The Movie (26 page)

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She dialled Alton at home.

‘What?’ answered a sleepy male voice.

tkoxana rutted with impatience. ‘Put P,.obert on the line. 1Light now.’

A second’s silence, then Alton answered angrily, ‘Do you know what fucking time it is?’

‘Time you slept on the side nearest the phone, Bob,’ 1Loxana snapped. ‘I don’t want to have to chat with your latest boyfriend when I need to speak to my agent. Is that clear?’

‘Ikoxana? Oh yes, yes of course.’ He was stammering in his eagerness to please. Tll do that. It’s done. OK?’

‘You called me,’ Poxana said icily. ‘I hope you had a

, good reason, Bobby. I’m trying to make a movie here.’

‘Jackson Cosmetics,’ Alton blurted, wisely getting

straight to the point.

Jackson were the hottest new European beauty firm. Their introductory range had sold out at Saks within twenty minutes when first introduced to the States two years ago. Now they were a major house, up there with Este Lander and Ikevlon, and they packed an extra-chic punch for being so new. Two unknown girls picked to model pary. of their skincare range had become instant supermodels-Adelicia Louvaine and Catherine Braganza. Jackson was the house for younger women: innovative, stylish and ultra-hip.

‘What about them?“tkoxana demanded.

‘They’ve offered you an exclusive contract. Five years. Thirty million dollars. And the exclusivity goes two ways you can’t model make-up for anyone else, but neither can they use another model. Like Isabella P,.ossellini did it at Lancrme.’

‘No make-up. Can I model clothes?’ ‘Absolutely. Of course. No problem.’ ‘Other activities? Acting, for example?’

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‘Yes. You could do anything except model makeup,’ Robert wheedled persuasively.

loxana’s fist clenched by her side. Yes! Another triumph. Another laurel wreath. Another contract to end

them all. And thirty million dollars! ‘Tell them yes,’ she said.

l:kobert was gushing with gratitude. ‘You won’t regret this, loxana… I swear I…’

She cut him offin mid-flow. ‘But Robert-the price is forty million. I made seven point five this year, and thirty million over five years works out at six million a year.’

She knew he wanted to argue with her, tell her that this year was exceptional, the best she’d ever had, and there were no guarantees.

‘Forty million, R.obert. And I want an answer half an

hour aer business opens. Otheveeise, no deal.’

‘R.oxaa ‘

‘Did you hear me, Bobby?’

‘Yes. Of course.’ He fell over himself to back down. ‘Forty million. I’ll tell them…’

‘Get back to me,’ she said, hanging up.

He had got back to her. Forty million dollars it was. And she would take two days out of rehearsal to publicize the deal and pose for covers of English, French and American Vogue.

‘Can’t you stay one more day?’ l:kobert had pleaded, dreaming of all the juicy interviews he could arrange. The Unique Agency Brokers Deal of Decade… . he’d be the talk of the town. And he’d get some snaps of the bitch to release over time, to hold her adoring public while she wasted everybody’s time with this stupid movie stuff. ‘I mean, honey, forty million! The picture won’t make you forty

million …’

‘Money isn’t the point, g.obert.’

‘Of course not, but…’

2O7

‘I fly back Friday morning. I have to attend something

with Zach.’

A beat.

‘Are you.., are you seeing Zach Mason?’

‘Robert, whatever you think you know, you don’t know,’ loxana said coldly. ‘Keep it to yourself.’

As she clicked her seatbelt into place for landing, l

What was it they said about self-fulftlling prophecies?

‘I have to express my concerns, Eleanor,’ Jake Keller said.

Tom Goldman’s office was set up for the monthly senior rrtanagement meeting; cut-glass jugs of iced mineral water and plates of biscuits stood untouched next to a silver coffee pot Eleanor was the only one drinking coffee, and she needed it.

‘Certainly,’ she said, as calmly and coolly as she knew how.

Bill Janus, the your)g senior vice-president of Worldwide Marketing, glanced at his notes ‘Let’s see. You list budget concerns, but I can’t see anything in these figures that should worry us. For a Fred Florescu picture, this is looking pretty conservative.’

‘Nobody can call ninety-five million dollars conservative,’ Keller said, sarcastically.

