Hollywood Star (9 page)

I have seen probably every single high-school movie that has ever been made in the last five years and I know exactly what happens to girls like me at high school. They get eaten alive. Unpopular, geeky, nerdy, a loser. All of those words had been used to describe me at one time or another. And I was certain that this time would be no different.

Of course I could be wrong. I am good at being wrong about things and people; it’s one of my best things. Maybe Nadine would be sweet and shy and Adrienne would be a secret
Kensington Heights
fan. Perhaps it
could
be exciting and an amazing new step in my acting career.
And it wasn’t forever. Just another six weeks out here instead of being at home, with hot chocolate, Everest and the mess I keep hiding underneath my bed instead of putting it away like Mum keeps asking me to. At least in Hollywood somebody else tidies up my room.

Mum finally got in the car and started telling Jeremy everything. I realised then that I was the only one who wasn’t sure about this, which had to mean that my worries were all silly and pointless. Didn’t it?

I closed Nydia’s e-mail and looked at myself in the full-length mirror in my bedroom. The pristine clothes I had worn for a few hours were already grubby, my hair had frizzed up and the thick layer of so-called natural-look foundation that Julian had caked on my face had actually cracked in a few places.

And then I realised, Mr Blenheim had seen the fully made up and primped up version of me on
The Carl Vine Show.
I had been putting on an accent that wasn’t mine and looking like I can
never
look unless I have three personal stylists following me around all of the time refreshing my lip gloss and pulling me out of the way of potential stainage situations. It would be all right, I
realised suddenly, to go and audition because when Mr Blenheim saw me with no make-up on and in my own “cheap tat” clothes, he would realise that I was about as far away from being an English lady as was possible. And if I did the audition and failed, at least Mum would be happy that I’d tried. It was always Mum that said that trying and doing my best was the main thing, and that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I didn’t get a part. Then I could go home and forget all about
Hollywood High
until I watched it on TV on a Sunday morning over my cereal.

I washed off as much of the make-up on my face as I could in one go and went downstairs to find Mum. She was on the phone in Jeremy’s study so I waited by the sofa for her to finish her call.

“That’s great, marvellous – I’m so pleased, speak soon. Bye!” She put the receiver down and held out her arms. I ran to her and hugged her tight, glad to know that she was still my soft, round mum under that orange skin.

“I’ve been thinking,” I said, smiling at her. “I will give that audition a go for
Hollywood High.
I mean I can only try my best, right?”

My mum laughed, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “Of course you are doing the audition, darling. I’ve already made all of the arrangements so you don’t have to worry about anything except being brilliant
and I know you won’t let me down on that score. I’ve spoken to Audrey and to Ms Lighthouse and both of them say they can certainly work with Blenheim Productions if you get through the auditions, which I know you will.”

I tried to interrupt, but she was in full flow. I don’t think I had ever seen her this excited about anything, not even when I auditioned for
The Lost Treasure of King Arthur.
My mum was usually so determined that I keep my feet on the ground and have a normal life. Not this time.

“Now I was thinking,” Mum went on, releasing me from my hug to pace the floor of Jeremy’s office. “When Mr Blenheim saw you on the show you had had your hair and make-up done and those nice clothes, which is not really like you at all so—”

“So he might not want me when he sees the real me and we might have to forget about it,” I said, trying and failing not to sound hopeful.

“No, darling.” Mum ruffled my hair in exactly the way she knew I didn’t like, only this time I think she’d forgotten that I didn’t like it and wasn’t just doing it for a joke like she normally does. “Illusion – that’s what acting is all about. I phoned Lisa and got Julian’s number and called him. He says he can definitely get you more clothes from that label, and that he’ll come and do your
hair and make-up again, and come with us to the audition to keep you looking good. So all you have to do is to turn up and be brilliant.” She turned to me. “Ruby, I will be so proud of you.”

I looked at my mum, her face full of excitement and her eyes glittering. She had thought of everything to try and get me this part and I couldn’t work out why it was that I was feeling so down about it. OK, I was scared and nervous of going to a new school and walking on to a new set. But it would only be for a while, and no matter what my tummy thought about it, my head told me that this was an amazing opportunity. It was one that I had to stop being uncertain about and give a hundred per cent to, even if only for my mum, because she would be so proud of me if I did this.

“It’s going to be fantastic, Mum,” I said, bouncing a little on my toes. “It’s going to be fantastic – it really, really is!”

And I kept on saying it until I started to believe it too.

