“Good morning,” Celia offered.
“God, I hope you brought cigarettes.” Natasha ignored the greeting.
“I did. I bought the brand that used to be my favorite.”
“You don’t smoke anymore. I had forgotten.”
“I don’t. There’s a history of lung problems in my family. I quit after my mom got cancer.”
Natasha leaned forward when she saw Celia take out a small book of matches. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
Celia smiled and shrugged. “She smoked two packs a day after my father left. I guess it’s unwise to tempt fate.”
“So you’re not a smoker. You work very hard. You dress... conservatively.” Natasha smiled. “What do you do for fun?”
“I have some pastimes. Just not much time.”
Natasha laughed. “Time is all I have. So, do you knit? Cage fight? Fool around?”
Celia laughed as she set up her recorder. “So this is the part where we talk about me, huh?”
“I’m bored. Humor me, please.”
“Well, let’s see. I run. Not in marathons, but I do the occasional 5K. I like photography, though I’m not all that good. And I love to bake.”
“Baking?” Natasha brightened a bit. “You look too fit to bake.”
“I don’t usually eat what I bake unless testing the batter counts.”
“Hmm, maybe you could bake me a cake and hide a file inside or something. Didn’t that work in old movies?”
Celia laughed, imagining Natasha in a black and white striped uniform, picking the lock of her cell with a file. “It might set the metal detector off, sadly.”
“Too bad. I could have used it to poke the new guard a bit.”
“I noticed he didn’t seem too friendly.”
Natasha rolled her eyes. “He is very by the book. Has something to prove I think. He let me know very quickly that my ‘being a big star’ wasn’t going to get me any special treatment. As if the prison death row has special treatment. He probably has ‘little man’ syndrome.”
“But he’s over 6 feet tall,” Celia chuckled.
“Dear, that isn’t the kind of little I mean.”
There were a few seconds of silence, and then both women burst into laughter. Celia tried to contain herself. Natasha was very disarming, but the journalist didn’t usually break her professional manner this way.
“We only have an hour, so let’s go ahead and get started.” Celia pushed the record on the player and looked at Natasha. “I have to admit, I’ve been thinking about what you said about Margaret.”
“What about her?”
“Well, there was something about the way you put it. You said you had noticed her eating habits. Did the two of you talk about that?”
Natasha smiled. “Of course. Models talk about eating and not eating pretty regularly.”
“So you told her she was eating too much?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t do that. In fact, just the opposite.”
“What do you mean?”
Natasha drew imaginary circles on the tabletop with her finger. “I told her I was jealous that she could eat the way she did and not worry about a muffin top.”
“I see.” Celia looked down at her notebook to write. So there was more to the story. “So was she worried?”
“I have no way of knowing. I assume not, since she kept eating, at least for a while. We were going to do a swimsuit shoot together, and I remember telling the assistant how unfair it was that Margaret could eat like a horse and still fit into almost as small as size as I could.”
Celia wrote slowly, thinking about what Natasha had said. She knew passive-aggressive when she heard it. All women know that “I’m jealous you can eat so much” was code for “be careful dear, you’re getting pudgy.” And there was no doubt Natasha knew it.
“Is there something on your mind?” Natasha asked.
“Did you know that Margaret had struggled with an eating disorder?”
“Oh God, yes, everyone knew. She was very vocal about overcoming it.”
“Yes.” Celia looked up. “It’s a shame she had that relapse.”
“It certainly is,” Natasha replied.
They looked at each other in silence. Celia thought Natasha might say more, but it was clear the actress was waiting for her out. She was not going to share. Celia figured she should drop the subject. “So your modeling career took off. What was it that made you want to make the jump to movies?”
“That was initially more my father than me. He used to call me his chameleon. So I started auditioning for very small parts and television commercials. I had some luck with those, but he pushed for more.”
“I read one piece that stated he was a bit of a stage dad.”
Natasha laughed. “He did have that reputation. My father was used to getting what he wanted.”
“So he wanted you to get a bigger role in something, and then you got it.”
“It wasn’t quite as simple as the modeling. There were many things my father could do, but convincing the world I could act wasn’t one of them. It’s hard to make that jump from a few lines and a perfume ad to a real role. I felt I had talent, but in Hollywood, that isn’t always enough.”
“I’m sure. Who you know plays a part in all that.”
“Yes, who you know.” Natasha looked at her pointedly. “And who you allow to know you.”
“Surely you don’t mean the proverbial casting couch.”
“I prefer to call it an intimate audition. One that gave me some leverage. Lots of married directors cheat. Some of them don’t want their wives to know. Or the executives.”
“Ah, I see.”
“I only did that once. My first big role was a success, and I got great reviews. After that, it was all about marketing and hearing the right things at the right time.”
“And you didn’t feel... violated?”
“Oh, I wasn’t coerced. I knew exactly what he wanted. I just made sure I had one of those little recorders like yours.”
Celia shook her head. “You are very calculating, aren’t you?”
“Well, we have to be, don’t we?” Natasha placed her hand on the notebook. “Are you saying that all
