John Travolta Being Tracked Like Bigfoot by the Arizona Republic

Call it a celebrity-airplane sighting. The Arizona Republic is reporting that an airplane is parked at Deer Valley Airport that might be John Travolta's. Even more astonishing: Some folks may have even seen John Travolta! Sure, Republic writer Betty Reid got our attention with her piece; she's even got a nice...

By Ray Stern

March 13, 2009

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Call it a celebrity-airplane sighting.

The Arizona Republic is reporting that an airplane is parked at Deer Valley Airport that might be John Travolta's. Even more astonishing: Some folks may have even seen John Travolta!

Sure, Republic writer Betty Reid got our attention with her piece; she's even got a nice shot of the airplane to go with the story. (Travolta really does own -- and fly -- a 707, apparently. Check out this blog piece with a picture of Travolta's home/personal airport).

The podunk tone of the article is hilarious -- this is what passes for celebrity news in Phoenix, the little big city in the desert that the airplanes of stars usually fly over. It also evokes the thrill of the chase: Perhaps you'll be the one to corner Travolta at the Sanctuary or some other cool-cat hangout.

It kind of reminds us of last year's bigfoot story.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.