Sealing it in an envelope which had The Meadows embossed on the front, I had a bright idea and ran to my room retrieving my signet ring. The ever-resourceful Mr. Hamilton came up with sealing wax. Must do things properly you know.
I wondered how long the Foreign Secretary and I could play this game. The Prince had probably cried to Daddy who cried to the Foreign Secretary. I wondered if the Secretary played golf and what he drove.
That was my excitement for the day. I did see the Don who didn’t want a known murderer in his lecture crossing the quad.
I also heard, “to forgive is divine,” in sotto voice.
It wasn’t me.
Friday night I went to the Dog and Crown with the guys, they wanted to know what I had been up to lately. I described the golf match at St. Andrews. They all agreed the Prince was a prat.
They thought that when I had the picture taken of the repaired Ferrari that I have a pretty girl next to me. That sounded like a plan.
Saturday morning I was up early to get my workout in before I drove to Pinewood Studios. It was an easy one hour drive in my Aston Martin.
It was cool driving my car to where the James Bond films were produced. I wondered if anything was in production at the moment.
I daydreamed about movie parts during my drive. I had never done a real comedy or better yet a romantic comedy, that would be neat. Some nice young actress kissing me. Yes, I could go for that. Well if she was interested, not like that one on Maverick.
It would be really cool if Sean Connery saw me in this car. It was not to be, there was no sign of the actor my entire stay.
My name had been left at the gate which was a small relief as it showed nothing had fallen through the cracks. It would have been terrible to arrive at the front gate and be denied.
I was shocked when I was escorted into a conference room and Sharon Wallace and a young man were waiting for me.
“You looked surprised, Rick, do you really think we would let you get away with work without getting our cut?”
This was said in good humor and I took it that way. She introduced me to the young man. Not so young really, about thirty-five. Interesting how I viewed people these days from my decrepit old age of seventeen.
Edward Thomas was being interviewed to be my publicist. Sharon had brought him along to see how we would relate.
I was willing to give it a try. We shook hands and chatted for a few minutes. Ed as he called himself had been at a large agency and wanted to get out on his own.
He was presentable as far as his looks, well clean-shaven, hair combed, and a suit. I sneaked a look and even his shoes were shined. He was several up on me.
I wore my Oxford Blazer with a blue button-down shirt, no tie, and grey slacks, but my shoes were shined.
I asked him who he had been handling at his previous employer. He had two names that I recognized that I would call B-listers. Since I was a B-lister and now maybe an A-minus-lister that told me his employer thought well of him.
It turned out he had not given notice yet, he wanted to be certain of a job before giving notice. I asked him how long he would have to work after handing in his notice and he chuckled.
“They escort you directly out of the building. They will mail your personal items. So practice is to remove anything you want and then give notice.”
This guy seemed pretty level headed to me and I was inclined to give him a chance. Let's see how he does when the Pinewood people come in.
We didn’t have to wait more than another two minutes when a party of five came in. Why five I don’t know unless we had to be outnumbered.
Introductions were made all around. Mr. Donald Butler was the lead for Pinewood.
“Sir Richard we are pleased to meet you and welcome you to Pinewood. He also nodded to Ed and Sharon. I have been given to understand that you would be interested in doing some work while attending school at Oxford.”
“I certainly would like to explore the possibility. My concern is that scheduling might not work out due to my classes.”
“That would depend on the movie and the role. What sort of movie vehicle do you have in mind?”
I could feel Ed’s and Sharon's eyes on me as we hadn’t a chance to discuss this. I told Mr. Butler that I hadn’t discussed this with Sharon or Ed so this was news to them. This was a form of apology for springing it on them.
“I have done westerns and dramas, I think I would like to try something lighter such as a romantic comedy.”
“A teen scene sort of movie, we have plans for several, they are B-Listers or even lower.”
“That doesn’t concern me so much. I don’t have a driven desire to be a major star. I just find it fun to make movies. I love the teamwork and all the ingenuity it takes to bring one together.”
“That is a different attitude than we are used to. We would want you to do some readings. Comedy depends on timing, some people have it, some don’t.”
“I will be glad to try out, I think I have the timing to be funny but that is my opinion, not the camera's.”
“I’m glad you understand about the camera, Rick, some of the funniest people I know just don’t work out in front
