MY PHONE interview with Patrick Dempsey started out oddly enough when he became that rare celebrity to call on time.
"I hate being late," he said. "Don't hold it against me being a celebrity."
It got even odder within the first two minutes when McDreamy (as he's known on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy") and I switched roles (if only I'd become McDreamy) and he asked me a question about his new movie, "Made of Honor" (co-starring Michelle Monaghan and opening Friday).
The question every interviewer dreads.
"What did you think?"
Silence.
"Honestly," he added, turning the knife.
"Come on, you don't want to do that to me," I told him, as if Doctor McDreamy and I were discussing dangerous experimental surgery.
"Yeah, I do," he said. "I really want to hear your feedback. I'll be honest with you. You be honest with me."
Yeesh. Now it was as if I were Meredith Grey.
"Honestly," I said, "I asked the 25-year-old woman who was there what she thought and she really loved it and said she wanted to go back. And I thought, you're the market they're going for."
"Exactly."
"I am not the market you're going for and I had some problems with it."
"Just the logic of it?"
Yikes, I was in film class with Professor Dempsey.
"You want perfectly honest?" I asked, wondering if Dempsey could handle the truth (and if our interview would abruptly end with a click).
"Yes," he insisted, "that's why I asked."
"Your character in this movie is a rich, do-nothing, commitment-phobic cad," I said, "who tries to ruin his best friend's happiest day of her life and you're the hero of the movie. That just fascinated me."
"Right. He's an interesting character, isn't he?"
"How is that guy the hero of a movie? And yet women see you as the hero of the movie and I think that's a testament to your McDreamyness."
"I think it's a complete extension of the McDreamy thing, absolutely, you're right, 100 percent," Dempsey said. "I think it's really interesting that he's such a diabolical character. But that was sort of fun because at least I get to play something different. He isn't squeaky clean."
"But I don't think your female fans are going to see you as a diabolical character in that movie."
"No, but his actions are."
"Yes," I agreed. "Totally."
"But somehow he gets away with it."
Such is life now as Patrick Dempsey, who's gotten through some slow patches in his career and is now a happily married father of three, who drives race cars in his spare time and hopes to move his family out of L.A. so his kids could grow up (like Dempsey did in Maine) with some grass and normalcy around them. Now he's on top of the world, with the mere mention of his name turning hard-bitten Daily News reporters - women who've covered murders, rapes, and other unspeakable tragedies - to jelly.
And in "Made of Honor," he's also on top of the world, albeit a selfish world.
"Not only do you get to pull into every open parking space . . ., " I said.
Dempsey laughed. "That was my favorite part of the movie, driving the Jag around Manhattan."
" . . . But you're kind to old people and you love dogs . . . ."
"Right. So he's not all bad."
"No. But your actions are bad. So for us normal males, the notion that we could get away with any of that stuff . . . "
"Right, I know," he said, laughing.
Since we'd spent our time analyzing movies, "On a related topic," I asked, "In 'My Best Friend's Wedding,' the Julia Roberts character - the female - goes to break up her friend's wedding and doesn't do it. But in this movie the male character does. And you're both the heroes. Do you think that says something about the way Hollywood views your movie's audience?"
"I never thought about that before, but I guess you're right" Dempsey answered. "I wonder if he walked away would it be unsatisfying because [the audience] wants to see them get together."
"Also, since there's a long history of these genre movies going back to Cary Grant and Ralph Bellamy, the Ralph Bellamy role was always played by a nerdier, nebbishier, loser, and in this movie, the 'other guy' is pretty good."
"He's a great guy," Dempsey agreed. "On the surface he's a better relationship. That was the idea, to cast a really good, strong, character so you really like him. But they're just not right for each other."
"In fact, he's more of an alpha male than you are in the movie?"
"Yeah."
"But yet you still get the girl?"
"Thank God." *