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“Oh, nothing,” I said. “I’m tired and in a muddle.”
“OK, Rubes,” Mum said and she ruffled my hair exactly the way she knows I hate and kissed me on the forehead. “Well, at least you can stay up with and see the new year in with us. We’ve got hot chocolate all round.”
“That sounds nice,” I said. “Although I might not make it to midnight after all.”
Mum put her arm around me as we walked together to find Jeremy and the hot chocolate.
“You know what, Ruby,” my mum said. “I think this New Year is going to be the most amazing one yet.
It’s Your Life!
The magazine for girls that have really got it going on
WHAT MAKES A HOT CHICK HOT?
Top five tips on how to be fabulous and fiery like some of our favourite teen stars.
1 BE FABULOUS! Take actress Adrienne Charles who plays Natalie Green, the meanest girl in hit TV series Hollywood High. Adrienne’s character might be cruel, unkind, unscrupulous and unhinged, but in real life this girl is a sweetie. 5he always knows just what fabulous thing to wear and when to wear it, and Adrienne’s work with animal welfare charities shows us all her fabulous true colours.
2 BE THE BEST! While we’re talking about Hollywood High, how about Nadine Navarro? There’s a girl we can all take a tip from. Nadine might play feisty and fun cheerleading heroine Sabrina Silkwood in the show, but in real life she still plays competitive soccer to the highest standard for her school and is tipped to be picked as one of the national team’s under-eighteen side. You rock, Nadine!
3 NEVER GIVE UP! Sometimes life is hard. Just look at new-to-the-big-screen actress 5unny Dale. 5unny couldn’t have had a worse start to life, losing both her parents in a tragic accident when she was only three years old. Growing up poor was hard for Sunny, but she overcame it all with her strength and determination to follow her dream. And It’s Your Life! has heard that Sunny is tipped to be at the top after her amazing performance in the new Brit flick A Very English Affair, due to hit our screens later this year. Way to go nailing that British accent, Sunny!
4 BE FIERCE! You know it’s true, it doesn’t matter what sort of day you are having as long as you give it fierce attitude. Take this month’s cover girl, Samaniha Haven. Her heart must have been broken when her rumored boyfriend, super-hoi 5ean Rivers, disappeared last year, announcing his retirement from the movie indusiry. But do you see a miserable girl before you? No, you see a fabulous, fierce lady giving life her very best shot!
5 THINK BIG! You’ve seen all of the greai girls we’ve featured in this week’s issue of It’s Your Life! None of them ever had small dreams. They wanted to get to the top from the very start, and through hard work and talent they are making it. And you can make it too, in any walk of life you choose, as a surgeon, an explorer or maybe even an actress too. Bui you have to think big and dream big and never let those dreams go!
Chapter Four (#ulink_eea7c6d5-b7e5-5881-9d3f-3c9818ee8166)
I picked up a copy of It’s Your Life! on the way to the studio with Jeremy when he asked his driver to stop on the corner so he could get a copy of The Times from a newsstand. Not the LA Times, but the London Times. Jeremy told me he misses it when he’s not living in Britain. He likes the rain, the rude and miserable people and the buildings. I looked out of the window with my big sunglasses at the faultless blue sky and I wondered what on earth he was going on about.
I wondered who all these actresses they were talking about were. I hadn’t seen an episode of Hollywood High although before we left home Channel 4 were trailing it as coming up on UK TV in the spring. I looked at the pictures of the featured actresses. All were about my age. Each one looked amazingly glossy. I mean their hair, their lips, their skin, their teeth, their nails and even their clothes seemed to shine. It was a sort of perfect finish that most TV actors, especially teens, just don’t have in Britain (except some on Hollyoaks, maybe).
And then I read the bit about Sunny Dale. Jeremy was acting in a film with her and he had never even told me. When I asked him what A Very English Affair was about, he said it was really just about old people’s love lives. Not a mention of Sunny or any part in the film for a thirteen-year-old British girl that perhaps the daughter of his girlfriend could have at least auditioned for.
“So what’s this Sunny Dale like then?” I asked him. “Apart from having a name that makes her sound like a brand of yoghurt.”
Jeremy looked up from his paper and thought for a moment.
