Incredibly, the first entry on this list was not seen until September 2022. The infrequent sightings are due to Covid caution at the beginning of the year and then having a newborn in early June. Fortunately, on one of our first meal outings – a brunch place in Larchmont Village with another couple with an infant – we saw three in the space of 20 minutes. The real moral of that story is that Larchmont counts as LA’s west side.

1. Laurel Park plays Jackie Chung, the mom from The Summer I Became Pretty. I only know the show because my wife binged it during baby feeding sessions. It turns out that Larchmont Village on a Sunday morning is great celebrity spotting because of the farmers’ market. My wife saw Laurel walking into the market; I did not because I was focused on driving and not hitting pedestrians.
2. Phil(ip) Rosenthal is known for one of two things. If you’re a Hollywood person, you probably first knew him as a co-producer of Everybody Loves Raymond. If you’re less observant, like me, you know him as the host of the eponymous Netflix show Somebody Feed Phil. We saw him just a few minutes after sitting down to brunch at 9 a.m., before the restaurant filled up. (He was just there with family, not filming.) I tried taking an indiscreet photo but failed at the discreet part. When Phil came over to say hi, his first question was therefore naturally, “Where are you guys from?” Translation: you’re behaving like you’ve never seen a famous person before, Tourist, so let me fulfill your dreams. I had too much adrenaline to produce any coherent dialogue, but Phil was very nice, and his mannerisms were just like on SFP. A real treat, one of my favorite celebrity sightings of all time.
3. Monica Moran is known for one of two things. If you’re a Hollywood person, you probably first knew her as Amy MacDougall-Barone, the girlfriend and then wife of Robert, Ray’s brother on Everybody Loves Raymond. If you’re less observant, like me, you know her as the wife of Phil Rosenthal of the eponymous-in-law Somebody Feeds Phil, where she has a recurring role as end-of-episode co-joke receiver. When we showed Phil that there were two newborns at brunch, he called Monica over, and she gave a happy smile to each of them.
4. Tim Lowman is otherwise known as Low Volts, a three-time San Diego Music Awards winner. Just as importantly, we saw him in San Diego, our first celebrity sighting there. We were at an outdoor restaurant and he walked in to loud applause, which I joined of course. Turns out the cheers were from friends helping celebrate his recent wedding. It is probably a stretch to put him on this list, but he does have 4,800 Instagram followers and Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top officiated.
5. Pauline Chalomet – I would never have known this face when I saw it at the Atwater Village bakery if my wife were not such a fan of The Sex Lives of College Girls. My wife was not with me and I could not get a good photo, but I am 90% confident it was her because the jaw line and haircut are very distinct. Others may recognize that last name because of another famous Chalomet, Timothée, who is in fact her brother. TSLCG is fun, probably because Mindy Kaling is a producer, and the title accurately describes about 40% of the content. Showing just how thoroughly modern the show is, Chalomet’s character, Kimberly, dates boys who would be way out of her league in real life. As a boy, this indulgence bothers me, but it is fine because that is how every television show with a male lead has worked forever. Equality!
6. Max Minghella – My wife saw Max Minghella take a photo of the menu of a Cantonese restaurant in our neighborhood we were at one day for lunch. I would not have known the face, but when she told me it was Danny’s brother from The Mindy Project, I recognized him right away. It’s the eyebrows. He’s more famous as June’s love interest in The Handmaid’s Tale, and he even had a minor role in Syriana in 2005. We then saw him three days later in a different part of the neighborhood; both times, he was with his dog.