Life on the D list

OK, about that fool's errand on Wednesday. Michael Muhney, who plays the awesomely assy Sheriff Lamb on "Veronica Mars," was doing a fan event in Central Park this week. I had somehow gotten it into my head that it was on Wednesday. Perhaps I was just too excited about it. So I'm wandering around the park looking for Bow Bridge, a place I'd been before, but the location was eluding me. After wandering around for 15 minutes, I start to feel really pathetic. I mean, I'm lost while trying to go to some random place with random people to meet a random actor who plays a recurring role on a show that was on the UPN. Seriously, who among you (not counting The Sister) has even heard of this guy? I ended up having to call The Sister and have her read me the directions, but she instead told me the event was on Friday. So I just sat on a bench near the lake and watched all the canoe traffic for an hour.

I'm not sure why I was feeling so lame for wanting to go to this event. My TV obsession is my not-so-secret shame. But I'm 28 1/2 years old. Time in fantasy land should be over. So I rationalized this excursion by saying that living in New York affords you so many weird opportunities that wouldn't be available in many other places. If you can take advantage of them, you're crazy not to. I mean, isn't that one of the reasons I moved here in the first place?

So without shame, I headed out on Friday for the real thing. There were about 18 people there, some of whom I recognized from previous VM parties, and there was nothing formal about it. Michael was in town for this and that, and he had some free time, so he decided to meet with some fans. He did a week earlier in Chicago, his hometown. How cool is that? This is a guy who is at the same party as Lindsay Lohan one night, and is just hanging out with his fans the next.

It was surreal but totally comfortable at the same time. We just gathered around and asked questions and joked around. People would occasionally come up to us and ask who he was and then they would stare blankly when we told them. One person (who, randomly, I know from the gym) came up and asked for directions, apparently thinking Michael was a tour guide.

Michael made sure he knew everyone's name. He told us behind-the-scenes stuff about the show, he talked about his acting process, he defended his character, he explained how he got in the business, he talked about his family. I hesitate to repeat anything he said there because Michael is so web savvy and fan friendly (he even posts on a live journal community devoted to his character) that he may stumble upon this page some day and realize that I revealed one of the many things he told us not to tell anyone. So I'll just say this:

Michael Muhney is CRAZY HOT.

He's also crazy cool. When I asked for an autograph for The Sister for her birthday, he suggested we just call her up. So he did.

By all rights, he should be a star by now. He could have been Apollo on "Battlestar Gallactica" (how does one even begin to choice between Michael Muhney and Jamie Bamber? Jamie does have that British accent ...), and he could have been J.D. on "Scrubs" but wasn't dorky enough for the studio (uh ... no kidding. But Michael or Zach Braff? DePaul or NU?). I wouldn't be doing right by Michael if I didn't say this:

Watch Veronica Mars. Tuesdays, 9 PM Eastern, on the CW this fall.

(The event wasn't totally without shame. I was so engrossed in it that I lost track of time and ended up being late for work. How do you explain that one? Uh, sorry, Boss, I was, um, being a total fangirl for some actor guy from my favorite show, which you've probably never heard of.)