The Movie (17 page)

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felt his sex get warmer and harder the instant his thumb touched Eleanor’s cheek?

‘I think I’m just too old and too square,’ Goldman finished.

Eleanor looked across her desk at him, the coffee in its

Styrofoam cup cooling in front of her.

‘No you’re not, Tom,’ she said.

The silence between them hung in the air.

Then Goldman reached forward, his large right hand closing over her small left one, his grip solid, even tight, and said, ‘Eleanor -‘

‘Hey, my two favourite people.’

Without so much as a glance at her, Tom Goldman snatched his hand away as though her skin had suddenly become corrosive acid. Past his back, Eleanor could see the dapper figure of Jake Keller, her most senior vice-president of Produ’ction. Her deputy at the department, Jake had been the man passed over for the presidency when Eleanor got the job. He’d always been totally friendly and polite to her since, butJake was an enemy and Eleanor knew it. He was bitter. The sight of him interrupting them sent shivers

down her spine. Unpleasant ones. He hadn’t seen anything. She hoped.

‘Eleanor, do you have a second? I wanted to discuss that

script you sent me yesterday. See the Lights.’

‘Sure, Jake. Of course.’

Eleanor picked up the copy lying on her desk and passed it to Tom, briskly. ‘Tom, you rnight a.s well take this away too. It’s the script for the Zach Mason/Fred Florescu project, which is a go.’

‘You’re green-lighting this?’ Keller asked. His tone was heavy with disapproval:

‘I am.’ She refused to be rattled, or to respond to the insult. Jake Keller was not to approve or disapprove of her decisions. She was his boss.

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Tom Goldman looked swifdy from one to the other, all business now. ‘Jake, maybe you should bring it up in the production meeting at ten.’

He was backing up her authority, Eleanor knew. She also knew that Tom would listen carefully to whatever criticisms Jake had. He wouldn’t prevent her from green lighting this project-after all, being president was all about making those decisions - butJake would get to register his protest. And if this movie screwed up, Jake Keller would get credit for his’warnings.

‘Sure,’ Keller said easily. ‘See you later.’

He turned to leave, and Tom followed him. ‘See you later, Eleanor.’

‘Of course.’ All traces of their earlier intimacy were wiped away, but she had expected that. He was probably regretting it right this minute. ‘Tom, try and skim through that script before the meeting if you get a chance. It’s really

hot. David Tauber at SKI is representing the writer.’ ‘I thought Kevin Scott had all their writers.’ tAll except this. Tauber found her himselŁ.’

‘He did?’ Tom grinned, amused. ‘That kid’s in a hurry. OK, I’ll check it out now.’

Eleanor watched his retreating back, realizing with a slight misgiving that already David Tauber’s name carried some weight. Tom was more inclined to read it quickly because Tauber had foqnd it. Well, that made sense: it was David Tauber who had brought in Zach Mason, and this was his movie. Fred Florescu was the most important element of the deal, and Fred was Sam’s personal client, but still … if Hollywood was a jungle, in the nineties it belonged to jackals like David. And she noticed that Tom hadn’t responded to her assurance that this screenplay was terrific. She knew him well enough by now to see when he was reserving judgement.

Eleanor glanced at the clock on her computer. Quarter

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of nine. The big Artemis production meeting was in just over an hour.

Damn, she hoped Tom liked it. But even if he didn’t, in this meeting she was going to back her own judgement. She had found the right script t’or Mason and Florescu, and when they had cast the female lead-Julia P,.oberts,Jennier Jason Leigh? - they were going to have a smash.

Despite her ragged emotions, Eleanor Marshall t’ek a small thrill. She was going to exercise her new power for the first time. This was scary. This was exhilarating. This was the movie business.

It was everything she had always wanted.

Well, almost everything.

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As she threw open the last window, the scnt hit her. First thing in the morning, and the air in the Hollywood Hills was fragrant with jasmine, hibiscus, she didn’t know what else. Up here she was above the smog line, and the sky was humid, not exactly threatening to rain but allowing

myriads of minute water droplets to hang shimmering in the air in a warm, transparent mist. Birds were singing, a sound so unfamiliar to loxana-Ms City Girl numero uno - that for a second she hadn’t known what it was. Standing there, looking out at LA, a peaceful grid laid out below her, silent from this height, she felt a strange sensation. Happiness.

loxana shook her lovely head in a movement so graceful it was a shame she had no audience for it, her long black hair swinging behind her in a pigtail, her normally pale cheeks flushed from her morning workout. Her first morning in LA out of a hotel, and already she was getting weak and stupid.

