 There was an auditioning process for both the chair model and the young blond woman that Michael sees in the coffee shop . According to writer B. J. Novak , the chair model was supposed to be " pretty " and " perhaps even prettier than your average model " , but more of just an " average single girl " , because the episode is more about Michael wanting to start dating again than the model herself . In the scene with the " Five Families " , one of the actors , Paul Faust was the only first @-@ time actor . Faust is the cousin of writer Paul Lieberstein , and had been on a tour of the set and talked to many of the writers . He made a good impression and so the character of " Cool Guy Paul " was based on him . The day before they were scheduled to shoot , the show still had not cast anyone for the role , so they called Paul in New York City and had him read the lines into a camera and e @-@ mail to them . In less than an hour , Faust had landed the part and was flown out to Los Angeles . 