“Sunny? Well, I can’t say I know her. I only have a few scenes with her. But she struck me as a very determined young lady. She used to live on a trailer park, you know, but now she and her aunt live in a great big place not far from mine. Funnily enough, her career did start out with advertising dairy products.”
“I thought you were supposed to name stuff after actresses, not the actresses after stuff,” I said sarcastically.
There she was again, that Ruby who was not Ruby, being really quite jealous and rude about a girl for no good reason.
“Well, she’s a big name in TV over here and everyone relates to her story. And she’s a really hard worker.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling rather stupid.
Jeremy smiled at me over the top of his reading glasses. “It’s all been a bit of a whirlwind, hasn’t it?” he said. “I hope that your mum being with me doesn’t make you unhappy, Ruby?”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t. It’s not you, Jeremy, although it is kind of odd seeing someone as famous as you hanging out with my mother. I’m not even unhappy. It just takes a bit of getting used to I suppose, all of this…” I gestured at the cream-leather interior of his chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce. “And I’m sorry for how I’ve been acting.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Jeremy said. “Be happy. You only have a few days left here, Ruby, so make the most of them, OK? Your life will be back to normal before you know it.”
I showed Jeremy the photos in the magazine, of Sunny Dale and the rest. “I’m glad it will be because I’ll never look like that,” I said. “They are so polished and perfect and I’m…” I looked down at myself in my white jeans that had a bit of breakfast on them and my pink cardigan that had the buttons done up all wrong. “I’m me,” I said with a shrug.
Jeremy smiled and shook his head. “Trust me, Ruby, none of those girls look like that either, not in normal life. Magazines like to do two things: find photos of normal-looking people and make them look terrible, as you and your mum both unfortunately know, or they airbrush celebrities until they become the media’s version of perfect, with no flaws or extra weight. And as for TV and film, well, you know, Ruby – it’s all about lighting and make-up.”
I thought about Brett Summers, my former TV mother. It was true that while I was working on Kensington Heights with her, it did always take much longer to light her sets and do her make-up then anyone else. And whenever she appeared on the front of the TV guide she did always look about ten years younger.
Suddenly, the car slowed down and I looked out of the window. We had stopped at the security gate of Wide Open Universe Studios. It looked, from the outside at least, like a giant whitewashed Arabian castle, with a line of palm trees growing along the perimeter.
“From the 1930s to the late 1960s this place was the hub of the movie world, literally the centre of the film universe,” Jeremy told me as we were driven slowly into the complex. “Back then it was the most powerful studio in the world. It owned all the big stars and paid them a regular wage. They used to make hundreds of films here every year. It’s not like that now. Studios have to be very careful about which projects they pick to back. They are always looking for the next big thing. They always need to see a return on their investment. It’s a tighter, more difficult industry to break into now than it has ever been, Ruby. That’s why, if this is what you really want, you have to grasp every chance that comes your way because if you let even one pass you by, it might be the moment that could have changed everything.”
“Dream big and never let those dreams go,” I said under my breath, quoting It’s Your Life!. That’s what those other girls did; Adrienne Charles and Sunny Dale and the rest. The question was – could I do the same?
Jeremy’s car slowed down and came to a halt outside another ornate white building.
“This is where we are going for the screening,” Jeremy said. “And then to talk to Art and the others. Are you excited yet? This is the first time you’ll have seen yourself on film since the rushes back in London, isn’t it? And now it will have all the proper effects in place and the real score. It should be quite something.”
“I am excited,” I said as I climbed out of the car and looked up at the building. “And I’m scared too. What if I’m rubbish?”
But Jeremy didn’t answer me.
We saw Art Dubrovnik first, in the foyer of the screening room, deep in discussion with a very large, tall and quite wide man in a pale blue suit.
“Ruby!” Art said and gave me a big friendly hug. As Art and Jeremy shook hands and exchanged greetings, Imogene arrived with her PA, Clarice, and a few other people I didn’t know, but who I imagined were publicists and agents, a proper Hollywood entourage.
“Hey you!” Imogene said, beaming. She hugged me and kissed me on both cheeks, proper slightly sticky lip—glossy kisses, not the “Mwah! Mwah!” air kisses that actresses often exchange.
