KATIE SKIPS PACEY-CON

Too serious KATIE HOLMES blows off pop cult hero JOSHUA JACKSON's one-man devotion to himself - The Pacey-Con.

It could have been the opportunity of a lifetime for Mrs. Cruise to lighten up and join her former DAWSON's CREEK costar Jackson as he staged his own mini-con just outside the San Diego Comic-Con convention center.

Alone on a lawn, armed with a bullhorn, Joshua, the star of current TV hit FRINGE dressed as his old character, Pacey,  from the 1990s teen beat show.

Why?

"Pacey Witter is the greatest character in television history. Ever. Period." Jackson said.

He blasted the Dawson's Creek theme on a boom box, handed out fan fiction he wrote (about Pacey) and posed for pictures with women - natch.

"People ask me all the time why I'm working on the show Fringe, and the honest answer is I'm only doing it to fund my first love, which is Pacey fan fiction," Josh told assembled media -- evidently Funnyordie.com.

Neither Katie nor Dawson himself, James van der Beek, joined in the fun.

Their loss. No pal, that Joey.