Okay..so the Kevin Costner thing...it goes like this

I show up at Mohegan Sun to watch his show and the thing is...he's really good. I mean, his band is REALLY good. Its like John Hiatt with better vocals. Kevin can sing. But it is really about the songs. He has a collection of songs that Nashville writers would kill for...

So the show is over and I call his agent (local boy Seth Shomes) to say how amazed I was at this band and Seth tells me "Kevin is asking about you...he wants to meet you and thank you for the article you wrote"

http://www.masslive.com/weekend/republican/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/11...

(just in case you want to read it - click above)

So I head to the backstage area at The Wolf Den and Seth brings me down around the corner through the labyrinth of green rooms and catering tables and there is Kevin Costner. First thing, he is taller than any celebrity I've ever met. I am assuming he really did ask that I come back there because as soon as I turn the corner with Seth, Costner steps away from the people he is talking to and comes to shake my hand.

He says he likes the article, likes the fact that I wasn't doting on him and that I let him talk about the things he felt like talking about rather than trying to force him into a story that I had already written. (writers do that, and I have been guilty of it more than once) - He says he is also intrigued by my relationship with Seth - the fact that we have formed this connection based simply on the fact that we are from the same area - I tell him that most of who I am is based on where I'm from...and I beleive that. I have been able to support my family because the people in my hometown have supported me...the people that listen to the radio, buy the newspaper, and helped make Cathedral Pines

So he drags me to the meet and greet and we spend about 10 minutes talking about music while he shakes hands and gets his picture taken - Seth mentions the movie and then we start talking about the trials and tribulations of producing a movie (he is editing one right now) - I tell him about Ed and I toiling to make Cathedral Pines ready for the festivals.

We head next to another room where he introduces me to the band and makes me feel like I'm his new best friend. His wife and daughter are here and I'm thinking that this guy has to have better things to do than have some writer from Springfield follow him around. I'm ready to go when he and Seth tell me that I am going to the after-party.....well...okay...

The next part of this story (which I will finish on Monday afternoon) is surreal. It involves walking the Red Carpet with Kevin, Carmen Elektra, and Craig Ferguson and the whole time thinking that someone was going to find out that I was on the wrong side of the velvet rope...