Author's Note: This story is completely fictional and did not happen. All characters and names are fictional and were made up.
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Los Angeles, California
The sound of humming echoed through out the room, coming directly from the air conditioner unit in the window. Among the office was an empty desk filled with various paper work in front of a black leather chair that remained empty. Across the room, a man walked around patiently with his hands shoved into his pockets. Soon, the day would commence with a meeting that had been in place all week. Great anticipation had been built up for this moment. It all began with a phone call a few weeks ago with an offer to an actress who had been out of work for some time now. Someone who could be the candidate for an immediate career revival. The director in his office had all the confidence in the world for his grand plan.
Larry White was a hungry man in the show business, starving to make success out of his name. At forty-five years old, the man had a strong career that began in cinematography from his early twenties to his forties, spending two decades before he was prepared to take his seat among the director's chair. White was coming off a major hit of success after directing three episodes for a hit television crime drama series last year. The television show was a hit and a demand was created for the new director. With his name generating buzz within the industry, a network offered him a deal for his own television series as the main producer and director. Negotiations went on for an entire month as Larry fought for artistic control, making sure that everything in his contract guaranteed that he would have full control of his creation.
His style of directing was noted for a strong and provocative sense of sexual themes and gritty urban settings of Neo-Noir. Critics had began to compare Larry White's style to that of Abel Ferrara, noting a similar sense of sleazy themes. The fact was, Larry did indeed take an influence from Ferrara's film work. Before earning his name in directorial and production credits, Larry had worked in cinematography with independent film makers for several years. During the late 90's, he worked briefly with a few directors in the porn industry and indie film makers working on erotic thrillers. The relationship he had a few prominent names in porn had led to much early controversy as his career began to take off with television shows. None of that mattered now, as Larry had the backing of a major network that gave him complete artistic freedom and the high budget to back it up.
For the next few months, Larry spent his time writing a pilot episode for his new television series. The title had been named 'Private Dancer' and would be a sexually themed series revolving around the life of a stripper. Though Larry had never truly admitted how he came up with the idea, the truth was that he had written a star vehicle role. The original idea of Private Dancer came to him after sitting through a cancelled TV show from only a few years ago. Larry's idea was to take a previous show and with the backing of the television network, he could truly push the boundaries on what was untapped potential of a hit show. The show that inspired him was called 'The Client List', and the actress he had written his script around as a star vehicle was none other than Jennifer Love Hewitt herself.
The thirty eight year old actress had been out of work for the last two years. The Client List had been cancelled and after that, she briefly held a role on Criminal Minds. Most of the word among Hollywood was that Jennifer had taken time off to get married and have two kids. What often was left out, was the initial desire to return back to the small screen. Jennifer's agent had been busy this year, trying to find demand for the actress. Larry had reached out, not just to her agent but to Jennifer personally. He had mailed her a copy of the initial script for the pilot of his show, taking a huge risk by revealing much of the heavy information up front before meeting her face to face. It was part of his sale pitch, but he had confidence in her desire to return to acting. He made the offer of her initial salary for the pilot episode to be around five hundred grand. It was a large sum of the budget, but the man didn't care. Larry was willing to do anything to seal a deal with the actress for which his series was written around.
Stepping over the black carpet in his office, he returned to his desk. The light shined between the blinds covering the windows. Larry was a short man, always lacking in height when he stood next to most men in the business. His short hair had began to fade, showing flakes of grey to compliment the wrinkles over his clean face. A large black mustache had faded to grey below his nose. He had a bit of weight to his stomach but tried to keep it hidden by wearing dark shirts under his suit jackets. As he sat down in his chair, he looked back at the clock to see that it was almost 1 PM. The meeting was set and soon, he hoped to hear that the actress had arrived. Though he had not spoken directly to Jennifer herself, Larry was contacted and informed by her agent that she was 'thrilled' by his script. He could only hope it was true, as so much work had been put into this star vehicle, Larry was nervous that he could lose it. After sitting there for a few minutes, the buzzer on his desk beeped off. He pushed the button down with his index finger.
"Mr. White?"
A muffled female voice spoke through the intercom. It was Debby downstairs, the assistant who handled appointments and check ins. Larry leaned forward to talk back into the speaker.
"Yes, I'm here Debby."
"Miss. Hewitt has just arrived to see you, sir."
"Good, send her on up."
He moved his finger away from the button of the buzz box. Larry took a deep breath before smiling to himself. The wait was coming to an end. All this time, he would finally be meeting the actress face to face. As he sat there waiting at his desk, he looked down in front of himself to see the folder containing the script to Private Dancer. Within a few minutes, a knock was heard outside the door of his office. Larry knew that had to be her. He stood up and called out to her.
"Go ahead and come in, please!"
The door knob rattled before turning as the door opened. Clacking of heels were heard as they clicked up against the floor. Jennifer Love Hewitt entered the room, offering a smile to the director as he approached her. She stood tall in a pair of black high heel pumps. A one piece red dress revealing all her curves and quite the view of her signature cleavage. Jennifer's face was neatly made up with dark eyeliner, her long brunette hair parted down the middle. She was so beautiful, just as she was years ago on the set of The Client List. The dress was reminiscent of an outfit from that show. Larry gave her a smile as he extended his hand out to the actress.
"Hello, Miss. Hewitt. I'm glad you could make it, I'm Larry White."
She shook his hand, replying to him in her sultry southern accent.
"It's my pleasure to be here, Larry! I hope you don't mind me calling you that, please call me Jennifer."
Already, this meeting appeared to be off to a fine start. There was a subtle sense of friendliness in Jennifer's words. Larry moved back to take the leather chair behind his desk. He watched as she sat down across from him, carefully crossing her legs as she sat down. Larry took in a deep breath, smiling as he thought of what to say now.
"So, here we are. I've been looking forward to this day all week. As you can see, you've got me a bit nervous."
Jennifer laughed at his words.
"Why would you be nervous? I think I'm the one who should be worried, seeing as I've been out of work for two years now."
"Well, I think I can fix that Jennifer. This entire show is pretty much a star vehicle for you, that's if you want it."
