In fact, since this happened two years before Weatherly had his first major starring role on a television show (that would be on FOX’s Dark Angel, which began in 2000), we can probably safely assume that he wasn’t exactly recognizable as himself yet.
Now, it’s not unusual for TV stars, or actors in general, to be mistaken for other TV stars/actors when they’re going about their business in their daily lives.
He may even have still been in the starving actor phase of his career, and that explains why he took advantage of one of Sean Patrick Flanery’s very generous fans at that Planet Hollywood in Vancouver.
And, in this case, it sounds like it this encounter was just long enough ago that Michael Weatherly’s name and face weren’t yet synonymous with his NCIS character Anthony DiNozzo, seeing as how he didn’t begin that long-running role until 2003.