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Brian Coffman had just one question the first time someone told him that he looked like Sting: Who is Sting?
This was around 1985. Soon, Brian would know all about the English musician who constituted 33 percent of the chart-topping pop group the Police. Everyone kept asking if he was Sting. Waitresses asked if Brian was Sting. People on the street. A group of teenagers once stopped Brian in Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg, Md., and demanded his autograph. Well, not his autograph, but Sting’s.
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“Thus I was nicknamed Sting by my friends, co-workers and relatives,” wrote Brian, who lives in Gaithersburg.
In February of 1987, Brian was at a work function at the River Cafe in Brooklyn. Sitting about 20 feet away was … Sting. The pop star was dining with choreographer/dancer Twyla Tharp. Brian’s co-workers kept urging him to go say something.
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“I wasn't about to go interrupt his dinner,” Brian wrote.
But when Sting got up to leave, Brian went to introduce himself.
“I got out to the lobby and thought I missed him, but saw him by the door,” Brian wrote. “I went up and stated my name and that I was from the D.C. area, and said I’ve been told by people that I resemble you.”
A real double take: Readers share their cases of mistaken identity
Sting looked at Brian and said, “No, you are much better looking.”
Wrote Brian: “I became his biggest fan at that moment. What a classy guy.”
Brian is among the readers who responded to my call for cases of mistaken identity. Baltimore’s Susie Kantt is another. Over the years, Susie has been told by a fair number of people that she resembles Jamie Lee Curtis, star of films such as “Halloween” and “A Fish Called Wanda.” She thinks it might have something to do with her haircut.
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Wrote Susie: “One day, while visiting the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery/Museum of American Art, a security guard on an upper floor had a big smile on his face as he approached me with his hand out to shake mine. He gave me an effusive welcome to the museum. Only after seeing me up close did he realize that I was not the celebrity that he thought.”
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At least Susie knows who the person she’s supposed to look like is. Not so with Wayne Hynum.
A few years ago Wayne was in a bar in downtown Miami when the bartender excitedly said, “Hey you’re Alan Sugar!”
Wayne assured the bartender that not only was he not Alan Sugar, he had no idea who Alan Sugar was.
The bartender, who was British, explained that Wayne was the spitting image of the celebrity host of the British version of “The Apprentice.”
Wayne, who lives in New Orleans, Googled Alan Sugar and found photos of the British entrepreneur.
“I showed a picture of Alan Sugar to my girlfriend and she thought it was a picture of me,” Wayne wrote. “Too bad he’s not well-known in the United States. I liked being mistaken for a rich celebrity.”
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Bob Bennetta is a jazz pianist in Charlottesville, who bears a passing resemblance to the late Tony Bennett. About two years ago, when Bennett was still alive, Bob was at the Wintergreen ski resort figuring out the logistics of an upcoming gig.
“Well, the 20-something bartenders and waitstaff were deferential, looking me over and being super-helpful,” wrote Bob. “I found out they thought I was Tony Bennett, up there to inspect the gig site! Sure felt good!”
In March of last year, Dave Metzger was at a Pittsburgh Pirates spring training game in Bradenton, Fla.
“My seat was right next to the Pirates dugout, second row back from the field,” wrote Dave, who lives in Bethesda, Md. “Twice, people came up to me and asked to take a photo of me with their kids. The second time I figured it out, and told the guy, ‘I’m not Jim Leyland.’”
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Leyland is the former manager of the Pirates — and Dave could see the resemblance.
Wrote Dave: “I was joking with a nearby usher, who said I should get a cap reading ‘I am not Jim Leyland.’”
Dave said someone once mistook him for former national security adviser and U.N. ambassador John Bolton at the coat check desk at the Old Angler’s Inn. Now that sounds like an only-in-Washington case of mistaken identity.
Tomorrow: Only-in-Washington mistaken identities.
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