PaLEEyFest, Part Two!

[vanillalime]

WARNING! Even longer than Part One and with twice the squee!

LeeFest After-Party

After the PaleyFest event ended, I made my way to the lobby outside the auditorium, meeting back up with my husband and the other Lee peeps. There I introduced myself to Anne, who had arrived after I'd moved down closer to the stage.

And before I get any further, I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to Anne, since none of the following would've been possible if not for her, her relationship with Lee, and her generosity and willingness to share him with other fans. For Lee had invited us, through her, to the reunion "after-party" that was being held at the Fig & Olive restaurant just down the street from the Paley Center.

Per Lee's instructions, we walked down to the restaurant to wait for him. None of the Oz cast members from the reunion had arrived at the restaurant yet, so we just stood outside, hoping no one would think we were party-crashers. Our anticipation grew as each Ozzie arrived one by one and walked inside, returning our smiles and nods of "hello." I remember Anne complimenting Terry Kinney on his role in Billions as he entered, and he got a big smile on his face and thanked her.

Of course, the very last person to arrive, adding to the suspense of it all, was Lee. Anne spotted him making his way down the sidewalk with his wife, Yuko, and I tried to prepare myself to act calm, LOL. I was standing next to Anne, and the first thing Lee did upon arriving at our grouping was give her a big hug, and I stepped back to give them room. Lee then saw Ashley and her brother, both of whom he'd met last year at a movie screening, and he gave Ashley a hug.

And then he looked at me.

I was internally freaking out a bit, but I thought it was important to let him know that we'd never met before. I didn't want him to wonder if I’d been at a previous LeeFest, and I didn't want him to feel some kind of obligation to hug me. I was fully prepared to simply shake his hand instead. So I smiled at him and kind of waved my hand and said, "I'm Wendy, you don't know me, we've never met," and I was going to say, "but I'm a big fan of your work," but before I could get that part out, he all of a sudden was hugging me, and I was hugging him back.

*flails*

HE IS SO THIN

As weird as it is, that's what I was thinking as I returned his hug, because photos don't really relay that fact. He's extremely muscular and lean, and perhaps shorter and smaller than I would have guessed. In any case, the hug was very, very nice and rather unexpected.

Believe it or not, I had the presence of mind to turn to my husband and introduce him to Lee. Lee shook his hand and then looked back at me and asked me what my name was again. I'm kind of surprised I answered correctly, LOL. He then addressed Milti and Leslie, and I'm not sure exactly what happened with them, because that's when I noticed that Yuko was talking with Anne and Ashley and showing them baby pictures on her phone, and I couldn't decide where to focus my attention.

LEE vs. PICS of LEE'S BABY

Because, yes, Lee and Yuko have a baby boy! His name is Kai (pronounced "kie"), and he’s 7 months old.

After the introductions had all been made, our group worked its way inside the restaurant. Lee said he'd go check out where everyone else was, so we stayed put in the little lobby by the front window. The restaurant itself was set up a little awkwardly: there was a long bar at the front with just a few small tables, and a bigger room at the very back, which is where everyone had apparently gone.



Lee came back and motioned for us to move toward the back, which we started to do, but then for some reason we all stopped and never got any farther than the bar area. So, we never actually got to the back of the restaurant where all the other cast members had congregated and never really interacted with them. Which, honestly, was just fine. I was pretty tightly wound up by just being in the presence of Lee, and I don't know if I could've handled being around everyone else, too. Heh.

So anyway, Lee motioned toward the bar and offered, "Drinks! Get yourselves something to drink!" He started chatting with different people, and I was standing next to Anne and Milti when he came up to Anne and apologized for the Williamstown play cancellation. Anne indicated to him that I had planned to be there as well, and Milti and Ashley, too. Milti asked him what he'd been filming that had caused him to have to drop out, and he answered that it was Gone with Chris Noth (which later research tells me is a new upcoming procedural drama).

