Celebrity Licenses

June 3, 2009 2:03 PM

Last night on the Tonight Show Conan did a bit on his driver's licenses in New York and LA. The address shown on his cards seemed to be studio addresses (Rock center and Universal Studios) and not home addresses like most people. My question is, do celebrities have some sort of special arrangement where they don't disclose their personal addresses on their ID cards?

Is this option available for everybody, regardless of celebrity status?

It is also entirely possible that his cards were fake, they just looked pretty real to me.

posted by Think_Long to law & government (23 comments total)

My money's on them being fakes. Now that he's in LA he's got the big time props department at his disposal . . .
posted by kid_dynamite at 2:06 PM on June 3

They're fakes.

Celebrities don't get a special arrangement.
posted by Netzapper at 2:14 PM on June 3

For what it's worth, I've seen NYC Board of Election data in the past with celebrities' real addresses on them. If a celebrity who lives in NYC has to use his real address to register to vote, I don't see why it would be different for a driver's license.
posted by dfriedman at 2:15 PM on June 3

Lots of celebrities use a stage name professionally but keep their real name on legal documentation. I think that's about as close to a special privacy arrangement as it gets.
posted by contraption at 2:19 PM on June 3

a) the props departments are quite good

b) I once worked a trade show next to the booth of a company that sold ID card printers. They could have printed me up a license from any of the 50 states on the spot if they felt like breaking several laws. They had samples which were basically state drivers licenses with the state names changed - Texas was a "State of Tabasco" drivers license. Otherwise they were identical - font, barcodes, images, etc. Anyone could, in theory, buy one of those machines for a few thousand bucks and make a very convincing ID. Anti-counterfeiting watermarked overlays are another matter though but you probably wouldn't have noticed that on TV.
posted by GuyZero at 2:22 PM on June 3

they just looked pretty real to me.

Remember, fake products are basic props for Conan/Letterman/Leno they're constantly doing bits about fake books, food packaging, board games, etc. After all these years, I'm sure they've perfected the art of putting made-up information on official-looking documents. On preview, what GuyZero said.
posted by Jaltcoh at 2:24 PM on June 3

The NY State license application asks for both "address where you get mail" and "address where you live".

According to this NY page, the REAL ID act has a requirement that: "Residence address must be printed on the document (we currently print mailing address) "

So, the NY one could definitely be real.
posted by smackfu at 2:27 PM on June 3

Good props department.

Lots of celebrities use a stage name professionally but keep their real name on legal documentation.

This is also true, and quite wise of them. However, Conan O'Brien's real name is "Conan O'Brien."
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:47 PM on June 3

If they were props then why did they bother blurring out the identifying numbers?
posted by roomwithaview at 2:58 PM on June 3

I followed the instructions when I filled out the forms and my New York driver's license lists my mailing address (a UPS Store suite number) and not my apartment.
posted by Jahaza at 3:08 PM on June 3

If they were props then why did they bother blurring out the identifying numbers?

To give you the impression that they were real.
posted by junesix at 3:08 PM on June 3

Which then leads to: If they were going to blur out stuff to make them look real, why'd they put the studio address on there, instead of a blurred out fake home address?
posted by smackfu at 3:46 PM on June 3

Because that's PR/branding for for the studios.
posted by applemeat at 4:31 PM on June 3

I got the impression that the California one was real but the New York one was fake. I was wondering the same thing.

If I did it right, here's a link to that part of last night's show on Hulu.
posted by joshrholloway at 4:53 PM on June 3

well they just did julia louis dreyfuss and they blurred her address, so maybe he just uses mailing addresses on his driver's license. I don't remember them doing much checking when you gave an address - did they ask for pieces of mail? But of course that would be easy to use a work address for. How would the DMV even know whether your address was residential in an ordinary situation?
posted by mdn at 9:12 PM on June 3

If the California one was fake then they went way over the top. It has the film overlay on it.
posted by Megafly at 12:10 AM on June 4

My bet is on fakes. I've got the Julia Louis Dreyfus one on freeze frame, and it looks like she lives at "2768 Sumplace Drive" in LA, and the date under her signature reads "9/38/2012"
posted by hwyengr at 12:14 AM on June 4

I worked for the Beverly Hills Public Library for years and many of the celebraties who came to get library cards had business addresses or PO boxes on your driver's licenses. Based on my experience, I would say that, indeed, in CA it is possible to have a business address on a driver's license.
posted by Pineapplicious at 7:02 AM on June 4

Oh gosh, that should be their driver's licenses.
posted by Pineapplicious at 7:02 AM on June 4

> However, Conan O'Brien's real name is "Conan O'Brien."

I thought it was CoCo Christopher?

(It was a fake.)
posted by ostranenie at 8:50 AM on June 4

Well, even if the licenses were props, I hope the photos were real, because that was the whole point of the thing. And its not like the photos were hilarious or anything--just that they were NICE driver's license photos.

It seems like the few CA DL photos I've seen were much better-looking than DL photos are supposed to be . . . but that could be because people in California are so much more attractive than people in Missouri.

-
posted by General Tonic at 10:07 AM on June 4

Well, I think the naive part of me will go with them being real, and that he just has his business/ mailing address printed on them.

I understand that the props could make a very realistic fake, but it seems like a lot of random details for what is ultimately a throw-away joke.

Thanks all
posted by Think_Long at 11:20 AM on June 4 [1 favorite]

> However, Conan O'Brien's real name is "Conan O'Brien."

I thought it was CoCo Christopher?

Chip Whitley
posted by Sys Rq at 2:32 PM on September 7