David had found her this place and she had to admit he’d done a good job. The house was perched on a nearly secret ledge high in the hills above Sunset, protected by cleverly grown hedges from any long-range lenses or curious fans with binoculars. It had been designed by an unknown but very talented architect, probably back in the thirties, and re-equipped several times since. Now she had a Moroccan villa on the outside, all coffee-coloured plaster and Hispanic white details, with a marble fountain playing day

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and night in the courtyard, and a New York penthouse on the inside, with a private gym, a home office complete with several phone lines, faxes and a PowerMacintosh, the ultimate in electronic sensor security systems and plenty of natural light. Not to mention mirrors. The swimming pool was sunk in the middle of the central reception room, another detail she had approved of. loxana didn’t like outdoor pools. Any schmuck with a helicopter could gawk at you.

The rent was astronomical, but so what? She was astronomically rich. And very soon she’d be astronomically famous, too. When the call had come from Tauber last night it hadn’t surprised her in the least. Everybody else; perhaps, but not her. This was what she’d come out to LA to do, and she was going to succeed, of course. She always did.

She was loxana Felix, and she always got what she wanted.

‘And what did you tell her?’

Sam Kendrick tensed, not liking Eleanor’s tone. Fifteen years as one of the best agents in Hollywood had given him near-psychic powers in reading people’s moods. And Eleanor was pissed-off. He scrambled to recover his ground.

‘Actually, Eleanor, D;vid called her. He told her she’d been shortlisted for the part ofMorgan. Which you.told us. Nothing more, nothing less.’

‘Uh-huh.’ The president of Artemis tapped one manicured nail on the papers in front ofhe. They all bore inset stories on the front page with headlines like ‘loxana Starts Acting Career’, ‘Silver Screen Supermodel’, and the worst, the New York Times, ran ‘loxana Beats Out Julia, Winona, et al’.

Sam stifled his own furyl God, how he agreed with Eleanor. It was the most unprofessional thing he had eve

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seen. But he simply could not show his feelings to his old friend. The bitch was, aer all, his client.

‘Eleanor, I swear, we had nothing to do with this.’

‘It puts me in an extremely difficult position, Sam. As you know, we’re still considering casting. We haven’t got back to Bridget’s people, or Jennifer’s people, or Julia’s people or Winona’s people. And they read this in the fucking press.’

Sam was on red-alert. Eleanor never swore, she was more decorous than a whore at a christening. ‘I’ll speak to her, Eleanor, I promise.’

‘You do that.’ She was still angry. ‘I swear, I should just issue a release saying the whole thing is a fabrication by your client. Butjustln case we do cast her, I’ll have to keep

, quiet about it. For now.’

‘OK.’ Kendrick nodded his head, accepting blame. ‘You’d better go, Sam. I have to make my apologies to Mike Ovitz and Jeff Berg and every other major player Ikoxana Felix just spat on.’ Eleanor took a deep breath, composing herselŁ. ‘And Sam, make sure you see her yourself. Don’t send that little jerk Tauber in to do it. I want someone who’s gonna give Ms Felix a lesson in how we do business in the movie industry, not crawl up her ass instead of.kicking it.’

Despite himself, Sam grinned. ‘OK, Eleanor. I’ll see to it

personally. It won’t happen again.’

‘It had better not.’

She was the Ice (ueen again, cool and menacing. Kendrick almost regretted the reversion to type as he shook her hand and left. It was kind of interesting to see Eleanor Marshall steamed up, even if he was on the receiving end. He’d always imagined Paul Halfin shoved her in the deepfreeze when she got home nights, to warm her up a little bit.

Eleanor dismissed Sam from her thoughts almost before

he had left, dialling CAA and ICM and everybody.else to

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offer her apologies, smooth practised words disassociatin Artemis from any involvement with these stories. The couldn’t afford to offend any of the big female stars - n studio could. Female actors were still paid far less than the male counterparts, but their cents on the male doll: crawled up every year. Something she, Eleanor, we corned, although she’d never paid a woman star a ce more than she had to. If equality happened for actresses, : would happen naturally, when market forces dictatec You couldn’t bring feminism or any other agenda into i Business was business. It was that attitude that had ensurec at long last, that she got to sit in the president’s office. An it was that attitude that now forced her to look’ at Roxana situation with as much detachment as she cou] bring to it.

