The Brand (17 page)

He found the accused company guilty of
illegally exploiting the images and “implied name” of Joelyn Smith
for its benefit. The judge did not, however, award the asked-for
$30-million in damages, after stating that the plaintiff had
“greatly” exaggerated the profits obtained by the accused company.
He awarded $1,5 million to Joelyn Smith. Some quarters of society
had castigated Joelyn for being greedy, mentioning in social
networks that with her staggering wealth – known to the world,
thanks to
Forbes
magazine
– she already lived comfortably and did not need to harass people
who were trying to create wealth for themselves. In a cheeky
response, Joelyn took the money awarded to her, and after paying
her attorneys, donated the rest to charity.

There was little mention of that in the
media. Joelyn threw a tantrum, crying that her attempts at social
responsibility were not properly recognized. She accused her
publicist – a neurotic 26-year-old who had recently become a
patient of one of LA’s top psychiatrists, due largely to working
for a tyrant with a volatile temper – of not doing her job
efficiently. The following day, the young woman had a minor nervous
breakdown and did not arrive for work. The day after that, her
psychiatrist prescribed that the young woman should quit her
current job to refrain from suicidal thoughts.

Sometime in September, Joelyn attended the
MTV Video Music Awards, where she picked up three awards. The next
day, the newspapers, tabloids, TV channels and radio stations all
spoke about her and how she deserved those awards. Some were more
critical than others, noting how thin Joelyn had become since her
divorce from Jason Kane, and how she had giggled and mumbled words
during all her acceptance speeches. To be fair, everyone who had
watched the live broadcast had noticed that Joelyn appeared drunk
throughout the show. She had arrived for the VMAs dressed in a
skimpy little see-through dress that left little to the imagination
and showed the world how thin she had become.

Rumors circulated that the organizers of the
show had wanted Joelyn to perform at the event, but she had
refused. Word was that Joelyn was not herself lately, and her
people did not trust the actions she would perform on stage. Of
course, the veracity of those rumors was never ascertained.
Joelyn’s publicists strongly declined the rumors that she had been
drunk at the VMAs.

On the 6
^th
of November, American voters went to the polls and decided
to retain Barack Obama’s presence at the White House. When the
election fever was over, ordinary Americans quickly forgot about
Washington politics and looked elsewhere for entertainment. The
Soul Train Awards, traditionally designed to recognize and
acknowledge talented Black musicians, came in November and
nevertheless went against conventional practice by bringing in
Joelyn Smith to partner a song performance with Raizer T. Their
performance together was electrifying. Their peers in the music
industry gave them a standing ovation. Later, Joelyn was called
onto the stage to present an award to a winner in a certain
category. She was waiting for the winner to make his way to the
stage when millions of viewers across the globe saw her raise her
right hand to her forehead. Then she collapsed and fainted in a
dead heap.

A few minutes later an unconscious Joelyn
Smith was taken by a speeding ambulance to hospital.

Her name was Jansen Vermuelen. She was an
extremely beautiful young woman of twenty-one. She had a graceful,
athletic body. She was virtually loved by everyone she met. Her
fans adored her. They simply called her Jansen, and gradually
sports presenters, reporters and bloggers ignored her last name
altogether until it was firmly fixed in people’s minds that she was
Jansen, a tennis star with many other talents. She had dieticians,
nutritionists, aerobics instructors, personal trainers, masseuses,
her own personal doctor who was on standby 24-hours a day, as well
as a personal chef who travelled with her to every hotel she stayed
in around the world – to the indignation of the hotels’ resident
chefs.

Jansen was at the top of her game and on top
of the world. Since her return to professional tennis, Jansen had
picked up a tour-leading three titles and climbed the WTA rankings
from 257 when she resumed her tennis career to a respectable 39.
Wimbledon had proved elusive for her, and she had crashed out of
the third round of the tournament with a hamstring injury. After
that, she went back to New York to recuperate and start the mental
preparation for the upcoming US Open. By all intents and purposes,
Jansen wanted very badly to reclaim the US Open tennis title from
its current holder. Her agent at International Management Group was
forced to respond after widespread speculation about whether Jansen
would be fit in time for the US Open. The agent mentioned that
Jansen had had a cortisone shot in her thigh to relieve lingering
soreness. Five days later she was back at work filming a
commercial. She posted two tweets the next day, saying her thigh
had improved “immensely”, and she had begun training with her coach
for the US Open.

From the moment she had decided to return to
playing tennis, Jansen had made a number of personal resolutions:
she wanted to climb the WTA rankings and become the top-ranked
female player in the world; she wanted to win all four Grand Slam
titles; she wanted to improve her attitude on court; and she wanted
no man to disturb her intended resolves. The last man she had been
with was the Arab prince. Since then, Jansen had rejected countless
sexual enticements and romantic proposals from all types of men all
over the world. When asked in TV and magazine interviews, she
stated that she was in a “cooling” period at present as far as
relationships were concerned, adding that boyfriends – no matter
how decent or good they might be – had a tendency to distract one
from one’s intended goals, so she had made a personal pledge that
she would stay single for the rest of the year.

Jansen went into the US Tennis Open backed
by an army of supporters. She went into the tournament 100% fit,
and railroaded her way past opponents and stormed into the finals
with merciless brutality. The final was played against the current
Women’s Number One, in front of a sold-out crowd of 22,500 at
Arthur Ashe Stadium. Before the start of the match, Coach Gary
Speckman told his young player that she had the strength to beat
her opponent, and should not let rankings intimidate her. Jansen
went into the first game with a positive attitude and swept it,
plus the next three games, into her bag to lead 4-0. However,
her
opponent showed why
she was № 1 by returning strongly to win the next five games. In
quick time she was serving for the set and did so with an ace that
whizzed past a helpless Jansen. The partisan crowd was stunned into
disbelief.

