by Lisa Rinna
Air kisses all around. Long live the queen—but keep clear of her guillotine.
Soon it was obvious to everyone that Susie was after Tally’s head. The rumors about Tally started almost immediately. Because Susie was the set’s prima diva, the head of makeup, Conrad, personally did her face, while the key hairstylist, Garfield, handled her coiffure needs. When Susie was in their chairs, they snickered and stared at Tally, then passed along Susie’s venom to anyone who was within earshot.
One rumor making the rounds had Tally asking the production assistants to act as go-betweens with her and her dope dealer. Another had her spreading gossip that one of the show’s directors, Larry Hornsby, had come on to her in her trailer, and she had to fight him off. When Larry heard this, he refused to work on a script in which Tally was involved. Whether it was true or not, he was on his third marriage, and two alimony payments were enough for him.
Insecure Justin, one of Susie’s on-set favorites, practically cold-shouldered Tally whenever she was near and shrugged off any attempts she made at small talk. Tally later found out that someone had told the press that she thought he had body odor.
Valerie, who already had it in for Tally, practically took up residency in Susie’s trailer between breaks, and the icy stares she shot at Tally from her perch in the hair and makeup trailer made the younger actress tear up.
Needless to say, the tabloids eagerly picked up the gauntlet. The headline on the cover of In Touch asked, “Is Tally Jones Dana Point’s Good Girl Gone Bad?” and the accompanying article included the supposed evidence—all a fabrication on Susie’s part, of course.
Tally was wounded and bewildered.
As Ben lined her lips, he set her straight. “My God, doll, you don’t need to be a shrink to figure out what’s going on. You’re following in her footsteps! She views you as a threat.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “And considering her personal history, I guess it’s no wonder.”
Tally was all ears. “What? Don’t hold back.”
“Well … let’s just say she’s got some Mommy issues. Her mother was the original arm charm, one of the most beautiful women in the world. She had the world-class lovers to prove it, too: Euro-trash royalty, not to mention a few actors you might have heard of.” He cupped Tally’s ear and whispered names that set her head spinning.
“Next to her mama, poor Susie looked like a pug, but Mommy dearest made her into the Barbie doll you see before you. She had any flaws nipped and tucked into oblivion: a new chin here, a new nose there, a real forehead—and don’t forget breasts, even though Mother Nature did. When she came to town, Susie was almost androgynous. Let me put it this way: she was a tomboy in more ways than one.” He gave her a wink. “Then Mommy gave her daughter’s virginity to an Arab prince as a gift. That should be enough to screw anyone up for life.”
“Oh my God!” Tally sat straight up in the chair. “That’s just terrible!”
“Well, as you can imagine, it was enough to send little Susie off the deep end. Ever since, she has been determined to one-up her mamacita.”
Tally couldn’t believe her ears. “How do you know all this, anyway?”
“Listen up, Sleeping Beauty, this is old news—and from the highest authority there is: Vanity Fair. That issue sold more copies than the one after Princess Di divorced Prince Charles.”
Tally glanced out of the corner of her eye at Susie. “Now you’re making me feel sorry for her.”
“Don’t. Seriously, Tally, thanks to who she is and where she comes from, she believes all threats have to be annihilated. Right now, that means you. And you should never forget that.”
Tally frowned. “If that’s the case, then how can I fight back?”
Ben held up a hand mirror for Tally. “Darling, it’s simple. Just keep being you. Sweet, talented, and lovable. Susie is none of those things, and you’ve got it all.”
He took both her hands and pulled her out of the chair. “Now, go do your thing!”
Ben was right. All she had to do was be herself. She was pleasant to everyone, from the little old lady at the craft services table all the way up to Chase Bracken himself—despite the fact that he’d cut down the number of her scenes and the way he treated her as if she were an interloper on the set.
