The Closest We’ll Get To Kissing Jessica Biel...

While we may not all be able to lock lips with celebrities, sometimes the next best thing is a lipstick mark... or in this case, a used wine glass.

Our very own Nicholas A. Noyer ’09 is the proud owner of Jessica Biel’s wine glass and Justin Timberlake’s rumpled napkin, which he snagged from Daedalus after the couple finished dining there two weeks ago. Noyer had received a “spotted” text, and rushed over to the scene. After a meal occupied more by oogling than chewing, he left the restaurant not with a hand-penned autograph, but with some first-hand celebrity DNA.

Upon chatting with the waitress and discovering that Justin’s wine glass had already been claimed (his overtures for Justin’s fork were for naught, as Timberlake was eating a sandwich), Noyer recalls, “I said something like, ‘OMG, would it be like totally ‘I Love Lucy’ of me to take a souvenir?’”

While the common fan cherishes celebrity possessions such as worn-in jeans, Noyer has joined the ranks of those who have gotten even closer to their favorite stars, obtaining a different sort of gene. Not that Noyer is the first eager onlooker to snatch a piece of celebrity memorabilia—and in the process, score rare strands of DNA.

In 2006, Jessica Simpson’s discarded gum was sold on eBay for over $400. Britney Spears’ half-eaten egg salad sandwich and Kevin Federline’s corndog went for $520. So what about Biel’s wine glass? JT’s napkin? As Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Roberto Kolter attests, the saliva on the glass and whatever may linger in the napkin can prove valuable in a lab.

“Even if a few thousand or a few hundred thousand molecules remain, you can still break it down and get a DNA sequence out of it,” Kolter says.

But in spite of the wonders of modern technology, Noyer isn’t looking to profit off of his possessions any time soon.

Noyer says of the wine glass, “I think it is probably going to be washed the next time I wash my other wine glasses and it will just go into vocation as a famous wine glass amongst my regular ones.”