Keri Russell Pulls a Felicity - Moves to New York for Freedom

Don't Look Back

But after this recent flurry of work, is she thinking about another break? This time, she doesn’t hesitate. “I wish I could always take a break,” she says.

It’s natural that we don’t want our collegiate crushes—televisual or otherwise—to grow up or move on. If anything, Felicity’s fans feel this even more fervently, having been personally entwined in her struggles. “I once saw Keri Russell walking down the street,” one admirer posted on, of all places, UrbanBaby.com, an online hangout for New York mothers. “And for a moment I forgot that she was not my friend from college.” Such spit-taking Russell-spotters might be further confused by the fact she once dated Ben—er, Scott Speedman—in real life, and that both Speedman and her other TV suitor, Scott Foley, now live and work in New York.

In fact, a curious by-product of Russell’s West Village escape is the frequent, and slightly jarring, Keri Russell sighting: shopping at Dean & DeLuca (where Felicity worked), chilling at a coffee shop (of the type Felicity chilled at), or, as one person recounted on the celebrity-stalking Website Gawker, boarding the $15 cheapie Chinatown bus to Boston (which, to my recollection, Felicity never took—though it’s a very Felicity thing to do). To spot her in one of these familiar haunts is to feel, if only momentarily, like you’ve been cast as a bit player on some surreal Felicity spinoff. And look, there she is, just as you remember her: that old college friend you always thought would never grow up, but did.

Of course, there are some things old friends can never let go of.

“People still ask me,” she says. She laughs. “It’s unbelievable.” Um, people still ask you—what?

“‘Why did you cut your hair?’”