dream dinner party

I had this thought the other day while I was watching an episode of Michael Parkinson...

Who would I invite to my ultimate celebrity dinner party?

To be honest I could add about half a billion names to the list, so I put a couple of limitations on it... it had to be somebody alive, and somebody that I wanted to meet because I thought they were interesting, not just because they were "famous" or just attractive (so random hot actor boys were pretty much out)... and somebody who either was highly opinionated or knew a lot about stuff... or else would have interesting stories to add to the dinner party. Plus, I had to keep it to ten names... and yes, I know that means that makes eleven guests including myself... not a perfect number for a dinner party (although who said you couldn't have eleven folks at a dinner party... me at the head of the table and five of them down each side of the table), but I figured if it was my dream dinner party then either J or (if we're going for the ultimate dream team) Lownee would be there to make an even dozen.

And this is at least version 4 of the list... I keep adding and subtracting names whenever I think of somebody who could be more interesting or stick closer to the "rules" than the folks currently on the list. I'm also sure that as soon as I post this I'll think of at least one other person I should have added.

So as it currently stands, my Ultimate Dream Dinner Party would be, in no particular order:

1. Stephen Fry
   Stephen was actually on the episode of Parky that made me come up with this list in the first place. And having seen him on any number of episodes of Parky I've realised just recently that I have a huge man-crush on Stephen Fry... I don't want to get groinal with him (even though he is a big 'mo), I just want to sit around and chat... enjoy a leisurely walk in the countryside with him and discuss anything and everything over a pint of beer in a country pub. That kind of thing.



2. Pink
   Pink was actually the second name that immediately sprung to mind when I was thinking of this list. She is the epitome of "highly opinionated" as far as I'm concerned. Both times I've seen her in "serious" interviews, firstly on Oprah, then on an episode of Enough Rope, she's been well spoken, intelligent and articulate.



3. Joss Whedon
   My other massive man-crush. I adore Joss... really and truly. I love the way his mind works, I love his sense of humour and I love his creativity (and occasionally I want to bludgeon him to death with a two by four for exactly the same things). Moreover I want to hang out with him and chat with him and whatnot. And as the creator of three of my favourite series he definitely deserves a place at my table.



4. Howard Roffman
   Quite possibly my favourite photographer on the planet. He's photographed a lot of very beautiful guys, he's travelled overseas to photograph the boys from Bel Ami, and you just know that he has to have a million and one stories to tell about his photographic adventures... plus I'd love to be able to pick his brain about photography. But one thing I didn't know about him until I went looking for his photo is that he's actually President of Lucas Licensing... as in Lucasfilm Ltd, George Lucas, Mr Star Wars. And he's been working at Lucasfilm since about 1980... so he probably has TWO million and one stories he could tell.



5. Drew Barrymore
   Drew is one hell of a woman... the childhood stardom, the youthful addiction, the "bad girl" comeback, founding her own production company and now being up there in the ranks of A list stars. You just gotta love her really. She's another person who always comes across fairly intelligently too.



6. Russell T Davies
   The man behind the original Queer as Folk, the Casanova mini series and the current incarnation of Doctor Who and it's spin off Torchwood. So a bit like Joss Whedon, only British... although I will be honest, I've never actually seen any footage of him being interviewed or anything. But with that much good stuff coming out of his pen, you can only hope he'd be good dinner party material.



7. Kevin Smith
   Good old Silent Bob himself. This one might seem to be a slightly off-beat choice coming from me, but once again I will confess to a little tiny man-crush. Possibly just because I've listened to one too many audio commentaries and DVD special features with him in them (or listened to said commentaries one too many times maybe). Plus I'm pretty sure he's not backwards about coming out with an opinion or two.



8. Asha Gill
   One of the hosts of Lonely Planet Six Degrees, my favourite "travel" show... because it's not really a "look, you can come here and stay there and do this" kind of show, but more of a "this is my experience here" kind of deal. And Asha just comes across on the show as SUCH a sweetheart... and she's had such an interesting life, even before hosting Six Degrees and she's been all over everywhere since, so you know she's good for about a billion different dinner party stories.



9. Kevin McCloud
   I'm sure just about everybody is going "Who?" at this one... Kevin McCloud is the host of a British show called Grand Designs (which screens here on the ABC), where he visits "ordinary" people who are about to embark on some grand architectural project, be it renovating a 15th Century barn or building an ultra modern beach front house or whatever. And he's sometimes just a little bit snarky (although never mean) about their optimism or their chances of getting things to run on schedule, which is why I like him I think. And if he's that opinionated about architecture then I'm sure he has strong thoughts on other subjects too.



10. Brent Corrigan
    If we're going for "highly opinionated and intelligent" then I couldn't NOT include Brent at the table. Sometimes reading his blog I think he has more opinions that his brain can actually generate and/or process at any one time. And while I don't know how he sounds face to face, I know that reading what he has to say he always comes across as intelligent and articulate... sort of the male, gay porn equivalent of Pink (well... maybe)... Plus you KNOW he's got some interesting stories to tell over coffee and dessert at the end of the night!

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