Celebrity pin pals
make work fun!

Bob Cusick has friends in high places and he has the ink to prove it. Cusick has a pile of pins that have been signed by such Hollywood heavyweights as Nicolas Cage, Drew Carey, Tom Cruise, Heather Locklear, Julia Roberts, Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Spielberg, sports star Keith Hernandez and numerous players from the 2002 New York Knicks professional basketball team.

His hobby began when Dustin Hoffman, star of many movies including Rain Man and Meet the Fockers, dropped in to bowl at AMF Chelsea Piers in New York City , where Cusick was the staff pro. After Hoffman gladly agreed to autograph the pin, Cusick began asking for signatures from the other celebrities who frequented the Manhattan hot spot. He now has nearly 40 signed pins in his collection.

The pin penning sometimes led to more. Cusick spent close to an hour talking with director Steven Spielberg about his films and regularly chatted with James Caan, who played Sonny Corleone (Al Pacino’s brother) in The Godfather. To amuse Caan, Cusick would act out a scene from the movie and later had a ball drilled for Caan engraved with the name “Sonny.”

“We became very friendly from that,” said Cusick. “He is a great guy and he loves the game.”