British celebrity couple is traveling Route 66

A celebrity couple from Great Britain is traveling on a portion of the Mother Road for three weeks, according to a story in The Daily Mirror of London.

Jason Orange, a member of the UK-based pop band Take That, and British comedian Catherine Tate reportedly are dating, and decided to take some time together on Route 66.

The newspaper said:

The shy couple, who are still trying not to parade their affection, are heading towards their first Christmas together in a ‘57 Chevy (probably) taking in Illinois, New Mexico, Texas and California.

A pal of the pair says: “Jason and Catherine wanted to get away from it all now their relationship is out in the open.

“They wanted somewhere off the beaten track where they can spend some quality time together, so decided to take a three-week vacation.

“They both loved the idea of a long break with just the two of them and the road.”

I confess to never hearing about either Orange or Tate before this report. So there’s a certain good sense for them to travel Route 66 — except for the British accents, they’re probably not going to attract any unusual attention here in the States.

At the least, they’re not going to find any paparazzi until perhaps Los Angeles. It’s safe to say a photographer won’t pop out of the bushes in, say, Glenrio.

Orange and Tate certainly will be more incognito than Paul McCartney, when he and his future wife Nancy Shevell traveled much of Route 66 in 2008. Even then, McCartney and Shevell managed to drive from Chicago to Oklahoma before attracting much media attention.

I wonder whether Orange and Tate got their idea of traveling Route 66 from “Billy Connolly’s Route 66” on UK television a few weeks ago. The four-part series drew high ratings, and it’s likely it will spur a new wave of British travelers on the Mother Road in 2012, if not sooner.

8 thoughts on “British celebrity couple is traveling Route 66

  1. Wow! Jason Orange and Catherine Tate are together? What an unlikely couple. I hope they have a blast travelling The Mother Road together. I particularly hope they don’t bypass Oklahoma and Kansas on the superslab.

    Debbie Churchill
    Gloucester, UK

  2. Actually, fans of Doctor Who may recognize Tate as she played the Doctor’s companion in the 2008 season of the rebooted British sc-fi series, as well as in that show’s 2006 Christmas special. What’s more likely to happen, given the context of such a sighting, is that a fan will see her and think, “that woman sure looks like Donna Noble from Doctor Who.”

  3. I think somebody should put a TARDIS replica across the road from Seaba Station, just far enough to be out of the frame for photographers in search of history, but angled so sci-fi nerds could put it in the foreground of a shot of the outhouse if they wanted.

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