Chapter 26: Movie Star Stuff

Stella did do a screen test, which was a laugh for all of us because she’d already done over a thousand movies. Tony Varig, the man anointed as the film’s director, wanted to see what he had to work with. He was very satisfied at the end of the test. Stella reminded him that she’d done about a thousand films of various length and had to act in every one of them in some way. They had a good laugh over that small fact. Tony was one of the good guys.

She laughed, because Tony blushed and said he wanted to be sure that he could rely on that experience to transfer into what he called the ‘legitimate theater’.

While that was going on, another man named Whit Dove was writing the screen play for Starling that would be the actual basis of the movie. Stella had been offered the conversion job, but didn’t want to do it. She was, however, intimately involved in reviewing the screen play version of the book to see how Whit had handled the job. In general, she was pleased. Because of running time for the movie, he’d had to skip over many of the scenes portrayed in the book. With Stella’s approval, the movie studio also lined up Whit to do the screen play on Skylark, her second book.

There were daily Zoom calls between Stella and others in connection with the movie. There were read throughs of the script, discussion of various scenes and how Tony wanted them, and then were talks just between Tony and Stella about how she’d like a scene to be portrayed or what he thought would work at some point in the plot. I listened to some of them, and thought she was getting good treatment and that her opinions were valued. I told her how I thought she was respected.

Joel Cain, an A-list movie star, was signed up to play opposite Stella in the movie. He flew to Florida and spent two days with her going over a few of the scenes and so that the two of them could get to know each other.

Even the other characters in the movie were Hollywood A-list stars. The studio seemed to be sparing no expense to make the movie a hit.

I got depressed when I realized how handsome Joel Cain was, how rich, and how personable. He was also recently divorced, so was a highly sought-after bachelor around the Hollywood social scene. He was being cast into a highly romantic relationship with Stella in the film. In fact, at the end of the film they would walk happily off together into the sunset.

I had to suck in my gut in terms of my fiancée spending large amounts of time with the established star. I steeled myself for what to me became an inevitable dis-engagement sometime in the future because he made her a better offer.

At least, everything in terms of the movie went on hold as the end of year holiday period arrived. There were about a dozen holiday parties between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. We had two of them at the house, but attended many others.

Stella was happy because she was at home with me and the others over the holiday period. My work slowed down, and I was able to spend more time with her. We went to lunch a few days each week, and sometimes we just stayed at home and often made love.

One afternoon in mid-December after we lay in bed in our afterglow, Stella confronted the gorilla in the room. She stated, “You’re worried about me, aren’t you? You see me hooking-up with Joel Cain and ditching you, right?”

I nodded, but couldn’t talk. My throat constricted due to the emotions involved and tears suddenly flooded my eyes and started to run down my cheeks. Her vocalization of the possibility hit me hard; it meant that she’d thought about the possibility, too.

Stella rolled over onto my body again, putting her nakedness against me. “Rob, listen to me. I did not enter into our engagement lightly. I made a commitment to you and I’m sticking to it for the rest of time. I know we have a crazy lifestyle, what with having sex with others, but you are my anchor and my home base. I want to be in that same role for you. I don’t see that changing because of Joel Cain or anybody else that I might meet.”

I said, “I don’t want to hold you back. I’ve always wanted you to do what’s best for you. If Joel is in that...”

Stella thumped my chest with the heel of her hand. “I LOVE YOU. I do not love Joel. Yes, he has lots of pluses, but he’s not YOU. Hell, I may even fuck his brains out a few dozen times, but he’s still not YOU. Please don’t worry about him or anybody else in connection with the movie, any of my books, or anything else that I’m doing. This is where I want to be.” She kissed my chest.

Stella moved up and kissed me passionately and then very tenderly. She went on, “You will have to put up with some shit around me and possibly Joel as this movie gets made and then promoted. Hollywood thrives on gossip. There will be all sorts of rumors that we have a secret love affair underway, that I’ve cheated on you or dumped you, and anything else you can think of. Don’t believe a word of it.

“I’m telling you now, don’t buy into it, don’t listen to it, and don’t react. Just smile benignly at whoever told you the news and say, ‘Isn’t that interesting?’ and then move on with your life. Remember, ‘Isn’t that interesting?’ Don’t trust what you hear or read.

“You bring those rumors and gossip to me. I’ll set you straight. I will be brutally honest with you if the situation requires, and I will not lie to you. I never have and never will. Throughout all of the shit that will fly around, and there will be a lot of it, know one thing that is rock solid and that won’t change, I love you and want to be with you for the long run.”

Stella hugged me tightly and kissed me all over my upper body and face. We made love again and then napped cuddled together. Lexi and Eva woke us when they got back from the university. I was told amid laughter and other naked bodies that I had other pussies to also please.