Tally didn’t complain about her off-the-rack costumes, either, although it did really piss her off. After all, it was just her character’s wardrobe. Instead, she overhauled her personal wardrobe by familiarizing herself with Los Angeles’s trendiest underground boutiques, where she purchased pieces that were both elegant and cutting-edge from rising designers. Now she didn’t mind when the photographers shouted out her name for a quick snap or two, and she even developed her own pap strut, so that even when they went for a “candid shot,” she always looked happy and put together. Invariably, InStyle included her on their “What’s Right Now” list, and she always scored five stars in E! Online’s Fashion Police column. And when Steve called her with the news that she’d been offered a Maybelline cosmetics contract thanks to her “great look,” she was ecstatic.
Most important, Tally approached every minute of airtime as if it would be her last. She came prepared, and she played to the camera.
All of her efforts counteracted Susie’s sabotage. The viewers loved the younger, more accomplished actress. In fact, Tally got three times more e-mails from fans than anyone else on the show—including Susie—and that was all Burt needed to be able to inform Susie that, sorry, the studio suits insisted that Tally be under contract for a long, long time.
Susie’s response was to slam down the phone.
Burt didn’t care. Instead, he demoted Chase (of course, he knew that Susie had somehow gotten to the show runner) and ordered the new show runner, Jack Putnam, to put the two actresses in as many scenes together as possible, so that the audience could watch the sparks fly.
Chapter 16
ON THE DAY the Emmy nominations were announced, Tally got a call at five in the morning.
“Have you heard yet?” Sadie squealed.
Tally, still half-asleep, mumbled in response, “Heard what?”
“You’ve been nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama!”
Tally bolted straight up. “Oh my goodness!”
“Do you know what that means? You’re golden! That bitch Susie can’t touch you now. Not that she ever really could. Hey, listen, Josh wants to talk to you …”
Whatever Josh was saying to Tally took too much concentration for her to process. She listened to him ramble on and on about what she should expect over the next two months until the award ceremonies, but by the time she hung up, all she could think about was how proud she was.
And how proud Gabriel would be when he heard.
On the set, the news that Tally had been nominated for an Emmy put her in a whole different realm. She became Dana Point’s new golden girl.
“I can’t believe it,” Tally told Ben. “Steve and Josh are getting calls from all kinds of people—film directors who want to work with me, companies who want to give me stuff or have me represent their products. And all of a sudden, everyone is being so nice to me again!”
As he stood back to admire his handiwork, Ben beamed down on her like a hen looking at its favorite chick. “Get used to it, princess. When you make it big in Hollywood, life opens up like the petals of a big, beautiful flower. It’s as if you’re one of the popular kids in school or you’ve won the lottery. ‘No’ suddenly becomes ‘Yes, ma’am.’ You’ll be invited to every party, every talk show, and to present at every awards ceremony. You’ll walk the red carpet at every premiere. Designers will give you free clothes, and restaurants will save you the best tables. All because only three things matter in this town: fame, power, and money. But remember, money trumps all.”
Money. Right now, she felt as if she had all the money in the world. Steve had recently hooked her—and many of his other clients—up with some hotshot financial manager named Tanner Bascom, who was inv
esting her money in all sorts of things she didn’t understand: derivatives, futures, commodities, stocks and bonds …
When she told Mandy about Tanner’s investment strategy, her friend sniffed. “Sounds like a bunch of hooey, if you ask me. Just do what I’m doing. Get into real estate. Land is solid. It’ll always be there. Worst-case scenario, you can live on it. Trying doing that with grain futures!”
Mandy had a point. In the six months since she’d been working in the “adult entertainment” industry, as she called it, she’d already bought a house in the Hollywood Hills enclave of Outpost Estates and invested in several older apartment buildings in the Valley. Tally, on the other hand, hadn’t even gotten out of her Studio City apartment.
“Admit it, Tally. You’re waiting for Gabriel to ask you to move in with him,” Mandy said, slightly disapprovingly. “Well, he’s never going to do that, so you might as well look after yourself.”
Tally knew her friend was right. Still, she wanted to hear it from Gabriel.
Strangely, in the three days since the Emmy nominations were announced, she hadn’t heard from him at all. Suddenly, it hit her: unlike the year before, he had not been nominated in his category, Lead Actor in a Drama. He’s got to be disappointed, she thought. Maybe I should go see him, to make sure he’s all right.