Lee then mentioned his return appearance on Season 2 of Cinemax's Outcast, but that he didn't know when it was going air in the U.S. And I was like, "Oh, I know! Cinemax just announced last week that the show will be back in July of 2018." Apparently, I know Lee's TV schedule better than he does. Lee looked at me in disbelief and goes, "2018?!" And I responded with something like, "Yeah! Two whole years after Season 1! It's crazy!"

Lee then asked us if we'd seen the movie Equity that he'd appeared in. I said "Yeah! You were the best part of the movie!" He shook his head and goes, "Oh, I don't know about that..."

And that's when I decided that I might be sounding too much like a fangirl suck-up and decided to keep quiet for a while. LOL

Shortly afterwards, Lee drifted off to the back of the restaurant to be with the other Oz folks. For about next 45 minutes or so, we talked amongst ourselves. The waitstaff kept offering us drinks and fancy hors d'oeuvres, but my nerves kept me from wanting to eat or drink anything. (My husband, on the other hand, who had been instructed to just go with the flow, had a surprisingly great time sitting at the bar, drinking, snacking, and chatting with Leslie. Which really worked out well!)

Now, back in August, when we were planning the Williamstown LeeFest, I was so excited at the prospect of meeting the other peeps who were going (Anne, Milti, and Ashley) that I decided to make a gift for everyone. Using a photo-publishing service, I put together a 2018 Lee Tergesen calendar, made up of pictures and screencaps of Lee, spanning his career. I also ordered an extra copy for Lee, not because I thought he'd actually use it, but because I thought it would serve as a nice memento of the occasion. When the Williamstown LeeFest got canceled, I then mailed the calendars to Anne, Milti, and Ashley as a sort of "consolation prize."

But I still had Lee's.

So, I had brought his copy of the calendar with me to New York so that I could give it to him, but I was really concerned about it coming across as creepy and weird. It was important to me that he understood the context, that I’d also had copies made for the others but they had already received them. I had this whole little speech prepared and was waiting for the right moment to give it.

Eventually, Lee and Yuko moved their way back toward us, toward the exit door of the restaurant as though they’re leaving, and I panicked slightly, because I hadn't given him the calendar yet. It turned out that only Yuko was leaving, but at that point I realized I’d better hurry up and pass the thing along while I had the opportunity.

So, after Yuko left, I started to give Lee my little speech, saying I’d brought him a gift, but I didn’t want him to think it was creepy or weird. And that’s when he backed away and hid behind Ashley, acting scared (at least I think he was acting). I was still pretty nervous, and I stumbled over my words, but I got most of them out and handed him the calendar. And he seemed to like it! He smiled at the cover:



Then he opened it up to the first page (January), saw this, and started to laugh:



I quickly explained that some of the pics I'd used came from his website (in case he was wondering how I got his baby pics and was getting freaked out), and how I probably should’ve credited LT.com somewhere. Then he looked closer and made this groaning noise and pointed at the first picture in the upper left corner. He started going into this story about how the girlfriend of someone in his family was supposed to know how to cut hair, and she gave him this brutal haircut right before school started:



He said that was the year he changed schools, and he was teased and bullied (O_O) and ugh, it was an awful year. I started to feel bad, so I said I would’ve never used that pic if I’d known about the bad connotations! Then he noticed the center photo and groaned again, and he talked about how his dad would take a pair of scissors and trim his bangs when they got too long, and they’d come out all uneven, which, yeah, if you look at the photo closely you can see that was the case. So I pointed at the third photo, and said, "But you’ve got the whole feathered look going on here, and that looks really nice." He said that photo was taken at a children’s theater workshop.

YOU GUYS I HAD A CONVERSATION WITH LEE ABOUT HIS HAIR (initiated completely by him!)

Then he took note of the whole calendar concept, saying it’d come in handy because he and his wife have this system where their activities are supposed to be written down on a calendar, and he gets in trouble if he forgets to write something down. (Which I found amusing, because my husband and I have the same system, and yes, there’s hell to pay if something doesn’t get written down.) So we all kind of agreed that the calendar would be useful to him, that he’d be more likely to write his stuff down if the calendar was one that contained pictures of him.


Lee then began to look at the calendar page by page, acting more excited the further he got into it.



