Thursday, March 26, 2009

Today's Blind Item - From NPR

A reader named Kelly e-mailed me something she saw on the Twitter feed of Scott Simon from National Public Radio. Scott basically posted a blind item, and now it is up to you to figure it out. This is a first. A Twitter blind item. Scott has no plans to reveal who the actor is, but I actually think it should not be that difficult if you find out where Scott went to high school.

I was 2 yrs behind a guy in hs who's now famous actor. but pub sez he's 9 yrs younger than me. musta been brilliant to graduate at 8!

66 comments:

Anonymous poster said...

This is a Chicago High Scool, maybe Senn???

Unknown said...

I'm going with Vince Vaughn.

Robert said...

Simon went to Senn High School in Chicago and is 57. So who's another 50-ish Chicagoan?

Dee said...

Bill Murray?

amazonblue said...

Well, Wiki says Simon is 57, born in 1952. He moved alot growing up, but it looks like he spent a lot of time in Chicago, graduating from the University of Chicago.

So looks like were seeking a Chicago area born 60ish actor passing for 50.

r said...

My money's on Ramis:

Some of Senn's more famous alumni, living and dead include comedian Harvey Korman, actress Lois Nettleton, Clayton "The Lone Ranger" Moore, author William Maxwell, author and NPR host Scott Simon, William "The Exorcist" Friedken, "I Dream of Jeannie" creator Sidney Sheldon, jazz musician William Russo, and actor, director and producer Harold Ramis.

r said...

But IMBD says Ramis was born 44, so um, nevermind.

lutefisk said...

Harold Ramis is listed as being born in 1944. I don't think he has covered up anything. It must be someone else.

mialou said...

Ramis official bio says he was born in 1944 so it can't be him if Simon was born in '52. Murray was born in 1950. So we are looking for someone who says they are born in 1961, 62?

A Pimp Named DaveR said...

If Simon is 57, it means the actor is claming to be 48.

I found one Chicago-born actor who is listed as being 48: Casey Siemaszko.

That's all I've got.

p.s. His sister was hot. Whatever happened to her?

mooshki said...

Kathy Griffin? ;)

FrenchGirl said...

george clooney?birth in 1961

Unknown said...

wikipedia says simon moved around a lot. it's not necessarily chicago. could be in canada?

captivagrl said...

cruise?

the.princess.leia said...

Technically, Sean Penn would be 9 years younger than Scott right now. Scott just turned 57 a few days ago. Sean is still 48 and will not turn 49 for a few more months.

captivagrl said...

according to wiki tom attended 3 different high schools

whole lotto luv said...

Some of the actors listed as born in 61 on imdb, Anerican or Canadian:
Eddie Murphy
Vincent Gallo
Elias Koteas
Christopher Meloni
Forrest Whitaker
Campbell Scott
Woody Harrelson
.. that's up to July 23

whole lotto luv said...

cont:
Laurence Fishburne
Barack Obama (!)
James Gandolfini
Scott Baio
Chi McBride
Eric Stoltz
Dylan McDermott
Ralph Macchio
DB Sweeney
Tom Sizemore
Ann Coulter
Joe Lando (yeah, I watched Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman)

Binky Melnik said...

I think you're forgetting to take into account that Scott was two years behind the guy, so shouldn't you be looking for an eleven-year gap?

whole lotto luv said...

@BinkyM,

Scott was born in 1952,so the actor was born about 1950 +11 years = 1961.

ms snarky said...

did anyone read Scott Simon's fan memoir, "Home and Away?" it's about growing up loving baseball, so it's got to have high school info. someone run to the bookstore! I'd do it but I'm on deadline. I have to finish my column or my edior will actually hurt me.

Anonymous said...

He graduated from Senn. Here is a list of Senn HS alumni, I haven't actually looked at it tho:

http://sennhighschool.net/alumni-list.html

they also have an honor roll for Chicago Public Schools. I searched for the word actor & a lot of people came up but I only saw one for Senn.

http://www.cpsalumni.org/honor-roll2

ms snarky said...

Senn has a famous alumni list, and only Harold Ramis is on it, Class of '62. and Clayton Moore, Morey Amsterdam and William Friedkin, but I'm pretty sure they don't need publicists any more.

captivagrl said...

chances are this actor attended the same school but didn't graduate there.

