Starmaker by Jay Bernstein

Author:Jay Bernstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2011-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

Husband wrapped. On the plane home I told Farrah I would have another picture for her before year’s end.

“I can’t do another one, Jay. I’m having too much trouble with Lee.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lee says he should be doing movies, and I should be home playing the wife.”

Life was in the midst of one of its reversals. When I got involved with the Majors, Farrah was a housewife who dabbled in acting. Her first episodic television role as the second-billed Charlie’s Angel brought her a drop in the bucket compared to Lee’s salary. Now he was bombarding her with an old but true story: “I never see you anymore. I want a wife, not a star.” They were involved in a Hollywood conundrum that was usually insoluble.

I stared at Farrah. We were midstream, and it was a little late to change horses.

“He’s jealous of my success,” she continued. “I went through this with him on Charlie’s Angels, and I don’t want to do it again. I don’t want to fight with Lee.”

“So what’s the bottom line, Farrah?”

“Unless you can get Lee some movies, too, I can’t do any more. I don’t want to continue.”

I whistled under my breath. It wasn’t a sigh; it was a reaction to being hit by a bolt of lightning. But that was Farrah. She wasn’t naïve; she knew how to use leverage to get what she wanted. What she wanted was to rid herself of Lee’s professional jealousy.

“Lee hasn’t done a theatrical movie in years!” I countered.

“I don’t care,” she said. “Either get him a movie, or don’t expect me to work anymore.”

Enter Charles B. Pierce, an independent producer, director and writer with the credentials of a sleight-of-hand artist. Pierce was one of those rare creatures in Hollywood—a dreamer with a track record. He wasn’t an amateur, but he was close to it. An Arkansan, Charlie had made what amounted to a home docudrama about sightings of a swamp monster back home in Wal-Mart country. It was a modest effort that catapulted box-office returns into the sky above drive-in theaters. The Legend of Boggy Creek had given Charlie the financial wherewithal to pursue other film projects, most dealing with history. By the time I ran into him, his next rendezvous was with the first Vikings in America.

“Why don’t you cast Lee Majors as your lead?” I suggested.

Charlie thought Lee would be perfect, which didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was the $400,000 plus 10 percent of the gross that Charlie was willing to give up to get him. What surprised me further was that Lee was willing to take the deal and wear a Viking costume. I whistled under my breath again.

The Norseman was a piece of shit, and I knew it. But Farrah had laid down the terms—if I didn’t get Lee a picture, she wouldn’t work anymore. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to get Lee a good picture, it was that I couldn’t. Until the lawsuit with Spelling-Goldberg was settled, Lee’s name in the mainstream industry was as anathema as Farrah’s.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.