This kind of thing makes me cringe regardless of whose name or level of significance it carries. I even try hard not to appear to do it on the office politics level and would actually omit names than take part. I used to hear people (at work) make remarks about getting "face time" as if hanging around the higher ups would somehow give them more points and one day even a better position. Strangely, some of those people were later canned or left quickly when old regimes fell. Hmmm, could it be that sucking up might have a better chance of backfiring than giving you a better rep?  Name dropping has pretty much the same chance of success as far as I'm concerned.