There isn’t always a binary yes/no answer to the question “Do you know so-and-so?” Rather, there is a continuous range of correct responses to this question, ranging from 0.0 to 1.0.
There are people I’ve known all my life, and others that I have known for decades. In the latter category there are some people I knew for decades but then completely lost touch with.
Can I actually claim to know those people? Or do I really just know a younger version of them — a version that in a sense no longer exists? In any case, I don’t think that kind of “knowing” rises all the way up to 1.0.
Then there are the people I know only from professional conferences, or as friends of friends. They know who I am, and I know who they are, but there are vast swaths of information that we don’t know about one another.
And after that are people I’ve met only once. Maybe we had a conversation which stuck in my mind. That is a kind of knowing, but much nearer to 0.0 than to 1.0.
Finally there are the people with whom I have shared some sort of social situation, but with whom I’ve had at most a brief and meaningless conversation. If they are famous, my fragile ego might be tempted to say “I’ve met so-and o.”
But wouldn’t really be honest. On that superficial level I’ve met a lot of famous people. But I seriously doubt that they have the faintest idea who I am.
And I’ve noticed that of the people whom I really know (nearer to a 1.0 than a 0.0) who happen to be famous, I tend to forget entirely that they are famous. Which is probably a good thing.