Of course, I had to respond:
Turns out Nem Gladwell lives in Prestatyn, a seaside resort/town in Denbighshire, North Wales. He had stumbled across something on Google from another Cynthia Smoot who is a news anchor in Florida and thought that the name was so unusual it must be fake. I assured him, it was not.
Oh, the wonders of the internet. You just never know what a Google search will provide you!
PS: A Google search of Nem's name showed me he has an obsession with GLEE. (I am also a fellow Gleek.) And we both have a Klout score of 60. Even though we are a world apart, Nem. We are very much alike. And it took Google to bring us together...