Shadows Bright as Glass by Amy Ellis Nutt

Author:Amy Ellis Nutt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 2011-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

ART BOY

After Sarkin’s art appeared in the New York Times Magazine, he received a phone call from Andrew Corsello, a writer at GQ magazine, asking to interview him. Sarkin was dumbfounded but excited, and invited Corsello up to his studio in Gloucester. Six months later, the January 1997 issue of GQ magazine included ten fashion trends for the spring, tips on hot stocks for the upcoming year, and a lengthy profile of Jon Sarkin titled “Metamorphosis.” Both Jon and Kim thought Corsello had captured the sense of artistic urgency—and the mental chaos—in Jon’s life perfectly.

Several weeks later, as he was sitting in his studio, Sarkin received another phone call. This time it was Hollywood. Someone from Tom Cruise’s production company wanted to know if the studio could buy the movie rights to his life. Sarkin wasn’t at all sure what that meant. In fact, he wasn’t at all sure who—or what—Cruise/Wagner Productions was exactly. So he went to his fallback position, which was always “I need to talk to my wife.” That night, after dinner, there was another phone call. This time it was Paula Wagner, the head of Cruise’s film company and a friend of Jane Sarkin. She wanted Kim and Jon to know that she thought their life story was inspirational, that it would make a wonderful movie, and that she and Tom Cruise wanted to give them a substantial amount of money for the movie rights to his life. Sarkin’s brother-in-law, Martin O’Connor, arranged for Creative Artists Agency to represent Jon in the negotiations, and a month later, Kim and Jon signed a contract that gave them about half a million dollars.

Not long afterward, screenwriter Billy Ray and a passel of production assistants spent a week in Rockport and Gloucester interviewing the Sarkins and doing local research. Before long, everyone from the local Gloucester Times to Hollywood’s Daily Variety was calling. Sarkin loved the attention, fed off it in fact, and he began to think that “fate or karma or destiny” had a plan for him, including possible greatness. “I didn’t ask for this ‘mojo,’” he would say, referring to his creative compulsion. “This is what the starry cards have in mind for this here pilgrim. Fame, and possibly fortune, will follow this fame, like dream follows night.”

To celebrate this new life, Sarkin took a couple of his friends out to dinner several times, and not just to any local dive, but L’Espalier in Back Bay, Boston, one of the city’s most expensive restaurants. They ordered the twelve-course meal, drank $300 bottles of wine, and smoked $100 cigars. For the most part, Kim let Jon exult in his newfound fame—although she put an end to the $1,000 meals. He had a sense of purpose to his life now, and that was a good thing, but she also felt him slipping away, even retreating in some ways from the progress he had made back to his old life.

Jon had already put away his ties, button-down shirts, and wing-tip shoes.

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