“Let me look at you.” Imogene held me by the shoulders and looked me up and down. “You look fabulous. How are you feeling – are you excited? Are you nervous?”
I laughed, made giddy by the whirlwind that was Imogene Grant. It was nice that she was so pleased to see me, but there was something else about her too. She was glowing with joy.
“You look lovely. And really, really happy. Have you found the secret to a perfect cheese and salad sandwich?” I asked her, joking about the lunches we used to share on the set of The Lost Treasure of King Arthur.
Imogene flashed me a grin and then drew me aside so that we stood just out of earshot of the gathering crowd of people. “Can you keep a secret?” she asked.
I nodded excitedly as Imogene looked around to check for eavesdroppers and then took a long silver chain out from under her white cotton shirt. Dangling on it like a pendant was a ring set with the biggest diamond I had ever seen. (And, Just recently, I had seen quite a lot of diamonds one way or another.)
“I’m engaged,” she told me in a giggly whisper. “But it’s top secret. You mustn’t tell anyone or the paparazzi will be all over me like flies and it will be spoiled. I know they’ll get hold of the story eventually, but not yet, not until I’m ready. For now this is just my secret treasure to keep locked away in here.”
She patted her chest and I was wondering how she kept anything locked in there when I realised she meant her heart.
“Who to?” I asked her, keeping my voice low and looking round. Imogene’s smile was radiant as she leant forward and whispered a name in my ear.
“WOW!” I said. “I didn’t even know you were going out with him!”
Imogene laughed. “That, Ruby,” she said, “was the point. It’s extremely hard keeping stuff like this a secret so, please, not word. Promise?”
“I promise,” I said solemnly. She slipped the ring she could not wear back under her top and we went back to the throng that was waiting to see the screening.
Michael White had arrived and a few other people that Jeremy knew, including the large man in the pale blue suit who everybody seemed to gather around, including Art. The last to arrive was Lisa Wells, who was talking on the phone as she swept into the viewing room, smiling and winking at me as she went past.
“OK, guys!” Art called out as we filed into the viewing room, which was a bit like a miniature cinema. “Take your seats. Sit back and enjoy.”
I listened as the swell of the opening music played over the titles of the film and then I leant back in my seat and held my breath.
Preview Report compiled by Lisa Wells for Art Dubrovnik
The Lost Treasure of King Arthur Directed by Art Dubrovnik Starring Imogene Grant, Jeremy Fort, Harry Mclean and Sean Rivers Introducing Ruby Parker
Test audiences in theaters scored the film quite highly with an overall mark of 8/10
For Thrilling Action they gave it an overall score of 9/10
For Plot they gave it an overall score of 7/10
73% said that the plot was sometimes hard to follow
For actors’ performances they gave it an overall score of 7/10
48% would go and see it for Imogene Grant, regardless
9 4% enjoyed her performance
89% enjoyed Jeremy Fort in the role of Professor Darkly
72% were disappointed by Harry McLean, but we have to take into consideration his recent fall in popularity
68% came purely for Sean Rivers in case it was his last film. This alone should ensure a healthy box-office turnover
78% of the test audiences thought that the young actress Ruby Parker made an impressive debut
As an Art Dubrovnik film they scored it 6/10
54% stated they preferred Mr Dubrovnik’s less commercial work. But when asked again to score the film purely on entertainment and enjoyment factor the score went up to 8/10
These scores were compiled from results taken from fifty screenings shown nationwide and represent the views of approximately 5000 people over a wide demographic.
As the credits rolled I leapt out of my seat and applauded wildly. It took me a minute or two to realise I was the only one doing it.
“Sorry,” I said, feeling myself blush. “It’s not cool to applaud yourself, is it?”
Imogene laughed and stood up to Join me. “Sometimes it is,” she said, starting to clap. Gradually, everyone else in the room joined in and we all gave ourselves a standing ovation. Maybe it was a bit like “blowing your own trumpet” as my granny would say, but I thought that considering I had just seen myself for the first time in a proper film I could be let off.
