How do I approach those I admire?

Yesterday I was serfing for interesting articles and I found someone who had Leo Laporte as their friend.  And it sort of hit me how close I could actually become to interacting with the people in the media that I respect and admire. 

I'm an avid watcher of G4 Tech TV when I'm at work and I download the podcasts when I'm at home because I don't get that channel with my Cable (I don't watch much TV at home anyways so no point in subscribing for a G4 subscription really.) and in fact my decision to join Vox was due to watching a re-run of Call for Help where he pitched the Vox beta. 

It never occurred to me before yesterday that I could use the internet to correspond with those I admire and have influenced me.  I went to Leo's blog and started reading, it's great stuff he's obviously been doing this for a while, and it shows in the style of his writing and the subject matter. And I have to admit he's light-years ahead of me regarding tech knowledge, and I try and keep up a lot. 

If I wanted to, I could put all sorts of comments on his site telling him how much I like his show and how glad I am that I found his blog, and I bet he'd even read some of them... but I don't.

I respect people such as this for their success, and I look to them for drive and inspiration to hopefully achieve success myself in the things I like.  I would love to start a correspondance with Leo and some of the other people I see in the media that inspire me, but I know that these people are busy, they probably get thousands of e-mails per day from guys like me, and simply don't have the time.

Everyone, know matter how rich, famous or intelligent has people they admire.  And I imagine for the most part people 'like' to be admired especially for something they've worked hard at.  But how do you go from a simple handshake and saying "I love your work."  to establishing a meaningful dialog?

I guess that lies in the give-and-take of the first moments of the conversation... there has to be some reason why this busy person would continue to spend his-or-her time listening or reading what you have to say. 

So what do I have to say?

...

*Silence*

...

I'll get back to you on that.