Meeting Lee Tergesen: NINE
By Anne (amytych@yahoo.com)
May 31, 2008
I started the evening with dinner at the Marriott Marquis with
doctorevel, darthrami and alyt; then we all headed over to the
theater to see Lee in "Good Boys and True." We arrived a few minutes too late to see Lee going in, but
that’s OK. I was happy to see fanfromfla, cheights, callmerizzo,
tesan and Jay again, while getting to meet a whole bunch of Lee fans
I hadn’t met before.
We got to our seats in the smallish theater, apparently making up
about a fifth of the audience, and waited excitedly. Before long,
the play started and Lee made his first appearance fairly early on.
The play, "Good Boys and True," is set at an
all-boys school in the Washington, D.C., area. A videotape
containing graphic (and not entirely consensual) sex between a boy
and a girl was discovered by the coach (Lee’s character), who called
the mother of the boy (Brandon) who is allegedly on the tape.
Brandon is from a nice, upper-class family and his mother is
unwilling to believe it might be him, but the coach seems pretty
sure. He tells the mother privately because he is good friends with
Brandon's father and wants to help the family avoid a scandal.
As the play goes on, Brandon denies he’s on the tape and soon the
tape is leaked all over the school. Coach Shea gets in some trouble
for withholding the tape from the headmaster and all the boys on the
team get punished until someone comes forward with the truth of who
is on the tape. (During the scene where Coach Shea admonishes the
boys, his forehead veins make a prominent appearance, which Mav,
connoiseur of veiny action, was unfortunately not there to see.)
Meanwhile, the girl on the tape is located and it’s revealed that it
is indeed Brandon on the tape.
Brandon’s Mom thinks that her son's actions are partially caused by
the atmosphere at the school, which has a reputation for sexual
exploitation. Coach Shea tells a rather disturbing story about two
boys who competed to be captain of the football team, encouraged by
the coach at the time. One boy won and to prove he was dominant, he
beat up the other boy and raped him. Soon, we realize that Coach
Shea is the one who was abused. (Poor Lee. “He’s always the bitch,”
callmerizzo said.)
The play was well done and all the actors were great. And it really
made you think.
After the play, we went outside to wait for Lee. I was chatting with
some of the peeps with my back to the door, but I kept turning to
check if Lee was coming out. Then all of a sudden he was there at my
shoulder and he surprised me with a smile and a hug. I offered to
introduce him to the ladies he hadn't met before, but he said we
should wait until we get to the restaurant. He introduced me to a
friend he was bringing along, but I have forgotten his name. (You
mean there is someone ELSE besides Lee on the whole island of
Manhattan?)
As we were standing there chatting, Lee asked, "Did you like the
play?" I guess I was so happy to see him again, I forgot to tell
him. I said that I did enjoy it. And he teased me, saying that I
probably only saying that because he had to ask me. I said, "No, I
really liked it. Even better than I expected to."
Soon we were heading to the restaurant - O’Lunney’s (which is where
we gathered in 2004, but the restaurant moved down one block, so the
layout is different). Lee was making phone calls on the way. I was
curious who he was calling, but we found out later.
We arrived at O’Lunney’s and instead of one large table, they had
split the party (of 18) between two tables. So a group of the peeps
(led by colleendetroit) moved to a bar table that was a bit closer
to the main table where Lee sat. We weren’t there but a few minutes
when I heard gasps of surprise. When I turned around, I saw Lee
hugging Eamonn Walter (Kareem Said on "Oz") and then a dozen cameras
were flashing. One of the calls Lee made was to Eamonn, who had just
arrived from the UK only the previous day.
Lee introduced Eamonn to us and when he got to me, I shook Eamonn's
hand and said, "I love your work on 'Oz' and in 'Othello.' You are a
wonderful actor!" Yes, my enthusiasm was spilling over. I was so
surprised and delighted to meet him. He sort of leaned toward me in
a bow and said thank you. He's so freaking elegant.
A little later, I heard Eamonn say to Lee, “I’m going to kill you on
Monday.” I asked, “Lee didn’t warn you?” Eamonn said Lee only said
he was going out with some people that he wanted Eamonn to meet.
“The next thing I know there are cameras going off,” he said that
adorable British accent that he hides so well on Oz. But it didn’t
take long for him to get comfortable and start chatting up with a
group of the peeps about the play – touching on subjects from class
differences to misogyny. The man is highly articulate and has a
voice that just melts. *g* He was also very animated as he spoke.
After Lee was out of earshot, Eamonn said, "I love that man." Awww.
And then when Lee was back in earshot, he said, "I hate you."
*snicker* At one point, after he proclaimed his love for Lee for the
second or third time, he said to me, "I'll bet you didn't even know
we were friends." I told him that I actually did know as the first
time Lee ever e-mailed me was right after he went to the UK to visit
Eamonn and Lee mentioned it in his e-mail. Eamonn looked pleased.