A BLENHEIM PRODUCTIONS PRODUCTION

SEASON TWO EPISODE 23 “THE PRINCESS AND THE FOOTBALL PLAYER” WRITTEN BY: SUZIE BLENHEIM, JENNY ROBERTS, SAM JENKINS, HALLE GONZALEZ, NAVEEN SMITH AND CONNIE KREMER DIRECTED BY: SUZIE BLENHEIM

SCENE 48

INT. LUNCH RECESS, THE CAFETERIA

NATALIE and SABRINA are sitting with PARMINDER and LARA at their usual table. They are in close discussion when Sabrina looks up to middle distance and notices that the subject of their discussion is approaching their table.

SABRINA

Shhh, girls – she’s coming over!

The table is quiet as all four girls look up. Their faces are less than friendly.

LADY ELIZABETH

Hello? Would you mind awfully if I came over and sat down with you ladies? I expect you know it’s my first day at school here in America and as I’m sure you can imagine it is rather different from my old girls’ school.

SABRINA

(Coldly) Is it true that you really are a “Lady” and that we all have to call you “Lady” Elizabeth?

LADY ELIZABETH

(Sits down despite lack of invitation) Goodness no! I mean, yes, formally I do
have the title of “Lady” but nobody, not even our servants, calls me Lady anything. Please just call me Lizzy. I might have a different accent and come from a faraway land but really I am just like you. Right now I could really use some friends and it’s easy to see that you ladies are the coolest girls in your grade. I’d be so grateful if you would agree to show me the ropes as it were?

NATALIE

Do you know the princes?

LADY ELIZABETH

Of course I know the princes. My older brother Edgar goes to Sandhurst with them.

The girls look at each other and make an almost telepathic decision.

NATALIE

OK, you’re in.

LADY ELIZABETH

Oh, this is going to be jolly good fun!

But there is a glint in LADY ELIZABETH’S eyes that tells us she’s going to be trouble.

I suppose that I expected my only second ever professional audition to be something like the first. When I auditioned for
The Lost Treasure of King Arthur
it hadn’t been glamorous at all, at least not the first time. We all had to wait in a grubby corridor above a shop in Soho and then troop one by one into a whitewashed dance studio where a panel of people who I thought were utterly terrifying (so terrifying that I actually threw up) were waiting for me.

So when the day of the audition arrived, I was prepared for it to be more or less the same. Not in a dance studio above a shop, but gut-wrenchingly terrifying. And in a funny kind of way, the terrifying part was the only thing that was certain about the whole experience. Because I
certainly
didn’t know how to feel about it.

We had only been in Hollywood a little while, and though it was wonderful and exciting in so many ways, it had been eventful enough for me already. And now
there was a steely glint in Mum’s eye and a kind of determination to change everything, including my life, that I had seen somewhere before but couldn’t quite put my finger on.

But despite her oddness, it was a new experience to have Mum so totally behind me going for a part. Especially one that would mean more time away from school and home and the life where my feet were anchored firmly to the ground in exactly the place where Mum most liked them to be. For once I wasn’t getting the “It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get it” speech or her “There’ll be other parts, Ruby, and you’re still so young – you have all the time in the world” talk. And funnily enough, for the first time ever, I wanted to hear both of them.

More than that I wanted her to ask me the question she always asked me and to which up until now I had always replied “Yes”. I wanted her to ask me if I was sure if this was what I really wanted.

But she didn’t.

I decided to phone Dad that evening after Mum told me that the audition was all arranged. I hadn’t spoken to him since we left and I didn’t think that my rather rude conversation with his so-called girlfriend had done anything to help how we had left things between us. I

wanted to hear his voice. I wanted to say sorry and for him to be OK with me again and call me “kiddo” and tell me a terrible Joke.

Part of me wanted to tell him that I was unsure about auditioning for
Hollywood High
but I felt that if I did, if I said anything about how Mum had changed then I would be being disloyal to her. Still I wanted to tell Dad about the audition, no matter how I felt about it, just so that I could hear in his voice whether or not he thought it was a good idea. But when I picked up the phone and dialled, all I heard on the other end was the ringing tone. I wondered if I was getting Dad out of bed because I wasn’t really sure what the time was back home, but I was pretty certain that he would be there.

He didn’t pick up though and I wondered if it was because he knew it was me and didn’t want to speak to me. Or if it was because he had stayed the night at his so-called girlfriend’s place. I felt a rush of anger and slammed the receiver down hard. If that was true, if he was at her place, then he wasn’t at home wishing he could make friends with me. He wasn’t even thinking about me. He was taking another step further away and I wondered how long it would be before he was gone from my life forever.

