May 9th, 2003 Thanks to Tams for this submission: In January this year... 2003... all my dreams finally came true. I got to travel to Wilmington with my friend Louise. We flew all the way over from the UK, 4063 miles away just to be closer and feel more apart of Dawson's Creek. When we got to Wilmy, we settled into our hotel on Market Street and decided that we needed to get the ball rolling if we wanted to meet any of the cast. So the day after we arrived we went down to Screen Gems Studios. It happened to be a Saturday when we got to the studios so DUH us they were closed *sighs* and no one but a security guard was there at the entrance. He told us that they are closed on weekends and the tours had been cancelled until March. Just our luck. We tried our best to make him feel sorry for us, with us coming all that way but he wasn't having any of it LOL but he told us that if we walked around to the side of the parking lot we would see Pacey's Mustang. So we freaked and took lots of pics. On the way back to the entrance we noticed the guard was talking to this guy. We walked over and thanked the guard for telling as about Pacey's Mustang and went to leave... BUT... the guy he was talking to was intrigued. He noticed we weren't from around town ... with our British accents and all... and asked us what we were doing in town. So we told him that we are HUGE dc fans and we were hoping to meet the cast. Turns out he works at the studios!!!! :)) He was super nice and told us that they wouldn't be filming again until Monday.... so he gave us his cell number and we gave him the number for our hotel and he said he would call us on Monday when he found out where they would be filming. So the whole weekend we spent anxiously waiting for his phone call. Monday came.... No phone call. But... a knock at the door... It was Jim (the guy who works at the studios) He had come to pick us up, and take us to the filming location. As you can imagine, we got VERY VERY excited and started jumping up and down and screaming LOL Then he said to us 'Are you kids ready to meet the stars?' ohhh my Goddd. YES!!!! was our answer. We hopped in his car, and he drove us down to the corner of Princess street and 17th. On the way there we were asking him who it was filming on location and when he spoke those two words.... 'KATIE HOLMES'... We almost made him crash the car with all our excitement!! haha. Lou and I both had our pictures ready for her to sign and our cameras in hand. This was an opportunity we weren't going to miss. So anyways, Jim parks up and we get out of the car, and he walks us over to meet the crew. The guys were really nice, he told them we had come all the way over from the UK just to meet the cast. It turns out the only ones filming that week were Katie, Josh and Mika (Harley). When one of the crew said Josh's name, Lou and I lost it again lolol you should have seen us.... one of the crew jokingly said to us 'You know what Josh is gay right?' Oh my god it was hilarious, I was like 'How can he be gay if he's marrying me?' hehehe :) Soooo... one of the crew members takes us inside the filming barriers... there were no other fans about, just all the crew, me and Lou... We stood about waiting for a few minutes and then this van pulls up at the side of the road.... Guess who steps out? You got it KATIE HOLMES!!!!! Mika was with her too, she was sooo tiny. At first Lou didn't see the van pull up she didn't even see Katie step out until I turned to her and said 'OH MY GOD, Katie Holmes is right behind us' haha and this is the funniest part, Lou was like 'Where? Where?' She was looking all around and Katie was like 5 feet away from us, and she didn't even notice her lol When she finally did see her, these HUGEEEE cheesy grins just grew on our faces... we had to keep the excitement held in or we would have been kicked off set... So Katie and Mika walked towards this house (It was Hestons house they were filming inside). No sign of Josh (we later found he was filming down at the beach with Katie later on that week). So anyways they disappeared into the house and this guy came over to us. He said they needed to get the first scene filmed and then Katie will come out to see us. We stood around patiently waiting.... It was soo great because even when we were waiting we were still a part of it all. We got told that when we hear someone say 'QUIET PLEASE' we can't even move or make a whisper. And we would hear the guy shout 'ROLLING'... we would just stand there starring at the house, knowing that Katie was filming inside. Soo about 30 minutes pass by (it was freeeezing cold by the way) and we see Katie walk down the steps from the house. By this time I'm thinking to myself 'This is it. This is really happening and Oh my god Katie is walking over this way' lol She looks around, and then walks over to the place where they have the food and drinks. She walked inside got a drink of water, and then she started walking over to us. I looked at Lou, my hands shaking, and a thousand thoughts running through my head. It really is sooo unreal when you are there. So I kept this huge smile on my face and as soon as Katie was close enough to touch I reached out my hand and said 'Hi how are you?' And shook her hand. I told her who we were and that we had come all the way from the UK just to see her. Lou shook her hand too, and then nervously I asked her to sign our pics. I was sooo nervous I couldn't find my pen. As she was signing our pics I told Katie that the pic of her that she was signing for me was a really nice picture of her. She replied with 'Awww thank you.' How cute is she? Lou also told Katie that we had met via the DC message boards... *Lou and I that is* and Katie said 'that's nice' awww blesss... I don't quite think she knew how to reply to that hehe. So you remember those thoughts I told you about... the thousands that had been running through my head just before she came over? Well when she got to us my mind went a complete blank!!! I had tons of stuff I wanted to ask her, but actually seeing her, right there next to us, in person... guess it just makes all those thoughts disappear too. So there was a silence for a second and Lou kindly asked if it would be ok if we could take some pictures with her. She nodded her hair and said 'Sure!' in her all kinds of cute Katie voice. Firstly I took a pic of Lou stood with her, and then Lou took one of me with Katie. Katie and Lou Katie and Tams I was quite surprised cos I'm so little, but Katie didn't seem that much taller than me. So that was it. We both thanked her for taking the time out to come over to us and then Katie said 'Thank you for coming all this way.' Then she turned around and started to walk back into the house. Jim had already left us there as he had other jobs to do - he said he would call us later that week to find out how it went. So we started to walk away.... After we got clear of the house we both started jumping up and down in the street shouting out 'WE JUST MET KATIE HOLMES' hehehehe :) You wouldn't believe how excited we were. We called up all our friends all over the world and made them all jealous hehe... After just meeting our idol. Katie was very quiet, she didn't sound much like Joey Potter hehe but I guess that's because she didn't have much time to talk, and it was a freezing cold day. But she still looked sooo beautiful. She was so kind coming out just to meet us! So that was our Katie Encounter... a day in my life I will never forget... the day all my dreams came true!!! :) Tams with her signed Katie pic :)