He seemed to really like April’s Oz page:



… and I explained, "It’s the many faces of Tobias Beecher!" (Like, in case he couldn’t figure it out?)

Then he turned to May, which is my personal favorite:



And he gave me a look that I couldn’t quite read, it might have been an "Aww!" look or a "Really?" look. So I just put my hand over my heart and smiled and said, "Love!" and hoped he got the message about how much I love both Oz and B/K.

June was Wanted month, and he mentioned how Eddie Drake was his wife’s favorite role. He said this while pointing at a photo of him as Eddie where his muscles are on prominent display, implying that was the reason why. LOL

He flipped to July, and I explained how this was my favorite photo of him, so I decided to use it for his birthday month:



… and he said he’d never seen that picture before! Which made me go O_O (actually, I spent a lot of the night with that expression on my face), because, you know, that’s just the BEST picture of him (and his hair!).

He also seemed to really like October:



He pointed at the picture of him in drag from Drop Dead Diva and said that that was his all-time favorite role. Then he asked me and Anne if we remembered what his drag character’s name was, and while I knew it had been a play on words, I DREW A BLANK.

Ohmygod, he was QUIZZING me on my knowledge of Lee Tergesen TRIVIA, and I was FAILING! O_O

I looked at Anne, but she was stumped too. I finally said, "It was something to do with mattresses…" because he’d played a mattress salesman, and that’s when he said, "Layonna Sheets!" and Anne and I both went "Yes! That was it!"

(Seriously, I do think he was quizzing us, because he seemed to remember it mighty quick after I mentioned the mattress thing.)

After looking at December (where I'd used screencaps from Tooken), he closed the calendar up and asked, "No pictures of the penis?" I was about to say "It’s too hard to get a decent screencap!" when someone else made the comment that such a photo wouldn’t be appropriate for everyone to hang on their wall. It’s a good thing I didn’t say what I’d been thinking, because I remembered later that Tooken had a scene with a gigantic prop penis, and THAT was what he’d been referring to, and not, you know, his OWN actual penis.

Just after Lee finished looking at the calendar, Irene Burns, a production manager/co-producer on Oz, came up to him to say goodbye. (That was an advantage of standing by the bar at the front of the restaurant—everyone had to pass by us on their way out.) Lee and her chatted for a bit, and then HE STARTS SHOWING HER THE CALENDAR that he was still holding, specifically the pages with the Oz and B/K screencaps:



She asked who had made it, and I waved my hand, and then she asked me, "Where did you get such good pictures?"

And it caught me by surprise and I panicked a bit, because even though Tom Fontana had introduced her at the PaleyFest event, I couldn’t remember what he'd said, and whether she was with Oz, or HBO, or what, and all I could think was "COPYRIGHT VIOLATIONS." So I kind of stammered, "Screencaps from the DVDs?" (Later, I remembered that I’d spent a lot of time trying to improve the quality of all the Oz screencaps by adjusting the shadows and highlights and exposure levels, because everything on Oz was always so DARK, and being the production manager, that was what she had probably noticed.)

Anyway, she said the calendar was very nice in a very genuine way, and then she started telling us how much she loved Lee and how wonderful he was, and I thought, "You don’t need to tell us that." LOL

Then she left, and I once again screwed up my courage, this time to ask Lee for a favor: if he would autograph something for me that I’d bought off eBay—an original copy of the script for my favorite episode of Oz.

He said, "Sure," so I handed him the script and a Sharpie. As he’s signing it, I asked him if he’d noticed which episode it was for ("The Tip"). And he retorted, "Yeah! I can read! It’s only got 3 letters!" And it made me laugh, because I was like, "Ooooh, there’s that Tergesen snark Anne always mentions in her recaps!"

And then, AND THEN, Lee asks me if I want him to get everyone else to autograph it?! And I was like, O_O (making that face again), "Yeah! That’d be great!" It was SO nice of him to offer that.

So he takes off to the back room, and in a few minutes returns with the script, now also signed by Eamonn, Terry, Tom, and muMs:



(Edie hadn't come to the after-party, and Dean had already left.)

