Just Another Hollywood Story

Chapter 20

Hi, all. Here is the next chapter. Before you begin reading, I need to review some points and ask for your help.

First, DaoistsMthQw, I will definitely have him cover Marvel. I am not sure if I will have him by the rights or work on it, but I will cover it somehow.

Ser_Lanciscazzo: I like that idea and will go with it. Spoil, I am naming his daughter after the real Caesar's only daughter and his son after his chosen hair.

Now for the help I need. The Strangers, the female actors are Tiffani Thiessen as Dollface, Elizabeth Berkley as Kristen McKay and Alyson Hannigan as Pin-Up Girl. That is set, but I have no idea about the male actors. Any recommendations?

Now, on with the story.

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"Would you consider your father a good dad?" Kelly Clarkson asks the young woman and man across from her.

The young woman was Julia Danny Pinault, the daughter of legendary film actress Salma Hayek and Caesar Espinar. As for the young man, he was her older brother. Augustus David Espinar, the son of Tiffani Thiessen. Both of whom, at the age of only 22, were setting the world on fire in their own way in show business.

Laughing along with her brother at this question, Julia says, "Wow, that is a question, isn't it?"

"Well, I mean, come on, we have all seen the home videos," Kelly says, and a video pops up on the screen behind them showing them as children and Caesar taking a dance class with them when they were younger.

"Oh god, my dad in tights. Please, someone, kill me," Julia says, covering her face in embarrassment as the women in the audience wolf whistle at the sight.

"You play dirty, Kelly," Augustus says with a smile on his face.

"Hey, I know your father, so I kind of had to," Kelly says in her defense.

They both laugh at this. Having been teased by both their parents and others frequently, it had become something they were accustomed to at this point in their lives.

"But really, tell us, was he a good father?" Kelly asks again.

Brother and sister look at each other, and after a moment, Augustus says, "Well, I mean, your evidence is right there. I think this was a ballet class our moms made us take when we were, what, 10 sis?"

"Ya, I think we were 10 at the time," Julia says, leaning forward to look at the video a bit closer.

"So you both took ballet when you were young?" Kelly asks.

"Oh, we took all types of classes when we were younger. Ah, ballet, tap, martial arts, gun safety, language. I mean, basically, anything and everything we were either into or our parents felt we should take." Augustus says.

"Really? So you are both skilled in a lot of different things?" Kelly asks.

"Yes, and so is our dad, who was almost always there. I mean, you've heard the old saying that you can't have a harder coach than your father, right? That is our dad in a nutshell." Julia said with a smile.

"So, he was always there for you both despite your families…. Situation." Kelly says, trying not to step on a landmine.

"You mean how both of us were born in the same year to two different women?" Julia said bluntly but also in good humor.

Making Kelly and the audience laugh at how easygoing she sounded.

"Well, now that you say it, yes," Kelly answers.

It takes a moment for either one of them to answer this question. Seeing as it has always been a sensitive topic for both Julia and Augustus, as well as their siblings. Well, for those siblings old enough to understand how strange it was. However, being who they are and having grown up in this lifestyle, both of them know how to respond to this question.

"Ah, you know, I know what most people think of my father's personal life now. I mean, we no longer live in a time where a man who has multiple children with multiple women is held in high esteem anymore. In fact, most would call him reckless and irresponsible in his personal life, and you know what he is. However, here's the thing: our father was, as you said, always there. Even with his relationships not having worked out as perhaps he or our mothers had hoped. He has been there through it all. If we had a dance recital or play we were going to be in, he was there, or if he wasn't, someone was there recording it so he could watch it later," Augustus says.

"Okay, but come on, Augustus, that isn't the same thing as him actually being here, right?" Kelly asks.

"No, but you have to look at it from his angle. As children, we wanted our father to always be there. For all our birthdays, all our game days, dances, and so on, but that wasn't going to happen. Even if you don't factor in that by the time we were 6, we already had two other siblings. Our father was, by that point, the most famous screenwriter and director in the world. There was no way he was going to be there all the time, even if he had married or only one of us." Augustus answers.

"Still, that couldn't have been easy on you both," Kelly says.

"It wasn't, but looking back now, I can honestly say, and I think Augustus will agree with me. I can't honestly remember a time when he wasn't there when it really mattered." Julia spoke up.

"Can you give us an example?" Kelly asks.

Both take a moment to answer that question, and they smile as they both think of the perfect example.

