DVD: Hitch (2005)

When this movie opened, some friends emailed me with a startling observation. They were convinced that character actor Adam Arkin, appearing as a New York newspaper editor, was, in fact, playing me.

“It was like he was channeling you,” they said, finding it so eerie that they had to comment on it during the movie.

I saw Arkin in person once, over 10 years ago. At the time he had a recurring role on NORTHERN EXPOSURE, which filmed outside Seattle, and seeing cast members on the streets of the city was a common occurrence.

I was leaving a coffee shop when I saw him. I did my patented I-know-who-you-are-but-I’m-not-making-a-big-thing-out-of-it half-smile, a deft social gesture that has won the hearts of the great and the near-great. Arkin nodded amiably at me in return.

Having seen the movie, I can now only assume that somewhere in that transaction, the actor was able to capture my essence. To download my soul, as it were.

Part of it is that we have the same haircut. Close-cropped but stylish, projecting an unforced masculinity. Or so my barber tells me. But the man has the rest of me down pat: facial expressions, head movements, rhythm of speech, general attitude. And above all, the innate decency.

Of course, I’m not the best judge. I don’t watch myself all day. Mainly because I haven’t figured out how to get paid for it. So I was relying on Rosemarie’s opinion.

She cackled every time my doppelganger appeared. Her final verdict: “I can see it. I can definitely see it.”

Arkin doesn’t get much screen time, but I’m more of a second banana anyway. Always leave ‘em wanting more, that’s my motto.