Lead Me On

"Jesus Christ, Jezel! You've wasted the last four hours subjecting me to all these article clips. Irony is a cold-hearted bitch, Lunch with a Troll? The Harder they fall? De-Illusions of Gran dour? These are all outrageous! The interviews, exposes, conspiracies and clearly editorialized celebrity subjects. Look at all this! And for what? As I look back over these I can't find anything that will make a noteworthy book!"

"You evidently aren't getting the point."

The brown haired woman behind the desk shakes her head. "Not getting it am I? Well, frankly I don't know what I'm suppose to get. Look here," she indicates a short blurb called 'The Other Side of Elegance'. "What is this suppose to be? An April Fools joke? A serious look into the work that goes into creating an image? Garbage? I don't see what angle this is taking. Is it funny? Is it suppose to be classy insights? I don't get it."

"Becca, listen. There isn't one way to take this. You told me yourself you wanted to have Josephena and myself collect a series of random articles and find some way to make them relevant for this project. We've kept the focus on Hollywood, on the behind-the-scenes and in-front-of-the-camera works. They don't have to make sense, they don't have to be about the same person. They are simply insights; some funny, witty, clever and others a bit scary."

Becca sighs. "Look, Jezel, I know what I said. It isn't as if I'm cutting apart the entire project. I just thought that you and Josie would find a bit more substantial pieces. I mean really...look at this one 'Addicts in the Woods'. I don't even know who this Megan Cornswallow is, and I hardly believe that Carrie Underwood is this Carlos figure. Have you checked any of these facts out, or are you both just going to fill up an entire volume with sensationalize crap?"

"Now Becca, that's being a bit harsh. You know that we can't fact-find everything that we bring in here. Neither of us are sure what is going in the book and what is going to be junked. We can't waste our time looking into all these allegations."

"What about this?" Becca indicates another article. "Paps day out? Paps? Who calls them paps anyway? Are we all going to get our breasts examined while they take pictures?"

"Possibly."

"Jezel."

"What? You asked a stupid question and I returned the favor."

"But come on, can't you even give me a little leverage with this? We are only in the preliminary stages anyway. You have to give me something with a bite that isn't attached to a glorified zombie monster."

"A what?"

Becca sighed again. "You know what I mean. I want something real, not some hocus pocus maybes. I don't want to release something and have it splattered all over the E! channel in the same vein as Keeping up with The Smarsmashins."

"Well, I do see you point on that one."

"Good, then let's stack these over here," she produced a file folder and tucked the pile of papers neatly away. "And let us look at what Josie has." Becca hit the intercom button. "Lola, is Josephena in the building yet?"

"Yes, Miss Speilberg Plutersmith, she just arrived. She's in the elevator now, would you like me to have her go in when she gets up here?"

"That would be wonderful, Lola. And if you don't mind, I would like you to call the Doggy Daycare and let them know that I won't be picking up Evian and Aquafena for another couple of hours. I think I will be here for a while."

"Very good, Miss Speilberg Plutersmith."

Becca turned to Jezel. "Well, hopefully Josie has brought some more material that errs on the side of believability."

"Honestly, Becca, you can be such a bitch."

Becca eyed Jezel, her lips curling into a lovely, gleeful grin. "Honestly Jezel, this is Hollywood. "