Shooting stars

I've been sitting at home in front of the TV watching the news and sundry other shit.

Here in Britain there's a guy on trial who's accused of sending eight letter bombs in what some are calling a (cliche alert!) "campaign of terror".

The court in Oxford heard that apparently he had a bomb factory in his bedroom.

This guy who mailed the bombs is alleged to have caused injury, harm and distress to dozens of people. Mailing letter bombs to people is a seriously nasty thing to do.

The case has echoes of the Unabomber in the United States although over here, no-one's died.

But everytime the story appears on the news I can't stop myself from laughing.

This is the guy who's accused of being a manical letter-bombing madman:

Should have gone to Specsavers, dude!

Anyway - serious point about the Madonna story from the other day...

You were right to say that I should not have made the effort to ask Madonna for her autograph and that meeting famous people is always a let-down.

I have to say though, it isn't always true.

When I first started in my job I had to spend endless days looking after people.

That means making them tea, shuffling them from their car to the studio, running around to find them newspapers to read etc.

Generally all people in the spotlight seem indifferent and bored. They all spend far too much time looking at themselves in the dressing room mirror.

However, there have been two men who seemed genuinely nice guys. Maybe there are no coincidence that they're both industry "veterans".

The first was someone who had me shaking because I was so nervous and intimidated to meet him.

Of course I'd been a huge fan and what do you say to a guy who had a direct hand in making this album?

It was Dave Gilmour of course and he was seriously nice. He started talking and asked who I was and was just really easy. I offered him tea or coffee and thank fuck he passed on both.

It was still intimidating and I didn't say anything more than I should have. What the fuck do you say to him? "Er, hi - so what's it like being a legend?"

The second guy was even nicer.

When he arrived he got out and shook my hand. He asked my name and when I offered tea or coffee he said please and thank you.

He asked what I did and didn't mind when I told him I'd always been a huge fan. I told him I grew up watching his movies and thought that he was the best in the role.

He seemed quite happy to sit and listen while I rabbited on about my favourite instalment and which gadget I liked the best.

When we were finished I sheepishly handed him a piece of paper and a pen and he was more than happy to sign - despite it not really being protocol. He was as cool as he used to be on film. Here's his scribble...

Can you guess who it is? I'll send you a pair of my (used but clean) underpants if you get it right.