I was trying to thank Lee for getting everyone’s autographs for me, when I realized that Tom Fontana and his brother Paul were walking in Lee’s wake. (And, let me tell you, Paul Fontana has dimples that would put Mario Lopez to shame.) I switched to trying to thank Tom for signing the script, but that's when Lee WHIPPED HIS CALENDAR BACK OUT to show Tom.

Tom went, "Wowwww." And I couldn't tell if it was a "Wow, cool," or a "Wow, creeEEeepy." I hope it’s the former, so we’ll just go with that.

But Lee was acting all excited and flipped the calendar to the Oz page, and Tom went, "Wowwww" again. Tom then looked a little closer and said, "Where’s the picture of you in the dress? I’d have that picture."



And I thought to myself, "Why didn’t I include a picture of Toby in the dress?!!!"

Lee then showed Tom the B/K page, and Lee (I think) said, "What’s Meloni doing these days, anyway?" And Tom answered, "I think he’s driving an ice cream truck," and everyone laughed.

I think I started zoning out about then, because I have this great pic of me and Lee laughing about something in front of Tom, and I have absolutely NO recollection of the moment:



So Tom and his brother eventually made their way out, and I tried to thank Tom for everything (I’m guessing he was the one who picked up the tab for the party), but he just sort of floated by (or maybe I only thought I was talking when in reality I was standing there with my mouth open).

Then, shortly after Tom left, David Simon (the moderator of PaleyFest) walked by, said goodbye to Lee, and headed toward the exit. Now, in addition to Homicide, The Wire, and other credits, David Simon was also writer/producer of the Generation Kill mini-series. Simon had reached the door and was talking with some people there, when Lee GRABBED HIS CALENDAR AGAIN and practically trotted over to the front of the restaurant to show Simon the August Generation Kill page:



It was at that point that I felt confident that Lee had really liked his gift, and I was glad that I hadn’t chickened out of giving it to him. :D

Once Lee returned, I knew the evening was drawing to a close, so I said to him, "One more favor? Can I get a picture with you?"

And he’s all, "Of course!" So, mentally, I’m barely there, but I managed to pose with him while my husband took some pictures (I had NO idea that Lee was making faces):





After which my husband said, "That’s great! Thanks!"

And then Lee

AND THEN LEE

said, "No! One more!"

And I thought, "Yay! One more! Don’t blink! Smile! Hold it!"

And that’s when I felt these whiskers against my cheek.

And I thought… Is he kissing me?!

IS LEE TERGESEN KISSING ME?!!!

And apparently he was:





And that’s when I died.

I do not even remember him HOLDING MY CHIN like that.

Although I do vaguely remember my husband saying, "Hey, that’s my wife!"

(I think Lee said something back to him, but I have NO idea what he might’ve said, and I'm not asking.)

So I really don’t remember much more after that—I spent the rest of the time just standing by the bar, grinning like an idiot. A very HAPPY idiot.

I did notice Lee talking to Anne at one point afterwards, just the two of them staring intently at each, and it was the cutest thing. I remember thinking, "Wow, clearly Lee adores Anne just as much as she adores him." It looked like a very sweet moment.

By this point, Milti and Leslie had left, and the rest of us prepared to leave. Lee gave me another hug, and I tried to thank him again for being so gracious and generous with his time, but I think it came out as, "Thaaaagrajenerime." I hope he got the idea.

We left the restaurant and started our walk back to our hotel, and, after a couple of blocks, Ashley and her brother broke off in another direction. So then it was just Anne, myself, and my husband, chatting about the night, about Lee (my husband, who was clueless about everything beforehand, kept saying later, "Wow, what a nice guy!") and life in general, and it was a lovely walk, and a lovely way to end a lovely night.

SQUEEEEE!!!

Comments

[mazephoenix.livejournal.com]

Squee..omg.

[vanillalime]

Yeah, I've been in permanent squee-mode for nearly two weeks now. LOL

[(Anonymous)]

Wonderful write up! I’m betting sometimes it still feels like it didn’t really happen, right? It’s only the second time I’ve went to see him and it feels like that for me, like some dream. Words can’t describe the sweetness of this man!

