I was almost out of the room when I thought I spotted Michael Chiklis, and ambled over to chat.
It wasn’t too surprising to see the star of The Shield at last Thursday night’s event, a reception thrown by Fox Cable Networks for local advertisers in the New York City area. Actors, producers and writers of FX’s Damages and Rescue Me were there, and The Shield, FX’s hit cop drama, returns Sept. 2 for a seventh and last season. So of course that was “Vic Mackey” himself, puffing on a stogey at the outdoor rooftop bar in New York’s Hotel Gansevoort.
Being a fan of the show, and remembering how nice he was when he came to our show-daily newsroom at the National Show in New Orleans in 2002, I went over and, after asking if he was Chiklis, asked how he was doing, thanked him for coming by the newsroom that time – and then realized he was putting me on.
He’s not Chiklis. His name is Seamus Warakomski and he’s the owner and sales manager at Tri-City Appliance Heating & Cooling in Milford, Conn. He buys ads on cable networks, including FX, via Comcast Spotlight, and was there with his wife, Phyllis, far right in the enclosed photo; Comcast Spotlight’s Amber Dodge and NCC executive Joe Smyth (far left), among others.
The next day (Friday), he told me 14 people came up to him thinking he was Chiklis, which made me feel better, especially after some FX people told me he was much less than a “dead ringer” which was my description. Taller than Chiklis, and weighs less. Sounds enough like him to pass for at least a few seconds, though, if I’m an accurate judge.
“Some of the times they were doing the Rock Man pose to me and I didn’t know what they were doing,” Warakomski said. Rock Man as in The Thing, whom Chiklis has played in two Fantastic Four movies.
He had snaps taken with Rescue Me and Damages stars. He said he had hoped to meet Denis Leary, who wasn’t there; the rumor (not from Seamus) was Leary isn’t welcome at the hotel after some shenanigans there after a cast party in 2005 that got written up in the New York Post (I can’t find a suitable link).
One other absent star was on his mind, too.
“I was really hoping that Chiklis would be there,” Warakomski said. “I could finally get a picture [with him].”