*G*
Also joining Lee’s entourage was Steven Chester Prince (who
co-starred with Lee in "Pineapple" and "Mergers & Acquisitions") and
Lee’s S.O. Yuko, who was very sweet and very cool.
At one point, I heard Steven talking with someone about his
"Pineapple" performance and he remarked that he had a pretty fine
ass for a 45-year-old man. (His ass makes an appearance in the film
and he's right. He's in good shape.) Later when I was talking to Lee
about "Pineapple," I told Lee that I enjoyed his (Lee's) performance
but that I wasn't crazy about the movie. He said, "Come on, Steven
did a great job!" And I said that it wasn't so much Steven's
performance I had issue with as much as the writing. I told him it
sort of dragged on and I ended up fast forwarding through all the
scenes except the ones he was in. He smiled at that. Then I told him
that I thought "Mergers" was a better movie. He said, "Steve and I
were in that together too." Yeah, Lee, I know. I said, "I pretty
much have your resume memorized, Lee."
Steven was celebrating his birthday (which officially started at
midnight) and he was getting very happily drunk and then he
encouraged Lee to show us his “Donald Sutherland impression” from
"Animal House." So Lee picks up the T-shirt given to him by
colleendetroit and pulls it over his head. It’s long enough to cover
down to his thighs. Then he undoes his pants, wiggles them down and
raises his arms so that anyone standing nearby got a two-second peek
at his adorable ass. Peeps who were close by came flying over with
cameras in hand, but the moment went by too fast and no one got a
picture. Ah well. It is forever ingrained in my brain. Heh. Eamonn
saw all this and said, “You did not just do that.” I said to Lee,
“You have no shame.” He agreed, “I have no shame.” (That exchange
may have happened after the licking moment, which comes later.)
pride_of_erin, who flew in from the Land Down Under, tried to get
Lee to repeat his Donald Sutherland impression so she could get a
picture, but Lee said, “You’re too slow.” Then Erin suggested to
Eamonn that her night would be complete if he would oblige us with a
view of his ass. He said, “My ass is on DVD.” True enough, but then
again, so is Lee’s and I was happy to see it live, as well.
I can't remember the sequence, but I was standing near Lee when
someone complimented him on his performance. He dramatically pointed
out that no one had mentioned it all night. I reminded him that I
said I liked it *at* the theater. "Yeah, Anne, but I had to DRAG it
out of you," he said, rather dramatically again. He's such an actor.
At some point, colleendetroit brought out her homemade Oz dolls,
which Lee hesitantly approached. She gave him the Toby Beecher doll
and showed him the swastika on Toby’s ass, which Lee promptly
tongued and held the pose while we took pics.
The rest of the night is rather a blur of laughing and watching all
the peeps have fun flirting with Lee. The highlight of my night was
watching pride_of_erin take a picture of Lee and herself with her
camera. (I want to see that picture!) She was positively glowing in
his company and I could totally empathize with how she felt in that
moment. She was beyond adorable and I knew how much it meant for her
to travel so far to see someone who means so much to her. And Lee
was good to everyone who attended and that ALWAYS makes me happy.
That kind of joy is meant to be shared.
Sometime toward the end of the evening, I was talking with Lee about
"Generation Kill" and I asked him if he was doing any narration for
it. He looked at me, tilted his head and said, "You always ask me
that." Well, not exactly. I have often praised him for his audiobook
- "Touching Spirit Bear" - and have suggested he needs to do more.
So I said, "You have a great voice and I figured it would be fitting
for this." He gave me a sheepish grin. Well, he does have a great
voice and I defy anyone to tell me different!
While Lee was saying his good-byes, Diane told Lee that she enjoyed
his performance and was sorry she hadn't said so earlier. "Oh sure!
Four hours later!" he said, hamming it up.
Diane also asked, "What's next?" Lee said,
"Nothing." He said he's taking time off to visit his dad in
Connecticut, then go to California to attend his niece's high school
graduation, and then he'll return to spend his birthday (July 8)
with his dad and take the rest of the summer off, if I recall
correctly.
Before Lee left, I got three really nice, long
hugs from him. *happy sigh* He’s so damn huggable and he makes me
feel so safe. Not to mention the fact that he smells so good. I just
wanted to hug him forever. I always do and it’s so damn hard to
watch him leave.
~*~*~
For more accounts and pictures, see the chart
at the
LeeLoni LJ.
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Meeting Lee
Meeting One
March 19, 2002
Meeting Two
May 19, 2002
Meeting Three
October 7, 2002
Meeting Four
December 7, 2002
Meeting Five
January 28, 2003
Meeting Six
August 31, 2003
Meeting Seven
November 13, 2004
Meeting Eight
January 7, 2005 Meeting Nine
May 31, 2008 Meeting Ten
May 2, 2010 Meeting 11
Dec. 4, 2010 Meeting 12
Nov. 23, 2011 Meeting 13
June 9, 2012 Meeting 14
Aug. 17, 2013 Meeting 15
June 14, 2015 Meeting 16
October 15, 2017 Meeting 17
June 8, 2019 |