me remember having class w/future NFL-er Warren Sapp. Yes - everyone who went to a big-time sports school has a "I had a class with..." story. I think Ruby had class at Michigan w/Tom Brady. But Warren was in my sophomore year public speaking class. This is a class where you had to prepare speechs on a given topic and give them in class. If anyone is familiar with Warrens public speaking abilities - this is quite amusing. The class did him NO good.

He came to class and did his work. There were like 2 other football guys in this class (and no it wasnt a blow off class like underwater basketweaving!) but they were pine riders. I knew who he was - but I didnt think he knew me.

But one nite we were out in Coconut Grove waiting in a long ass line to get into some new "must-see" bar. We were underage but it was an 18 & over place. We just wouldnt get a wristband and would have to get someone to buy us drinks - ugh. We're standing there, waiting somewhat impatiently when I hear "hey! white girl!!" This meant nothing to me as there were about 100 white girls all around me. Then I hear "hey...white girl!!! black shirt....back dere...ms so-and-so's speech class?!!!!" This perked my ears up as I was white, I was wearing a black shirt and I was in this womans class.

I look up at the door and there's Warren. He's a bouncer at this place. (typical job for our football team). I cautiously wave wondering why the hell Warren Sapp is yelling at me. He waves his arm up and says "bring your posse up here...don't wait in line". So I look at my "posse" which was like Seep & 2 other girls and was like "what should we do?" Seep was like "um...lets listen to the guy and go up there".

So we squeeze our way to the front of the line, past a long line of some very pissed off people. Warren's like "yeah...you dat girl in my class...how you doin tonite?" I'm like "good...you work here?" (feeble attempt to make conversation). He nods and counts the people with me. He tells the guy next to him (another very large bouncer type dude) "I need 4 bands for my friends here". Dude hands them over, no ID, no questions. Warren snaps them on our wrist and tells us to have a good time.

We go in the bar and get some drinks (totally wondering if we're going to get caught for having bands and being 19 - how naieve we were then). We got served no problem. Then one of the girls is like "OMG!!! Snoop!!!! He's gonna want you to go back to the football dorms w/him b/c he got us in here!!!!! (she was a wee bit of a drama queen). I look at Seep and scrunch my face like "ewww". (Warren Sapp....nice guy and all...is no Taye Diggs).

But that was it. I went to class the next week, said hey to him and thanked him for bumpin us up and the bands and he said no prob - anything for a classmate. And that was that. We never went back to that bar again b/c by the time the lines went down it was way uncool to be there. The life span of a bar in Miami is shorter than that of the average fruit fly.

Thankfully....none of my future brushes w/"fame" involved having sex w/someone (when they were a no-one). Can't say the same for some of my friends at the time (girls who "knew" some key members of our football team).