Читать книгу Confessions of a New York Taxi Driver - Eugene Salomon - Страница 24

Certainly one thing that has not changed is a scene such as this: two teenage girls and their mothers, Agogers (people who are ‘agog’) from Georgia on their first trip to New York, piled into my cab at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on a Saturday evening at 7.30 p.m., en route to the Broadway show Beauty and the Beast.

‘Hey,’ the teenager sitting beside me said as we hit traffic heading into Times Square, ‘have you ever had a celebrity in your taxi?’

‘Sure,’ I replied, ‘I’ve had lots of them.’

‘Really?!’

‘As a matter of fact,’ I said, ‘I once had the man who co-wrote the songs of the show you’re going to see.’

‘Wow, what’s his name?’

‘Howard Ashman.’

No response. She’d never heard of the late, great lyricist.

‘Have you ever had a movie star?’

‘Sure.’

‘Wow! Really? You have? Who? Who?’

‘Well, I’ve had Lauren Bacall.’

No response. Obviously this girl was not a fan of classic cinema.

‘How about Leonardo DiCaprio?’ I replied, hoping to hit a home run.

‘Holy Jesus! Leonardo DiCaprio! In this cab?’ At which point all four of them began fondling the upholstery, hoping some of Leo’s charisma would rub off on them.

What is it about celebrities, anyway? Are they really any different than you and me? Well, in a sense, no. Their food goes in one end and comes out the other, just like everyone else’s (although it may start out as sushi from Nobu’s for them and a tuna melt from Frank’s deli for you and me). But the nature of the lives they are living is really quite different than any other type of person. For example…