Coach Speckman told his
p
layer not to lose her
nerve. ‘Keep your cool. You got nothing to lose, and no points to
prove. Play your game the way you started. Don’t get too excited
when she comes back strongly. Attack her left side…she’s weak on
her left hand…’

Jansen took the advice to heart and regained
the crowd’s support by taking the second set 6-3. In the final set,
she was down 0-3 when Gary told her not to throw in the towel. ‘The
match’s not over ’til the last ball’s been served. Shut out your
fear. She’s just a human being. And you’re better than she is…’

Jansen stepped back onto the court and
leveled the set 3-3.

Gary couldn’t hide his excitement, but it was
ruled by an anxiety so intense it exhibited itself as nervousness.
‘That’s my girl…You’re playing good, Jan. The match is yours.
That’s the thought you must stick to your head. Every last game is
yours. Don’t give her a chance. She’s getting tired and slow. She’s
old, and you’re fresh. Keep attacking that left side and force her
to make errors…’

Jansen went back to face her opponent. The
crowd fell into a tense silence, sensing that they had reached the
climax of the game. Jansen served three consecutive aces that
almost brought her opponent to tears. She won the next two games
and was leading 5-3 when she sealed victory on her opponent’s serve
with a backhand crosscourt return. In a burst of emotion, Jansen
dropped to the ground and yelled at the top of her voice at the
heavens above. She regained her composure and went forward to the
net to shake her opponent’s hand. Then she turned to face her
coach.

He was uncontrollably ecstatic. She ran up to
him and threw her arms around him in a tight embrace. She shed
tears of happiness. And he cried too. It was such an emotional
moment the crowd fell silent until they let go of each other.

Aside from winning an Oscar and releasing a
commercially successful album, 2012 was generally a bad year for
Joelyn Smith. After collapsing at the Soul Train Awards and her
subsequent admission to hospital, the Internet was rife with
speculation that she had suffered from complications related to
drug and alcohol abuse. Although not confirmed, certain quarters of
society had it on good authority that doctors at a private hospital
had flushed the offending drugs out of her system and restored the
pH balance of her body cells before sending her home. Her
publicist, a no-nonsense Black woman who did not mince her words,
had been educated at the London School of Journalism and was new at
her job after having quit from a similar post in a US House
Representative’s staff, issued a public statement to the effect
that while she appreciated that Ms. Smith was a public personality
and therefore things would always be said about her – some correct
but most untrue – she wanted to set the record straight on a few
things:

Ms. Smith was not a drug addict. She had
fainted at the Soul Train Awards as a result of a strenuous work
schedule that had left her dehydrated and with low levels of
energy. The doctors attending to her had advised her to take things
a bit slowly, and she was resting at home now, unable to perform
some of her previously-scheduled duties.

Ms. Smith was not a closet-lesbian. There was
nothing wrong with gay people. In fact, Ms. Smith had several
working on her staff. For purposes of clarity, however, Ms. Smith
was not having a secret love affair with a female member of her
staff, as alleged elsewhere.

Ms. Smith had not been dropped by her record
label, Ryze Entertainment. Certain issues pertaining to her
contract had been disputed in a closed court session and she was
eventually released under an amicable agreement with the label. She
was now signed with Sony Music Entertainment.

Ms. Smith had not been dropped by a major
Hollywood studio as a lead actress in a movie to be released in the
summer of 2013, because the truth of the matter was that Ms. Smith
had not been involved with that particular project to start with.
If the studio was interested in her being in the movie, they still
had to contact her. As for the rumors that Ms. Smith was out of
acting work, the simple truth was that Ms. Smith had finalized
contract agreements to star in six movies to be released over the
course of the next two years.

Ms. Smith was not experiencing trouble coming
up with an album as excellent as her debut album. She simply hadn’t
had enough time on her busy schedule to devote to the production of
her second offering, but she was taking this time of rest to find
inspiration and write some material for the next album, whose
release date could not be confirmed as yet due to her recent change
of labels.

After the recent events in her life, Joelyn
Smith kept a very low profile. December came, with its various
end-of-year parties. Joelyn declined all invitations and went to
none. She remained in self-imposed exile inside her Malibu mansion,
occasionally going out for a walk along the beach in the company of
two bodyguards. Upon her release from hospital, Joelyn had made
valiant efforts to stay clean, but she was unable to. She still
drank enough alcohol to cause concern, and her addiction to drugs
had reached the dependency stage. In her sober moments, Joelyn
sincerely wanted to return to her normal self again. She wanted to
be in control of her life, not ruled by the cravings of liquor and
the white powder that had imprisoned her body. She wanted to be
free, but did not know how.

Her people, concerned at the downward spiral
of their star, were having incessant closed-door meetings to
discuss the way forward. They discreetly consulted a psychiatrist,
who informed them that none of them would ever help “the subject”
until she herself was ready to commit herself to a change of
lifestyle. The psychiatrist charged them an astronomical fee for
that piece of information.

Meanwhile, Joelyn summoned her personal
live-in hairstylist and instructed him to shave off all her hair.
The man, blessed – or cursed – with a pathological affinity for
women’s hair, was shocked beyond belief. He totally refused. He
considered cutting such beautiful, lush, blonde hair of the finest
quality a treacherous act of the first order that was unforgivable
according to the laws of his book. Again, he refused and remained
adamant that he would not commit such a sinful act.

In a fit of rage, Joelyn locked herself
inside her room, plugged in an electric shaving machine, sat down
before a mirror and shaved all the hair off her head. When she
emerged out of the room, she was bald, had showered and was dressed
to go out. Her hairstylist actually broke down in a fit of
uncontrollable cries.