Skip to content

Breaking News

Author
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:

Ask on youtube and you shall receive. That’s the lesson Jason Segel superfan and Wrigleyville resident Chelsea Gill learned after she posted a video of herself asking “The Muppets” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” star out through song Monday.

Segel unexpectedly took Gill up on the offer Saturday and had the recent Indiana graduate and her twin sister meet him for drinks at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. Afterward, the twins accompanied Segel to the Chicago Film Critic Awards at the Broadway Playhouse in Water Tower Place.

“I never thought that Jason would ever hear the song,” Gill, 23, said by email Sunday. “My roommates thought it was funny and cute and told me to post it on YouTube so my other friends could see it. Then it blew up.”

The video features only Gill and her guitar. She said she spontaneously wrote the song in a half hour January 1 while watching “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”

“Oh, Jason Segel you’re the ring to my Smeagol, won’t you sing a quirky ballad just for me,” sang Gill, an aspiring actress. “I know you’re super busy with Sarah Marshall and Miss Piggy, I swear I’m worth your time just wait and see.”

As of Sunday, the video has been watched over 180,000 times.

“My favorite thing, maybe ever,” Segel tweeted about the video Wednesday. “I am in awe. … Response on the way — I’m gonna need a couple days on this one.”

How did Gill react when she saw Segel’s tweet?

“I freaked out,” Gill said. “I just started screaming and running around my house. I called my sister, my parents, my best friend; I was freaking out. My downstairs neighbor probably thought I was getting murdered because I was running around screaming.”

Segel received the Commedia Extraordinaire Award for contributions to the art of film comedy during Saturday’s Chicago Film Critic Awards.

His trip to Chicago also included a stop at Mother’s Too in the Gold Coast Friday (he was by himself and drank Guinness) and a late-night performance at Second City around 12:45 am Sunday (he took the stage during the third act of “South Side of Heaven.”).

The 31-year-old Segel was said to be incredibly nice in both instances and – in the case of Mother’s Too – posed for photos with any patron who asked for one.

“He’s really a wonderful person,” Gill said. “He is so down to earth, sweet and humble; just a sweetheart.”

On the record: “Maybe in some way I’m a little bit of a messenger. Maybe God knew that I have a big mouth, that I’m a loud Italian chick, that I wouldn’t hide anything. It now starts to make sense to me why I think I got the cool job, because I think HE knew I would do some cool stuff with it.” – “E! News” host Giuliana Rancic discusses her breast cancer in her upcoming Michigan Avenue magazine cover story.

Heads up: Kerry Wood and several of his Cubs teammates will get behind the bar and also serve food at “Woody’s Winter Warm-Up,” which benefits the Wood Family Foundation, at Harry Caray’s Tavern at Navy Pier Friday. Plain White T’s and former The Academy Is… singer William Beckett are scheduled to perform. … The Cubs’ Ryan Dempster will host his third annual D’Agostino’s Family Night of Fun at D’Agostino’s Pizza and Pub in Wrigleyville Thursday. Proceeds benefit the Ryan and Jenny Dempster Family Foundation.

Sightings: Oscar-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr. had dinner at Niu Japanese Fusion Lounge in Streeterville Friday and hung out with “Red Tails” co-stars Terrence Howard and Nate Parker at Brando’s Speakeasy in the Loop and the Underground later that night. Gooding Jr. dined at Chicago Cut Steakhouse Saturday. … The Blackhawks’ Duncan Keith had dinner at Japonais Saturday. … Former “One Tree Hill” star Chad Michael Murray and Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein dined separately at Paris Club Wednesday. Actress Jenny McCarthy hung out at Paris Club Saturday.

Twitter @aboutluisgomez