"One time, just to make it to a playoff game for my little league team, my dad walked off the set of a 100 million motion picture. It cost millions of dollars in delays and nearly led to the studio he was working for at the time suing him for it. But he didn't care. He was going to be there for a game I didn't even get to play in, by the way, because it mattered to me. Fyi I suck at baseball." Augustus says with a smile.

The audience starts to clap wildly at that, and Kelly lets her mouth hang open for a moment. "Wow, mean wow, really?"

Augustus just nodded his head with a smile, remembering that day well. Yes, he didn't get to play that day, but his dad was there in the stands. Watching with all the other dads. It was an incredible moment in his life.

"What about you, Julia?" Kelly asks.

After a moment of thinking about it, Julia says, "Ah, my dad once spent 100,000 dollars to produce one of my high school plays that he was asked to direct."

"Wait, what? What?" Kelly asks in complete shock.

Nodding her head, Julia says, "Ya."

"Hey, don't forget to tell them everything," Augustus says, laughing for some reason.

Opening her eyes widely, Julia says, "Oh, right, my dad also passed me up during auditions for the leading role for one of my classmates. He said my acting was too underwhelming for the role of Juliet. I think he just didn't want to see me kiss a boy in front of him."

The entire audience bursts out laughing at this. With Caesar's reputation being what it was, they could easily see him doing that, even to his own child.

"No, no, your acting was really that bad back then, sister," Augustus says in a teasing voice. Getting a slap on the shoulder for his trouble. Making the audience laugh even harder..

-1998-

I can't see into the future, but I don't have to be in order to predict how something is going to turn out. The fact of the matter was that the momentum from Titanic was too much to overcome for a biographical musical to overcome. No matter what we did, it just wasn't going to top Titanic at the box office. Even with the combination of me being stabbed and Jennifer's hit song, it wasn't enough to push it over the edge. Not that Selena didn't put on a good showing.

On January 19, 1998, Selena was released nationwide to rave reviews. It was being called by some the best biographical file since Schindler's List. Which to me was more than a bit of a stretch, and I felt that WB's promotional team had overstepped itself with that one. That said, the audience loved it, as evidenced by its $20 million opening week, which was only about $ 10 million less than Titanic. It was an impressive showing, all things considered. It simply didn't have the staying power of Titanic, as evidenced by the slight dip in its second week. Earning only $ 19 million, it was clear that it would soon fizzle out. Currently, projections indicate that the total earnings will be either less than $100 million or just above it, which would make it my first script that didn't gross $100 million.

That wasn't a curtain, however, and with Jennifer's debut album about to be released, WB was hoping it would boost ticket sales for the movie. I was sure it would, given that I already knew the album would reach the number one spot. I mean, I did have some doubts, considering it was being released a full year before it was initially scheduled to come out. However, thanks to Q-Productions for letting Jennifer cover Salena's biggest hit, "Como la Flor," which took the number 3 spot on the pop charts and the number one spot on the Tejano music charts. There is little doubt that 'On the 6' was going to be number one.

Of course, there was some pushback from the media. Accusations of profiteering off of Selena's death naturally started to appear on the news. Forget the fact that we had her family's permission to make the movie in the first place. It didn't matter, as it made a good story, and some went so far as to accuse Abraham of using his daughter's name to make a quick buck. Being the professional he was, however, Abraham was prepared for them and released records showing that all profits from the movie his family had received had gone to several charities, including D.A.R.E. and Toys for Tots. Basically, shutting them down hard.

As for me, it was already public knowledge that I had donated my writer's fee from the start. Even though my original intent was to wave it off completely, my agent had a fit over it, so I agreed to take a small fee of $ 25,000, which I then donated to Feeding America. Jennifer joined me in giving half of her salary to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles. In fact, most of the cast donated to a charity after learning about us doing so. This, of course, left the media flat-footed. Seeing as it was far to late for them to take back the shit they where saying about us and even had the added bouses of most likely boosting ticket sales in that first week.

However, none of this mattered to me right now as I lay in bed looking up at the ceiling, wondering when the call would come. The call that would bring me the news that Tiff or Salma went into labor. It was all I could think of lately. Not my upcoming projects, not my chance to direct a TV show and hopefully a movie down the line. None of that mattered to me right now. Hell, not even the sexy form of Jennifer, who was lying next to me in only a thong and tank top, could take my mind off the upcoming birth of my children.

