Sex and Violence in Hollywood (46 page)

Breakfast was set out on the sideboard. Adam got a plate. “That’s because I was asleep,” he said, dishing up scrambled eggs. “Which I usually am until about seven o’clock. What were they saying about me on the news?”

“I woke you early because we need to talk. We need to talk because of what they were saying about you on the news.”

Adam poured himself a cup of coffee and sat at the table.

Horowitz said, “It seems a young newspaper reporter—”

“Editor,” Lamont said. “Of a junior college paper in Oregon. Now he thinks he’s Matt Drudge.”

“This young editor saw something on the Internet that he found interesting. Something that became even more interesting under close scrutiny. It was in a chat room late one night.”

Adam stopped chewing, closed his eyes. It did not look good, not at all. But the eggs were delicious.

“He became convinced that you and your girlfriend were chatting on the Internet under the names Nick666 and Nora666. With no clue what he had on his hands, this young newspaper editor mentioned it in his column. Students at the college began to look for Nick and Nora in the chat room. Everyone wondered if it really could be the teenager accused of murdering his rich and famous father and family. But whenever anyone tried to chat with the couple. Nick and Nora would stop chatting, or even leave the room. Lately, it seems they have been using a private room to chat. But before that happened, word spread very quickly. It was all over the Internet in the click of a mouse. I am really quite surprised you did not notice it, Adam. Someone at the Los Angeles Times did. They broke the story this morning. It is everywhere. Unlike all the reporters in the western hemisphere, who are here, outside this hotel.”

It was worse than he had thought.

“We just chatted,” Adam said firmly. “We didn’t talk about the case. I didn’t even tell her where I am. Mostly we talked about stuff she was doing. Movies, books. We’d listen to The Don and Mike Show on the radio together. That kind of thing. We didn’t even pay attention to the other people in the chat room. Just each other. Maybe we said hi to a couple people, I don’t know. Once or twice, people have started chatting with us. But we go there to chat with each other, so we avoid them, we don’t even notice them.”

“Ah, young love,” Horowitz said with the twitch of her brow.

“I suppose you’re going to take away the handheld, now. To keep me off the ’net.”

“Of course not. You cannot very well chat with people on the Internet if you have no access to it. I will have the laptop you requested brought in later today.”

He stopped eating again. Put down his fork. “Wait, uh, chat with...with people?”

“Yes. I want you to continue your chats with your girlfriend.”

“She has a name,” Adam said, annoyed. “Alyssa.”

“Go on meeting with her at the same time and place. But I want you to chat with other people as well. In fact, it will be important that you spend more time chatting with them than with each other. Be friendly, answer questions. Make it clear that you cannot discuss the case, but chat with them about anything else. And get along with them, Adam. Do you understand? Do not pick or get dragged into any fights. You need to be everyone’s buddy.”

“What is the big deal?” Adam asked. “It’s just innocent chat, for crying out loud! There was nothing dirty. If we get horny, we go to a private room. I don’t see why anyone would be interested in anything we said. It’s not a big deal.”

Lamont looked up from the newspaper. “It’s a big deal because it’s you, you ninny.”

“The night we met,” Horowitz said, “I said you were already a celebrity, the public simply did not know what to do with you yet. So far, we have been lucky. They still do not know what to do with you. That means we have time to make up their minds for them. You are the son of a famous Hollywood screenwriter, accused of murdering your family, and your best friend was shot to death in front of you by two police officers. But you have no...hook. You have nothing to set you apart and make you unique in the eyes of the public. What happened to your friend has gotten you a lot of sympathy, but it will not last. They have no reason to feel any animosity toward you, but neither do they have any reason to like you, to identify with you in some way. Kyle and Eric Menendez had the fact that they were brothers. With Amy Fisher, there was sex. And forbidden sex, at that, because she was underage.”

Adam was chilled by an unavoidable thought of Rain.

“You, Adam,” Horowitz went on, “will be the first celebrity accused of murder with whom everyone can chat on the Internet.”

Adam stared at her for a long moment. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“You know I do not kid, Adam,” she said.

“We’ll be laughed right off Court TV. They’ll put a laugh track on the trial.”

“Not a chance. There may be some heat to take for it, but it will be minimal, and I will take it. That is why you pay me the big bucks. The public, on the other hand, will eat it up. Your accessibility alone will work tremendously in your favor. But you will drop the 666 from your nicknames.”

“Why? Everybody’s already seen us with those—”

“Not everybody. You will drop it because you have enough problems without aligning yourself with the Beast of Revelation, Adam.”

“And how can I be a celebrity accused of murder when I’m not a celebrity?” Adam asked.

Lamont said wearily, “You are a celebrity.”

“But I wasn’t a celebrity when I was accused of murder!”

“Being accused of murder was what made you a celebrity,” Lamont said.

“Your father was famous,” Horowitz said. “Fame is hereditary.”

Adam turned to her and asked, “Do you know how many cretins...how many lunatics and nutburgers I’d have to deal with if I did something like that?”

Lamont chuckled as he got another newspaper from the stack.

“Within a couple days,” Horowitz said, “we will have a website up with full-time webmasters and a chatroom. That way, we can kick out or ban the unsavories. I have someone working on it right now.”

“A website? Are you having some kind of neurological problem I should know about?”

“I told you he wouldn’t like it,” Lamont said.

Horowitz turned to him, irritated. “And I told you it would not make a difference.” To Adam again: “I am not asking for your approval. I will hold a press conference tomorrow. You will be with me, but you will not answer questions.”

“Why tomorrow?”