‘For an action movie, directed by Florescul I think they could,’ Tom Goldman said, quietly Eleanor turned to look at her boss, surprised. Tom

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hadn’t backed her up on a single issue since Isabelle’s party. She was beginning to wonder if he ever would again… So what was this? A signal that normal service was being resumed?

‘Possibly,’ Jake said, recovering quickly, ‘but his last three hits starred name actors. Big box-offlce - Harrison, Keanu and Tom. All three proven to open a movie. We have no such guarantees with See the Lights… this project is naming into the Hollywood Unknowns Employment Centre.’ He laughed loudly at his own joke. ‘And I must say that the romance part of the film is being totally overlooked. The Morgan character has nothing like enough lines.’

‘Jake.’ After the scene with Paul this morning, Eleanor had had enough. ‘First you object to my casting R.oxana Felix. Then you want to triple her part. Which is it?’

‘I object˘d to Ms Felix for the part as it was written,‘Jake said smoothly. ‘I think she’d be perfect if the part were expanded. That would give her a chance to show offall the emotional virtuosity I just know she’s capable of-‘

‘Bullshit,’ Eleanor snapped, oblivious to the stunned looks Bill and Tom were giving her. ‘You want to give her a chance to show off some world-class T and A. Don’t think I haven’t heard from Megan Silver what you told her to include: a rape scene; a gang-rape scene; two extra sex scenes with Jason; and a .kick-boxing scene where she manages to get away but half her costume is ripped offher.’

There was a momentary pause, then Keller shrugged. ‘Sex sells,’ he said, somewhat defensive!y.

‘Listen up, buddy.’ She was too furious to stay calm. ‘Iape is not sex. Rape is violence. And I do not make movies that glamorize rape. Now, if you speak to my screenwriter again without informing me first, I’m going to inform security that you are banned from all See the Lights preproduction meetings.’

‘You can’t do that,’ Keller said.

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‘Watch me,’ Eleanor said. ‘Oh, and Jake - you didn’t object to P,.oxana being cast for the part as it was written, you objected to P,.oxana being cast at all.’ She imitated Keller’s nasal whine. ‘ “We didn’t like Roxana’s tests.” I think you’d better gather up all the objections you have casting, script, budget, marketing proposals-and put them in a memo to Tom and copy me and Bill on it. That way you can’t rewrite history whenever it suits you. And that way I’ll have something to frame and send back to you when See the Lights clears costs in its first weekend.’

‘I don’t think that’s appropriate,’ Keller said waspishly, passing a hand through his thinning red hair.

‘I don’t know, Jake.’ Tom Goldman spoke up again. ‘I

think it is appropriate. If you want any negative comments , noted, maybe you should commit them to paper. Eleanor

has a point.’

Keller glanced from Goldman to Marshall, barely containing himselŁ, but managed a nod. ‘Very well, Tom. If you insist.’

‘I think I do,’ the studio chief said pleasantly.

‘If that’s everything folks, I have an eleven o’clock,’ Bill Janus said, breaking the tension.

‘Sure,Y Eleanor said.

Jake Keller gathered his notes stiffly and left the room without a backward gLance, and Bill followed him, checking his watch the entire time to avoid meeting anybody’s eyes.

‘Poor Bill,’ Eleanor said.

Tom Goldman smiled. ‘Yeah. Can’t offend me, can’t offend you, can’t offend anybody…’

‘… because Jake Keller might be running the studio next year,’ Eleanor finished wearily. She sat back down in one of Goldman’s cavernous leather armchairs, suddenly exhausted. Pressure. It had been crowding her from the moment she opened her eyes and saw Paul, standing in their bathroom doorway, examining her diaphragm. She’d

sked him if he was planning to push a needle through it, The fight that followed had been one of their more memorable efforts. Then, arriving at her oce, she’d found a bunch of anomalies in the See the lights budget figures; all things she was sure she had worked out last week, but she still had to fx them again. Three of their current movies had minor problems on-set. A distribution chain was demanding a meeting. Then this happy little pow-wow, where her loyal deputy was trying to wreck her Artemis great white hope with his thousand-point objections plan.

It was too much. And her new Jimmy Choo heels in butterscotch clfkin were pinching her toes.

‘Hey, Donald Duck might be running the studio next year.’ Tom shrugged. He looked remarkably unstressed; his black Hugo Boss suit picked out his eyes, his smile and his tan. Eleanor thought to herself that black suits should be mandatory for all male executives. Nothing made a guy look so sexy, but nothing. Talk about power dressing. Paul didn’t own a black suit.

