Hansol Lee

On September 26, 2003, Peter Fonda, along with Verna Bloom, visited Amazon to promote The Hired Hand, which was getting a DVD release after 33 years. They seemed a little too self-congratulatory though—they just went on and on for over an hour about what an amazing piece of cinematic achievement the movie was. Like, whatever. He was rather grumpy when giving me an autograph, but then I told him how much I enjoyed Ulee’s Gold and that really seemed to brighten him up.

Another Amazon Fishbowl encounter. She asked me if I had seen Zoolander.

I met Suze Orman on March 18, 2005 when she came to Amazon to promote her new book. I caught up to her as she was running to her next interview.

Me: Ms. Orman—do you have time for a quick question?
Suze: Walk with me, boyfriend! I’m gonna be late for my interview!

That’s right—Suze Orman called me “boyfriend”! I can die happy now.

In her first ever email to me, she called me “the treasured friend of [her] soulmate.”

I “met” him at SIFF 2002 during the Q&A session for Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. He was very articulate and soft-spoken. Unfortunately, in a very Lost-in-Translation-esque moment, his awful, awful Korean interpreter managed to convey maybe 10% of what Park was trying to say, and also made up a bunch of stuff that he never even said (I kid you not). I was this close from yelling out “hey, that’s not what he just said!” on several occasions.

I saw him on Sept 23, 2003 when he came to Amazon for a quick 30-minute set. After the show, he complemented me on my James Brown t-shirt and gave me a hug.

The last time I saw Hansol, we were galivanting about Vancouver, eating Japanese tapas, cheesecake, and poutine. He was a fantastic host!