John Michael Higgins Spotted in Pasadena

I rarely make it out of my hole in Sherman Oaks, but when I do and I spot a celebrity it's always a noteworthy event. This one was no different as this evening, while lounging with my wife on her lunch break; I spotted John Michael Higgins in the seating areas out in back of Colorado Boulevard's Gold Class Cinemas. Folks may recognize Higgins from commercials as the agitated, funny corporate cable executive whose best laid plans are always thwarted by his obvious realization that DirecTV is the far superior service. Fans of the NBC sitcom "Kath & Kim," will recognize Higgins as Phil Knight, Molly Shannon's smoothie guy beau from the show.

On this day John Michael Higgins was sitting on the steps just outside of Banana Republic with his wife and two small children. My wife and I approached the covered tables and we walked right past the family as the two children were playing and mom and dad were talking. My wife intoned to me that was indeed John Michael Higgins and I concurred. We sat a while and when we got up to leave, the family had left. As we walked out of the seating area, back onto Colorado Boulevard the family was returning to the back area. I stopped him gingerly and applauded his work, noting that I admired the characters I'd seen him play. It was merely in passing and I had somewhat intruded in his space, but he was gracious and thanked me for my comments.

Once past, my wife on the other hand scolded me; "you had to say SOMETHING," she said. "Of course I did!" Her tone went from reprimand to understand when I queried, "...well wouldn't you like to be recognized when people appreciate your acting?" The performer in her of course blushed, thanked the Academy, and accepted my statement. I relented that I probably shouldn't have grabbed his arm but it was more a small tap made more evident by the fact that we were moving opposite one another in passing.

This John Michael Higgins sighting brought about the curious matter of why did NBC cancel Kath & Kim in the first place? Molly Shannon was great, Selma Blair was great, Mikey Day was great, and of course John Michael Higgins was great; so why did NBC let the show drop? It's not as though they needed to place it in that coveted Thursday night slot; they could have put it elsewhere and it would have performed well; there's so much dreck on television these days anyway. Apparently Kath & Kim had pretty good ratings; at least in so far as I'd heard about it.

While this sighting was interesting what made it noteworthy was when I was crossing Colorado Boulevard (and that blasted diagonal crossing) to get to Starbucks to pen this article, there was this wiry looking Goth kid who came at me, furiously texting, leading the charge with a lit cigarette! This buffoon burnt a hole in my shirt!

So kids, don't smoke. And if you do, just know that when you're muscling through an intersection with a lit cigarette, I will swing to kill. What's newsworthy about the John Michael Higgins sighting is the good thing about TV: favorite, familiar faces always find their way back into the fold. And at the very least, you can always see John Michael Higgins out and about on Colorado Boulevard!