It was the fake West Wing meeting the real West Wing for a brief moment in New Orleans. From Julie Mason's Pool Reports:

**BUT OMG, hold the phone. Rob Lowe is here, too!! Yes - That Rob Lowe. Not dining with the Bush party, of course, but also in the restaurant and sort of....smoldering among the baked ham. The Other West Wing, if you will.***

And:

**ROB LOWE ROB LOWE ROB LOWE**

Before leaving the restaurant, Rob Lowe and his two little kids came back to where the pool was holding and accosted April Ryan. Apparently, Rob Lowe had overheard certain poolers singing a selection from his profound, seminal work, "St. Elmo's Fire." Specifically, this pooler and the radio pooler were singing, "I Can Dream About You." Badly.

Since we can't be but who we are, the amiable encounter quickly devolved into a press conference. Rob Lowe, who seemed to welcom this development, said he is in town starting production tomorrow on a TNT Christmas movie called "A Perfect Day."

Rob Lowe said he had never been to New Orleans before. He said the production company suggested either New Orleans or Canada for shooting, and he picked New Orleans. He said he also took a pay cut to make it work.

"They took the bait, and here we are in New Orleans," said Rob Lowe. "It's a good place to bring business to."

Of the Ninth Ward, Rob Lowe said he had been there to see it. "It's so devastating, it's so sad. It looks like it happened last month. It's so depressing."

Asked what he would say to Nagin and Bush, dining in the next room, Rob Lowe demurred, saying "I only play somebody smart enough to ask those questions." (so do we, but whatever)

Unfortunately, the town will appear generically in the movie - and not as New Orleans. He said all of the crew is local and very few people were brought in from LA. Rob Lowe is from LA. Rob Lowe is here a month. Rob Lowe is just really amazingly cute in person. Rob Lowe has left the building.

Oh, but first he got an earful from the entire pool about the unrealistic lighting and access by the press depicted in "The West Wing." He asked about the new WH workspace and got a bitter recounting of conditions in the pool trailer. It was unclear whether he cared, but he was in all things Rob Lowe.