famous

Even though it's not something I actively brag about, I am distantly related to Billy Joel. He's a cousin of my maternal grandfather on his mother's side, but they only met maybe two times as children because my grandpa's mother was disowned by her obscenely wealthy Jewish family for marrying a poor Italian immigrant. (It was not a love match--it was her way of rebelling against her parents because in the 20s that was pretty well how you pissed your parents off if you were a woman because there were so few options open. You just married someone they didn't like, and marrying outside your class and religion, especially in New York, was a major cultural no-no.) But the family resemblance is pretty fucking obvious. They look like brothers, Billy Joel and my grandpa.

And this same grandfather shares a name with a very very famous baseball player for the New York Yankees that was once married to Marilyn Monroe. They are NOT, I am sad to say, related. But my mom said she used to use it to get into clubs for free. She wasn't lying about who her dad was, she just wasn't telling the whole truth.

Six degrees separate most people from other people so being related distantly to a very famous person is a lot easier than it sounds.

I went to high school with a girl whose great-uncle was actor Gregory Peck, best known for his role as Atticus Finch in the film version of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. And to prove this, the girl brought into English class, as we were reading that very book, the pocketwatch Peck wore in the role for the movie that was willed to her family when he died in 2003.

Of course this girl was a horrible person and impossible to get on with so nobody was really impressed.