“HawthoRNe” star Michael Vartan recently became engaged and he has opened up for the first time about how he found his ladylove — in the fruit aisle.
“I saw her in the produce section and I thought to myself, ‘I’ve gotta find a way — I’ve got to jockey position in this checkout line or something,’” Michael told Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush recently of his first sighting of fiancee Lauren Skaar at a supermarket. ” I saw her and I was I was quite stunned.”
Unable to muster up enough mojo to approach her in the store, it was upon second sight that Michael made his move.
“As I was leaving, I saw her putting her groceries into the trunk of her car and I just thought, ‘This is it, man!’” Michael recounted. “Life’s too short! Just…”
“Do or die,” Billy chimed in.
“Seriously,” Michael said. “I mean, this could be the mother of your children, or she could just say no and you could go on with your day.”
Michael eventually approached Lauren, but didn’t manage to make a suave introduction.
“I was like a blubbering idiot,” he said. “I didn’t really know what to do.”
The actor – a former star of ABC’s “Alias” and Drew Barrymore’s leading man in “Never Been Kissed” – managed to get Lauren to accept his e-mail address, but he left the parking lot thinking it was hopeless.
“I think she felt sorry for me and [taking my e-mail] was a way to not let me down too hard ‘cause she thought there’s a chance this poor blubbering idiot might commit suicide if I say no, so it was like, ‘Here, don’t kill yourself. Give me your e-mail,’” Michael, 41, recounted. “The minute she left I thought, ‘Well, that’s never gonna happen. Way to go idiot! You blew yet another chance at love! But she e-mailed me.”
Lauren actually contacted Michael that very afternoon despite his awkward introduction, but it had nothing to do with the actor being a TV and film star.
”[She had] no idea who I was and what makes it even more exciting — she didn’t write it down,” Michael explained of his contact details. “I gave her my e-mail and I must have asked her 15 times, ‘Did you get it? Are you sure? What is it? Repeat it?’ And she was like, ‘Dude! Relax. I got it!’ It was hilarious.”
The two didn’t start dating right away, but they did begin a simple technology-laden courtship.
“We didn’t actually hang out per se for a few months but there was a lot of innocent texting and e-mailing – things like that,” he explained.
As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, according to her LinkedIn profile, Lauren graduated with a BA in psychology from UC Santa Barbara in 2006 and works in marketing and advertising.
Previously – in March — Michael told Access he is thrilled to be engaged.
“I’m very lucky,” he said of his girlfriend turning into his fiancee.
The two have not yet set a date, however, for their wedding.
“HawthoRNe” returns for Season 2 on June 22 at 9 PM on TNT.
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