So Sarah Smith was just hanging around the chat room she launched last winter, yukking it up with Brian Baumgartner, co-star of The Office, when she nervously asked him if he’d like to do a live chat.

Yeah, big-time TV stars hang around at Smith’s Web site. Well stars of The Office do, anyway. It is TheOfficeChat.com, after all. More impressive than that, though, was how fast Baumgartner agreed. To Smith it was just one more reason why this show has such a manic online following.

“I really think a lot of it has to do with the actors on the show, because they make themselves so accessible,� the 29-year-old mother of two from Atlanta said today.

(Part VIII in a series. Part I. Part II. Part III. Part IV. Part V. Part VI. Part VII.)

“It’s just been this momentum,� she said of its unexpected growth. “The Web site has really added to my obsession with the show, because now I feel like I’m in this big club. We’re all in it together. We all log into the chat room. We watch it together.�

In fact, 93 of them watched it together the night of the Season 3 finale one month ago.

Her first big Office epiphany – or, as Michael Scott might say, epiphery – was when the documentary crew caught Dwight in his underwear at the end of “The Client� early in Season 2. She came to love the show, but she insists she wasn’t obsessed, not yet anyway.

She later came across Jenna Fischer’s mySpace page and wanted to leave a message. But you need your own mySpace page to do that. So she created one and friended a bunch of Fischer’s friends. It didn’t start out as a shrine to all things Dunder-Mifflin. Smith connected with old friends and relatives, even posted pictures of her two girls.

Before long, though, The Office took over.

“My mother-in-law and sister-in-law don’t even visit my mySpace page because they don’t even like the show and it has nothing to do with them,� she admits. “I used to post pictures of my children and my daughter’s first birthday party, but now I don’t do any of that.�

Not long after she launched the site, she logged into the chat room while also chatting on the phone with Rainn Wilson, who plays the role of Dwight. She’d won the phone call in an online auction. When she mentioned the chat room, Wilson logged on. The room filled up with fans.

“Rainn and I talked for about 45 minutes, and he was very gracious and very nice to everybody,� she recalls. “So then he said, ‘I’m going to go tell everybody on the set about your Web site.’�

Within 10 minutes, several cast members, including Fischer and Kate Flannery, who plays Meredith, logged on too. Smith was overcome, mainly by Wilson’s kindness, she says.

Cast member visits are not only commonplace but carefully organized now. Just this past Monday, Bobby Ray Schafer, who plays Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration, was a guest chatter. A transcript of the live Q&A with him is posted at the site, and he followed it by chatting with fans for 20 minutes.

This Monday, Smith says Baumgartner will fulfill his promise to chat.

“He’s a lot of people’s favorite character,� she says of the burly Kevin Malone, “so I’m really excited that he agreed to do it. And I’m getting a lot of great questions.�

Four other cast members have agreed to follow this summer, but Smith asked that they not be revealed because scheduling isn’t set . Let’s just say no fan is going to want to miss any of them.

The site, which she spends roughly five hours a day working on, has become an outlet for her passion for the show. It’s a way to connect with others who share that passion, which is good since none of her family or friends does.

“They don’t understand ‘That’s what she said’ and all my little Office-isms. And you know, when you love something, you want to share it. You want to meet other people who love the same thing you love,� she says.

Besides planning to attend The Office Convention in Scranton, Pa., this fall, Smith is also coordinating a fan gathering in Georgia for August. Two dozen people have already plunked down $50 to attend the Home Run Luncheon. Details are at the site.

While Michael Scott gets the biggest laughs and Jim Halpert has the ladies swooning, Dwight is Smith’s favorite character. He’s awesome and he doesn’t even know it, she explains.

What about Jim and Pam? A lot of people think they’re already an item. Not Smith.

“Because that’s just a big part of the show,� she says. “So I’m fine to watch them moon over each other and not say what they really feel because I know one day they will, one day. And when they do it’s going to be the end of the show, and I’m going to be completely depressed.�

So what are Jim and Pam doing right now?

“Right now—oh this is a good question. What are they doing right now? Jim and Pam are whispering to each other about their new prank that they’re about to pull on Dwight.�

So they’re together, then? Jim hasn’t gone back to New York, or worse, to Karen? But what about their date? Smith expects a romantic evening together will completely freak these two out and they’ll go back to being friends. It’s not a popular opinion, she knows.

“I’m totally fine with it,� Smith says. “Because if they got together and got married and had babies that would totally mess up the whole dynamic of the show.�

Bonus Round

1. Jim or Dwight: Dwight


2. Jam or Karim: Jam


3. Dwangela or Jachael: Dwangela


4. Poor Richard’s or Chilis: I would have to say Chilis, because they have really good hamburgers.


5. Pink the color or Pink the person: Pink the color


6. Stamford or Scranton: Scranton


7. The Conference Room or the Parking Lot of Doom: The conference room because you never know what’s going to happen in that conference room. More crazy stuff has happened in the conference room than the parking lot.


8. Season 2 or Season 3: Oh dear, I don’t know how to answer that. Can I say both?


9. Beet farmers or volunteer sheriff’s deputies: Beet farmers


10. David Brent or Michael Scott: I love David Brent. I do not have any problem with the BBC version. I own them all. But I’ve got to stay true to Michael Scott, but you’ve got to put a little side note that I love David Brent too.


11. Jazz Babies posters in the office or JamaicaJanSunPrincess posters in the warehouse: Jazz Babies