"A camera is a powerful force."

Another friend, Craig Bruning, approached them, laughing.

"Mike, man "

Mr. Molinari wiped his head.

"Man, the minute they turned that camera on, you just started sweating and sweating and - "

"Hey, it's hot in here!"

This happened late yesterday afternoon at the bar in Mutt Lynch's Old Dog Saloon on the east side. Sitting across from them was Katie Holmes, elbows on the table talking to brother Marty and mother Kathy, with her best friend, Meghann Birie.

The guys were there at the request of Marty, an old friend and classmate. Some knew Katie. Some, like Mr. Molinari, hadn't seen her since she was knee-high.

She was home for a couple of days shooting an episode of the MTV series Diary. The show is scheduled to air in mid September, just before the opening of her new comedy, First Daughter.

The premise is simple: you get a first-person account of a ce-

lebrity. "I show them the different parts of my life, the places, the people in it," she said. This meant going for the Katie Holmes Triangle of Travel: They hit Los Angeles, New York City, and finally, wrapped in Toledo.

The tour hit all the hot spots:

The Holmes' kitchen, for instance, where Katie, Meghann, and Katie's mom baked cookies. Cafe Donuts on Monroe Street. Barry Bagels. They went shopping. The Fifth Third Field staff let them on the grass.

"We are trying to make our lives look interesting," Ms. Birie said.

"We didn't gossip much for the cameras, either," Katie added.

The Old Dog Saloon was an obvious stop. Katie's brother Marty serves as an attorney for some of the owners. One of them, Lee Fought, and his wife, Jackie, have been "long, close friends" with the Holmes family for years. They all huddled around the table and played catch up and the woman with the camera, Brett Levner, said she wasn't really listening, just paying attention to the image.

She was a Diary veteran and had shot the episodes with singer Beyonce and actor Matthew Lillard. When pressed for celebrity gossip, Ms. Levner was professional. She wouldn't gab.

When pressed further, she just sighed. When pressed even further, she adjusted the camera on her shoulder. When asked if Katie was easier to work with than Beyonce or harder to work with than Beyonce, she snapped:

"Better than Beyonce."

When it was over, Katie tugged at her Mud Hens cap. "The thing is we wanted to have fun with this and pick a lot of restaurants and places we know, and hopefully, I can help give them a little publicity. The way I see it - this is self-promotional for all of us."

Ten feet away sat a middle-aged man with a toothpick in his mouth who didn't want his name in the newspaper. He kept his back to the Holmeses the entire 40 minutes or so they were there. He watched the Olympics. "Oh, yeah, I've seen her before," he said, eyes never leaving the television screen.

"What do I think of Katie Holmes being in this bar right now? She's old enough."

Contact Christopher Borrelli at:

cborrelli@theblade.com

or 419-724-6117.

First Published August 27, 2004, 12:33 p.m.