There’s a thing that one of the writing groups does called Friday Five, meant to help inspire writing. I don’t usually bother with this, but I was in the mood today.

1. If you could eat dinner with and "get to know" one famous person (living or dead) who would you choose.

This is a tough one, as there are all sorts of people that I’d like to meet, both living and dead. Of course with some I’d be so flummoxed that I wouldn’t be able to speak (like Princess Diana), so I think I would have to pick one who seems to be an easy conversationalist. I guess that would have to be Rosie O’Donnell.

I’ve always thought that I’d get along well with her because of our mutual interest in Broadway musicals, trivia, crafts and kids. Seems like there would be multiple things to converse about.

I’ve always wanted to go on her show and challenge her to "Name that Tune" or finish the lyrics because I have that savant thing going there. She has the same thing. It’s annoying to most people that I can do that, so it would be fun to meet another person with that tendency. Of course we might end up being so competitive about it that we’d punch each other out.

It would be fun to try though.

2. Has the death of a famous person ever had an effect on you? Who was it and how did you feel?

I’ve already written about knowing Christa McAulliffe had how her death got to me. But of the people I don’t know I think the one that really devastated me was Princess Diana.

It’s well documented that I’m an Anglophile and obsessed with all things British, but her death was almost a personal thing.

I had stood in the rain once, to see her go into a movie premier in London and she was so stunning (this was in 1989). I had been entranced with her from the moment she hit the royal scene, and naively bought the "fairly tale romance" hook, line and sinker. I bought tons of magazines about the royals so I could read about her. I wanted to have "Lady Di frou-frou" blouses (the ones with the high lacy necks). I wanted my hair to look like hers; I was just enchanted by her.

The night she was killed I was sitting here at my computer when Brian Williams came on and announced that she had been in a car accident. I couldn’t get away from the TV, I sat with the clicker surfing for news, trying to find out what happened and how bad it was. Then Brian Williams came back on to announce that she had died. There was even a catch in his voice.

I sobbed.

I couldn’t believe it, and I cried and cried whenever I talked to anyone about it. I was glued to the television, hanging on to any tidbits that were released. I was angry with the Queen for not lowering the flags, for not affording her any respect, for acting as if she never existed. When she finally came to her senses it was too little, too late.

The upper class had no class.

I got up at four in the morning to watch the funeral – which I still have on video tape – and cried and cried.

It was so senseless.

I still have shelves of books about Chuck and Di – some of which I bought in England. I even have Chuck and Di slippers, but I can’t look at them without being sad, and the books just gather dust.

I will always wonder what she might have had for a future. Some day I would like to go to the little island at Althorp to see where she is buried.

3. If you could be a famous person for 24 hours whom would you choose?

Someone who is in a Broadway show. Bernadette Peters, Faith Prince, or Christine Ebersole, or Judy Kuhn, anyone like that.

I would love to have the experience of performing in a Broadway show and living in NYC, walking to the theater, going in the stage door, and sitting in my dressing room -getting ready to go on. I would love to feel the stage under my feet and hear the overture from behind the curtain, then hear the applause at the end of the performance.

Yep, that’s the dream.

4. Do people ever tell you that you look like someone famous? Who?

There are two, actually. Vicki Lawrence and Liza Minnelli. I don’t really see the Vicki Lawrence thing, I guess we have the same shaped face, and a big wide smile. The Liza thing is because of my haircut and my eye-makeup (never leave home without it!). I see that a bit more. As a matter of fact I was meeting a friend for dinner the other night and she was going to be late so she left a message at the restaurant and told them that I looked like Liza Minnelli. The second that I walked in the door they asked me if I was waiting for Donna because she’d left a message.

So I guess maybe that one still holds up.

But actually I think it’s flattering to look like either one of them.

5. Have you ever met anyone famous?

I think I’ve talked about this ad nauseum. I pretty much meet someone famous everytime I’m in New York. Last April was the jackpot of Mel Brooks, Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Faith Prince and all those other theater people.

A few summers ago Dee and I went in for a few days and met tons of people, Julie Andrews, Tim Robinson and Susan Sarandon, Don Johnson, Kevin Costner, Regis Philbin, and a bunch of others.

The year before that we were at Planet Hollywood for lunch and met Whoopi Goldberg.

So yes, I’ve met many famous people during my lifetime.

And thus ends the Friday Five. It was a lot more fun to write about than my day would have been. I’m not sure I really want to ever have to rehash it!