Death of a Blue Movie Star

EPIs…. Michael preferred interviews to EPAs—auditions. He’s a funny fellow. You ever talk to him, you know he’s got very definite ideas. Usually the producer couldn’t care less about the hired help—the actors, I mean. He leaves that to the director. As long as the principals get good reviews and pull in a crowd that’s enough for them. But not for Michael. He rides herd on everybody: director, principals, walk-ons, arrangers, musicians, everybody.”
    Rune wasn’t sure where this was going but she let the casting director continue at his own pace.
    “So when it came time for casting, Michael kept his beady little eyes over my shoulder. We read resumes, we saw tapes, we talked to talent agencies.” He shook his head. “Everybody went through the standard interview—everybody but Shelly. That’s the astonishing part.
    “Somehow she’d gotten her hands on a copy of the script for the new play. I can’t guess how. Michael treated them like gold ingots. There just weren’t any copies floating around. But she’d gotten one and had memorized the leading role. So it’s time for her interview. She walks into Michael’s office and doesn’t say anything. She just starts walking around. What’s she doing? I don’t know. He doesn’t know.
    “But then I catch on. I’ve cross-read the play enough during auditions…. She’s doing one of the crucial scenes, following the stage directions for the beginning of Act Three. Then she gives the first line of dialogue in that act and looks at me—like a prima donna looking at a conductor who’s dropped the beat. So I start feeding her the lines. I thought Michael was going to be royally pissed. He doesn’t like people to do clever things he hasn’t thought of. But after a minute he’s impressed. My God, he’s beside himself. And so was I. Shelly was amazingly good. We tell her, Great, thank you, we’ll be in touch, which is what we always say. And Michael was his typical noncommittal Michael. Only she’s got this look in her eye because she knows she’s blown everybody else out of the water.
    “After she leaves we read her resume again. Strange, you know: She doesn’t have any formal training. Some respectable off-Broadway productions, some LORT—that’s regional theater. Some summer stock and some performance pieces at Brooklyn Academy and local repertory groups. Either she shouldn’t be as good as she is or we should’ve heard of her. Something was fishy.”
    Rune said, “And he did some investigating?”
    “Right. Michael found out what kind of movies Shelly made. And that was it for her.”
    “He’s got a thing about dirty movies?”
    “Oh, yes. See, he’s very religious.”
    “What?” She laughed.
    “I’m not kidding. The pornography thing—it was a moral issue. And the funny thing is he was furious. Because she was perfect for the part. But he wouldn’t let himself hire her. He was quite, um, vocal when he found out.”
    “But the way he behaved … This poor stagehand, the one who gave me your name … I thought he was going to kill the guy.”
    “Ah, but not one foul word passed his lips, did it?”
    “I don’t remember.”
    “He’s very active in his church. He prays before each performance.”
    Rune said, “Well, so what? The Bible’s full of begatting, isn’t it?”
    “Hell, there’re actresses on Broadway’ve slept with as many men—and women—off camera as Shelly Lowe did on film. But Michael’s a deacon of his church. A newspaper story—oh, the
Post
would love it—about Michael Schmidt’s leading lady being a porn queen?” Becker’s eyes brightened. “As appealing as that thought is to those of us who’d like to scuttle the bastard … So, you see why he couldn’t let that happen.”
    “She must have been heartbroken.”
    Becker shrugged. “She was an adult and she made a choice to make those films. Nobody forced her to. But she didn’t give up without a fight. And what a fight it was.”
    “What happened?”
    “After I called her to give her the bad news—I felt I owed her that—Shelly made an appointment to see him. We’d already cast somebody else by then but I guess it half-crossed my mind that she was going to try to
charm
, if you want to be euphemistic, Michael into giving her the part after all.”
    “Shelly wouldn’t do that.”
    Becker looked at her with his eyebrow raised.
    “Not to get a part,” Rune said. “She wasn’t like that. It doesn’t make sense but I know that