"What is this shit?" Bernie Wasserman grabbed up tabloids in both fists and threw them across his desk at his client, who sat slouched and defiant in a club chair on the other side of the big mahogany desk.
"Those stories are exaggerated. I didn't know she was a man."
"Good god, Danny," Wasserman continued to bluster. "You are playing parts of a sixteen-year-old still. Caught being fucked by a transvestite in the back of your Hummer. What were you thinking? And a Hummer, god almighty. Who told you you could buy a Hummer? Your fans think you're riding bicycles. I didn't sign off on any of those bills."
"I'm almost nineteen," Danny blustered defiantly. "I don't have to tell you about every job I go out on anymore."
"You sure as hell do, Danny Delmonte," Wasserman yelled. "I've got your contract. I've represented you since you were ten. I own your ass."
"That's it, isn't it?" Danny shot back. "This is all because I moved out when I was eighteen. You'd convinced my folks to let me live with you and you were just licking your lips, playing it safe and waiting to fuck me when I turned eighteenâand I moved out instead."
"No, Danny," Wasserman said in a carefully controlled tone after taking a minute to pull himself together. "This is about your life. I've been lenient with youâand you've lived high on the hog. You've been spending it as fast as you make it. You've got maybe two more good years in your category and then it's iffy if you can transition to anything from the child roles. Very few are able to. And whoring around and getting high and making a fool of yourself in public isn't going to get you there. You need to come back under control. You need to move back in with me."
"No. You just want to get me in bed," Danny spat back. "And I'm going to beat that drug rap. The lawyer you got for me says it's a slam dunk."
"And what are you going to say about being caught in the backseat of a vehicle with a male prostitute in a car you weren't supposed to be driving as a condition of your release on the drug charges? Tell me about that. Tell me how happy the Children's Express Theater is going to be with this now if you sign this contract." Wasserman was waving a thick sheaf of paper that constituted a contract for three high school musicals.
"Fuck that. Fuck you. Fuck it all," Danny muttered as he sank down into his chair.
"This is your future," Wasserman said, his voice ominous and full of venom. "This is the only contract we have on the table. You already were aging out of these roles and now you've really fucked yourself with this stuff you are feeding to the tabloids. You are out of control. Do I tear up this contract and show you the door, or do we start this conversation all over again with you saying 'yes, sir' to me?"
Silence for a long minute with Danny looking at the floor. But his eyes came up fast enough at the sound of the tearing paper. Wasserman had torn apart one of the tabloid newspapers, though, instead of the contract.
"That got your attention, didn't it?"
Danny mumbled something into his chest.
"What? I didn't hear you."
"Yes." Just getting that word out seemed to be torture for Danny.
"Yes, what?"
Another moment of silence and then a muttered "Yes, sir."
"Stand up."
Danny looked up, he eyes showing confusion.
"I said stand up. And strip."
"What?" Now Danny was shocked.
"You said you were off the drugs. I don't know if I believe you."
"I never was on drugsâwell not that kind," Danny said, his voice still showing his shock. And maybe a bit of fear now too.
"If not, then I won't find any marks on your body, will I?" Wasserman declared. "I can maybe clear this upâbut only this last timeâif you haven't fucked up your life more than just what's in these tabloids. If you're shooting up, you won't pass the studio tests and it doesn't matter if you sign these contracts or not. If notâand if I'm convinced you're not shooting upâI can get a doctor to say you were on prescription medicine because you were overworked and headed for a breakdown and that this is what has caused your behaviorâbut that you are back on the road to full recovery now. That always goes down OK in this town for at least the first time. So, if you want this contract, strip now and I'll check you out."
Danny looked all of the vulnerable sixteen-year-old role that he played so well as he meekly stripped down and stood there, naked, shivering slightly. He was a beautifully well-formed manâbut still boyish looking, still about to pass as a teenager.
Wasserman sat behind his desk and looked Danny up and down as Danny's head hung in embarrassment and his hands crossed over his privates.
Wasserman opened a drawer in his desk and took out a couple of items and then, on his way around the desk, he dragged over a Chippendale straight-back dining room chair and plopped it down between where Danny was standing and trembling a bit, as if it was cold in Wasserman's officeâwhich it wasn'tâand his desk.
"Here. Sit," Wasserman commanded.
Danny looked up in confusion and just stood there.
"I said sit. And what do you say?"
Danny mumbled something, and Wasserman pushed the young actor down on his bare butt on the chair cushion. "What? I didn't hear you."
"Yes, yes, sir," Danny muttered. There were tears in his eyes now.