KellyLynn said...

I've been working on this blind for way too long today, and I still can't figure it out. I thought, perhaps, Matthew Broderick, but he's a New Yorker. I also considered checking imdb for 1960 and 1962 birth dates, as his bio may only have his age.
I'm stumped.

ms snarky said...

From Wikipedia:
Simon was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of comedian Ernie Simon and actress Patricia Lyons. He grew up in major cities across the United States and Canada, including Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Montreal, Cleveland, and Washington, DC.

ms snarky said...

so to recap - if Scott is 57, the actor is 59, masquerading as 50. or maybe just not arguing with it. you know how publicists are.

captivagrl said...

reminds me of a certain actress....
birthdate listed 1969
CZJ - me thinks your a fibber!

ms snarky said...

alas, she's not a guy, and grew up in Wales. except for that, I agree.

Unknown said...

"so to recap - if Scott is 57, the actor is 59, masquerading as 50. or maybe just not arguing with it. you know how publicists are."

Scott says "he's 9 yrs younger than me", so doesn't that make the guy 48?

libby said...

I think the problem with this blind is that various sources may have different birth-years for the same guy.

I wonder if there's anyone w/ differing info, who lived in Chicago, at least for a while in his teens.

Yes, j. 48.

sandman said...

cusak?
tom arnold?

AMD said...

This reeks of math. I hate word problems.

katie said...

Helen Hunt is another one who lies about her age and not just a year or two. More like a decade.

Maddie said...

Did Scott Simon attend Senn his freshman and sophomore years? He says that he "was 2 yrs behind" which makes it sound like Simon and the actor were in school at the same time; meaning Scott had to be a frosh or soph and the actor was a jr or sr.

KellyLynn said...

I did a perusal of the Category: Actors from Chicago, Illinois on Wikpedia, and came up with these possible answers (assuming he was talking about Senn High School):
Jason Gedrick
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001263/
Kevin J. O'Connor
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0640413/
John C. Reilly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Reilly
Billy Zane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Zane
and Michael T. Weiss
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_T._Weiss

I widened my scope to include a few years either way.

PotPourri said...

John Reilly does not look 40-anything. He looks near 60. But I also know he wouldn't lie.

PotPourri said...

It's FABIO!

PotPourri said...

Christopher Meloni? He sure would fit. He looks old. Born in 1961

PotPourri said...

George Lopez?

PotPourri said...

Drew Carey?

palealebrew10 said...

I'll say John Reilly. I just don't get how celebrities get away with the age lying so easily..? I mean, people went to school with them. Knew them, grew up with them, how much can publicists really cover up?

PotPourri said...

Chi McBride?

PotPourri said...

Drew Carey is pictured below with Bob Barker. However, was he born in Chicago? I thought it was Cleveland?

whole lotto luv said...

Well, well, well...it appears Scott Simon knows more than one actor who lies about his age. I did a search inside Simon's book on amazon and came across this:

"Bill Peterson, who had been two years AHEAD [my emphasis] of me in high school, has taken his local production of In the Belly of the Beast..."

William Peterson's imdb lists his birthdate in 1953, a year later than Simon's as listed on wikipedia.

whole lotto luv said...

oops!
"has taken" = "had taken"

nunaurbiz said...

It's not Bill Petersen. Early in his career, he wore a football jersey from high school in any film he could work it in (he did play football, but it wasn't his jersey, his was torn up so he borrowed a friend's jersey).

Critics and people like me (who interviewed him in DC) started noticing this trend and it got very publicized. So everyone knew then when and where he went to high school.

As far as I know, Bill's never claimed to be younger than he is. I don't think he gives a damn.

This actor would have had to tell the publicist to lie about his age because he wanted to cultivate a younger image.

Kinda like how Jack Nicholson thinks he can get away with younger and younger female co-stars while he looks older than God!!!!

Jillian S. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jillian S. said...

it has to be william peterson. Simon names peterson as being 2 years ahead of him in that passage, which means he should be class of '68, but peterson's wiki lists him as class of '70 so unless he had some 2 year set back, there is at least 1 instance of lying. peterson is from illinois, but graduated from high school in idaho, which is why we were so thrown off by the senn/chicago thing.

since peterson just did the narration for the chicago 2016 olympic bid presentation, i'm thinking some kind of press release made it across simon's desk yesterday prompting that tweet.

von said...

