Dwyane Wade has been captivated by a Young woman.
The NBA legend was co-hosting TODAY with Jenna & Friends on July 8 when Jenna Bush Hager brought up how Brad Pitt said he was star-struck when he met Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, whom he co-starred with in “Thelma & Louise.” That prompted Jenna to ask Wade if he’d ever been star-struck.
“Yeah, I get star-struck, but it’s normally people that you will not understand why, unless you understand me,” he said.
He then told a story about how he and wife Gabrielle Union were out at an event one night in Los Angeles before he grasped what the Hollywood lifestyle is like.
“We were out, and I wanted to go,” he continued. “I had put on the wrong shoes. You know, I was trying to look good on the carpet. My feet was killing me, and so I was ready to go. I was probably getting on her nerves. But then, across the room, I saw a character that I love from ‘Scandal.’ The character was Mellie Grant, aka Bellamy Young.”
Young’s character was the wife of Tony Goldwyn’s Fitzgerald Grant, the fictional president of the United States.
“I yelled, ‘Mellie!’” he recalled as a photo of him with her and Union from the night in question splashed on the screen.
“I just screamed it,” he continued. “I didn’t even know that was in me.”
Jenna pointed out that Mellie isn’t Young’s actual name, leading her to ask Wade how Young responded to him.
“She turned around and she looked and waved and came over. And we started chatting it up. And my wife is like, ‘You ready to go?’ I’m like, ‘No,’” he said, while he and Jenna laughed about the meeting.
Wade said he gravitated toward Young’s character watching “Scandal.”
“I just knew her as Mellie,” he said. “You know, I’m a character guy. So when you watch shows, I’m talking about when you’re making sure you’re sitting in front of the TV at a certain hour, you fall in love with the characters. And so Mellie Grant was mine.”
Wade also said he hasn’t seen Young again since the night they met.
“But we have the photo. I’ve never seen that photo. Can I get that?” he said, before Jenna said they would get it to him so he “could blow it up on your wall,” while also mentioning Young, who has been on TODAY, is “the loveliest.”
For her part, Jenna has also been star-struck by none other than the man who sparked the conversation, Pitt. Jenna said she sat next to the “F1 The Movie” star at the U.S. Open.
A photo of them at the tennis tournament then popped up on the screen.
“Are you looking at his glutes?” Wade joked. “Are you trying not to look at him, though?
Jenna said she managed to inch her way closer to him after TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, who was also on hand, stepped away.
“First, Savannah was sitting next to him. That’s her in the blue dress. She got up to go the bathroom. I scooted over,” she said.
Jenna also said her husband, Henry, encouraged her to talk to Pitt.
“Henry was sort of like, ‘Chat him up. Say something to him.’ But I was too nervous. I didn’t. I never said a word.”
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