| Time Well Spent with Douglas O'Keeffe By Marilyn Bell |
| Close Quarters Standby in May 2001 was an experience I'll never forget, partially because of the chances I had to spend time with Douglas O'Keeffe, La Femme Nikita's David Fanning. On Friday night of the con, I saw Douglas sitting in the bar with his friend Brandi Ward. I don't think anyone else had noticed him yet, so I promptly asked if I could take his picture and he said, "Sure." Then he asked if I wanted to be in the picture so we did that, too. On Sunday of that same weekend, I won the Time Well Spent with Douglas O'Keeffe during the CQS4 Charity Auction. We went to a private room to talk. Well, it was sort of private. Steven Shellen (Marco O'Brien from Voices and Season 5) wandered through, and a couple of very sweet security girls were there. The first thing I told Douglas was that he didn't have to stay and talk if he didn't want to, but he had no problem with it. We had a fun conversation including talking about Jon Cassar and T.J. Scott. We were pretty much in agreement about both of those great La Femme Nikita directors. One thing that really struck me about my time with Douglas is he is way better looking in person than he seemed on LFN. Of course, he played a bad guy in Obsessed and Double Date and wasn't supposed to look good in that role, but he's tall and tan and has a perfect smile. And then there's the stomach muscles to die for. I was glad to see those muscles when someone won his T-shirt for charity during the CQS4 auction. I asked Douglas how come all the women on the TV shows he did beat him up. After all, LFN wasn't the only case of this. He laughed and said he thought it might be becasue of some kind of bad karma from a past life, but he said he thought he had worked through it. Towards the close of the Time Well Spent, I invited Douglas to a party for artist Mechel Cisco later that night at the Art Gallery at Toronto Harbor. Even though the event was after the official con was over, he and Brandi attended. I told Douglas I was a Hollywood studio driver and was going to give him my card in case he got a job in the vicinity, but he said he would probably never get a job here. As many of us know, he did end up working in Hollywood thanks to his role as Eddie on the second season of Fox's 24. Even though Douglas' role on 24 only lasted a few episodes, I was really happy for him because he seems like such a good guy. I hope to see him in other high-profile roles soon, and I wish him well with his career. |
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