1. Who is your favorite celebrity?
Sigh. These questions are determined to make me confront my social ineptness, or at least my ambivalence about likes and dislikes. I don't think about celebrity or celebrities very much, frankly. So... I don't think I have a favorite, though there are some I admire, for various reasons, and some I lust over, for others.
In the first category would be Susan Sarandon, certainly. I got to meet her in my Harvard days, when she came to give a Learning from Performers lecture; she participated in a more informal gathering at North (now Pforzheimer) House, and sat up with a few of us well into the wee hours of the morning, talking so incredibly intelligently about her craft, and about rape and women's issues, among others. I also admire her and her partner, Tim Robbins, both bullied for taking a principled stand against the war, for their political convictions and their willingness to speak publicly, in the face of condemnation and hatred, about their beliefs. (Robbins's speech to the National Press Club is a must-read, an impassioned, well-spoken, frightening description of our government and fellow citizens' mounting attacks on our free speech and liberty. Hear the speech from NPR.)
The second category includes but is definitely not limited to Joseph Fiennes; Ewan McGregor (who knew the cutie could sing too?); Matt Keeslar; Viggo Mortensen; Hart Bochner, Jr.; Dan Futterman; Stephen Lynch; and Alistair Mackenzie.
2. Who is your least favorite?
Dr. Laura
3. Have you ever met or seen any celebrities in real life?
Have met Susan Sarandon (see above); Robin Curtis (Saavik from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock; Paula Poundstone; Art Buchwald; Armistead Maupin (and told him that I'd named my then-cat--Armistead Meowpin--after him); Diane Duane, Mike Stackpole (whose Gemstone persona and mine were married for a time) and a number of other sf/fantasy authors. Lots of PBS celebs from my days working in public television: Fred Rogers, various Sesame Street cast members and puppeteers, Shari Lewis (at a congressional appearance with whom I once had to dress in a Lamb Chop costume... oh the horror), Jim Lehrer and Robin MacNeil, Julia Childs (though I first met her one day in Cambridge when she knocked me over as she backed out of a specialty grocery store), Bill Moyers, the Kratt Brothers (yum) and others.
4. Would you want to be famous? Why or why not?
Not for fame's sake, and definitely not to the point of being stalked in my home or mobbed on the street; but I do wish I'd accomplished or produced something that might be a little fameworthy.
5. If you had to trade places with a celebrity for a day, who would you choose and why?
J-Lo: men all want her, and she's sleeping with Ben Affleck. <grin>
