Chapter 12 -- Christmas Special
Friday December 23
Brook bailed on me when I had to go to the
Love Letters
set. She and the moms decided to go shopping one last time before the 'rents flew out. I'd pointed out that there was shopping in Malibu, not only in the trendy areas of LA. How they'd missed the Country Market totally mystified me. I had planned to take Brook there, but when her parents had their problems, we'd all gotten distracted.
Kitty Ellis had told me last night at the premiere that she wanted me to come in early to do a test shoot with Kimberly Fillmore. I'd promised Kimberly that I'd see if there was a small part for her to help get her career restarted.
When I arrived at the studio, I'd gone to my trailer to read today's script. There was a knock at the door, and Manaia beat me to answering it. Technically, I expect he should be the one to answer for security reasons. Who knew, it might be a fan wanting to show their appreciation with baked goods. I could actually go for a cinnamon roll and a cup of tea about now.
"I'm here to see that sexy actor."
That caught my interest. Maybe food was overrated.
"Ben's trailer is the next one over," Manaia helpfully offered.
It was sad to see Kendal's career cut short. Manaia turned around and looked at me because she'd burst out laughing. The unfortunate part was, Manaia didn't realize he'd just cut me to the quick. Then again, maybe he did.
"Kendal, get your butt in here," I called out.
Manaia stepped aside as Kendal, Kimberly, and Ari all came in. I noticed that Phyllis, Kimberly's mom, wasn't with them. It looked like she'd taken my advice and hired professional representation.
"Mr. Dawson," Kendal said as she came over and shook my hand.
Someone wanted to show Kimberly this was a job interview and not just Kendal and me catching up. I took her cue and tamped down my retort about the 'sexy actor' comment. I thought it sort of blew her 'professional' image.
"Manaia, can you see if they're ready for us?" I asked and then turned to Kimberly. "You good to go?"
"I'm a little nervous," she admitted.
"You'll do fine. You've worked with David before," Kendal said confidently.
Manaia sent a text with my phone, and it chirped back after a minute. He showed it to Kendal, and she nodded. I let her and Manaia lead the way, with Kimberly in the middle, as Ari and I followed. Ari planned it this way so he could pitch me the next mega-project he'd found.
"I have a TV series I need you to look at. The working title is
Lies
, and it's supposed to be the next big thing on HBO," he pitched.
"Send the script to Lexi," I said to shut him down.
"You'll actually consider it?" he asked.
I would consider anything, but I'd learned to use a process in deciding that reduced my stress. Lexi would send the script to Kent and his team to review before I would get it. Ari seemed to find a lot of scripts that were 'right' for me; this process weeded out the duds. My guess was that Kent had people who read the scripts for him. Only the better ones were sent to him to review. He read them, and if they were good, Kent would forward them to me.
When I first got into the business, Ari would send over stacks of scripts for me to read. I'd enrolled my parents and Kendal into helping me wade through the clutter. Frank, my publicist, caught wind of what Ari was doing and helped rein him in. I had to chuckle when I remembered how at the time, I'd thought I had to read every one of them. This new system was much better.
Kent also knew that if it caused me to miss any school, he had to get it approved by my mom. It was amazing how that had cut down the number of scripts I was sent. The only one I'd seen recently that'd caught my interest was the new Superman TV series coming out next year. It was a small recurring role, but I thought the whole concept looked like it would be fun.
I was saved from Ari when he spotted Kitty Ellis and went to pester her about Kimberly. She shooed him away, and we got down to business.
"Thanks for coming in," she greeted Kimberly. "We'll do a scene with David so I can show it to the executives and get their okay before we move forward."
It was a short scene. From Kitty's body language, I could see she wasn't sold on Kimberly's performance. I personally felt Kimberly had forced it, and it came across as overdone.
"We'll be in touch," Kitty said.
Poor Kimberly wilted before my eyes at that cliché dismissal.
"Manaia, please take Kimberly and show her around," I suggested.
Kimberly looked like she needed to go cry. We waited until she was out of earshot.
"Honestly, I don't think so," Kitty said.
Both Ari and Kendal tried to jump in to advocate for their client, but I held up my hand.
"I owe her," I said.
The whole Laurent mess as a director, predator, and him sending her to sleep with me was in the back of my mind. I was still a little worried that it would all come back at some point.
"You're the boss. I've worked with her, and I'm sure I can get what I need," Kitty conceded.
I'd almost forgotten that I was one of the owners of the film, along with Halle and the studio. If I'd known I wielded this kind of power...
"You sure?" I asked.
Kitty knew what had happened in Cuba and probably guessed why I'd asked that Kimberly get a shot at a role. She was smart enough to know that I'd be careful not to overstep with her because I respected what she did. Kitty nodded her agreement. I figured I now owed Kitty for something she would want down the road. Hollywood was a small community in a lot of ways. I was okay with owing Kitty for this favor. I was sure that we could trade back and forth if my career continued. Heck, I got her this gig. Maybe I was still in the plus column on the favor ledger sheet.
Kendal and Ari went to give Kimberly the news.
"Thanks," I said.
Kitty went off to get ready for our day.
---
Kimberly landed the role of a barista at the coffee shop everyone seemed to go to in the movie. Kitty had me order coffee and flirt with Kimberly. In another scene, Kimberly commented that my girlfriend was in the back area. I explained that Halle's and my characters were just friends. Kimberly acted like I was clueless.
When you make a movie, the scenes sometimes make no sense because they're shot out of sequence. It didn't help when they added a character halfway through filming. All the scenes of ordering coffee had to be reshot. I felt bad for the girl who'd originally been cast. I was somewhat mollified when I saw she was still in the scenes. At least she'd get her screen credit on this movie. The difference was, Kimberly had more lines than was originally in the script; that was done to help beef up her role.
My final scene was with Halle's character telling mine she was in love with Ben's. It was supposed to be the feel-good moment when she admits it to herself and unknowingly crushes me. Halle stopped me before we did the scene.
"Can I give you some insight?" she asked.
I nodded, not quite sure where this was going.
"Imagine how I felt when you told me that you would rather be with Brook."