I didn’t try and call Danny or e-mail the others. I didn’t want to say anything to them until I knew if I would be offered the part. It was partly superstition, wanting to keep it to myself as if even talking about the audition might Jinx it. Also, despite my misgivings, the competitive part of me still wanted to do well. Chances like this were, after all, what I had devoted my short career to so far.

The main reason I didn’t tell them anything though was because I didn’t want my life to change any more than it already had. My friends were waiting for me to come home in a few days and somehow this fact made that life still real. If I rang them and told them that actually I might not be home for weeks or even months, then they would stop waiting for me, stop expecting me. There would stop being a gap at the lunch table or space at my desk in class because the everyday life I was no longer part of would gradually close over and cover my absence.

A few hours before we had to leave for Blenheim Studios, Julian arrived with my audition “costume”. He claimed he had done a lot of research before he finally unveiled the outfit he was confident would nail me the part.

I dutifully took it to my room and put it on, wearing it back down to the living room where Mum, Julian and Jeremy were waiting. Jeremy smiled.

“I would say that is
exactly
the Hollywood perception of a young English Lady,” he said, winking at me. I was wearing a pale blue cotton shirt with the collar turned up so that it flapped just beneath my ears, and a string of pearls over that. Julian had insisted that I tuck the shirt into the blue and green tartan skirt that came to just about my knees, pulling half of it out so that it billowed over the waistband. Then he made me put on a pair of pristine white
knee socks,
the sort I hadn’t worn since primary school, and finally he strapped on a pair of black patent leather round-toed shoes with a t-bar.

“Perfect,” he said.

“Do you get
Hiyal Bye-a!
over here?” I asked him cautiously.

Julian looked puzzled. “We get the American version,” he said.

“Oh, well, it’s just that in the British version you quite often see photos of real Lady This or That and stories about actual Right Honourable Miss Blahs, and they never, EVER look like…like…this.”

“Yes,” Julian said smartly. “But this isn’t about how your English aristocrats really look; it’s about how we Americans expect them to look. And
this
is how.”

Of course Blenheim Studios was nothing like the dance place where I auditioned for
The Lost Treasure of King Arthur.
Much more modern than Wide Open Universe, it consisted of several new and shiny-looking buildings covered in reflective glass windows, but its avenues were still lined with the palm trees that I had now got used to seeing everywhere.

A woman in a cream trouser suit was waiting for us when we arrived and introduced herself as Karen Miller. “Follow me, please,” she said, leading us across an open
forecourt into a separate building. “Mr Blenheim and Suzie thought it would be nice to audition you on set with the other actors in costume and make-up, to help you really get a feel for what it would be like to be part of
Hollywood High.”

I swallowed, but my mouth was so dry there was nothing to go down, so my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. I wished more than anything that I could turn around and run away in the opposite direction, back to where Jeremy’s air-conditioned car was waiting along with David, who was no doubt angrily making a hole in the upholstery. I would ask Jeremy to take me straight to the airport so that I could home and find my fat and friendly cat, Everest, and get into bed and pull the covers over our heads and hide. But I knew that I couldn’t. I knew that I had to go through with this and there was nothing that could stop it.

It was the cafeteria set that Karen led us to. Unlike the sets on
Kensington Heights
which looked pretty small and really fake in real life, it was a huge set kitted out as far as I could see in perfect detail down to the lunch counter. There was enough room for at least fifty extras and for camera crews to move around, which made the filming seem more natural and less static. And it was lit as if bright Hollywood sunshine was streaming in through the
windows, even though there were none. I couldn’t help but be impressed; I had never been on a set like this before. And for the first time, the thought of working somewhere like this set a buzzing feeling of excitement vibrating in my chest.

We saw Mr Blenheim talking to some crew and Karen led us over to him. I looked but I couldn’t see any of the other actors yet.

“Ruby!” Mr Blenheim’s mouth stretched into a wide papery grin as he held out his hand for me to shake. His dry grip was firm as he gestured at the dark-haired woman standing next to him. “Thank you so much for coming in. This is Suzie, my daughter and the series director. Suzie originated
Hollywood High
and still helps write a lot of the episodes. Since you and I last talked, Audrey Gold sent us your showreel and we are both very impressed.”

“We sure are,” Suzie Blenheim said, taking my hand in both of hers and smiling. “Gary, will you get the girls on set, please,” Suzie asked a tall and stringy young man who seemed to be her assistant. She beamed at me. “Let’s get started!”

