The (television & movie) Stars Align

Andrea has asked that I (Spencer) give an account of our afternoon out on the town. We had big plans to eat at the 19th best (according to the Times) restaurant in LA. I was looking forward to it. However, when making the reservation I failed to realize that they do not serve lunch on Saturday (only brunch, btw it would have been nice if they would have mentioned this when they called to confirm the reservation). We didn't want brunch so we left. We decided to try the restaurant at this swanky hotel in Santa Monica. While we were waiting outside for our table the gentleman pictured below strolled by with what appeared to be his wife and two children.


The fans of the BBC version of The Office will recognize this guy. He plays Gareth Keenan (the Dwight Shrute equivalent), assistant to the regional manager of the Slough Branch of the Wernham & Hogg paper company.

After waiting outside for 20ish minutes I headed back into the restaurant to check on the status of our table and I bumped into the following young couple in the doorway.
I am ashamed to admit, but I was pretty confident that I recognized these two as the stars of the Dinsey Highschool Musical movies. Andrea confirmed that they were indeed who I thought they were when they sat down a few tables away from us midway through our meal. It made me happy that they had to wait as long for a table as we did.

We had another encounter with the highschool musicalers at the valet stand (Andrea is pretty sure that Zac, the teen hearthrob, brushed her arm as he walked by). And to complete the celebrity trifecta this gentleman arrived at the hotel while we were still waiting for our car.

This of course is Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I am kicking myself for not yelling "Aloha Mr. Hand" or telling him that there was a total crowd scene at the snack machine. This final sighting elicited a fleeting expletive from Andrea, I always enjoy that. So despite the rough start the (television & movie) stars aligned and we had a very enjoyable St. Valentine's holiday.