Celebrity sighting!

Jonathan Hadley is a genius. Molly's (slightly distant) cousin met us on Perry St. in the West Village this morning to go to brunch. He has lived in New York for 20 years and has lived in his rent-controlled apartment in the village for 15. We won't even talk about how cheap his rent is and how jealous I am.

But we will talk about his choice of brunch and the resulting excitement.

P.S. (not properly placed) We also saw Harry Connick, Jr. Saturday morning when we were on our way to the TKTS line. But that pales in comparison to the one today. (suspense!)

We got to Paris Commune (www.pariscommune.net) around 12:30 and didn't have to wait long for our table of six (me, Jonathan, Elizabeth, Robin Anne, Molly, and Gina).

By the way, if you go, you must order the gingerbread. So good. So at some point, Gina got a shocked (read:starstruck) look on her face and told me to turn around. I turned around, and it was NATALIE PORTMAN.

I turned back around to the table and said, "Oh my god. That's Natalie Portman." After numerous attempts to "discreetly" check her out, and one failed attempt at a "background is much more important than foreground" picture, she got up from the table and walked toward the bathroom. Well, Elizabeth had just left for the bathroom, so we knew she was in for a surprise.

She came back to the table with a very amused look on her face and said that Natalie Portman had accidentally walked in on her. So great.

I mean, less than two hours before we got to the restaurant, I was sitting in my bed reading her Vanity Fair article. Interesting: the two main celebrities with interviews in April's Vanity Fair are Natalie Portman and Teri Hatcher. Hmmm...I could be a relevant-celebrity magnet.