“No wonder Stan was sweating.” I grimace as she laughs her way out of my office, leaving me and the coffee to figure this mess out.
Forcing myself to focus my mind on work and not Lawrence, I open the email, cringing my way through the snaps of tweets and exchanges. It’s a complete shitshow with other celebs coming to the defense of the director, calling Liam a liar. On the flip side, several younger female actors are agreeing with Liam, claiming the director was flirty with them when they were in their early twenties.
It’s a hot mess but there doesn’t seem to be any actual inappropriate behavior on the director’s part, beyond flapping his gums.
Fortunately, now the director is saying nothing publicly, but his email to Stan is aggressive at best. At worst it’s threatening.
The studio is flipping out. The project in question has cost a hundred million dollars to complete, and if Liam has proof the director is a pervert, they will eat that. Something they aren’t prepared to do.
And as a result, everyone’s agent is blowing up Stan’s email, offering excuses and threats almost simultaneously.
I stretch, drink the last of my coffee, and start thinking about work but my brain is jumping back to my own personal problems. That leads to pacing and biting my lip until it throbs.
I’ve worn a path in the floor of my office when a miracle of an idea hits.
I grab my phone and press the contact’s call button.
“Mia, it’s Jenny Snowdon at Levisohn and Shuster.”
“Oh thank God, Jenny.” She’s Liam’s agent, someone we do a lot of business with. “I talked to Stan earlier and he sounded flustered. Is Laura in?”
“No, but I have an idea.”
“Give it to me. At this point I’m desperate.” She truly sounds desperate.
“I have to ask one question first, is the director shady? I’m not defending a pervert.”
She is quiet for a second before she speaks slowly, “No. He has flirted and schmoozed, but I’ve been doing this a long time. He’s not one of those ones. No casting couch and everyone he’s gone after was over twenty, barely but they’re legal. This is Liam being a dick, but I never said this and I will lie if ever questioned about it.”
“Fair enough and gross, almost equally. But I think I have a solution. Our best approach is to create some background noise. Let’s build on Liam’s lies and spread some more untruths. What if the director had an affair with Liam’s latest girlfriend? Which means Liam’s heartbroken and lashing out, not acting like a giant d-bag. People relate to a broken heart, so we make this entire Twitter incident a crime of passion as opposed to a narcissistic egomaniacal outburst.”
“Who’s his girlfriend?” Mia asks, not questioning the fact that Liam isn’t dating anyone, and we are about to start some serious bullshit. It’s what we do best. And the media is always there to grab it up and spread our lies. They do more than half our work for us.
“Was there anyone coming to the set much? A girl he saw more than once? It’s better to use someone that witnesses on set would have seen. They’ll verify. The crew loves giving statements when it’s against someone like Liam or the director. They love that fifteen seconds of fame.”
“Let me think.” She pauses. “Yeah. Natasha Wentworth. She came to the set four or five times to see Liam. She was filming somewhere close by. I think they’re just friends—”
“Perfect. She’s exactly what we need. She’s only twenty-three. Liam is heartbroken and the director is a bit of a rogue, going after a woman thirty years his junior. Natasha’s not one of my clients, so I don't care if we slip a bit of scandal her way. Let’s also circulate that Natasha wants a role in the director’s next big movie, and maybe she’s sleeping her way into it.”
“You’re vile.” Mia laughs.
“I know.” I sigh. “Anyway, let’s use the drama to promote the movie. Every time someone clicks the link to an article about this, we’ll pay to have an ad for the movie come up. Sell it to People Magazine and In Touch, with a tiny article that will end up as a second- or third-page read. It won’t make the cover and we won’t offer a full interview. And wherever the placement is, so will be the promo for his next movie.”
“We should also mention he is fragile from the divorce and now Natasha is sleeping with the director.” Mia is fully invested in this lie.
“Wait, didn't one of Liam’s relatives die recently? Did I see that somewhere?”
“His aunt who immigrated to live in Florida,” she answers quickly.
“Perfect. Find some photos of him at the funeral. Some pictures of Natasha in Florida. And add some images of her and him together recently. Link it all up, spin a relationship. Then we add that Liam’s friends from Hollywood have been there for him with a picture of her and him together. Let the reader make the connection from the pictures and assume. Do you have access to his Twitter feed?”
“Yeah. I deleted it already, but the screenshots from the keyboard warriors with nothing else to do with their lives say it all.”
“Okay. So long as it’s deleted, I don't care what they do. They’re going to help us promote this movie. Every article that comes out about this blowup needs to have reference to the movie. How his separation from his ex-wife made him take a more challenging part to help him find himself and how this movie pushed Liam to be a better actor. How he and the director fought on set, but according to sources, this will be Liam’s best movie, the one that wins him awards for more