Even now, as she lay on top of me, I didn't think of her as my girlfriend. Nor did I think she saw me as her boyfriend. Yes, we were fucking and sleeping together from time to time, but that was about it. If anything, we were bored, and both had our own needs, and neither of us was willing to risk the media discovering that this was a fake relationship or that one of us was cheating on the other. We did the only logical thing we could have done. We started having sex with with each other like an actual couple, but any feelings past sexual attraction and desire were not there. At least, I didn't think so.

Feeling her shift slightly so her face meets mine, our eyes met, and she smirked at me, and I asked, "What?"

Shaking her head, Jennifer says, "Nothing, just….. I have never seen you like this before."

Narrowing my eyes, I ask in a questioning voice, "Like what?"

"Nervous," She says softly.

"Do I look nervous?" I ask her.

Shaking her head again, Jennifer says, "Not so much look. It's more like a feeling you're giving off."

"Hmmm," is all I say in turn.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jennifer asks.

Honestly, she didn't know what she was doing here. Well, she knew why she was here. She was feeling horny and wanted to fuck. With Caesar and she being in the same city for the time being and him being more than willing and able to satisfy her desires, it was a no-brainer that she would come to his place for a not-so-quick, yet quick, visit. He truly had a remarkable amount of stamina, and it was no wonder he was able to knock-up both Tiff and Salma at the same time.

That said, however, things had started to go down a road she was not yet ready to walk again. She didn't love him. Not yet, at least, but there was just something about him. It was most likely the same thing that got Tiff and Salma. He just had that thing that some people had. Some called it natural charisma. Jennifer called it bullshit. It took far more than charisma to make it as far as he had in such a short amount of time. Still, she could not deny there was just something there that made her what to fuck him.

I think about it for a moment, then voice my thoughts, "I just…. I never thought I would be a father. Hell, I don't even know what that word means."

What was there to say to something like that? Everyone, by this point, knew he didn't have a family. However, some in the media have attempted to disprove that he was raised on the streets. Only to prove that the truth was far worse than they could have imagined. His mother was indeed a crack whore, and his father remained unknown to this day. Most likely just being another Jon that his mother fucked one night. As for where he grew up before he took off to be on his own. The media discovered that he was indeed physically amused by the foster care worker who cared for him and others at the time. The woman had even been arrested a few years later for the murder of one of those children. She beat the poor kid's head in with a pipe because he wouldn't stop crying. The child was only 4 years old.

All Caesar knew he had learned on the streets and from that horrible woman. That was probably why he signed over his parenting rights to Salma. People like Caesar were just fucked up, and you could see it in his first movie, Se7en. What business did people like him have in raising a child? She bet that was how he saw things as the birth of his children got closer.

"Hey, Caesar, I think you're going to be a great father," Jennifer says to him in a soft voice.

"Why do you think that?" I ask her.

"Because you already know what it is like not to have one. To be alone with no one to care about you. Are you really going to let your own children experience anything like that?" She asks me.

I do not answer her and instead lie here, looking up at the ceiling until I hear the phone ring.

Sixteen hours later. That is how long it took for my son to be born. Sixteen long hours in which I did not sleep. Could not sleep as Tiff went into labor. I stayed there in the waiting room with a few other world-be dads. None of us said a word as we waited. Even those who knew who I was didn't come to talk to me. It wasn't important right now. None of it mattered at that moment or this one, I thought as I stood in front of the glass window separating me from my son.

Not my movies, nor what my following script would be; getting the chance to direct a film, or my investments. It was funny that till just now; I didn't know what to feel about the birth of my children. Even when I got the call that Tiff had gone into labor, I just felt like a bucket with a hole at the bottom. Water was constantly being poured into it, only to be poured back out. Over and over again with no end in sight. Now, however, I wasn't feeling that way. Instead, I felt a longing—a desire to be a father to this little man in front of me.

"Hello there, little man," I say to my son as I place my hand on the glass.

"Welcome to the world. This shit horrible world." I say, and I run a hand through my hair.

"I wish I could tell you it's a wonderful place, but it isn't. It took my mom and dad from me long before I knew them. Hell, I don't even remember them. Nothing good, nothing bad. They just weren't there. This world took them from me. Ate them up and destroyed the innocence they once had." I lightly tap the glass, feeling rage at this fucked up place we lived in.

"It took mine." I shake my head, fighting off my anger, then let out a deep breath.

"That won't be you. That won't be your life…. You will remember me, and I will be here for as long as I can be. Till I take my last breath, I will be here." I say, then go back to standing there and say no more.