UD students smooze with Clinton and Spacey in London

Gathered around former President Bill Clinton (center) at the Old Vic in London are (from left) senior Elizabeth McCausland, senior Katie McCoy, junior Colleen Shervin, senior Claudia Melton, junior Mollie Gross and junior Jessica Hirsch.

4:25 p.m., Sept. 29, 2006--A study abroad trip turned into an opportunity to meet some celebrities from home when six gutsy students from UD introduced themselves to former President Bill Clinton and actor Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic in London last weekend.

The students, all participants in UD's London Fall Program, were attending a production of A Moon for the Misbegotten, as part of their requirement for ENG472 Studies in Drama, when their instructor, Jean Elliot, spied former President Clinton in the audience.

During intermission, Katie McCoy, a psychology major from Camp Hill, Pa., led the group and walked right up to Clinton and shook his hand. Colleen Shervin, from North Hills, Pa., also a psychology major, told the former president that they were all students at UD.

“President Clinton then stood up and shook all of our hands and proceeded to tell us a story about how his grandfather lived in a house like the one in the play,” Jessica Hirsch of Suffern, N.Y., an international relations major with a concentration in U.S. foreign policy and a second major in economics, said.

Kevin Spacey stops outside the stage door at the Old Vic production of ‘A Moon for the Misbegotten’ to sign autographs for UD’s student contingent.

Claudia Melton, a psychology major from Wilmington, asked for the president's autograph. “He happily obliged, asking Claudia to hold his Diet Coke while he signed autographs for all of us,” Hirsch continued. “He told us that he is good friends with Kevin Spacey, which is why he was at the show.”

“After the show,” Hirsch continued, “our professor told us where we could go to get Kevin Spacey's autograph. We decided to at least try and wait by the stage door for him. As we walked around the building we noticed that President Clinton was signing some autographs as he was leaving the theatre through a back door. He noticed us walking by and waved saying, 'Oh look, it's my Delaware girls.' That is when we asked for a picture which he kindly posed for.

“We waited a few more minutes for Kevin Spacey to come through the stage door to sign autographs,” Hirsch said. “When he saw that the president had signed Colleen's ticket he made a comment about us already meeting him. We then told Mr. Spacey that the president let us take a picture and asked if he would let us do the same--which he did! We were in shock for a while to be honest, but it was a fun night and surely one we will never forget!” Hirsch concluded.

Elizabeth McCausland, an English major with a film concentration from Villanova, Pa., and Mollie Gross, an elementary teacher education major from Moorestown, N.J., were also on the theatre trip.

Article by Beth Thomas

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