I wrote him back in... March or so... when I made a shirt for Lily and Dino booties for Kai. I explained why he’s my fave, how he can bring my spirits up no matter how I feel with my anxiety/depression. I told him a lot of what has happened to cause my depression/anxiety, so he’d really understand what an impact he has. When he arrived at the restaurant... he gave me an extra big squish hug and made sure I was doing ok... for him to remember that after all those months and care enough to check in with me... says so much about him.

He was so cute with the calendar! Even Lee gets excited about Lee! Lol. It was such a wonderful night.

[shabby86]

Sorry, didn’t mean this to be anonymous! Phone apparently logged me out... at some point...

[vanillalime]

That's okay! You're not the only one who has problems logging into their social media accounts correctly. LOL *cough*cough*

[shabby86]

🤣😜 nice tidbit, though

[vanillalime]

Oh, I look at my pictures from that night now, and I'm like, "Did that really happen? Is that really me?" It's strange, because my memories are so clear, but it's like they belong to another person. Part of Lee's magic, I guess!

He's just so amazingly thoughtful. And he loved your hats! It was so nice of him to tweet that photo of his children wearing them! (And I saw that Meloni "liked" it, too!)

Even Lee gets excited about Lee!

LOL, that's a great way of putting it! :D Hopefully there'll be another LeeFest opportunity sometime soon!

[shabby86]

I was thrilled that he posted a pic of the kids in the hats! They are adorable! Omg! I was like a giggly, bubbly teenage girl when I saw Meloni “liked” Lee’s tweet... OF SOMETHING I MADE😍😁😁😁😁 unbelievable!

I hope that blanket is keeping him nice and toasty now that it’s cooling off... I totally volunteer to cuddle with him and access that he is indeed toasty!

I love giving Lee gifts for him and his family. He does so much just by being himself. I mean, I know he enjoys being an actor and entertaining people, but to him... it’s probably kind of like, oh, I’m just doing my job. But to me, the joy he brings me by doing that job is worth more than anything and I just like to be able to give something back to him.

He is amazing. Everyone can tell you what a sweetheart he is, but you don’t completely get just how true that is until you meet him. And those eyes!! Oh those pretty blues are so beautiful to look into in person. I swear the wifey had to have picked out his jeans!!!! Did you get a look at that cute butt?!?!?! The jeans fit perfect!

[suespur.livejournal.com]

What an amazing night for you! I think you're now in the top three on the list of Fans Lee Will Always Remember! There's pride_of_erin for coming all the way from Australia to see him, colleendetroit for the Oz Dolls, and you for the LeeEEEeee! Calendar!

[vanillalime]

Well, if he remembers me, hopefully it's for the calendar, and not because I was incapable of stringing two complete sentences together. LOL :D

[trillingstar]

SSQQQQUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[trillingstar]

HAH I broke your layout.

I AM SO THRILLED FOR YOU!!!

*twirls you*

Hair conversation! Trivia!! TV news!! His OWN penis (of course! ahem)! Calendar! <3 <3 <3

Thank you for such a great recap. I felt like I was standing there with you. I'm so glad you had so much fun, and, well. LEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeEEEeeEEEeeeeEEEee!

[vanillalime]

Thanks for the co-squeeing!!! :D That night was MAGICAL.

I'm so glad you liked the recap! I know it was a lot to get through, but I've always loved Anne's and how detailed they were, making me feel how she felt. I wanted mine to be the same way.

I wish you could've been there! Hopefully, there'll be another LeeFest opportunity sometime soon!

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Aww, that’s so awesome! I’m not surprised that Lee got so excited about showing off his calendar, you did such a great job with it :)

[vanillalime]

Thank you so much! I put quite a bit of work into the calendar, but it was also sort of a rush job at the time, and I see things now that I wish I'd done a little differently. But Lee certainly seemed excited by it, and that's what counts! :D

[tobyfan.livejournal.com]

I'm very excited to read your reports but I have been holding off until I finish mine, which is taking eons for some reason. I don't want to steal any of your stuff! I'm SOOOOOOOO glad you had a great time and were not put off by Lee's back and forth between us and the Oz folks. Next time, we will hopefully have him all to ourselves and it will be even better. :)

[vanillalime]

Oh, I'm glad to hear you're still doing your own recap! By all means, don't worry about stealing my stuff if you need to refresh your memory-- you'd be approaching everything from a different perspective anyway!