Moments later I met Adrienne and Nadine. Well I say “met”: it was more that they launched themselves at me and hugged me, both of them squealing like overexcited
mice, as if they’d known me all their lives. It was overwhelming and unexpected but also very nice, because all at once I didn’t feel quite so terrified any more. Still
fairly
petrified, but not like I might drop dead at any second.

“Wow, Ruby, it’s
so
great to meet you,” Adrienne said, swinging my hand in hers.

“Word is that you are the next big thing,” Nadine told me, with a huge sparkly-toothed smile.

“Urn, well…I’m not sure about that,” I mumbled.

“Is it true that you and Imogene Grant are really good friends?” Adrienne asked. “I’d so love to meet Imogene Grant one day. Can you introduce us?”

“Well, maybe,” I said. “But I think she’s going to Hungary to shoot her next film soon…”

“And your mom is dating Jeremy Fort, right?” Nadine added. “I wish my mom would date someone classy and British. I’m so bored of male American TV stars; they basically all look the same anyway.” Both girls laughed and so did I, not because I thought all male American TV stars look the same, but because if Nadine and Adrienne were laughing then I wanted to laugh. I wanted to do whatever they were doing.

I was utterly amazed by how normal and friendly they were, although I realised, I shouldn’t be. After all,
what they did every day wasn’t that different from what I used to do on
Kensington Heights
and I am
mostly
quite normal and friendly. Also, for a long time I Judged Anne-Marie on how she looked. I thought anybody that beautiful couldn’t be a nice person too (and to be fair, the fact that she despised me didn’t help improve our relationship). But then I got to know her and she got to know me, and we realised that actually we were OK. By which I mean that despite first impressions we could be friends after all. So maybe it would be possible for me to be friends with these two bouncy, shiny, golden beings.

“OK, girls,” Suzie said quite firmly. “Enough of the gossip; there’ll be plenty of time to get to that later. Let’s run through the scene. Take your places! Camera rolling and…action!”

After the scene had wrapped and the grown-ups were standing round a monitor reviewing the tape, Adrienne, Nadine and I stayed sitting at the canteen table.

“Ruby,” Nadine said with half a smile, lowering her voice, “what
did
your mom make you wear today! No offence, but you look like a reject from the last century.”

I laughed; she was right after all. “It wasn’t Mum, it was my stylist. Well, he’s not exactly
my
stylist. Mum thought that because Mr Blenheim saw me all dressed up and doing a posh voice on
The Carl Vine Show
that I should do it again only more so…”

“I
love
your accent, it’s so cool,” Nadine said. “You’ll have to teach me how to do a really good British accent while you’re here, OK?”

“If I’m here,” I said ruefully.

“You’ll be here. Anyway, your stylist was wrong. We get British
Vogue
and
Taller
over here too, you know. Your English aristocracy is very classy. We especially like your princes.” She smiled at me mischievously. “I don’t suppose you know them too?”

I shook my head and smiled. “No, sorry,” I said. “I went to Buckingham Palace on a field trip once though.”

The girls laughed. I’d clearly said something really witty. I Just wasn’t sure what.

“You’ll love school; it’s so cool, not like any other school you’ve ever been too,” Nadine told me. “And there are some seriously cute guys too, especially the ones who work with us on the show.”

“Oh, I’m going out with someone,” I said with a shrug.

“Going out where?” Adrienne asked, looking faintly puzzled.

“I mean I already have a boyfriend at home,” I said, feeling suddenly shy. “Danny Harvey.” Nadine and Adrienne looked blankly at me and I supposed that they had never heard of Danny. Well that was OK because I was fairly sure that he had never heard of them either. “He’s Just had a number one hit back in Britain,” I said, feeling the need to boast on Danny’s behalf.

“Really? So you date a pop star. Cool,” Adrienne said. “Of course we’ve got four of them in our school. They’re in a band. Envision. They’ve been signed but they’re not really huge – not yet.”

I shook my head. “I haven’t heard of them.”

“Well that’s OK,” Adrienne said. “You will. They’re going to play at our Valentine’s dance – hey, you’ll be here for the Valentine’s dance. We’ll have to get you a date.”

“Well, I…” The girls were going too fast for me.

“You can’t go without a date,” Nadine told me. “Well, you can, but it’s seriously not cool. Look, don’t worry, stick with us and you’ll be very popular at Beaumont. Finding you a date will be easy.”

