CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: STAR GAZING IN MAINE

For over a century celebrities from all walks of life have sought the solitude and privacy of life provided in Maine. You see, Maine is one of the few places on earth where the rich, famous and infamous can be left alone. ( Maybe that's why Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan don't visit.) Mainers are too unto themselves to even acknowledge the presence of someone with a public persona. But the lack of squeals doesn't mean that name dropping doesn't occur. It is social sport and in the Greater Portland area the name most often spoken has to do with a Glenn Close sighting. Ms. Close is married to Mainer and IDEX founder, David Shaw. That makes her a part-timer.


Recent close encounters include:

• Sighting at Aubuchon Hardware in Cape Elizabeth




• Dinner at FORE STREET




• Traveling into Portland on Delta Express




• Fetching at FETCH, a doggy supply store in the Old Port that she is rumored to be a part owner.
  

Other sightings , but not close encounters, may include:

• Joan Lunden shopping at THE NEST in So. Casco.




• Stockard Channing shopping at ORPHAN ANNIE'S in Auburn.




• John Travolta and family awaiting a ferry or flying overhead.




• Kristy Alley awaiting a ferry.




• Ned Lamonte, CT. Democratic Senatorial candidate in '06, awaiting a ferry.




• Artist Eric Hopkins taking his own boat or plane.




• Trenton airport with private plane flight delays caused by arrivals of the Mt. Desert Island summer folk.




• Andy and Betsey Wyeth offshore in their Lyman Morse "Picnic" boat.


• Everyone who is anyone goes to LL BEAN in Freeport.
• Oliver Platt on island time.

If you have a close encounter with the familiar or very famous, leave me a note of who and where. Soon we'll have our own Maine Map to The Stars. Move over Hollywood.

Madeline