Hilary Duff on Conan

I ducked into the doorway of the NBC building after my real-world job interview completed at Rockafeller Center -so that I could get on my cellphone to my headhunter to tell him how the hour and 30 minute grilling went down. When, all of a sudden, in the middle of my call, a black SUV pulls up, 2 paparazzi pop out of the revolving door behind me and begin to head for the docked vehicle. The car door opened and out came a bodyguard, some agent-types and... some starlet!?

I was busy qwelling about my performance during the interview to my agent when I noticed that as the entourage passed and the flashbulbs sparkled -a smoking woman across the doorway from me, was taking her cigarette break and not really responding to the fuss, in fact not so much as a blink crossed her nonchallantly gazing eyes. Very relaxed and into her smoke.

After my call was completed, I went over to her and asked if she knew who the young ingenue clad in the black dress might have been. She responded with,

"Hilary... something..."

I immediately clicked on the second part of her nomenclature: "Duff"!

Yup! That was Hilary Duff all right. But the smoking woman was still unfazed -although she did complement my ability to decipher the mystery (frankly, I think she may have been pulling my leg). Nonetheless, I conversed with the smoking woman for another moment or two (so it wouldn't seem as though I was just "using" her) and then got on my way. I was wondering what Hilary Duff was doing here... was she being interviewed also?

So now, here I was in June. Not a single showbiz gig for a month... (and although there were castcalls, neither Spiderman 3 or Enchanted allowed "repeat extras" in their new June scenes) -when along comes this chance-sighting. So I guess it wasn't a total wash after all. I guess this will have to do for now. Thanks Hilary... you made my month!


Later, in the comfort of my home, while watching NBC that night, the announcer mentioned that Conan O'Brien's guest was going to be Hilary Duff. So I stayed up to 1 in the morning and watched her sit in the "gecko-chair". She wore the same black dress... Bingo!