Like this: A couple months ago, I saw Kevin Costner at a Fresno State/Cal-State Fullerton baseball game. True story. But I wouldn't waste your time with that. Why? Because I just saw him. A glimpse from maybe 30 yards. That's it. Besides, you can't drop a bucket of chicken in Fullerton without hitting Kevin Costner in the foot.

A good celebrity story should have a little more meat on it. So here it is: On a flight from Minneapolis to L.A. this weekend, I sat next to Marisa Coughlan.

Now, you might be thinking, "Who is Marisa Coughlan?" There's no shame in that, because I was thinking the same thing. Actually, I was thinking, "How do I know this person?"

Did I date her once? Is she a friend of a friend? Is she someone who looks like a celebrity?

It was a three-hour flight, and I sat there the entire time trying to figure out who she was. For whatever reason, I thought she was an actress on a TV show. I mean, we were flying to L.A. right? But why would someone on a TV show -- especially one popular enough that I'd have seen it -- be flying coach and wearing a Minnesota Twins baseball cap? And it wasn't a trucker hat. It wasn't tilted to the side, like she was trying to be trendy or something. It was worn and bent properly. I had the distinct feeling that she probably knew how to keep score, and possibly the names of most of the Twins starting lineup.

I asked the guy next to me if he thought she was an actress and he said, "I've never seen her, and I watch a lot of TV." (OK, technically, Marisa and I were not sitting directly next to each other. She was in 6C and I was in 6D, and the aisle was between us, just enough space that I could whisper about her possible identity.)

So about halfway into the flight, she pulls out a laptop and starts scrolling through a script, so I knew she was an actress. But who? In my head, I was running through blonde actresses, and kept getting her confused with Amanda Detmer, the almost-nun from the movie "Saving Silverman," and Ellen Pompeo, the lead in "Grey's Anatomy," and also the blonde who dies in "Patch Adams," whatever her name is.

That's how bad it got. After about two hours, I had so many people in my head I couldn't have picked Marisa Coughlan out of lineup of Barbara Bush, the Olsen Twins and Gary Busey.

Thinking of TV shows wasn't helping either because on "Ally McBeal" alone there were three women who looked similar to her -- Calista Flockhart, Courtney Thorne-Smith and Jane Krakowski -- or at least they seemed similar to an exhausted person on a late-night, cross-country flight.

Eventually, we landed and as we were exiting, I just had to ask her. I recognize you, but I don't know from where. Which celebrities just love. That's the double-whammy. Not only am I going to bother you in public, but I'm also going to point out that you're not quite famous enough for me to know your name.

What could I do, though? In another seven hours I'd have been in the fetal position, rocking back and forth, muttering about "According to Jim" getting an Emmy nomination.

We talked as we left the plane, down the corridor and into LAX. She said I probably recognized her from "Boston Legal," where she makes appearances as James Spader's assistant. Her character is crazy at times and has a crush on Spader's character.

"They make me up on that show," she said. "I don't really look like that."

I told her I wrote a sports column in Fresno and she actually seemed to be interested. Turns out she's from Minneapolis. She was genuine and nice, and for reasons I don't quite understand, I feel like you should know that. What can you say? Midwestern girls are just cool.

What kills me, though, is that she was Officer Hanson in one of my favorite movies: "Super Troopers." I know about 20 quotable lines from that movie, which would have been cute for at least 45 seconds.

We could have talked the entire flight. She would have totally fallen for me, and I would have had to let her down easy, which would have been uncomfortable, agreed, but at least it would have passed the time.