Obviously, I had the most amazing time (seriously, a highlight of my life). Just meeting Lee was the most I was hoping for that night, so anything else that happened (like, an actual conversation!) was extra. ;)

Whenever/wherever there's a next time, count me in! I'd love to see him actually perform in something... that will be my dream!

[pride-of-erin.livejournal.com]

Your reactions to meeting Lee are very much like I remember mine being - it all felt like a dream, and as the years go by it just gets more and more dreamlike; sometimes I think I imagined it, lol. I'm jealous that you got some supercute pics with him though - I only got one, and it was terrible, mostly because I was drunk off my ass! I'm so happy you got to have this amazing experience though - it's still one of the best things that ever happened to me! And that calendar is awesome; I'm in awe of you being brave enough to give it to him, and thrilled for you that he liked it so much.

[vanillalime]

Thank you for your kind words, Erin. It's hard to explain how much the night meant to me (although I obviously tried, LOL).

Credit for all the LeeFest pics must go to my husband! I didn't even know that was taking them (other than the posed ones with Lee at the end). Then we got back to our hotel room, and he started showing them all to me. I was thrilled when I saw that he'd taken so many pics of Lee with the calendar and a bunch of Tom Fontana. (Considering the circumstances, my husband was an amazingly good sport about the entire evening.) (I think it was due in large part to the free drinks and food, LOL.)

I got the idea for the calendar because I remembered reading about the matchbooks that Colleen had made for everyone at a LeeFest she attended (I think it might've been the one you were at?). I was originally going to do something smaller like that, but I got carried away with the idea, as I often do when it comes to things involving Lee. ;) I tried to emphasize to Lee that I wasn't expecting him to actually USE the calendar, it was just supposed to a souvenir of the night, so I was pleasantly surprised at his increasing excitement over the whole thing. At first I thought his enthusiasm was him just being polite, but when he chased David Simon down to show the calendar to him... I was like, "OK, he not just faking, he genuinely likes it!"

Anyway, it really was a magical night, and it's already starting to feel like a dream to me, too. :-)

[the-emu.livejournal.com]

I fiiiiiiinally had time to read this.

Holy shit. What an amazingly nice guy.

But this is why I never want to meet my fannish objects, because in real life it is never this totally perfect.

I'm so happy for you!

[vanillalime]

Heh, it takes *me* like an hour to read this, even though I know exactly what it says. (Although that's probably because I keep stopping to squee. :D)

It really was the perfect night, I couldn't have asked for a better experience. Lee was just so gracious, and (even better) I didn't make a complete fool of myself, which was my biggest concern going in.

Thank you! I'm happy for me, too! LOL

[leeleelee.livejournal.com]

"I'm Wendy, you don't know me, we've never met," and I was going to say, "but I'm a big fan of your work," but before I could get that part out, he all of a sudden was hugging me, and I was hugging him back.

HEE! I so remember that feeling the first time I met. You are too cute!

I love the joy in this post and I'm so glad I was there to witness it!

[vanillalime]

Thanks Anne! I was so overwhelmed and nervous when I met Lee, but (as you well know) Lee has that amazing ability to put you at ease, and I basically floated through the rest of the evening. :D And like I said in my write-up, I owe you a million thanks for all you did to make the whole thing possible. *hugs*

[leeleelee.livejournal.com]

No need to thank me. Dori did the same for me so I always pay it forward. Besides, I want everyone to meet Lee and fall madly in love with him and his talent. One time I convinced a woman I met in another fandom to come to one of LeeFests and she was incredibly impressed by Lee and how he engaged with fans and remembered their names. She kept saying, "I'm so impressed." That is the kind of response I am hoping to spread. Heh.