Not long after he came back from the Television Critics Association press tour this year, Tim Goodman had some exciting news for me: “Glee” star Dianna Agron was a Burlingame High School graduate. This wasn’t the first famous person who went to Burlingame High. Bing Crosby’s kids went to the school. So did current Dear Abby writer Jeanne Phillips. There were rumors that Brooke Shields was going to attend, although it never happened. But Foxtrot comic strip writer Bill Amend was a Panther, as was Silicon Valley entrepreneur Marc Benioff …
fanpop.com
Baby remember my name …
None of these people went to school during the years I was there. My sole brush with someone in the larval state of fame came in elementary school. I can say that it’s quite strange seeing someone who you played kickball with later appear on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” It’s like my context is permanently out of whack. He’s on the red carpet, but all I can think about is riding on a bus with the guy.
As someone who interviews celebrities as part of my job at the Chronicle, I’ve found it odd that almost every famous person claims that they were a nerd in high school. I now ask this as a stock question (here’s my interview with former “Melrose Place” star Grant Show) and still get the same answer. It also seems as if the hotter the celebrity is, the nerdier they claim they were as a teenager. I’m still not entirely sure whether this is true, or just something that agents tell actors to say to appear humble. Maybe the comments in this post will answer that question.
My famous classmate is below, complete with yearbook picture. (Which he signed!) Please include yours in the comments, including details such as their demeanor back then, their nerdiness or lack thereof and whether they showed up to any reunions.
Shemar Moore may not be a household name, but the guy has done very well for himself. I discovered his Hollywood connection when I was working in Los Angeles as a young reporter, and received a press release explaining that he would be the new permanent host of “Soul Train” — a job he kept from 1999 to 2003.
Shemar was also Malcolm Winters on “The Young and the Restless,” starred in movies including “Brothers” and Tyler Perry’s “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” and currently is a co-star of the hit CBS series “Criminal Minds.” I go out of my way to watch anything new that he’s in at least once and think he’s a fine actor. Not to objectify the guy, but he’s also known for his rock hard core. It’s not many 39-year-old men who have confidence enough to use their abs as the primary image on their Twitter page.
Sorry I dropped the ball, Shemie.
If you ever hear Shemar claim that he was a nerd, call bulls—. We attended a small Bay Area private elementary school called Nueva Learning Center, which was for “gifted youngsters” and at the time I attended was made up of a majority of nerds (at least by society’s standards). And he was definitely one of the coolest kids. My most enduring Shemar memory came during a recess football game in sixth grade with no teachers around. I was probably the scrawniest kid on his team, somehow caught a pass he threw, ran most of the length of the field and then (in my excitement of having one positive athletic memory in my first 13 years) coughed up the ball on maybe the three yard line. He ran up and started yelling at me, thrown into near-hysterics by my athletic ineptitude.
To be fair, there was no one within 10 feet of me when I dropped the ball. And he was nice to me the other 2 years, 364 days, 23 hours and 58 minutes that we were classmates. I think he just really, really wanted to win that game. Maybe it’s that drive for perfection that helped him achieve so much professional success. If I ever do interview Shemar for the Chronicle, I’m going to bring a football, just so we can set things right.
I would also like to point out his wonderful penmanship. Most of my other friends just scribbled “have a nice summer” or wrote something about my Dungeons and Dragons character in the yearbook.
Who was the most famous person you went to school with? (If anyone feels like sending me a class photo I’ll post it somewhere below.)
PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder of this parenting blog, which admittedly sometimes has nothing to do with parenting. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/peterhartlaub.