Peterson fits except he married in 1974. He can't really claim to be late 40s. It would mean he married when he was 13!

However, on Wikipedia it has him graduating HS in 1972. As opposed to 1970.

So there are discrepancies. Maybe he fudges a few years off and they've added up and now it make no sense.

sandman said...

don't know where she's from but chelsea handler looks 60 instead of mid 30's she claims

Jillian S. said...

Perez Hilton called Chelsea on that when he was a guest on her show. She looked hurt and said she can't lie because there are yearbooks and classmates to back it up.
I think she probably just spent a lot of time baking in the sun and getting baked. unlike black, white DO crack.

kanonymous said...

"Simon went to Senn High School in Chicago and is 57. So who's another 50-ish Chicagoan?"

The famous actor is supposed to be publicly 9 years younger than Simon. That would mean the famous actor is publicly 48, not 50-ish. In reality he's 59.

JJ said...

David Brenner admitted that he lied about his age for years at his manager's request. He shaved like 12 years off and couldn't believe people bought it.

No clue about Scott Simon's classmate.

kanonymous said...

Guys, read the blind. The famous actor is someone who wants us to think he's about 48. So it's NOT:

John C. Reilly (43)
Vince Vaughn (39)
William Peterson (56)
Drew Carey (50)
John Cusack (42)
Billy Zane (43)
Jason Gedrick (44)
Kevin J. O'Connor (45)
Bill Murray (58)

It also says this guy went to high school with him, so it can't be:
Tom Arnold (high school in Iowa)
Christopher Meloni (high school in WA DC)
George Lopez (high school in CA)

Possible guesses:
Chi McBride (47)
Michael T. Weiss (47)

kanonymous said...

"Did Scott Simon attend Senn his freshman and sophomore years? He says that he "was 2 yrs behind" which makes it sound like Simon and the actor were in school at the same time; meaning Scott had to be a frosh or soph and the actor was a jr or sr."

It means exactly what it says. He's two years behind the actor. So when the actor was a junior, Simon was a freshman. When the actor was a senior, Simon was a sophomore.

I'm not sure what you mean by this: "meaning Scott had to be a frosh or soph and the actor was a jr or sr." Assuming both of them graduated high school, I'm sure Simon was a fr, soph, jr, and sr at one time or another and so was the actor . . .

whole lotto luv said...

Well, I didn't mean to state that Petersen was the answer to this blind, just that he's another actor Simon went to school with who is shaving some years off his age, and that Petersen was also 2 years ahead of Simon.

That said, I remember when Michael T Weis was playing a doctor on Days of Our Lives. Soaps always mess with timelines and all, but if Weiss is only 47 now, he was playing a doctor when he was 23. The guy who played Mike Horton before Weiss (Wesley Eure) was born in 1951.

So, I'll go along with whoever said Micheal T Weiss.

Lil said...

You guys! You're leaving out the only answer that it could possibly be!
.
.
.
BEN AFFLECK!!!!

Ok, sorry. Just had to get that in here because no one else had given the correct answer yet. ;-)

Anonymous said...

must be someone who had to play some teenager parts while beeing much older... something similar to those fom the original 90210 cast,



:-)

Anonymous said...

I was told there would be no math.

Jenny S said...

This one is driving me crazy but would folks say that Michael T Weiss is a famous actor? I guess I figured it was someone more well known. I have seen a recent photo of Michael and, man, he looks old.

Kat said...

Has to be Michael T. Weiss. Fits in with location (Chicago) and age range (he was born in early '62 per his wiki bio. And dang, he does look old - in his RECENT CDAN pic, by the way.

mooshki said...

LOL, Lil!

Anonymous said...

It can't be Michael Weiss, he went to HS in a Chicago suburb, either Niles or New Trier I think.
And William Peterson graduated from Bishop Kelly High School in Boise, Idaho according to Wikipedia.
And since I went to Senn at the same time as Simon, I can say this: He was the closest thing to a celeb at the school at the time.

Anonymous said...

Michael T. Weiss went to Glenbrook North in Northbrook (North suburb of Chicago).

meridith said...

http://seriouslyomg.com/?p=10660

Happened upon this post today from March 25. Thoughts?

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