I sat down again as the adults talked. I couldn’t quite believe what I had seen. It was me, but not me. At first, while I was watching, all I could think of was what had happened on the day when that particular scene had been shot, or spotting that I had been wearing costume number four. (I had worn the same school uniform for most of the filming, except that there were thirty-two different versions, each one in a worse state of repair than the last depending on where I was in the story.) Or I found myself thinking that my face looked a bit funny from that camera angle, especially when it was blown up a gazillion times, so you could see all the pores on my nose.
But then I finally saw the shot of my character Polly Harris as she dangled off what now really looked like a real precipice with a fatal drop below. I saw Polly leap into midair and disappear into the black void to her certain death. From that minute on I wasn’t watching me any more. I was watching the film. And perhaps I am biased, but I thought it was pretty good.
The lights went up and as we sat back down in our seats Lisa handed out sheets of A4 paper. As I read it took a while for me to understand what it was because I had no idea that reports like this even existed.
“Well, Art,” the big man in the blue suit who got to sit in the front row said, “I think that has a chance of being a box-office winner, I really do. Despite everything.”
“Thanks, Jim,” Art said.
“It’s a little long,” the man called Jim said, and I held my breath, certain that Art would lose his temper at such an offensive comment. Art was a perfectionist; he never got anything wrong.
But all Art did was nod, adding mildly, “I think I can safely trim about ten minutes off and also improve the audience’s understanding of the plot.”
“And that’s why we pay you what we do, Art. And it seems that the audience will love it,” Jim said, gesturing at the piece of paper in his hand, “if they ever go and see it.”
“But why wouldn’t they?” I asked, conscious a second or two later that as a thirteen-year-old and the least important person here, I probably shouldn’t be saying anything. The man in the pale blue suit called Jim twisted in his seat to look at me.
“Miss Parker,” he said, offering me a plump hand. “Pleased to meet you, I don’t think you and I have been formally introduced. I’m Jim Honeycutt, head of Wide Open Universe.”
“Oh,” I replied, awestruck. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realise. I shouldn’t have said anything…”
“On the contrary, Miss Parker,” Mr Honeycutt said. “It’s a question that needs to be addressed even if I think that by now most of us know the answer…”
“I don’t,” I said before I could stop myself.
“Quite.” Jim Honeycutt looked very serious. “The critics hate it. Or should I say, they want to hate it. Nobody wanted Art to do anything different. They feel he has betrayed his art-house roots to make money…”
“That’s not true,” Art said crossly. “All I wanted to do was make a quality entertainment picture, to show all those other bozos out there how to do it…”
“I know, Art, I know,” Jim soothed him with a wave of his giant hands. “And a lot of people are angry about Harry Mclean. And, most significantly some people, namely one Mr Pat Rivers, is blaming this film for pushing his cash pot of a son into what he alleges is a nervous breakdown and ruining his career.”
“Well, that’s just rubbish,” I said. “Sean is incredibly happy at the moment, not nervous or broken down at all.”
“Might have to quote you on that, Ruby,” Lisa said, making a note on her clipboard.
“But you can’t,” I replied. “I promised Sean I wouldn’t talk about him to anyone. He wants to be out of the spotlight.”
“Well, we’ll see,” Jim said as if he hadn’t completely understood me. “We might need that young man and he did sign a contract with publicity obligations. And although the nation loves Imogene, she’s been at the top for a long time now. It could be the critics are Just waiting for a chance to knock her down.”
“But that’s horrid,” I said in a small voice. “And it’s not true; it’s a good film and Imogene is the best thing in it.”
“That might be so, Miss Parker,” Jim said. “But this business is like a fish pond full of sharks. If you want to survive in it, you’ve got to be a shark too.”
Lisa Wells stood up and walked to the front of the small theatre. “There’s no need to panic,” she told everyone. “We all know that films can be a huge success without critical or press approval. Just look at last year’s biggest grossing movie, Giant Dinosaurs in Manhattan. No one liked it; everybody went to see it.”
“And that was a dreadful film,” Art said under his breath.
“What we need to do,” Michael said, “is get to our audience directly. Everyone needs to do as much TV and radio as possible. Jeremy, it’s late notice but I’ve got you on the Carl Vine show tonight. OK?”
Jeremy nodded. “OK. And I can take Ruby on with me.”
