1: Lacey
2003
Working on the film crew for "Mean Girls" was one giant blur. So much so that I can't quite remember why I was relaxing one day in the wardrobe room. But I was sitting behind a few clothing racks during my break, trying to enjoy the solitude, until someone interrupted.
I could see the gossip queen of the Plastics, Gretchen Weiners – a.k.a. actress Lacey Chabert. Whether she could see me was unclear, but the fact she hadn't yelled at me to get out was a sign.
So was her going through sweaters, then taking hers off in my eye line.
She wasn't looking at me and couldn't see me from there – supposedly. She wasn't trying to show herself off in her blue bra and skirt, but there was a Hell of a lot to show off. It took me a while to register her taking off her skirt next – yet the sight of Lacey's incredible cleavage and toned, sleek curves kept her ass and legs off my radar.
I only had a few seconds to take in the whole package before she found a sweater. Once she put it over her face and chest, I remembered what trouble I'd be in if she knew there was an audience. Impulsively, I turned my head away and pretended to sleep – barely stopping myself from pretending to snore.
I heard some small rustlings and prayed they wouldn't be followed by loud footsteps. Yet when I heard them, they got softer as Lacey left the room. My movie crew career was still alive – though I needed more physical parts of me to die down before I left. As if she'd made that easy.
Like this entire production would make things easy for me.
January 2014
A Mean Girls reunion cover story and photo shoot.
If I could make that happen, it'd make this job so much easier for me.
While I didn't do much more work in movie crews since 2003, it got my foot in the door for other opportunities. Eventually, it led me to an assistant's job at a magazine that....well, many of you read every week. If not as much as Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide or Vanity Fair.
This meant that other publications probably had the inside track on a 10-year "Mean Girls" reunion piece, if they were so inclined. But I made the pitch that with my time on their set, I could get the stars to do our magazine. Plus it was the start of a new year, and the best time to publish a Mean Girls story would be in April, so I could get a jump start now.
Of course, my slight connection to the movie didn't mean I could land all the stars. What's more, they'd really need me to book one above all – and she was the wild card to end all wild cards. She might have burned too many bridges with her old co-stars, for all anyone knew.
But after I convinced my bosses I could book Lindsay Lohan, I still wasn't brave enough to go after her first. That was something you had to build towards. Hell, if I got all the others first – the ones who actually had their careers take off since 2004 – it might make Lindsay's absence okay.
Unfortunately, I aimed too high to start proving it.
I thought since Rachel McAdams had the best career and biggest name in the group besides Lindsay – at least in movies – she'd be enough of a headliner. But because of that big career, she wasn't available in the time we'd need to do the story and cover. So that seemed to be that.
If I couldn't land both Rachel and Lindsay, I was finished. Maybe that's why I still wasn't brave enough to contact Lindsay. One of the top five reasons, anyway.
Instead of warming up with a more legitimate star, perhaps I would have to start smaller.
I had to call Rachel because she was busy on a set. However, Lacey Chabert had more free time on her hands. When I gathered that after calling her, I offered to make my pitch in person.
That's how I found myself going to her penthouse in West Hollywood two days later. She'd bought it months ago, not long before her cover spread for Maxim magazine last fall. My memories really didn't need to go there – or to the last time I saw her in her bra – so I cleared my head before knocking the door.
Lacey answered in a blue top and matching jeans, so it kept my head clear. At least clearer than it could have been. "Hello, Ms. Chabert," I cleared my throat enough to say.
"You don't have to be that formal," Lacey said in her high but sweet voice. "This is the first of many Mean Girls reunions, after all. Right?"
"Well, if you want to see it that way. And believe I told the truth about being a crew member. Which I did, but how would you know?" I let get away from me.
"I used my two days of prep time well. But I didn't need to do that much research," Lacey assured. "I remembered myself that you were there. So I'm glad you're here now," she said, topping it off with a little hug. Which was both fortunately and unfortunately brief.
I shrugged it off and followed Lacey inside, letting her give me a tour of the condo. It was pretty extravagant by my standards, if not West Hollywood's. That speaks to how quaint three bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a gym and wide views of the city are by comparison.
Despite having the least splashy career of the Mean Girls stars, Lacey still kept busy enough to do well for herself. As if the Maxim shoot didn't rub it in already. Luckily, I kept myself from saying both those things out loud.
At that moment, Lacey wanted to know about my post-Mean Girls career. This made me just a little bit more comfortable.
"Clearly, I went on a different path," I jested for starters. "I mean, I didn't flop out of crew work. I didn't hate it, and you guys didn't make me hate it. I just....realized I wanted a more creative direction. But I realized I wanted it in Hollywood, in some way."
"And a magazine about Hollywood was the answer," Lacey filled in.
"Not at first. I wrote some stuff myself at other places. I'm not doing that at my new place, but I can use it to open bigger doors. If I prove I have some value over there," I started to segway towards.
"And me and one of my old movies can give you that value," Lacey said.
"For the next few months, yeah," I agreed, perhaps less tactfully than I should have. "I know other magazines can make a bigger deal out of it. But they're just so....cliquey. I think you can understand that," I started joking. "I figure there's no need to give the magazine Plastics another win. It'd go against everything the movie stood for."