I felt a lot better about Stella and our future together, even as she was about to leave for Hollywood just after New Year’s Day. I could always fly out and see her. There were many days when I just needed a computer and the Internet to do my job. Besides that, I’d been grooming Matt in management skills. I’d even sent him to a course just before Christmas. Of course, I also took care of Marcia while he was away.

Lexi and I fixed dinner. She commented that she had a light study load that evening, so had time. All four of the students had done well first semester of the academic year. That said, Anya remained kind of panicked about each of her courses and how she’d do in them. She was a dedicated student.

Matt and Marcia did the dishes. That was usually not an onerous chore, since the dinner prep team often did the pots and pans as they went along and finished with them. On leftover nights, there were even fewer dishes except for refrigerator storage dishes that could go in the dishwasher.

A rotation of partners had been established by the girls. The rules were loose and flexible but went something like this: Matt had Marcia, and I had Stella. Two of the three other girls (Lexi, Eva, and Anya) would rotate through our beds, and the other would sleep with Clay. Stella and Marcia would occasionally trade places with each other or with one of the girls since they also wanted time with Clay.

Tay still liked his own apartment, but did stay over a couple of nights a week. When he did, he would have at least one of the girls with him.

The last part of the crazy schedule resulted from the passionate desires of Meg and Penny, along with their husbands, Jake and John. Those two couples would stay overnight on Saturday and sometimes Sunday after spending the weekend. Meg and Penny would sample all of the men during that time period, but Matt and I seemed to be their favs.

One thing was for certain, and we talked about it several times over our communal dinners: we were each hornier than anybody else we knew outside of our group. Jake said we each had ‘high functioning libidos’. Matt learned from his doctor that we were probably ‘hypersexual’. Meg and Penny described themselves and all the women as nymphomaniacs, and the men, including their husbands, as the male equivalents.

After we reached a stasis, I was having sex and totally enjoying it about thrice a day – sometimes more, especially on weekends. Each of those sessions usually involved multiple orgasms on my part, and many more on my partner’s part. The others were at about the same frequency. We loved it, and we loved each other.

The worries I’d had about there being any impact on my work or Matt’s work from our continuously fucking Meg and Penny also faded away. Jake and John were enthralled with the five other women in our house, as their wives were equally excited about me and the other men. We were a great team both at work and at home.

Stella had to be in L.A. to begin the filming on Starling at the beginning of January. I made sure to remain upbeat and excited for her entry into the legitimate realm of movie making. Everybody in our group did, and it made her leaving a little easier for her. She’d get ‘down’ about being away, but we’d boost her morale by talking about how exciting it would be, particularly after the actually filming had finished and the movie was released. Further, L.A. was her old home and she still had a few friends out there.

We had a fun party launching her movie career. The early hours of the party were ‘sedate’ as we had many people from the publisher at the house to celebrate her ‘launch’. All the new attendees were a happy crowd, and despite knowing all about her prior career in pornography showed no hesitancy to help celebrate on her behalf. We also had an expanded group of people with us from Network Solutions, where Matt and I worked, and they, too, were solicitous of Stella and her new direction in life.

I drove Stella to the airport the next morning for a non-stop flight to L.A. Unlike prior trips, she was traveling first class. The Studio was already treating her like a movie star. We had a teary goodbye and then she was off to Hollywood.

The Studio had arranged a one-bedroom apartment for her not too far away from them. She could walk to work. At her request, they also arranged for her to plug back into her old karate dojo once a week on her day off. Also, at her request, filming would be done six days a week rather than five. This would shorten the overall time that she’d have to be away.

We got texts from Stella after her arrival along with some photos inside her new apartment. It was a nice place with modern décor. I noted that some of the boxes she’d shipped west were piled up inside the entry door, so knew that she’d be happy that her expanded wardrobe was already there.

Stella reported for work the next morning. The a.m. hours, she wrote, were devoted to a read-through of a small portion of the script in preparation for afternoon filming. She spent an hour in make up with two beauticians and a hair stylist. Tony, the director, came in many times to approve her on-camera look, and then would go off to do the same for Joel and the other characters.

After a brief catered lunch, filming started. Stella reported that she was nervous and that Tony had to calm her several times before she started to get into the opening scene for the whole movie. Apparently, there were ten re-takes of the scene, but some of them were for different camera angles.

Stella called us after work and told us about her day. She went out to dinner alone, and since no one knew who she was, she didn’t get hassled. I knew that would change after some of the advanced publicity about the movie started to go public and her picture was everywhere.

Over the coming days, she reported that the same general schedule seemed to hold: script work in the a.m., make up and lunch at midday, and filming for the rest of the afternoon until the segment of the screenplay they were working on that day was completed.