Ian Somerhalder politely declines your

We remember Zachary Quinto stopping by our offices early in Heroes‘ run, and telling us that he’d actually noticed people switch sides of the street so they wouldn’t have to walk by Sylar on the sidewalk. That’s the reaction you get when you play a villain. When you play a bitchy villain, like Ian Somerhalder does as The Vampire Diaries‘ deliciously evil Damon Salvatore — who just made EW’s list of TV’s Best Bitches (in the issue on newsstands tomorrow) — the fans cross the street to get to you.

The actor says fans have asked him to bite various parts of their bodies. His response? “I generally just have to smile and politely decline because there are major problems associated with randomly biting people in the street,” he says. “One of them is legality. Another may be the fact that they’re extremely young and their 6′4″ father’s standing there with a baseball bat. Or that they’re married. Or that my lovely and wonderful girlfriend is standing next to me going ‘Uh-uh, it ain’t gonna happen.’”

I can see how having an actor who embodies a bad-ass vamp pretend to bite you would be a thrill (and a great photo), but I can’t imagine actually approaching one and asking him to do it. Anyone out there care to explain it to me?