I don’t know Ina Garten, have never met Ina Garten – but if the reports are true – I’m not sure I’d want to.

From TMZ: “Garten, known to many by her TV moniker ‘Barefoot Contessa,’ has refused to meet a 6-year-old boy suffering from cancer, despite his multiple pleas.

The boy, Enzo, is suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia and reached out to Garten through the Make-A-Wish Foundation for the first time three years ago, asking for the celebrity chef to take time to cook with him.

His request fell upon deaf ears, however. Garten’s rep told TMZ, “As much as [Garten] would like to, it’s absolutely impossible for her to grant every request she receives.”

The little boy, who specifically requested to meet Garten because he had watched her show while sick in bed, made a second request through Make-A-Wish, which was met with a “definite no.”

Enzo, who asked his parents, “Why doesn’t she want to meet me?” has chosen another wish, which the foundation has been able to grant — the brave little boy is currently taking lessons to prepare for his new dream: to swim with dolphins.”

She may be busy, true – who isn’t these days? But how many of us, no matter how busy, would not make time for this child? If if you truly are too busy for this – is it perhaps not time to rethink the priorities a bit?

That said, it’s her decision and hers alone and she’s free to do what she wants – and what she doesn’t want to do. But I wonder if she is prepared for the backlash that should be crashing on her shores in a day or two? In she that un-savvy to think this won’t take a huge bite from her franchise?

I’m reminded of another celebrity, someone I did get to see in action with a sick child – I’m not sure if anyone has ever been busier than Michael Jordan in the mid 1990s, yet he found time to do something special – and it left me with a story that I think bares sharing in the wake of this bit of ugliness.

The ending may not be happy – then again – it’s all in how you look at things.

UPDATE: From Enzo’s mom’s blog: “I would be lying if I said that I don’t find this to be shocking. To know that out of EVERY THING (material Enzo could choose to have), or ANY PLACE (in the world Enzo could travel to) and out of EVERY PERSON on this earth he chose Ina, and she cannot see what an honor that is. And he wanted to actually be with her for NO reason other then to have her company and cook with her. I actually feel badly for her because Enzo has NOTHING but pure love and intensions and she will never get to have that experience with him and she is missing out on something so authentic and beautiful.”

UPDATE #2 – Enzo and his family have turned down her Garten’s offer to meet.