Ed O’Neill Didn’t Know This Was Britney Spears

Famous people get recognized all the time, and one of the most common places is at the airport. Ed O’Neill is famous for a whole bunch of reasons, but the two most obvious would be for playing Al Bundy on Married…with Children and Jay on Modern Family. So it should be no surprise that random people would stop him in the airport and ask for a picture. Ed was recently on Ellen, and he told a story about being recognized in the airport by a fan. The only thing was, the fan wasn’t some random person; it was Britney Spears, and he had no idea.

Ed says he was waiting to board a flight to Hawaii from LAX last May when Brit Brit approached him and said: “Oh, Mr. O’Neill, I love Modern Family, and you’re my favorite on the show.” I would have thought Britney would be more of a Mitchell fan, on account of him looking the most like a Cheeto (“Ah could just gobble him up!”). But no, Britney loves the grouchy grandpa types apparently. She asked Ed for a picture, and Ed agreed. How very un-Justin Bieber of you, Ed O’Neill.

Britney later tweeted the pic with the caption: “Fancy running into this guy! Such a sweetheart!!” Ed finally realized who the excited airport rando was after his manager texted him about it the next day. His daughter, of course, knew exactly who it was, and called him a moron for not recognizing that he was in the presence of such a legend. It all happens around the 3:08 mark below.

That was really nice of Ed, because he clearly made her day. I mean, look at Britney’s face! That’s the most life-like Britney has looked in years! The next time Britney’s handlers want a real, not-forced smile from her at an event, they should shout “Look! It’s the grandpa from Modern Family!”

Pic: Twitter