I had a chance encounter with the man himself while he was in Savannah filming Gingerbread Man...I worked for a local radio station and was on the morning show at the time...when my cohost announced the upcoming filming...I got rather exhuberant about it on the air which set off a whole 'bit' about my HUGE crush on Mr B....eventually, after trying (without success) to arrange a meeting or phone-in thru the production company, I wrote to him directly (in care of the production company...so I figured he'd never get it...) and then a couple of weeks later...ran into him on the street near the set one day...Several weeks after the initial on-air crush revelation...we'd had no response from the production office or my letter, so a co-worker and I decided we'd stake out the set! We dragged another co-worker along..made him drive, in fact... So, I set off around 5.30 that afternoon with JR (who is female...she's a tall...skiiiiiiiny model of colour) and General Zach (a big ol teddy bear of a guy - he can be seen on the webpage of the station he works for now - Kicks99...We wound up heading in the wrong direction of the shoot due to road detours, so we finally just decided to go eat first....then back out on the road in search of a 'fredericks of hollywood-type' shop JR was looking for...turns out, the shop was closed for the evening, and JR got flashed by some pervert coming back from River Street to where we were waiting for her!!! Finally, we make our way to the set...and of course...it's blocked off for blocks around the actual street they were filming on....so...we make the circuit around the set and start heading away from the set.....we're travelling down this back road, and I look over and notice two men walking down the side of the street (with their backs to us)....I thought I recognised the trench coat from publicity shots of Ken, but...it could have been his stand-in for all we knew...the other guy looked to be an AD or PD, as he was wearing a radio and such....JR and Zach want to know if that's him, and I said I wasn't sure, I'd have to see his face...so as we pass by, I try to get a good look at his face, and sure enough...it *looked* like Ken, but then, sometimes, a stand-in will fool you...when I was an extra on 'Last Dance', even some of the crew mistook one of Rob Morrow's stand-in's for him!! So, Zach makes a left at the next turn and turns around to go the other direction, so that we'd be facing them as we passed....Zach's stopped at the stop sign and about that time, the two men walk around the corner...I'm sitting in the back seat with my window about halfway down...feeling like an idiot because mine's the only one open...JR won't open hers! and they are both in the front going "Is it him? Is it him? Say something! Get his attention!"....and I'm like, 'hold on a tick...it could be his stand in'...so I finally shushed them so I could listen for the voice...and voila!! yup...he spoke and I knew that voice! So, I said 'yup, it's him!'....JR and Zach resumed their chant of 'Say something to him...get his attention'...and just as I started to speak...the man himself looked up....looked *right* at me...and grinned......well..you can imagine.....*SWOON* I completely froze...never expected it of myself, but I froze!!!.......Meanwhile..the two were getting away and Zach and JR are like "SAY SOMETHING!!!! Quick, he's getting away!!!!" and I'm still sitting there looking at the spot he'd been in moments before...... completely dumbstruck....So Zach says "JR - go get him!".....JR starts to get out of the vehicle at the same time Zach decides to pull out of the way of oncoming traffic...resulting in her literally falling out of the Ford Explorer...she managed to keep her balance, but dropped her book on the ground! She left her book to go running after the retreating duo...and Zach proceeds to *run over* her book!! By this time, I've regained some of my composure and am ready to go after him myself (you must realise that neither JR nor Zach really knew who he was and were therefore not cowed by his greatness - hehe). As I get out of the Explorer, I stop to pick up JR's book, and it is then that the ludicrousness of the situation strikes me and I get the giggles! Meanwhile, JR has caught up to Ken and friend and has explained who she is and why she accosted him...she's gone silly by this point too and said something about having lost her book.....so, I'm walking toward them, dusting off her book as they're walking back toward me..and I hear Ken say 'Well, there's your book'....Zach has parked by this time and is on his way over as well....so...we converge in the corner of a parking lot for the long, long, long, (really) very long awaited first encounter...I'm giggling, near hysterics, and I hand JR her book back and say 'Zach ran over your book...' with an expression on my face as if I expected her to hit me!...Ken seemed very amused by all this... even he had a bit of a silly grin by this point...JR does the introductions....she tells me later that she had to *tell* me to shake the man's hand, I was so consumed by his eyes, I neglected to notice that he had his hand out....I explained it thus 'well, I was standing there, in front of the most brilliant, gorgeous man I know of...he's smiling and talking to me...I'm standing there flashing him the most dazzling smile I can muster when all of a sudden this little voice in the back of my mind screams "omygod! what if I've got pizza in my teeth!"' At any rate, JR (who has appointed herself moderator) proceeds to explain who we are and where we work...and Ken says to me 'You all work together at the same radio station, then?' And I say 'Yes....Zach and JR work for the country station and I work for the sister station, which is adult contemporary...as a matter of fact I work the morning show and my cohost has started this bit about me having a huge crush on you....' and he says 'Mary?! I got your letter!' I nearly fainted....he said it like a fan! Wow... Any way, it seems that he had asked the production office to contact us to set up a phone in, but they hadn't (tossers)...so he said he wanted to phone in one day and would play along so we could sort-of 'close' the bit...unfortunately..we weren't able to arrange it and with shooting wrapping up the day before he had to leave to do the Oscar thing, his schedule wouldn't accomodate it! But....it was wonderful to have met him even if it was a comedy of errors! JR was kind enough to donate a facing page from her book for him to autograph....I hate we didn't have a camera, but we had set out on the spur of the moment with no real hopes of actually getting to meet him...we figured we'd just watch a bit of the filming from a distance....ah well...it was fate, I suppose.... :-)