I was right. Rendezvous provided more than a few great stories.

Unfortunately, since returning from the wide-open land of Wyoming, I’ve been working 12-hour days on a film shoot and am too tired to tell you all my sordid gay camping stories. Plus, I’m too far behind in the rest of my life to spend much time blogging. But rest assured you’ll get the juicy details soon enough, probably early next week.

I’m depressed about Peter Jennings’ death. On our last trip to New York, my friend Penny and I visited the World News Tonight set. After the broadcast, Jennings, who was at this time a year away from his cancer diagnosis, wandered over in our direction to see who we were and what we were doing there, as WNT is a closed set and normally very empty.

We introduced ourselves and spent several minutes chatting with him, just the three of us, about Salt Lake City, skiing, New York, and the news of the day. It was really quite an experience to hear that voice, in person, share his personal opinions regarding the just-broadcast major world events. And seeing that he was intently listening to our humble opinions about what we were discussing was even more unbelievable.

Of all the “famous” people I’ve worked with or spoken to, none impressed me more than Peter Jennings. Seriously. Obviously intelligent and super-talented (did you see him on 9/11? On-air for 16 hours straight?), his humility and friendly regular-guy attitude made me a devoted WNT viewer.

A friend at ABC News told me once how ABC staffers had to watch Peter closely because he was liable to open suspicious boxes addressed to him from fans, or eat homemade cookies mailed from Grandma Public in Des Moines. It certainly wasn’t that he was naive, but rather that he considered himself just another regular guy doing a job. His job just happened to involve fan mail. For a guy like Peter Jennings, there was no reason to think the fan mail was anything but innocent.

The same friend also told me my favorite Jennings story: A few years ago there was a bus-stop poster at Columbus Avenue and about 66th Street (just outside ABC studios) that advertised World News Tonight. The ad included a large portrait of Peter Jennings and for months ABC staffers watched a seemingly-eccentric woman come by each afternoon and tape a carnation to the poster, on Peter’s lapel. After several weeks of this, Peter decided to go down and meet his carnation lady. A number of people tried to talk him out it, of course, but he wasn’t dissuaded and the next time she came by and began to put up the flower, Peter went down and had a conversation with her. He wasn’t worried about his safety or encouraging her strange behavior. Always the journalist, he was curious about who she was and why she took the time to do this. Needless to say, nothing bad happened because of his inquiry, and I don’t even remember what Peter and the woman talked about or if he got his answers. What matters is that regular-guy Peter Jennings just wanted to understand why people were so interested in news-anchor Peter Jennings. The regular Jennings - the real Jennings - had no problem stopping in at the Upper West Side Barnes & Noble for coffee or to discuss with bookstore employees what he was currently reading.

I don’t think the media coverage of Jennings’ death has done justice to his sincerity or his truly human approachability - traits both Tom Brokaw and especially Dan Rather have always sorely lacked. The reports instead seem to hint at an on-air arrogance that I don’t think existed. It certainly didn’t exist in person. Really, I suspect it’s just another right-wing-zealot creation damning our Canadian-influenced “liberal media.”

Believe me: in person, Peter Jennings could have been one of those larger-than-life celebrities that overwhelm and drain everyone around them. Instead, he was deliberately the opposite of that. He made himself our equal, though in reality he was far above. That graciousness is the true measure of star power, and more importantly, the true measure of a human being.