Beautiful as they are (and they are exquisite) Pictures don't do the man justice. He is so much more handsome in person. He really is and a thousand times sweeter and gentler. Such a good man. I started out a fan years before I ever met him the first time, I was a total fan, yet for some unknown reason, I was just as calm when I attended the Lords of Dogtown premier with my daughter (she's an actress here) and met him the first time. Everytime I talked with him that night which was several times, I stayed totally calm. I shocked even myself. I guess it was just kind of surreal. I think I was literally so overwhelmed that I couldn't react. Then after the premier and party were over and we were heading to our car to be taken home, I just couldn't take another step. I stopped and leaned against the big brick wall of this building shortly before the car we were assigned to and just started to sob. My daughter knew how much it meant to me to meet him because I admire the person he is so much as well and she wrapped her arms around me and cried with me. Everyone walking past us thought someone just shot our best friend and our dog or something I'm sure.
Little did either of us know that he would end up a friend. Even though we are now comfortable old buds, it still hits me every now and then. My co-admin at HLC lives in Heath's hometown of Perth, yet has never met him at home in Oz though she has attended many events with his mom, dad and step dad. (Actually his step dad, Roger, stomped her foot by accident at the Perth premier of BBM and Heath's mom gave him quite a fussing at for it. My co-admin, Ingrid, came to visit me here in LA in February and I talked with him and arranged to take her to meet Michelle on Thursday night and then take her to meet and spend some time with him on Friday night. As we approached him, she just stopped. She couldn't even move. Right at that moment I knew that feeling so well. He felt for her you could tell because being his sweet gentle self, he reached his hand out to her and I gently put my hand on her back and moved her forward. He spent time making her feel comfortable and she did great after that. He's painfully shy and he knows what it's like to feel like that. So I watched her and I swear I felt everyone of her emotions because I had felt them myself at one time. She stayed perfectly calm as well.
After about 2 hours we headed home and stopped for a drink along the way. Then sitting there in the restaurant, totally unexpected, she just broke into tears. Just pure emotion. I can't tell you what it meant to me to be able to give her a moment like that. It's one of the greatest gifts I ever received and one she will cherish for a lifetime.
Sorry I wrote this here, just your response to the pictures brings it all vividly to mind. Life is funny isn't it. Who'd have thought that a little country girl from a town of 2,000 in the hills of Virginia would at 49 years old give up her entire life, take off for Hollywood with her daughter and write movies and produce plays and become drinking buddies with someone she will always idolize. Even now, every time I see him, those first few seconds are the same adrenaline rush and fluttering heart (I am still an adoring fan nonetheless) and I have had to work very hard to learn to draw that fine line between the devoted fan (which I will always be because that's just me), the friend and the professional relationship. But it's gotten much better.
The main reason I wrote this was God knows how I adore pictures of him (obviously since I've got almost 18,000 of them on cd's stuffed all over my home, LMAO [talk about overkill]) but the one thing that even the most perfect and beautiful picture of him can't convey is his kindness in his eyes. He is one of the most kind, loving, wise, gentle spirited and hysterically funny people I have ever known. I am terribly proud to be a fan of his.
Thanks for letting me babble on like an idiot. I'm having a total Heath fan moment. Sorry, I know having someone do that is annoying. I promise it doesn't happen often.
Hugs
Theresa
