Bonnie Hunt Is My New Best Friend

Okay...not really. I've never met her. But I've been a huge fan of hers for a long time. I just think she's so warm and funny and charming onscreen, and I've somehow always thought of her as my cool older sister.

Like me, she's among the youngest in a large Irish German Catholic family, is from Chicago, and trained at Second City.

Unlike me, she's starred in movies with Dustin Hoffman, Steve Martin, and Robin Williams. She's also a writer, director and television producer.

She disarms David Letterman (with whom she's created two television shows) by simply walking onto his set, a trait she shares with one of my other favorite comedy ladies, Amy Sedaris. And she just seems like a real person, and someone who is genuinely warm and caring.

My brother has been directing Bonnie in an event he's been working on and they've been doing some rehearsals this week.

Last night while I was managing producing duties at ChUC (which was an amazing show, by the way), my brother sent me a text: "I'm hanging out with Bonnie Hunt."

I wrote back: "Tell her I love her."

Then I thought, "no! I should have said 'tell her I'm producing a stand-up showcase in Chicago -- and I love her!' I want to sound cool!" But it was too late.

Today he e-mailed me this picture of them, taken with her phone. Apparently when he told her how much I love her, she insisted that he take a picture for me.

"She's as warm and straight-up as you'd expect her to be," he said. "After kissing my left cheek (which I haven't washed yet) she headed toward her car and said 'say 'hi' to your sister!"