| YM Magazine: Katie's Best Friend Speaks!! A junior at Ohio State University, Meghann Birie watched Dawson's Creek every Wednesday, just like millions of other fans. Some nights, after the show is over, the phone will ring and one of her roommates will get it. "They'll put their hands over the phone and say, 'It's Katie Holmes!'" Meghann says with a laugh. Why would the Dawson's diva be calling a dorm room? Because Meghann and Katie are best buds from way back. "We've always been like sisters," Katie says of Meghann. "Ever since kindergarten, when I spotted her in these overalls." Back then, the two girls shared a passion for Barbie. They spent many a play date in their respective Barbie worlds, one in Katie's basement, the other a bike ride away at Meghann's. When the best buds were 11, the dolls put their friendship to the rest. Katie was about to have her first boy girl party. After the two planned everything, including games like passing oranges under the chin and exchanging Life Savers via toothpicks-games they imagined might lead to a first kiss with one of their boy guests-Meghann surveyed the pre-party landscape. To her horror, she saw Barbie dolls everywhere. "Katie, the time has come," Meghann said firmly. "The Barbie dolls have got to go." "She didnt take it well," Meghann recalls nearly a decade later. "But we survived," Katie points out. They also went on to survive the first day of High School (the made Katie's mom drive around the block several times so that they wouldn't get there too early). "We were such nerdy freshmen," Meghann remembers. And two years later, they had to face the realization that Katie was headed for stardom instead of college as they had planned. Yet the girl never questioned their friendship's endurance. And, with a little help from the cell phone, it has never flagged. Consider Katie as she shops. She'll pull out her phone and dial Meghann, who might be on her way to class. "I'm in Nine West," She'll say, "and I'm looking at the boots...not the ones that go up to your calf, but the flat ones...." Or consider Meghann, sitting in class at Ohio State. On the sly, she'll dial Katie on the Dawson's set. "There's this really hot guy in front of me," she'll whisper. "Should I talk to him?" The giggle at this, just two girls from Toledo. Katie's fame doesn't matter to them; they're just ordinary best friends, chatting up a storm. In high school, in fact, they didn't make the cheerleading squad because they talked too much. Meghann and Katie had tons of fun growing up together. They went on secret outing to watch movies their parents deemed inappropriate, such as Girls Just Want to Have Fun, and they videotaped make-believe newscasts in which Meghann played the weather girl and Katie the news anchorwoman, "Janet Jackson." When Katie was a junior in high school, she took a trip to New York City for the International Modeling and Talent Association Convention. She captured the attention of 30 agents, and it wasn't long before she got her first part, in The Ice Storm. Shooting took her away from home-and Meghann-for six weeks. "It was really hard," says Katie. "We had never been apart for that long." Soon after, she scored the role of Joey on Dawson's. And her life hasn't been the same since. Meghann's life has also changed. "I get so many questions about Katie from my roommates! But when they hear me talk about her, they tell me, 'Well, she must be easy to talk to. She must be just like you.' " |