God, it made her mad, the way the woman obvioug thought she could just walk all over Artemis and SKI. Sh was incredibly beautiful and incredibly arrogant. And n Meryl Streep, either. She thought that lovely face was ht passport through life, and Eleanor dearly longed to sho her othervcise, to rule her out for this part and show her u

in every major paper that was fawning over her today. But she couldn’t do it. loxana, loxana, loxana. That was all she’d heard fi a week. As soon as the project had been green-lighte David Tauber was calling her twenty times a day, loc press and TV shows had asked for her response to tl rumour, and Tom Goldman was suddenly insisting th; she test with Zach for the part. Eleanor had shrugged h, shoulders and agreed. After all, the original tests of R.oxar Sam had sent over weren’t dreadful, even if they al weren’t good enough. With the male star making h acting debut, plus a first-time screenwriter, she’d want to play it safe with the female lead. After all, they had a k of money riding on this production. As it was, Sa, Kendrick International was looking at a fat package deal fc I37

the director, star and scriptwriter. And Jake Keller had raised objections at literally every stage of the process, from the first production meeting to the marketing budget. She, Eleanor, had overruled him, but effectivelyJake had forced her to put her ass on the line. She’d had to sit. there and watch Tom Goldman, magisterial chairman and CEO, observing the polite duels of his two most senior execs as though from the heights of Mount Olympus, not taking sides,just taking notes. Standard Hollywood-mogul practice. Tom neither blamed nor praised See the Lights, and that way he could take all the credit if the movie was a smash, and disassociate himself if it bombed. Every senior guy played it that way, and she had tried not to take it personally. But it still hurt. See the Lights was her first

, project, she could tell Tom loved the script as much as she did, and she longed for him to back her. Maybe because there would have been something deeply sexual in the idea

of him throwing caution to the winds for her sake.

But that was dreaming.

At any rate, it had amazed her to see Tom getting involved in casting matters; he was far too busy for that, the creative side wasn’t the realm of the chairman, he was the one who Concentrated on making them look good to their shadowy .lords and masters on Wall Street. Still, if he wanted loxana Felix to test, so be it. He was her boss. And he had been quite insistent on the matter; why, she couldn’t figure out.

‘Eleanor, you must be insane. All these no-name people -‘

‘I wouldn’t call Zach Mason a no-name,’ she’d said at the casting meeting, her light tone covering a steely reproof. Who the hell did Jake Keller think he was? She hid her satisfaction at the thought that Keller was criticizing Tom’s suggestion in front of him, and not her own, as he imagined. Tom had spoken to her privately, so she gave out that the decision to test loxana had come from her.

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Jake therefore attacked it, right on cue. ‘Movie no-nam OK, so he’s a rock star. Like Mick Jagger and Sting ar Madonna. Great box-office.’

‘That’s tree. But we’ve seenZach’s tests as an actor, ar we’re all agreed he has an amazing talent.’

‘OK, maybe.’ Keller couldn’t deny it: Mason had test like God’s gift; he acted as good as Olivier and he looked good as Keanu tkeeves. ‘But it’s still a risk. And we didi like t(oxana’s tests.’

‘That was before we had decided on See the Lights as script. The male lead is a rock star, the female lead supermodel. They’d both be playing themselves. I thir that’s a strong angle.’ ‘You can’t seriously want to cast this on the basis publicity,’ Jake sneered.

Eleanor remembered staring at his upper-class WAS] suit, his red hair combed in a neat centre parting, aJ feeling a dislike of the intensity she normally reserved Isabelle Kendrick and her coven of Beverly Hills la& who lunch. She’d smoothed her Georges 1kech pink si skirt across her legs before answering him, a feminin appealing gesture calculated to contrast with her ne words.

‘We’re testing loxana Felix tomorrow.’ She paused, let that sink in. They should all take note, all those bal vice-presidents eagerly watching the grown-ups fight. was the president and she intended them to have no about that. Jake Keller had ten years as a creative and she come from Marketing, and he intended to show up creative ‘weakness’ wherever and whenever he could. At if she showed any weakness whatsoever, he’d exploit it a germ-warfare expert faced with an open wound.