Sight Unseen
Oh, Hol. He’s seeing someone…
Samson and I are with Joi for a few days, at her house in Hermosa. (I plan on calling you after I write this; need to set some thoughts down before I hear your voice and fall apart.) Joi is involved with the Agape Educational Ministries, Sacred Order of Agape Practitioners. Her husband’s a film editor — lanky, loopy Cedric — and they have about a hundred cats, mostly strays. Turns out we have lots of friends in common. (The long arm of Blue Matrix.) We met that time you and Phylliss first took me to Sunday services. Joi teaches Meditation/Breath Awareness and is getting me into the choir, which I know will be therapeutic. Though just now, I’m feeling beyond therapy. (Wasn’t that the name of a play? And weren’t you in it?) And, Hol, please don’t tell Phylliss what’s going on — I know you wouldn’t. I’m just so paranoid and shaken. Humiliated! Not so much by the affair but — oh, Holly, I’m crying…He’s been sleeping with someone from his show, that’s all I know. When he told me, it was like hearing gossip about a distant cousin. Not the man I married, Hol — he doesn’t even look like Jeremy, he’s venomous and distorted, and the baby knows: Samson is, as all children, a fine and delicate receptor.
I really think his behavior is at this point pathological, exacerbated by a steadily growing drug intake. He’ll have to find his own bottom, but I won’t be joining him. Interesting too he now refuses conjoints; did I tell you he’ll only see Mitch alone? At least he’s still going, but I can’t imagine that will last. Though, it is, I think, the only thing between him and a total loss of control. Mitch has made it clear that Jeremy’s lollapallooza of a mid-life crack-up would have come with or without baby, sightless or not — but I don’t believe it, Holly! I will not submit to it! He is the worst coward, and I will not move back into that house, under any circumstances! We will stay in a hotel and be perfectly fine, Samson and Lily and me. There’s more than enough money, God knows. I always made sure of that.
Mother wants us home in Minnesota (Jeremy in Hazelden!) but I like the gypsy life with my Oceanspray and platinum AmEx — what more could I need? I’m growing stronger each day, Hol. I really do believe you see what you’re made of in the midst of great challenge. Jeremy’s learning what he’s made of; that’s his own private hell. I will not let him drag me down….“Practice Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty”—the un-chic bumper sticker Joi has on her Saab. I’ve heard it for years, haven’t you? I used to scoff at its saccharine poetics. But now I see the sensefulness through the whimsy — and that’s what I’m going to do: praise and celebrate. I am here to express order and harmony in a most unique way. That’s what they say at Agape. Ain’t no lie! Long live positive anarchy and sweet disturbances!
I’m glad you like the Sight Unseen title (I like it too, though I still think it may have been used once too often. What are Vidra’s thoughts?), with Letters to Samson and Holly going right under. I know you object, but that’s Author’s Prerogative, no? You are now an officially titled person and as such, eligible for your very own ISBN. And this you shall have, with great pomp!
Maps to the Stars
This was the first movie audition I have been on and my stomach was in TOTAL eclipse. I prepared as much as humanly possible, including a session in Malibu with my acting coach {seventy-five dollars that I didn’t really have}. We painstakingly went over motivation, sense memory, breathing, etalia. As it turned out, the monologue was different from that on the “sides,” having been taken from the wrong “draft” {I’ll get the hang of these terms one day!}—“sides” are what they call the scenes they hand out to the actors beforehand the audition, because of the impracticality {not to mention the producers would never allow it} of giving out complete scripts during the casting process — although they probably DO give you a full script if they like your reading and have you on callback. As I said, the monologue I prepared was from the wrong “draft” (to my dismay) but the casting person let me read it anyway. She was friendly and accommodating. Little did anyone know that Donny Ribkin has been a PRINCE, having leaked me the ENTIRE KATHERINE GROSSECK script BEFOREHAND.
The casting offices are on the Twentieth Century — Fox lot, in makeshift bungalows. I have been on that lot only once before, as part of the catering corps for a Children with AIDS gala. On that day, I met AARON and TORI SPELLING and much of the cast, crew and executives of MELROSE PLACE. Sara Radisson-Stein, the TEOREMA casting person, told me the bungalow is just temporary, “until we get all our money.” I suspected as much from the start because they seemed to be actively casting other things while I was there, such as PICKET FENCES. {I was hoping to see DAVID KELLEY and MICHELLE but that they would even be there was naive on my part. Guess I’m still the majorly starstruck Vancouver girl.} Sara put me at ease. I expected the director and producer etalia would be there {naive me again} but that is apparently not the way it works. Even Sara isn’t the main casting lady; SHELBY BURKE is — and she wasn’t there at all! There’s a very important pecking order: it seems the lowlier, more unlikely people to be cast {little me} come in to read for Sara. If Sara sees someone she likes, you’re invited back to read for her again. At that point, you may even be asked to read for Shelby Burke and you may read for Shelby three or four times before she asks you to emote for producer and director. That’s the way they do it — like salmons flopping upstream are we, we poor actors. Anyway, I read the sides she gave me several times {I’d rate my performance a solid B, which isn’t bad} and Sara was patient and helpful, having me read a bunch of different ways. The first time, I was way over the top and she made me pull back and modulate. Her baby was there and wouldn’t stop crying. Finally, she just brought it in and I really didn’t mind. I think I may have earned a few points there but haven’t a clue I’ll be called back. On the way out, I asked if CAT BASQUIAT was still starring and she smiled and said, “We hope!”
Made love with Donny last night…O Diary, I don’t know whether it was a mistake — SIGH. I didn’t want him to think sleeping together was the “prize” for getting me the audition — that would be SOOOO Hollywood. He told me how JACK NICHOLSON once told him the difference between him {JACK} and WARREN BEATTY was that JACK would fuck warm mud and WARREN would fuck cold. I wasn’t sure why this bit of wisdom was relayed at that moment in time. I wanted him to stay the night but he couldn’t because he had to be on a plane for PARIS in the morning. I wish he would have asked me to go with him, as HARRISON FORD did SABRINA {CIRCA 1995}.