“We want to give them a day to talk about it, think about it. Not too long. Just long enough.” She put her fork down noisily on the plate. Folded her hands beneath her chin, elbows on the table. “You have made an effort to curb your conversational profanities, and I appreciate that. Although you owe me, to date, over twenty-two thousand dollars on top of my regular fee. But your attitude has not changed. I still do not think you have fully grasped the severity of your situation.”

“No, Spock, it has grasped me.” Anger bubbled low in Adam’s voice. “By the balls.”

Lamont tsked as he made a note on his yellow legal pad.

“Tell me, Adam, do you always talk to and behave around people the way you talk to and behave around myself and Lamont?”

Adam put the last of his breakfast, a lump of hash browns with eggs on top, into his mouth. Slid the plate aside as he chewed, dabbed his mouth with a napkin. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What way?”

“In a smartass way,” Lamont said.

Horowitz said, “Thank you so much, Lamont, but that will be enough.”

Lamont set aside the last newspaper, sat back and watched them like a tennis match.

Horowitz pushed her plate aside and lit another cigarette. “I cannot put my finger on it. It is nebulous, but unmistakable. The same attitude that has kept Robert Downey, Jr. from becoming a star.”

“Drugs are what have kept Robert Downey, Jr. from becoming a star,” Adam snapped.

“Not true,” she said with a shake of her head. “He had plenty of time to become a star before his problems with the law. Then he could have used those problems to his advantage, climbed them right to the top. They were the keys to doors of opportunity. But he kept doing drugs because he could not catch on in Hollywood. The drugs were his way of dealing with failure, not the cause of it. He is a failure because whether he is acting or not, he is simply irritating. In much the same way you are. It does not test well, Adam. People do not like it.”

“He’s kind of like a Bill Murray without the charm,” Lamont said.

Horowitz pointed a finger at Lamont. “Exactly.”

“Smug.”

“Yes, there is a great deal of smugness there.”

“I’m smug?” Adam asked, shocked.

“Like he’s already seen it all, done it all,” Lamont said.

“Yes,” Horowitz said, looking into Adam’s eyes. “You are very smug, Adam.”

“Hey, I come from the kingdom of smug,” Adam said. “They give out awards for smugness, it’s an Olympic event. I know smug, and I’m nothing like those people.”

“Perhaps not,” she said. “But you are smug nevertheless. In a different way. You are smug in your disillusionment.”

“What the—um, what does that mean?”

“Lamont is right. You behave as if everything is old news to you. You believe in nothing. Everything is a joke to you, fodder for your snide remarks. You rejected Hollywood because it represented your father. You hate everyone in the business and everything it stands for. But you are angry, as well.”

“Yes, there’s a lot of anger,” Lamont said. “Maybe because he loves movies so much.”

“Ah, yes, there is something to that, I think, Lamont. He loves movies, even though they represent everything he has been rebelling against. Everything he knows, he has learned from movies. Which is why he is not handling this process very well. The movies never show the boring parts. Or the ugly parts. Like not being able to see your girlfriend.”

Adam said, “Would you at least pretend you know I’m in the room?”

“Perhaps that is at the root of your problem, Adam,” Horowitz said. “Your inability to resist the thing you claim to hate has created a great deal of conflict in you, I think. You mask that conflict with a snide, too-cool attitude, saying whatever pops into your mind that might get a laugh and take attention away from your own weaknesses in the face of your inner battle, no matter how much damage it might do to the feelings of others. And on top of that, you are bottling up your emotions.”

Adam pushed his chair back from the table, but did not stand. “I’ve got a therapist and a psychiatrist, I don’t need to be analyzed by an attorney!”

“No, I will leave that to them.” She leaned toward Lamont. “I would, however, like to discuss that with Locket and Remini. Schedule a conference call this afternoon.” She stood and walked slowly around the table, trailing cigarette smoke. “I know you are upset about having to let Mrs. Yu go, Adam, but you have no choice. There are no options. It is not a matter of someone deciding to do this, it is something you simply must do, like paying your taxes and getting older. The sale of your house is being arranged. Until then, the staff has been dismissed and the house closed up. I am very sorry, but it is no one’s fault. There is no blame. But even if there were, we would not have time to deal with it. We have time for nothing but your upcoming trial. Please put it behind you as quickly as possible, Adam, so that we can get on with this process. Will you do that?”

Adam nodded once.

“Your attitude has done us no harm as yet. But the moment you leave your cocoon here, all you will have is everything I have tried to teach you, everything I have told you. And you have not been paying attention. You still do not understand how important that is. Even though I will be standing right beside you, I cannot very well tell you what to say in front of the whole world, can I? In spite of my best efforts, and those of my staff, you are not prepared to face what awaits you outside this hotel, Adam.”

Adam’s shoulders sagged wearily as he asked, “Then what do you want me to do? Tell me! You never really talk to me, have you noticed that? You talk around me. In the general vicinity.”

“Are you unable to ask questions?” Horowitz asked. “To speak up? For some reason other than to make a smug observation or an ugly remark? You have not become involved in this process. You do not care.” She stopped beside him. “You have to care, Adam. Your life is at stake.” Walked around the table again in the opposite direction. “You need to be humbled. I think that will happen as soon as you step outside tonight.”

“Tonight? I thought the press conference was tomorrow.”

“It is. Tonight, we are going out to dinner. We are going to let the world take a look at you and see what they think.”

A grin split his face open. “Are you serious?” He was ecstatic. The thought of leaving the hotel, just going outside, made him feel giddy.

“Yes. We have an eight-thirty reservation at Chinois. Photographers and scribes will pursue us like Rwandan death squads. They will be on you every second, Adam. And when that happens, I want you to look around. Look at their faces, their mouths. Pay attention to the way they behave. And think about what your life would be like right now without me. Then...remember everything I have told you, and do it.”