When I moved to Manhattan, my first celebrity encounter was with Michael McGlone, who co-starred in “The Brothers McMullen” with director Ed Burns.
I was riding the up escalator at the AMC theater in Lincoln Square — and he was riding the down — and I’m pretty sure he heard me report the sighting in my cellphone because he was smiling to himself as we ‘passed in the night.’
A few months later, the doorman at the building next door to mine — a very good friend of Rory’s — introduced me to Michael as he was walking through the lobby because he lived there. Michael was extremely polite, kind of like a politician in his manner. And from that day forward, if I saw him on the street, he always smiled and said hello. He even invited me to a local club to see his band play.
Look at me — I’m a friend of Michael McGlone.
So as his friend, I have to brag and tell everyone to watch his new commercials for GEICO.
No, he’s not wearing a gecko outfit. He’s in a brand new campaign playing a serious, suited announcer-type. He appears on-camera posing questions about some very familiar faces — questions like:
“Does Charlie Daniels play a mean fiddle?”
“Is Ed ‘Too Tall’ Jones too tall?”
“Does Elmer Fudd have problems with the letter ‘R’?”
He’s still sporting the same Wall Street, slicked-back ‘do from his McMullen days, but it works with the suit. And his voice is filled with the appropriate sense of import.
Beats a gecko any day.
Go get ‘em, Michael!