“Or it will be once you’ve escaped from that outfit,” Adrienne giggled. And as the three of us laughed, again I suddenly felt excited about the prospect of going to a real American high school (even if it was a theatre school)
and working on a real American TV show and even maybe going to a real American Valentine’s dance. I had no sense of how I’d done in the audition, but caught up in the moment and in Nadine and Adrienne’s friendliness, I really,
really
wanted to be offered the part of Lady Elizabeth.

“Ruby,” Suzie Blenheim smiled at me as she came over. I searched the smile for any hint of what it might mean. Was it a “Sorry you didn’t make it” smile or a “Yes, you’re hired” one? It seemed to hover somewhere in between the two.

My mum hurried over to Join us.

“Thank you so much for coming in today. You’ve done really good work.” Suzie paused and looked from me to my mother. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you yet if you have the part. I know I want you for it and Dad
loves
you, but it’s going to take a while before we can let you know for sure.”

“Suzie!” Adrienne exclaimed. “Can’t you say now? Please? I want her to get the part!”

Suzie smiled that level smile again. “Adrienne, you know I can’t. Now, you girls, the rest of the cast is in make-up right now so go and make sure you’re ready for your next scene, OK?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Adrienne said, giving me a quick hug before she ran off.

“What do you Brits say? Oh, yeah, ‘break an arm’, Ruby!” Nadine called over her shoulder, blowing me a kiss as she followed Adrienne.

“So is that all for now?” my mum said, and I knew she would have been frowning if she could have made her brows go together.

“That’s all for now,” Suzie said. “Karen will take you to your car and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible.”

“I hope you are,” my mum said quite sharply. “Because my daughter is very much in demand, Ms Blenheim, so if you want her, you’d better make sure you get her soon.”

“Mum!” I exclaimed before I could stop myself, shocked at her blatant lie – the only thing that was going to be demanded of me when I got home was some homework and getting picked second from last for netball.

“We’ll speak very soon, Mrs Parker,” Suzie said, holding out her hand to end the conversation.

Mum and I followed Karen back to the car where, as soon as he saw us, David began flinging himself against the gap in the window, sticking his snarling and barking little muzzle through it. I was beginning to see that this was his way of telling us that he was pleased to see us.

Once we were in the car I rounded on Mum. “Why did you say that to Suzie – that I was in demand?” I asked as David climbed up my shoulder and nipped at my ear. “You know I’m not.”

“Because you have to play hardball to get results,” my mum said. Yes, my mum, Janice Parker, actually did say that.

I did a double-take and peered closely at her.

“Mum,” I asked her cautiously. “Why are you suddenly so desperate for me to get this role? You’ve always been pretty relaxed about my career before. Always told me that I don’t need to go so fast, that I’m only a child and all of that business.”

Mum looked at me again, with the steely glint in her eye that had worried me so much before, and said, “We might have only been here a couple of weeks, Ruby, but that’s all it’s taken for me to realise something. This business you want to be part of, that you’ve
worked
to be part of since you were a little girl, isn’t nice. It isn’t fluffy and cuddly. It’s hard and it’s difficult and sometimes it’s cruel. And if you want to find true success, then it’s here, in this town, where you will find it and have the level of recognition that you deserve. This part is a guest role, but if audiences like you, it could become more – maybe even your own series.”

“I seriously doubt it,” I said. “And anyway, even if I did, we’d have to live here, like, properly.”

“Obviously,” Mum said, rolling her eyes.

And as I looked at her I realised where I’d seen that look before. It had been on Pat Rivers’ face. Sean’s dad, the man who worked him so cruelly and hard that he began to hate acting and gave up his enormous fame, possibly forever, running away to hide from the world. That was how my mum looked Just then. And it frightened me.

“What if I don’t want this role,” I said quietly.

“Don’t be silly, Rubes,” my mum said, looking out of the window. “Of course you want it. And you’ll get it. Wait and see.”

teen Magazine’s girl!

Hip Hip Hooray for the Hunks!

As the New Year rolls in we list the Top Ten reasons why you should feel happy to be alive. They’re hot, they’re young and they’re all still technically available. So make sure you keep on the lookout, girls. These are the guys worth catching!

1
He won a nation of teenage hearts with his mean and moody portrayal of
Kensington Heights
Bad Boy, Marcus Ridley, and now he’s serenaded us with his dreamy chart-topping release
Kensington Heights (You take me to…).
Yes it’s true, he’s been linked with former
Kensington Heights
star Ruby Parker who, rumour has it, is trying to make it in Hollywood. But
if she’s not in the country, we don’t think she counts as a girlfriend. What greater achievement could there be for Danny Harvey? He’s topped our chart of handsome hunks to hip-hip hooray for, that’s what!