There's Something About Pendleton

I remember something else about Austin Pendleton: we were sitting in a big room with a lot of MTV people when someone told us that Austin Pendleton would be in our pilot. Simultaneously, Mr. Ward and I yelled really loudly and passionately: "AUSTIN PENDLETON!!!!" and everyone stared at us in appalled silence. For you see, as the world's biggest nerds, Mr. Ward and I were huge Austin Pendleton fans, and the only persons in the room (aside from the casting director - who was Christian Slater's MOTHER [!?!]) who had any idea who Austin Pendleton was. In a perfect world, our Austin Pendleton knowledge would have made us heroes, but to the cool people all around us it branded us as Austin Pendletons. To burnish Mr. Ward's previous anecdote (see the "link" above): Austin Pendleton was far too classy to insult us outright, as I recall. What we overheard was Austin Pendleton inquiring in his subdued, nearly musical Austin Pendleton way, "Who do you suppose this is FOR?" (referring to our script) and Dan Lauria replying, "It ought to be rated 'M' for morons!"