Sunday, January 18, 2009

The Time I Stole John Cusack's Mail (Rerun)

Another oldie but goodie from "the vault." Enjoy my brief but funny encounter with John Cusack:

So back in the late 1980's, right around the time "Say Anything" came out, my friend Christina and I were strolling around Chicago. We came across a cool, old-fashioned car (like maybe a 60's model Thunderbird or something?) and stopped to admire it. Upon closer inspection, we saw that the inside of the car was littered with crumpled-up, trampled-on fan mail addressed to John Cusack--I mean, there were thousands of letters!The windows were rolled down and being young (and stupid) Christina and I "helped ourselves" to a few of the letters and sat on the curb to read them.

Now, let me just say that I know how awful this sounds--but remember, I was very YOUNG and very STUPID! I guess our mindset was that it certainly didn't look like Cusack cared about or was ever going to read the mail, so why not...?Anyway, the letters we read were hysterical! I remember one in particular was saying how great L. Ron Hubbard was (I still remember quotes from some of these letters because Christina and I laughed about them so much)--it said "Have you ever heard of Dianetics? It's great!" Another one asked Cusack if he would go to prom with her, another one had poems written about Cusack, some included pictures...on and on...these people were crazy-obsessed with John Cusack and he was just throwing them all over the floor of his car.

So we came up with this scheme that we would write the fans back--pretending we were John Cusack. We took the letters (I know, I know!) and we wrote these absolutely hilarious letters back to the desperate fans. I think we wrote about four and each one was custom-made for the fan We praised Dianetics to L. Ron Hubbard Girl, kindly turned down the prom, told poem-guy that we dabbled in poetry too and wrote a poem for him, etc., etc.I wish that I could find copies of the letters we wrote (I'm sure I have then somewhere...) because they were truly amazing. They were masterpieces!

We decided that the only way we could send them was if we had Cusack's permission (we already feeling uneasy enough about reading/taking them) so we sent him a letter (we figured out where he lived based on where the car was parked) with the original fan letters and copies of our responses to the fans and asked him to call us if it was ok.

Point blank: John Cusack loved the idea! He called and left a message (I'm still kicking myself that I wasn't home) and said that, yes, we could send the letters and actually thanked us for doing it! He even referenced the poem we had written--you could tell he thought the whole thing was hilarious!

So we sent the letters and probably made some die-hard John Cusack fans really happy!

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14 comments:

Ronda's Rants said...

Do you think it was really John Cusack or someone pretending to me John Cusack like you!?
Too funny!

SouthernDogwoods said...

So funny! You are full of the best stories! I love that you stole (I mean, borrowed) his mail.

Susie said...

Wow!! You were certainly bold!! He should have hired you to answer all of his fan mail:-)

Kristin said...

Is this for real? Too funny.

Anonymous said...

That is HILARIOUS!!!! I love that he called you too! What a cool guy! His mom lives here in St. Louis...I have friends that are constantly on the look out for him!

steenky bee said...

I heart John Cusack. I wish he would come visit me. Well, actually, I wish he'd hold a boom box, or an ipod above his head and stand beneath my bedroom window. My husband would have a lot of questions.

Temple said...

Oh.My.God. I am (and have been) a total John Cusack fan-atic! I am so freakin' in awe right now!

Allison said...

Wow! How great a story is THAT!

Sandi said...

YOU are a NUT! I love it!

Anonymous said...

That is a cool story! You made the fans day. How funny

I left an award for you on my blog

Sugar Boogers & Tantrums said...

I think that is the coolest thing. I love that yall wrote the letters to his fans. John Cusack is a good actor. He was in 1408 I believe and he was great in that. I would love to meet someone famous like that. Well, I've been to concerts but I would love to just run into them on the street or a restaurant somewhere. That would be so cool!

mrsmouthy said...

You are an evil genius! That's why I keep coming back. :)

Elle said...

OH.MY.GOSH. I can't believe that really happened! That is a story for the grandchildren. If they even know who John Cusack is.

Unknown said...

An OMG moment. I enjoyed the story and wish I had stolen someone's mail now :D