Is Katy Perry way out of your league? Join the club. Because, you know what? It's not a bad club. We're a sizable bunch and we accept our place, even though we're all pretty sure that if she just got a chance to know "the real us"…okay, nevermind. Look, some of us just weren't born to charm pop stars.
Dutch Gaitley, on the other hand, well that guy seems to have it down pat.
For those of you unfamiliar his work, Gaitley is a 6-9, 240-pound basketball playing forward who recently completed his final year of collegiate eligibility with coach Fran Dunphy's Temple Owls after a transfer from Monmouth. In his brief time on campus, Gaitley achieved a sort of minor celebrity as part of a group of frequently standing, towel waving, exuberantly clapping substitutes toward the end of the Temple bench.
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Nicknamed "The Parliament," an allusion to "a group of Owls," Gaitley, the red-shirted Jimmy McDonnell and the walk-on Jake Godino maximized their visibility via a mastery of "new media." From their Facebook page, to their individual Twitter feeds, to their collective blog, to their (available for online purchase) t-shirts, there's been no shortage of Parliament advertising on or around North Broad.
But last weekend, thanks once more to the joys of social networking, something special happened, something that would spread Dutch's online celebrity to the tops of the highest Twitter mountains. Enter that chick who may or may not have "kissed a girl and liked it," Katy Perry.
Allow us a moment to set the scene. On July 15th, Gaitley was in the process of mentally preparing himself to watch the final installment of the Harry Potter saga. Sensing that the event would require so much of his focus that he felt the inescapable need to make it clear to his online following that he was not to be disturbed, Dutch tweeted:
I don't care if @katyperry herself tweets at me during this movie, there is zero chance of me answering #HarryPotter
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Well, as you may have guessed, and as we learned from the Inquirer this morning, Ms. Perry took it upon herself to test Dutch's resolve, tweeting back:
@DGaitley_45Owl: So this is a bad time?
Following the film's completion, with his attention now diverted from muggles or whatever, Gaitley was able to make some virtual time for the Grammy-nominated sensation:
@katyperry movies over now, we can talk
Sadly, to our knowledge, Dutch has yet to receive a response from Perry. Did he totally blow it? We'll never know. Still, his handling of the situation reminds of us a certain song from late 2008. For Dutch Gaitley, karaoke nights might never be the same again.