When you e-mail me through the site, there is a notice that says this:

STOP: If you are going to ask Eric how to contact a celebrity, DON’T. Eric has no such information for ANY famous person. If you ask him anyway, despite this warning, Eric will write back and tell you how stupid you are. And he’ll be right to do so.

You’ll need to know that as you read this e-mail that I received recently, with the subject line “contact Bill Fichtner”:

Eric, I’m not stupid I would just like to get this message to Bill. I meet a lot of celebrities at the Greenbier hotel where my shop is but I ran into Bill in Costa Rica.
If you can help, thanks, if not, don’t bother telling me how stupid I am.

Hey Bill, I met you and a friend at the Orquideas hotel in Costa Rica. Had a bit of breakfast with you and didn’t realize until later that I had seen you in many movies.
If you’re ever in Greenbrier Co. WV please look me up. My website is [website provided].
good luck with your career and it was nice to meet you
Tom [last name]

True to my word, I wrote back to Tom:

You’re actually among the stupidest. You read the notice that said I don’t know how to contact any celebrities, then wrote to me anyway and even acknowledged that you’d read it. What part of “I don’t know how to contact any celebrities” don’t you understand? You thought maybe Bill Fichtner was the ONE exception? Seriously: stupid.

That’s kind of mean, I know, but I did warn him. Bill Fichtner, by the way, is usually credited as William Fichtner, and you’d recognize him. He’s one of those “Hey, it’s that guy!” guys. He’s on “Prison Break,” or at least he was.

“Last One In” is fictional, but author Nicholas Kulish drew on his real experiences as a journalist embedded with the U.S. military during the 2003 invasion of Iraq to tell this engrossing, sometimes satirical story. The novel is about a shallow gossip columnist who gets sent to Iraq with a Marine convoy. (The reason his newspaper makes him go: He happens to have the same name as the incapacitated war correspondent who was supposed to do it, and the Pentagon refuses to change the name on their list at the last minute.) The character arc is standard (Jimmy learns what’s really important in life), and Kulish’s occasional dips into “Catch-22″-style wartime satire don’t mesh with the rest of the book’s more earnest tone. His believable descriptions of Marine culture and the daily routine of waiting in the desert for marching orders are compelling, though. His vivid, humane treatment of the characters will give you a new appreciation for the military and perhaps give clarity to the often-vague idea of “supporting the troops.”