I had a cool celebrity sighting today at West 21st Street and Fifth Avenue: Elvis Costello and his wife Diane Krall, each pushing a single baby stroller carrying their newborn twins. Bundled up in the monotone layers that are such a hallmark of New York street life, they blended in perfectly. My eyes lit onto Elvis first, as he's, well, unmistakable and then I caught sight of Ms Krall at his left. They stared back at me--perhaps because my eyes were as big as saucers when I first caught sight of them--and then we simply passed each other on the street. The unwritten handbook says New Yorkers don't gawk or harass celebrities; you give a slight nod of detached acknowledgment if you're a fan. And I did--I'm a fan of both their work (I also now have Costello's "Everyday I Write the Book" stuck in my head).

Double D and I used to enjoy sharing our celebrity sightings when we worked together in San Francisco. I used to have rather uncanny radar that zeroed in on a familiar face at 100 paces. Perhaps I was more observant then; I certainly was a more voracious consumer of celebrity-addled media in all its forms. Regardless, I had quite a few interesting celebrity sightings which I reported back in breathless detail to Double D and Christo and Todor. Since then, Double D moved to LA and she soon was reporting brushes with the famous and beautiful each time she went to Whole Foods. Ah, the glamor! She's pretty glamorous herself, so no doubt she's been mistaken for someone famous a few times herself.

I think the key things about celebrities in real life is how diminished they actually seem compared to their larger than life persona projected in the media. They are invariably shorter in stature. I once stood next to Rod Stewart at Heathrow Airport in London. He was unaccountably short with a very slight build. This diminutive bearing was magnified by the fact he was wearing leopard Spandex pants. I remember thinking how unforgiving and sticky those would be to wear on a trans Atlantic flight. But then again, I wasn't sitting in first class, quaffing Dom Perignon.

Most are also much nicer than you'd expect. I happened to get into an elevator at The Bellagio with Paris Hilton and her then boyfriend, Nick Carter. She was holding an animal carrier, so I politely inquired as to the genre of animal. She showed me a duo of sweet faced ferrets that were contained within and we chatted briefly as to their temperance as pets. She couldn't have been nicer.

On that same trip, Fang and I were walking through the grand Bellagio foyer. Coming toward us was Pamela Anderson, the shortest, but biggest titted woman I have ever seen. She was wearing a miniskirt the size of a cocktail napkin and a T-shirt that barely contained her. She balanced a big ratted pile of nappy blond hair that was a tad drag queen for my taste. Any man worth his mettle would have stopped in his tracks. Fang missed her completely and I had to stop and bark at him to get him to look at her backside as she passed us. I'm sure he appreciated the back view almost more, being a leg and ass man.

Sightings on aircraft are often good ones, because you can observe without being overtly obvious. I've seen a lot of celebrities on flights and sometimes I actually have an unavoidable interaction. On an LA to NY flight, the actor Michael York and I brushed asses as we passed each other in one of those tiny aisles. He was incredibly polite/apologetic and still boyishly handsome. I love the film "Cabaret" so seeing/feeling him at close range was a nice moment.

Jewels once spotted the ravishing Julianne Moore on the street in Chelsea and ended up following her red hair for almost half a mile until she disappeared into a sushi place in the Village. He said he was bewitched and couldn't help himself.

I sat across the aisle of a commuter flight from LA to San Francisco once with the late, great Gregory Hines. I didn't bother him, but couldn't resist telling him that his dancing was otherworldly. He laughed, was extremely gracious and I must say, very handsome indeed. I had to avoid staring at him.

There are lots of celebrities who live in New York that constitute multiple sightings. They're part of the neighborhood landscape, so happening upon them never seems to be a big deal. Famous local faces spied include Natalie Portman, Claire Danes, Cynthia Nixon, Michael Imperioli, Al Franken, Diane Sawyer, Chris Noth, Richard Thomas, William Fitchner and loads of Law & Order stock actors. The L&O actors brigade are real New Yorkers; they're often spotted on the subway, reading their tri-folded copies of The New York Times along with the rest of us schlubs.

Speaking of "Law & Order," the production films scenes often around the neighborhood where I live. The locals in my building are unfazed by it. Once at a co-op stockholders meeting, an amendment to allow the show to film several scenes in our building was voted down, much to my vocalized distress. The source of "Law & Order" favoritism became evident one day when I returned to my building on a late summer afternoon. I staggered into the building vestibule, chattering as usual to the doorman about this, that and whatever. Out of the corner of my eye, I spied a solitary figure biding her time, waiting for her car service to arrive. I turned to acknowledge her and came face to face with S. Epatha Merkerson, the actress who plays Lt. Van Buren on "L & O." I had just seen her staggering performance in "Lackawana Blues" so I was sufficiently dazzled by the sighting. She looked at me calmly and said, "How ya doing?" I never intentionally gush, but this time, God help me, I did. When I asked her what brought her to honor our building with her visit, she gave me a blank look and said, "I live here." *HOLY SHIT*

My only regret is that I have never had a Liev Schreiber sighting. He's a resident of this fair city and during his stage tenure in "Glengarry Glenross" and "MacBeth" for Shakespeare in the Park, he was a fixture in the Village. Random, innocent wanderings to The Spotted Pig and Magnolia Bakery for a sighting proved fruitless. I still hold out hope. I mean, I'd also get a Naomi Watts sighting in the deal.