Of course I’ll try to meet Laverne. And don’t call me Shirley. Frankly, I’m amazed that Penny Marshall – who is best known as playing Laverne DeFazio, one half of the zany gal pal team in Laverne & Shirley – is even appearing at celebrity shows. Surely she’s moved on to bigger and better things. Of course she has. Things like being an acclaimed director of films such as Big, Awakenings, and A League of Their Own. Things like producing the amazing film Cinderella Man. And don’t call me Shirley.
But despite those fancy schmancy films, she is still too closely associated with her role in Laverne & Shirley not to embrace it. I met the other half, Cindy Williams, in Chicago in the Fall of 2009. So it would have taken quite a bit to stop me from getting Penny Williams to add her signature to my photo of the pair, when she appeared at the Chicago Hollywood Celebrities Show on October 1, 2011.
Despite having seen Penny Marshall in person amongst a crowd of theatre-goers in 1995, I had never gotten a picture with her. So this was a must – even if it did cost an extra $20 to do so. Her counterpart Cindy Williams was also there, but it would have been quite a hassle, and probably rather expensive to get a picture with the both of them together, so I’m settling with having my two individual shots. And for whatever reason, apparently it was too much effort to write Laverne, so she just went with the letter “L”. What the L?
Although she looked unsurprising rather haggard, she was still pretty nice and friendly. And she was smoking one of those odd water cigarettes, which must have been part of an effort to quit smoking. Surely those can’t be all that satisfying. And don’t call me Satisfying.
Celebrities of the Fall 2011 Chicago Hollywood Celebrities Show will continue…
OMG, I can’t believe you met Laverne and Shirley! Her face in that photo is perfect. Just wondering what you do with all of these signed photos? File, display, or sell them?
Nessy
December 16th, 2011
I see you managed to get two photos with her. Nice!
Dave Chasteen
December 17th, 2011