Ya know who you look like?

Sure from time to time I've seen a real celebrity in Chicago. Last fall there was Matthew Modine at the Jamba Juice on State. And when I worked at WBEZ I rubbed elbows with Margaret Cho, John Leguizamo, the tall guy from "Whose Line is it Anyway?", Gary Sinise, a very hungover Christopher Hitchens, and my favorite. . Salman Rushdie.

I'll leave the bonifide celebrity sightings to the real reporters. But I'll be damned If I'll let the folks go unnoticed who unwittingly walk the streets of Chicago looking like (or kind of looking like) someone famous. My friends and I have spent many a beer-soaked evening picking these special folks out.


The most famous of our cadre of celebrities is the Burt Reynolds lookalike. He lives in Little Italy, has enormous amounts of body hair and is about as swarthy and gross as they come. He can be found drinking at Hawkeye's on any given weekend if anyone is interested (one of my pals was about 10 years ago). We have come to realize he looks nothing like ol' Burt. But we were drunk. So that's ok.

Then there's the Richard Dreyfuss lookalike/violent crimes detective who we encountered at Dugan's in Greek Town. There's a shorter and uglier version of him who is the Richard Dreyfuss lookalike lookalike.

Just a month or so ago a very fragrant Martin Scorsese was on the Halsted Bus during my morning commute. I couldn't believe it! And last week I saw a Indian (or perhaps Pakastani) guy who looks exactly like Isaac from the Love Boat. Crazy.

Being a history buff, it's always exciting to spot someone from the past. Robert E. Lee is roaming the Near West side and he still looks pretty pissed about Appromattox. And Mark Twain loves to tell jokes at Dugan's, but the only catch is he has to drop his pants for the punch line.

Believe me, you won't be laughing.

Email me at angieblog@yahoo.com.