‘You can’t let it worry you. The point is that you’re running the studio now.’

‘This a vote of confidence?’ Eleanor asked wryly. ‘You handled him great,’ Tom said. ‘Thanks for the.back-up.’

Her boss waved his hand. ‘It was nothing. You had a point. If he puts it on paper, it’s fair both ways.’ He grinned. ‘Anyway, I asked them to make you president, not Keller.’

‘Maybe you should have done us all a favour and gone the other way,’ Eleanor said wearily.

‘You don’t mean that.’ Goldman looked over at her. ‘Bad day?’

Tve had better,’ Eleanor admitted, getting up to leave.

‘You should feel better when you read these.’ He passed. over a sheet of nearly typed figures. ‘lesult for your first

a

quarter as president; pretty good. The sale of the ising division and your rationalization programme

International have made big inroads into the debt.’

‘We still need some hit movies, though.’

Goldman nodded. ‘indeed. The stock won’t rise unles the bankers think Artemis is going to do a real convincing impression” of Lazarus. Which is why I want you to come with me to New York next week.’

Eleanor froze. ‘You want me to come and present to th board?’

The quarterly results presentation to the board directors, Artemis Studios’s real bosses, was vital if the studio were to survive. Something Eleanor Marshall had learned fast was that tree media power was Hollywood rarely saw; the purse strings were clasped firmly in the hands of shadowy Wall Street financiers, media-shy moguls who gathered four times a year in some anonymous Manhattan skyscraper. The Masters of Puppets.

Tom Goldman had never let anyone but himself near the board since he’d been appointed chairman.

‘You got it.’ He leant forward. ‘And Eleanor - be convincing. This studio is in crisis. They need to believe that See’the Lights will be a hit and that more hits will follow.’

She nodded. ‘All right, Tom. But what’s the sudden crisis? You said yourself that the new quarterlies are good.’

‘They are, but that’s not enough. You see - and this is absolutely confidential - the board have received an offer

from Michiko Corporation.’ ‘What?’ Eleanor gasped. ‘You heard me.’

‘But we’re one of the last two studios still in American hands, Tom!’

‘Yeah,’ Goldman said. ‘We are. For now.’

S.he got in around ten o’clock, exhausted, and Paul was

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waiting for her. The dining-room table was set for two: their best Delft china; a silver vase crammed with scarlet roses; champagne chilling in a heaped ice bucket; and Mozart, a lilting aria from The Magic Flute, floating softly from their CD player.

Eleanor felt a little of the tension lift from her shoulders. ‘I didn’t want you to dread coming home,’ Paul said, emerging from their bedroom to kiss her on the cheek. ‘I know you’re having a rough time at work.’

Eleanor smiled. That was the closest Paul would ever come to apologizing. ‘This is lovely,’ she said.

‘Have a seat.’ He wandered into the kitchen and brought out a steaming dish. ‘Vegetable lasagne with low fat cheese. I made it myself.’

Eleanor thought she might have preferred a rib steak or a pepperoni.pizza, but still … at least he was making an effort. When was the last time either of them had bothered to cook a meal? They ate out or ordered in every night. When they managed to get home within two hours of each other.

‘Sounds delicious, Paul,’ she said.

‘Why don’t you pour the champagne?’ He’d dressed up for her too, she noticed; he was wearing his loose Armani suit in navy-blue wool over a white shirt, his platinum R.olex, his gold cufflinks. Obviously this was some kind of special celebration.

She tried not to compare him with Tom Goldman in his plain black suit.

Tom would never dream of wearing blue. Or using aftershave. He wouldn’t give a damn about grooming; he’d think it was effeminate to preen in front of a mirror.

Eleanor tried not to think of it as effeminate. ‘What’s the occasion?’ she asked brightly, helping herself to lasagne. ‘Are you working on a new deal?’

‘No deal.’ He took a champagne flute from her. ‘This is”

just about us, Eleanor. This morning got me thinking,

You’re under pressure, I’m under pressure ‘

She nodded.

‘There’s no need for us to fight all the time. We should try to spend more time together, see if we want to be with each other, see if we’d make good parents.., figure out where this relationship is going.’ He pushed a small red velvet box across the table towards her. ‘Open it.’