Good sports, hugs and belly laughs at Chiller

It's kinda fun going to Chiller on a Friday. If you go on a Saturday, the lines are just unbearable -- or at least a good amount of the throng is. And if you go on a Sunday, well, you risk the fact that your celebrity is tired of talking about the same thing over and over and over. So Mark and I have settled into the Friday groove, although the secret's definitely out that pre-show tickets are the way to do it.

And the early bird catches Veronica Cartwright! The movie and television veteran was ready to go at 6 p.m. sharp, with a table full of 8x10s and a binder containing more shots, in case a fan wanted something else.

Mark was agog at seeing Gus Grissom's wife from "The Right Stuff," and of course, she also was indelible in "Alien." But I talked with her about "The Witches of Eastwick," in which her character suffers humiliations galore at the hands of Jack Nicholson's little devil. Veronica said she had a great time working on that, which just goes to show that the more torturous the action may be on screen, the more fun the actor might be having off of it.

We also spent some time talking about her pivotal four-episode stint on "The X-Files." In half of them, she worked with my favorite TV director -- the late great Kim Manners. (He's happily become a discussion point between me and actors he had worked with, because they all love and miss him.)

She told me he would sit in the back of the room and project a call of "Action" that almost scared her. Even better, when show star Gillian Anderson got tired, she would often get giggly and Kim could be heard going "no, no, no, no!" in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the giggles.

During her first two-part appearance on the show, Veronica's character Cassandra Spender was abducted out of a wheelchair on a bridge full of people. She did the entire stunt, revealing that they actually shot it backwards, with her starting up at the highest point and being lowered down. And Gillian called to her "bend your knees" to reflect the fact that she was supposed to be unable to move them on her own.

No one else was at their tables yet, so we went to stand on Robby Benson's line and waited for the silver marker on Veronica's autograph in my X-Files yearbook to dry. And waited and waited and waited. But the time was well spent, I performed lines from "Ice Castles" for a woman standing behind us. The funniest one was blind Lexie reaching out and crying "Nick! Nick!" And when people started crossing in front of us to get to other parts of the room, I used that one a lot.

Can't really say much about Robby Benson, because he didn't say a lot, but he chuckled at the "Nick, Nick" recreation. One of my earliest crushes, he still looks great, but I kind of got the "move along vibe" before I could mention how much I loved "One on One" or that I just recently saw "Harry & Son" and "Die Laughing."

Had a hard time finding John James' table, because he had no banner and there was kind of bottleneck on that side of the room, but we eventually did. And he was as charming as Jeff Colby could have ever thought of being on "Dynasty."

We discussed how different the two Fallons on the show were, he said Emma Samms was just as sweet as can be, while Pamela Sue Martin was a spitfire. I recalled that a couple years ago, I met Pamela Sue at a table about 10 feet away from where he was sitting. He said she had tried to come back for this year's event, but it didn't work out.

We also had some laughs when taking the photo, particularly since I had told him that he was the actor most women were jealous of me getting to meet that day. Plus my line: "Twenty dollars to touch John James? I'll take that deal!" Followed by Mark's line: "Make that $25" and then John's line: "Make that $30."

Next we stood on line for Brooke Smith, who wasn't there yet due to a late flight. And that gave us some quality time with her Chiller next-door neighbor, Brenda Strong.

I saw the gorgeous statuesque actress and her handler struggling to take a selfie, so I sent my photographer -- Mark -- over to do it for them. She was very grateful, I told her how great I thought she was on "Sports Night" and she deemed me a smart lady for knowing her from that great and unfortunately short-lived series.

Then later, we noted a couple of spelling mistakes in Brenda's banner. She grabbed a magic marker and quickly remedied the situation as best she could, to lots of cheers and applause from those in the immediate vicinity.

It was Brooke Smith's first convention and she didn't even get to eat her Chinese food with a line queued up and ready to see her. Knowing that everyone throughout the weekend would be talking "Silence of the Lambs," I went with my other favorite part of hers -- the starring role in "Series 7: The Contenders." No one else on the line even knew what I was talking about when I asked whether they'd seen it.

But she seemed reallllly excited when I presented my "Series 7" DVD cover. She told me that Will Ferrell is a big fan of the movie, that it's becoming more difficult to find for sale and she thinks he's been hording all the copies of it for himself. She said she had just introduced Marilyn Manson to the movie.

I kept saying over and over how brilliant she is in it. Brooke played a pregnant woman forced to participate in a reality game show in which she has to win several times to gain her freedom. It's very very funny, but there are some scary truths about the world that also reveal themselves during the course of the film.

And then ... THE most embarrassing thing when I accidentally copped a feel while we were taking the picture. I was just trying to move arm as she put hers around me, but then it was the reverse Julie Warner instead! (You might remember that a previous event, while trying to get past me in a crowded room, the actress brushed against my chest.) I guess that makes us even Steven, Chiller!