Rob Lowe Is Pals With a Supreme Court Justice

They say Hollywood is all about connections. And then there's Rob Lowe—who's got a friend in an even higher place, the Albany Herald reports. "It could be Brat Pack people, it could be West Wing people, Parks and Rec people," Lowe said recently about guests on his new podcast, Literally! With Rob Lowe. "It could be people [that] people are surprised I'm friends with." Interviewing Lowe on his own podcast, Conan O'Brien asked which friends are surprising. Lowe mentioned Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. "Are you guys really close?" O'Brien asked, per Fox News, to which Lowe mused, "See. Look at those eyes. That eye vein popped. But he's a guy people go, 'You know him?'"

Lowe said he met the conservative justice after joining the Horatio Alger Society a couple years back. "It's a very exclusive, very amazing society that provides scholarships for kids who come from terrible, terrible backgrounds," said Lowe. "But they are the best and the brightest in their classes. ... He's one of them. That's how we met." Seems Thomas gave Lowe his cell number and said to call if he needed anything. So Lowe did call for "advice on what my son should do vis-a-vis law school and clerking," the actor said. But Lowe was surprised when the high-court justice picked up the phone himself. "And you're like, 'Jeez. Shouldn't there be, like, a vetting process?'" (More US Supreme Court stories.)