March 11, 2004 - 5:24 PM

For You Alias Fans Out There

There was no opportunity to kidnap Michael Vartan. Nor David Anders. Apologies to you women out there. I did have a slim chance at abducting Melissa George, but I let it slip through my grasp. I am ashamed.

Entering the Sherman Oaks Galleria from the underground parking garage around 4 PM, I noticed a sign at the bottom of the escalator, saying in too many words that Touchstone Entertainment was filming on location this afternoon and my entering the premises constituted tacit consent in having my likeness filmed and corrupted for whatever use they deemed necessary. Whatever.

Ascending the escalators to the second floor where my gym is, I looked at the various technicians and whatnot associated with the filming, wondering what they were going to be working on, but not giving it much thought afterwards.

An hour later, exhausted, I walked out into the open air mall area from the gym and saw that a camera had been set up at the balcony next to the escalators, looking down towards the first floor. More crew was milling about and a small crowd of onlookers formed a rim around an assistant down there who was communicating with a man via walkie talkie next to the camera. As I rode down the moving stairs, the woman finished getting the camera shot setups and let the crowd move through the staging area to get to the escalators for the parking lot.

Converging with the pedestrians, I heard consensual banter over the radios and saw several men in an alcove at the bottom of the garage escalators move out and begin their ascent. With them was an attractive blonde woman. As she rode up past me, her mouth gave her away, with the slight overbite and the permanent pursing. It was Melissa George, the actress who plays Lauren Reed, evil double agent and wife of Michael Vaughn on the ABC show Alias. She didn't look as short and skinny in real life as she does on the show, which surprised me. But she is just as purty.

I briefly considered turning around and heading right back up those escalators to watch the filming, but by then I was halfway to my car and much too drained of energy to care. Even the thought of having the chance to see Victor Garber there and walking up to him and singing "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord" and other tunes from Godspell wasn't enough to persuade my feet to reverse direction.

The Galleria has become my hot spot for seeing celebrities. This, plus Michael Chiklis and family, Michelle Trachtenburg, Benjamin McKenzie, Mr. T, Britney Spears. Maybe I should just live there and hand out star maps.

Now Listening To : Michael Penn-Resigned
Random Thought : I dreamed of Alison Doody last night. Who? Look it up.

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