Kono tried to steal my girlfriend from me

I can't believe I haven't posted this story yet, but yes, it's exactly as described in the thread title. Zulu, who of course played Kono for the first 4 seasons, tried to steal my girlfriend.

I attended the 1996 Five-O convention in Burbank. I did not go to the Hawaii portion, though now I wish I did. Anyway, the Burbank convention saw attendance of Kam Fong, James MacArthur, Zulu, and Sharon Farrell. If I'm missing any other cast members in attendance, let me know. Jack Lord was still alive, but very sick at that point, so he did not attend.

Zulu was by far the most accessible of the stars in attendance. Kam, James, and Sharon were all nice, but you could tell they were just going through the motions as any celebrity at these type of events would. Zulu was different. He was going around as if he were one of the attendees, and truly wanted to hang out with people.

At first I was very flattered that Zulu wanted to spend time with me. I was 24 years old, my then-girlfriend was 22, and we were the youngest attendees at the convention, for obvious reasons. The only two people who were anywhere near our age were Mark Musante and Julie Helmer (what happened to them, anyway?), but they were still a few years older than me.

But Zulu was spending a lot of time talking to us, answering questions, and just being very social and jovial. When I asked him why he left the Series, he said, "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away", in reference to Jack Lord getting him fired.

However, I came to notice something else. It was not me who Zulu was interested in hanging out with there. It was my 22-year-old girlfriend!

Zulu was sticking to her like glue, trying his best to impress her, and at one point, gave us a whole speech about how she has "special energy" and is a "very unique and wonderful person". It became very clear to both of us that he was just very attracted to her, and was somehow hoping this would lead to her getting to know her better.

I wasn't offended by this. He was 37 years her senior, and despite his (somewhat faded) star status, there was no way she was leaving me for him. Had he been 30 years old, I would have handled this very differently, and probably left the convention with her! She told me that she was very aware that he was into her, and we just laughed about it. Was a good story to tell someday for both of us.

I will admit that I never pictured when I was watching Five-O in reruns that Kono would be trying to steal my girlfriend!

To Zulu's credit, he never said anything directly inappropriate, never touched her, and did not attempt to ask for her phone number. However, I was with her the entire time, so it would have been hard for him to do any of this.

I guess Zulu still had an eye for the young ones!

By the way, it was at this convention where I met Mr. Mike, and haven't seen him in person since then.