A few years ago, I put up a brief post about a service of process story with a Kansas City connection– and nothing whatsoever to do with the Hague Service Convention. See, Jason Sudeikis (yes, he of Ted Lasso fame) is one of Kansas City’s favorite sons, so when his attorney served a custody action on Olivia Wilde during one of her public appearances, it made the local news here. The Twitterati naturally went berserk, accusing Sudeikis of being an ass (he’s not, and he wasn’t– I’ve met the guy’s parents, and they wouldn’t cotton to misbehavior). He and Wilde have since settled their dispute to the tune of about $30,000 a month, and by all accounts, their kids are doing well.

But another Kansas City service story dropped recently, and it stands in stark contrast to that in Sudeikis v. Wilde. In that case, I speculated that the process server had to get creative, and I thought that’s what this one had to do. But now we have the litigation between actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni (see here if you just have to know more), with a spill-over to the biggest celebrity news in KC right now: Travis and Tay-Tay.*

Seems that either Lively’s or Baldoni’s lawyers– I’m not sure which– needed to hit Taylor Swift with a deposition subpoena, so they hired a (less-than-reputable) ex-cop who hopped over Travis Kelce’s fence at 2 o’clock in the morning. Of course, 87’s security system kicked in, and within minutes the P.D. had the fellow cuffed in the back of a squad car. Turns out the police in Leawood (the tony suburb just across State Line Road from Kansas City, Missouri) are fans of the newly-engaged couple and are motivated to be there when needs must. To be sure, I’d wager there’s a whole lot of lookie-loos trying to catch a glimpse of the Hallbrook development’s most famous residents, so they probably cruise by a lot.

But here’s the thing… these two stories are dramatically different. The process server who placed a manila envelope at Olivia Wilde’s feet didn’t do anything unprofessional. She (yes, she) simly approached, told Wilde that she had something for her, and left it at that. Embarrassing? Sure. A bit of a surprise under not-so-happy circumstances? Of course.

But it didn’t involve criminal trespass and it didn’t require a galactic level of stupidity to even think one could pull it off.

You can give ’em books and you can give ’em books…

** The Chiefs are 6-6 as of this writing. We have to have something else to think about around here, so it may as well be a wedding.