Celebrity spotting at the Big Texan

The first day's visit of the Panorama staff at the newspaper offices began in a pretty normal fashion but ended with some excitement at the Big Texan.

The agenda included presentations about the exchange program and the Panorama newspaper to our staff, followed by a tour of the newspaper as well as the first training sessions about human resources and the Internet.

Food is always an interesting issue, so we never know what will work.

But Monday's lunch at Abeulo's was a home run. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Monday night was a trip to the place most everyone takes their friends and family when they visit Amarillo: the Big Texan. Bobby Lee helped arrange a ride in the limo with horns from the hotel to the restaurant for the group.

And while the food was good and the atmosphere was, as always, very interesting, our Ukranian friends got a special treat.

Right before ordering, two of them spotted a person who they thought was David Duchovny. They raced over to the table and sure enough, there he was eating with his family, including his wife Tea Leoni.

I'm told the Tea has family ties to Amarillo and that she once spent summers here with her grandparents. Maybe you know more details about it.

But Duchovny seemed to be more well known in Ukraine, perhaps because the X Files star has Ukrainian roots. I was told that his grandparents were originally from Ukraine and he even spoke a little Russian - the language of Eastern Ukraine - while taking photos with the group at the Big Texan. Duchovny is apparently a very Ukranian name and he has previously support free elections in the country.

I'm not sure if everyone in the group knew about Duchovny's recent battles with sex addiction, perhaps online pornography - or so the tabloids say. It seems that Duchovny and Leoni are still together and were enjoying family time in Amarillo.

The Ukrainians were able to get their picture taken with him for proof, including Olena in the photo above. Duchovny was extremely nice and accommodating.

I think everyone was surprised that they would travel 7,000 miles and see a star they know in their home country.