Ask a stupid question, become a pariah

There's always plenty to discuss at the "24" press conference at TV Press Tour - Jack Bauer's gifts for torture and driving from downtown L.A. to New Hampshire in 10 minutes in L.A. traffic being among them.

And so, it was particularly annoying this morning when someone among the assemblage (I hesitate to call her a journalist) asked the cast members a question about how they stay in shape. Why some clown from Fitness magazine (or wherever she was from) wandered into TV Press Tour - and why she decided it was a fine idea to eat up about a huge chunk of press-conference time on a question that no one else in the room was going to be able to use in their stories - is anyone's guess.

(Jack Bauer has a bullet at the ready for buffoons who waste his time.)

So, at lunch, every table was filled - except for the table with that particular questioner, who was sitting alone, until there was absolutely nowhere else for latecomers to sit.

(FYI, they work out and eat right.)