By Anne (amytych@yahoo.com)

May 19, 2002

Well, it turned out I didn't have to go all the way to New York to meet Lee again. He came to me! Lee came to Washington, D.C., to host a GLAAD brunch. I found out just days before the event, thanks to the wonderful Giovanni.

The brunch was held to honor Michael Kahn, artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre here. It was held at the National Education Association building on 16th and M. I arrived early for the reception and kept looking for Lee but never saw him. So the brunch started at noon and I went in and sat down at my table. I immediately and constantly checked the room for Lee. I'm extremely ashamed to say that although he was there, I didn't see him right away. I was looking for the long hair he had in March and also I kept studying the front tables. They put Lee at one of the center tables.

So I was sitting at the table with someone who worked for GLAAD (Jose) and we started chatting. I told him I was a fan of Lee Tergesen's and we started chatting about him. Jose said he had met Lee and his wife. I asked if Lee was there yet and Jose said yes. I asked where. He pointed to the table diagonally behind the one where I was sitting. I couldn't believe he was there all that time and I didn't see him. His hair was extremely short -- short as it was for the episode "Out o' Time" at the end of Season 3 of "Oz." He looked great. Actually, stunning would be a better word. You can really see his face so much better when his hair is short. He wore a blue suit and looked quite handsome in it.

So the ceremony started, and one of the GLAAD co-chairs (Kevin Smith) introduced Lee. He talked about some of his credits and made a comment about how lucky Lee was to make out with Chris Meloni. So Lee got up and joked about his introduction, noting that everyone is always talking about Meloni. "Hey, I'm a good looking guy," he said and everyone laughed. Lee introduced clips of shows that have portrayed gays, ranging from the stereotypical to the more acceptable. They never showed a clip from "Oz," despite the fact that Lee was there. I was quite annoyed. They showed clips from "Six Feet Under," "Sex and the City," "Will and Grace," etc.

Then Lee introduced the other co-chairman of GLAAD, Patricia Wojnas, and called her a "fine-looking fox," which totally surprised her and made everyone laugh. It was cute. Later, Lee introduced an actor (didn't catch his name) from "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" to make a media award. He got up and gave Lee a look of disdain and remarked, "I guess Patricia's the only fine-looking fox in the room," and then gave a Tobyish sniff. Everyone cracked up, including Lee. Then the guy teased Lee cause he kept tripping over the phrase "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered." When this actor said it smoothly, he looked back at Lee and said, "That's how you say it." Another laugh from the crowd and Lee. When he got back up to the podium, Lee apologetically joked, "You're very attractive. Can you teach me how to say that? I'm sorry. I get jealous when people talk about Christopher Meloni." Then when Lee tried the phrase the next time, he finally got it right and everyone clapped.

When Michael Kahn got up to receive his award, he said that he was thrilled that he got meet Lee because he'd always had "just as big a crush on Lee as I do on Christopher Meloni." He also said he'd met Chris recently. "Now that I've met both of you, what more do I need in life?" he said. Lots of chuckles from that.

After the ceremony was over, I went right up to Lee, who was standing near his table with his wife, Leslie, who looks pretty much how I pictured her in my mind. And that is unusual for me. I'm usually way off the mark. Anyway, she seemed tall (well, to me) - probably 5.6 - 5.8. She had heels on, so I couldn't be sure. She is quite pretty with long, wavy, blond hair. They look good together.

I introduced myself and told him I had met him in March in New York City at the DVD signing. I mentioned that I drove up there to meet him and it sounded like Leslie said, "Awww," but I may have been imagining that. Once again, I could not take my eyes off his face. His eyes were incandescently blue. And the haircut, I think, made him look younger. He has such an adorable face.

Then Leslie said hello to me and said she was Lee's wife. I said hello to her and then asked Lee to pose for a picture with Leslie. Then, I asked him to pose for a picture with me and asked Leslie to take it. So while we were posing, she was trying to click the shutter and it took several seconds for it to go off. Lee joked about how we were waiting and something to the effect of what a hardship it was for me. I assured him I didn't mind. Then said he suggested we should pose for another one and teasingly told Leslie to hurry up. He was kind of flirting in that way he has. I got to keep my arm around him for quite awhile. Seemed like that to me anyway.

Then I asked if he would do me a favor and I pulled out the pictures I'd brought along. One for Dan, which I had hoped to have him sign in March. (I told him so and he commiserated with me about the Tower nazis.) It was a screencap from "Famous Last Words" when Toby is outside Oz in the dream. They both asked where the picture was from. Then they nodded when I told them. "It's a good one," Lee said. (He's too cute!) On the picture he wrote, "Dan, Thanks for watching out for Tobias. Lee Tergesen." Then I took out the picture for me. It's one of Toby from Season 3 with the small beard and mustache. He was pretty surprised. "Where did you get that?" he asked. So I told him allwall.com. He started to sign it, and I said, "It's Anne with an e." He said, "I know."

Then I asked him when he got his haircut. He said when they started filming Season 6 of "Oz." So I asked was it his idea or Tom Fontana's? He said Tom's. I asked if he was disappointed. He told me that he had some ideas where Toby's character might be going in Season 6, but when he sat down with Tom, Lee's ideas didn't really mesh with Tom's, so he got the haircut. He said he was half glad cause it was kind of hard to take care of, especially since he rides his motorcycle a lot.

At that point, someone from the GLAAD staff interrupted to get Lee's attention. So I said good-bye to Leslie and told her it was nice to meet her. She said it was nice to meet me, too. And I don't have to tell you how great Lee was. I felt totally comfortable with him. And I got to have him all to myself for a good 5-6 minutes. Made my whole day, I gotta tell ya.

I grinned the whole way home.

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