That night, she drove to Gabriel’s after work. There was a light on in the house when she pulled up. She rang the doorbell; it took him a while to answer, and when he opened the door, he was naked except for a towel wrapped around his waist.
“Oh, I’m sorry! Were you taking a shower?” she asked, slightly embarrassed.
“I was about to jump into the hot tub,” he said, giving her a lazy smile. “Care to join me?”
Relief surged through her body. He didn’t seem to be jealous about her Emmy nod after all. She was glad. Still, she knew one of them had to bring it up, and if he wasn’t going to do so, it would have to be her. “You heard the news, right?”
His eyes narrowed as the light in them went out. He shrugged. “Oh, yeah, your nomination. Congrats.” He knotted the towel even tighter around his waist. “So, about the hot tub. Are you in or out?”
There was a chill in the air, but it wasn’t from the salty mist rolling in from the ocean. She hesitated just a second before going into the house.
So, he is jealous. “Look, Gabriel, I know you’re happy for me, and I appreciate it. I feel very lucky that I even got nominated. What an honor—”
“You’re not practicing your speech on me, are you?”
That hurt her feelings. “No, of course not. I was trying to make you feel better, is all.”
“Thanks, but I don’t need your pity.” He moved in close to her. With a finger under her chin, he lifted her face to his and leaned in for a kiss.
A second later, a female voice called, “Gabriel, are you coming into the tub or what? Oh! You have company.” Tally opened her eyes. The other woman’s damp hair clung to her scalp and her shoulders. Like Gabriel, she was wearing only a towel, but just barely.
Upon seeing her, Tally pulled away from Gabriel. “I guess I’m interrupting something. I’m sorry.” She didn’t even recognize her own voice because it was quivering so badly.
“Wow, you’re Tally Jones! I just love you in Dana Point!” The woman looked over at Gabriel. “I thought you said the two of you had broken up?”
Tally’s shock turned into rage and quickly began to boil over. If they had broken up, she hadn’t been told! The last thing she wanted was to hear it from a stranger. A stranger who was apparently sleeping with her boyfriend.
She’s lucky I don’t toss her out of here on her ass, Tally thought.
But Tally didn’t live there. She wasn’t even welcome to sleep there. What am I doing here, anyway?
She walked out the door without looking back.
“Tally, honey, don’t you get it? He’s jealous of you.” Sadie sucked in her gut so that Mandy could zip up the dress. It was about the fortieth wedding gown she’d tried on that afternoon. She stuck out her tongue at her reflection in the floor-length mirror, then motioned for Mandy to unzip her again. “Think about it. You get a nomination, and he doesn’t. He doesn’t even bother to call you to congratulate you. All of a sudden, you’re the new hot talent. Do you know what that does to his ego?”
Mandy tugged hard at the zipper until it finally made its way down Sadie’s back. “Let’s be real,” she said, eyeing Tally in the mirror. “He’s been treating you badly since even before the Emmy nod. Is he even worth it?”
Tally shook her head. “I get that he’s upset, but I thought he’d be happy for me. What he did is just such a disappointment.”
Mandy shrugged. “Do what I do when I’m upset. Buy yourself something. Preferably something expensive.”
“I already have.” Tally gave her a sly smile. “Sadie, how many more dresses do you have back in the dressing room?”
“Thank God, this was the last one. I give up! The wedding is only three weeks away, and I still haven’t found a dress I like. I guess I’m getting married in my pajamas.” Sadie sighed. “Oh, well, at least everything else is under control. Why do you ask?”
“I want to take you two for a little ride.”
Sadie tugged her jeans on under the dress, then slipped out of the white taffeta concoction. “Let’s blow this joint.”
The girls piled into Tally’s car, and she started driving. Tally refused to answer questions as she worked their way up winding roads, eventually stopping at a rambling ranch perched on a canyon ridge high over Beverly Hills, on Mulholland Drive. It had stucco walls, a terra-cotta tile roof, and lush vegetation all around. Best of all, it had a pool out back from which you could admire the view all the way to the ocean.
