James Spader

James Spader has been my favorite actor since I saw him in "Sex Lies and Videotape" in 1989. The independent film made both him and the director, Steven Soderberg, famous. James won the "Best Actor" award for this role at the Cannes Film Festival. Previous to that, he had worked in several supporting actor roles in films with the likes of Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, John Cusac, Robert Downey Jr., to name a few. After SL&V, James went on to do countless films, usually playing eccentric, and at times, smarmy roles, which is one of the things that has made him so intriguing to people (not to mention that he was drop dead gorgeous). James is from Boston and had remained living there and in New York all of these years, so we would never see him in the tabloids or in Hollywood, although he was always working. To my delight, in 2004, James joined the cast of "The Practice" and then moved on to star in "Boston Legal" along with William Shatner. I was thrilled that I was able to watch him each and every week on TV! After working on "Boston Legal," "The Practice," and winning three Emmy's, Boston Legal ended and James went back to New York to do make his Broadway debut in the play "Race." Cut to 2011, I recently learned that he is now joining the cast of "The Office" so he will be back in LA again. It looks like I'll be adding another TV show to my watch list!

Oh, I forgot to mention that I just might have ( OK, I did) sneaked onto the outdoor set/location when Boston Legal was being shot across from my office in Pasadena apx. three years ago. It was lunch time, and after walking through a bank parking lot to enter the set, I was standing around the catered lunch table hanging very closely, I might add, to the other actors, Candace Bergen, Mark Valley, and William Shatner, whom I could not have cared less about, when I spotted James. His back was to me, but he still looked beautiful in his navy suit and blonde hair. I was thinking about how I was going to approach him, pondering, knowing that I would soon be found out and kicked off the set. As I was watching him from behind, he turned ever so slightly so that I could see his profile, and much to my chagrin, it was a James Spader DOUBLE! Immediately after that, I was spotted by the production assistant, and she asked me the usual questions, who was I, etc. I went into my sob story about how long I've been a fan and that I just had to meet him. I was totally pathetic, and I'm glad that I was alone, and not embarrassing any of my friends. To my amazement, the PA was actually a little sympathetic to my plight and was kind enough to tell me that James was due to be on set at 1:00 PM, and at the same time, she was asking me to leave. So I left.

I never did get the nerve to go back at 1:00 PM that day.