Chapter 12

My cell phone rang as I was sitting down to breakfast. A man's voice came on the line. "Hello, is this Jack Mankewicz."

"Yes,"

"Hi, this is James Coley with Mulholland, Buggs and Hatcher. Your agent contacted us regarding a petition for emancipation of a minor."

"That's right."

"Ok, I've faxed some documents for you to sign over to the United Artists studio. They give us permission to represent you in court."

"Will this go to court?"

"Mr. Piercy has spoken to your parents, and they expressed an intention to contest the petition."

"Alright, thank you. I'll send the documents back later this morning."

I finished breakfast and looked out the window. There was a crowd of reporters and photographers in the hotel parking lot, complete with several news vans. I called the front desk and made arrangements to sneak out the service entrance of the hotel, where I took a taxi to the studio. A few minutes later, David and Tonya left the hotel, and walked to the limo.

I met them inside the studio after I'd filled out that paperwork, and we proceeded to get into makeup. Naturally, I took much longer than either of them. If you've never had the experience of having a fifty year old woman rub foundation on your dong, I can tell you that you aren't missing out.

My cell rang again just as she was finishing up. This time it was Al: "Where the hell are you?"

"At the studio. Where else would I be?"

"How'd you get there?"

"I took a taxi."

"Well the whole world just saw you not taking the studio's limo and now this is really blowing up. They think you walked off the production."

"Well can you just put out a goddamn press release or something."

"I will, but I'm flying out there right after, and I'm bringing the lawyer."

"Ok, so I'll see you tonight."

The first day of shooting went reasonably well, although Kristy kept looking at me sympathetically and asking if I was ok between shots. We did some outdoor scenes, and the sun felt great on my naked ass. We were just about to wrap up when Vanessa Branson strode up to us.

"Hi, Jack, can I speak to you for a minute?"

"Uh, sure."

She followed me to my trailer, and sat down on the couch. "First of all, let me say that everybody at UBC is very sorry about the, uh, thing."

"Er, thanks. Is that what you came over here to talk about?"

"No, actually it's your last film. As you know, it's performing much better than expected at the box office and we're negotiating with United Artists for a spin-off series."

"I don't know about that. I don't really want to work with Tiffany Norman anymore."

"Because of the thing?"

"No, well, sort of. I've decided that my approval rating can't get any lower, so I'm coming out of the closet."

"Hmmm ... that raises possibilities."

"Really? Isn't it going to make it harder for me to get work?"

"Yes and no. I'll never use you for kiddie shows again, but you have the potential to play it off as edgy. Actually, how would you feel about starring in a TV show based on your life?"

"I'd prefer to just write one."

She studied me for a moment. "Deal."

"What's the income from that?"

"We can discuss that with your manager."

"Actually, I'm about to pick up Al and my lawyer from the airport, if you want to come along."

"What do you need a lawyer for?"

"The thing. There's supposed to be some way for me to legally 'emancipate' myself."

"Your parents would let you do that?"

"No, that's what the lawyers for."

Vanessa drove me to the airport, pitching storylines along the way. I called David from the car and he agreed to help me write the scripts. We picked up Al and Coley, and stopped off for dinner at a Chili's near the airport, the last place anyone in the media would expect me to show up.

"Alright," I said to Coley, "to start off with, what's the deal with my parents?"