After showing her friends around the property, Tally raised her hands in triumph. “Three bedrooms, three baths, a humongous kitchen, a gate to keep out nosy photographers—and it’s all mine! What do you think?”
Sadie was speechless, but Mandy exclaimed, “Tally, it’s perfect! I am so jealous.”
Tally laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, Steve thinks I paid too much for it. In fact, he’s worried I might have overextended myself.”
Sadie guffawed. “He’s got nothing to worry about. Between the Emmy nomination and how Josh re-negotiated your contract for more money, you can easily cover the note on this place. When do you move in?”
“This weekend.” Tally walked to the edge of the pool. As she dipped her toe in the water, a ripple flowed out and moved, in concentric circles, toward the center of the pool. Watching it reminded her of her life: growing beyond any bounds she ever thought had constrained her.
“It’s time, don’t you think? And not a moment too soon.”
Chapter 17
WHILE ALL OF Hollywood was prepping for the Emmys, Sadie managed to pull together a beautiful wedding. The invitations, engraved with silver script and made by Tiffany & Co., invited guests to the Malibu cliffside estate of a music producer who was lending it to Josh and Sadie for the day as his wedding gift. The cake was a chocolate sponge filled with chocolate truffle, and its white icing was flavored with Grand Marnier; pale silver roses cascaded down its three tiers.
“Your dress is beautiful, Sadie, and it fits you perfectly,” Mandy murmured in awe. She was right. It was an A-line Vera Wang, and soft flounces swirled below the silver off-center bow at the waist. It had an asymmetrically draped portrait neck, and whereas one of the satin straps seemed to be held in place by an off-kilter bow, the other fell off her shoulder onto her upper arm, giving the dress an element of effortless glamour. Completing the look, she carried white roses tied with a satin silver bow that complemented the Badgley Mischka silver sheaths overlaid in sheer chiffon with sheer cap sleeves that Tally and Mandy wore.
Sadie’s only regret was that the wedding could not have been more intimate. She would have preferred just family and friends. Instead, industry obligations meant Josh’s clients and par
tners, not to mention some other noted actors, producers, studio heads, and directors, were all included on the guest list.
Still, Tally had never seen her friend so happy.
Just as the sun crested the horizon, Tally and Mandy preceded Sadie down a white carpet strewn with silver-tipped rose petals. Sadie’s train-length veil fluttered in the gentle breeze as she made her way toward Josh, who waited for her under a flower-bedecked huppah. The setting sun’s golden glow reminded Tally of the first time she’d made love with Gabriel. She knew he’d been invited, and she quickly scanned the rows of guests sitting in chairs on either side of the aisle.
Steve Fisher was there; he gave her a curt nod, then wrapped his arm around his latest protégée, a young woman who slightly resembled Tally: brown hair, broad shoulders, and a sunny smile. Her nose, though, was a little off-center, and Tally fleetingly wondered how long it would be before Steve persuaded her to go to one of the many plastic surgeons listed in his little black book.
Randall Littlefield was there, too, although Sadie hadn’t taken lessons from him in months. Tally gave him a slight nod. She’d yet to take Randall up on his offer of private lessons. Now that she was on a show, she just hadn’t had the time. Maybe before the new season …
Tally knew she could count on Susie Sheppard to come in something inappropriate, and Susie did not disappoint. She sported a white dress, a white fox fur coat, and big Christian Dior sunglasses. Besides the bride, no one wears white to a wedding, thought Tally. For Susie’s sake, Tally hoped she was on her best behavior. Otherwise, Mandy might follow through on her threat to toss the actress into the champagne fountain. “Control the urge,” Tally warned her. “In Susie’s book, no press is bad press, so don’t indulge her.”
Gabriel was nowhere to be found.
She shouldn’t have cared. In fact, she should have been relieved that he hadn’t shown up. Instead, she felt sad, and somewhat lonely, especially when Josh lifted Sadie’s veil and recited, “With this ring, you are made holy to me, for I love you as my soul. You are now my wife.”