The Year in Celebrity Pictures: Dana Barron

Celebrity: Dana Barron, best known as the original (and best) Audrey Griswold in National Lampoon's Vacation, and also as Nikki Witt on Beverly Hills 90210, where she was lucky enough to switch it up and be in one of the greatest scenes in television history
Photo taken: October 30, 2011, at the Parsippany Hilton, as part of the Chiller Theatre convention

Burt Young was cool, but this is the reason why I stayed up all night in Milwaukee so I could catch the bus that would take me to Chicago to catch my plane to LaGuardia and then my ride to Parsippany. I will go through a lot to meet a Griswold, or at least an OG Griswold (I would make no such effort to meet the other living Audreys; Dana Hill [RIP] had Zabka as an on-screen boyfriend, so I might've done the same for her). My Vacation VHS now awaits only Beverly D'Angelo's signature to reach completion, or as close to completion as I plan to get.

Ms. Barron was very nice and totally into the signed VHS. She asked about where I got everybody else and did her best not to say anything disparaging about Randy Quaid, saying, after careful deliberation, "All that stuff you read about him, yeah, that's pretty much him." She also succesfully upsold me on the copy of her Vacation script that she was selling. I think I bought one on eBay at one point, but this one was a copy of her very own script, with her notes in it and some extra material she added. How could I not buy it, right? Anyway, she apologized for there being a few missing pages of the bonus stuff because of a copying snafu but she took my e-mail address so she could send me the PDFs later (yeah, that's right, Dana Barron sent me an e-mail...not bragging, just saying). She also seemed very into the idea of me selling the signed script on eBay and suggested not personalizing it so I could do so, but I told her I was keeping it for myself.

I would once again like to pat myself on the back for not, to the best of my knowledge, saying anything completely ridiculous to her while on no sleep. I did take five pictures with her (partially because of flash-related issues), but, hey, meetings with Griswolds (and Griswold relatives) need to be properly documented (come to think of it, none of the other ones were, and that makes me a little sad). The one above was #2, and I think we make a swell couple.