The Hollywood Trilogy: A Couple of Comedians, the True Story of Jody McKeegan, and Turnaround by Don Carpenter

Author:Don Carpenter
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Literary, Fiction
ISBN: 9781619024090
Publisher: Counterpoint
Published: 2014-08-17T12:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-ONE

MONDAY AFTERNOON after Harry got the official word from Maggie’s agent he cursed for almost five minutes and then got into his car and drove out to Maggie’s house in Brentwood.

“You have to tell me why you’re quitting,” he said. They were out in the back, near the pool. Maggie had a towel around his middle and sat on a white cast-iron chair under a striped umbrella. Harry stood.

“What’d my agent say?” Maggie asked cheerfully.

“He said a commitment from the past, something you really didn’t think would come through, came through. Some spaghetti western or something.”

“That’s what we worked out,” Maggie said. “Do you really want to go into it?”

“Yes.”

“You’re worried. I don’t blame you, but don’t worry. I mean, really, don’t worry.”

“But I am worried. You have to tell me.”

Maggie tilted his head and began slapping it, to get the water out of his ear. Harry decided it was just an actor’s trick to gain time, so he said, “Schtik,” and Maggie stopped and told him what had been the matter.

When Harry got home Jody wanted to know, and what he told her was that Maggie had been enthusiastic about doing the test for them because he had figured it would be a good way to get in solid with the producer—help him through his old lady’s screen test. He had figured it would be like a lot of those scenes, the chick was making Harry’s life miserable and so they had to go through the farce of giving her an expensive screen test, and then the director could play the villain and not cast her. Everybody would be off the hook and Maggie would look good—cooperative, humble, willing to work.

But when they got under the lights Jody had stunned him with her performance. Oh, no, it wasn’t that good, but good enough to stun him. He had not expected acting. He had expected almost anything else, but not acting. After all, he told Harry, who was this chick anyway? Nobody had ever heard of her, how come she was so good? Anyhow, he had probably screwed up her screen test, and he knew he felt antagonistic and jealous toward her, and there really was this other job where he could spend three months in Spain making an Italian western, where he would be the star, where his name would appear over the title, and so what with one thing and another, Maggie felt it was right for him to drop out.

Harry explained to Jody that he had told Maggie that he was being foolish. After a few days together, he and Jody would work together fine, everything would be all right, and besides, they really wanted him in the picture and were willing to raise his salary to where it would be at least competitive with the Italian starring job, if you take into account all the cost of travel, etc., and Maggie laughed and agreed and apologized for being temperamental.

What Harry did not tell her was what Maggie had really said.

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