and Tanber began the rebirth. First, they stiffed MCA for a huge budget rise and hired the best country-and-western producer in the business, and the new, mature, degant, slender Colleen had come out with a middle-of-the road hybrid they called “Celtic Country’. It sold across Midwest America like it was going out of style. Then, by dint of months of old fashioned grovelling, he got Colleen onto an Oprah special on comebacks, where mid-show she broke down in team, confessing a past addiction to drugs and alcohol and her rebirth in Christ Jesus. Sales in the Midwest soared, the prdss got involved, Tauber found her a support slot in a Fred Florescu remake of one of her old movies, playing the mother of her original character, and one season later she had an Oscar nomination and a big-rated chat show on one of the Christian networks.
Colleen McCallum had been David Tauber’s shot, and one had been all he needed. Weird that it was someone like Colleen who had brought him .Zach Mason. But that C&W producer knew everybody, and the music business, as Tauber had discovered, was a very small place indeed…
He dried himself briskly and slipped into his Joseph Abboud suit. Milk-chocolate cashmere, the perfect weight and cut and colour for a midmorning pitch. Set offhis sandy hair and gleaming tan, too. After all, Sam had made such a big deal about Eleanor Marshall chairing the meeting, and
50
Marshall was a woman, after all. A woman with the power to green-light his project. A woman with the power to make his career.
Then he could really tell Kevin Scott to go fuck himself. He wanted that loser out of the agency. He wanted to break tkoxana and Zach together.
He checked himself out in the mirror. Armani shoes, leather briefcase, classic Wayfarer shades, and a movie package that Sam Kendrick had OK’d himself.
David Tauber was ready to go to work.
Sam Kendrick strode into the Artemis lobby like a pro football player or a running politician. He always moved that way when he was under stress; kind of a natural defence mechanism. Nobody would ever guess it, the way he beamed at the receptionist and headed down the right corridor’to Eleanor Marshall’s office without being asked. The secretaries and a few low-level female execs sighed slightly as he passed. Kendrick had that rolling confidence, that animal gait to his body that spoke of money, power and excess testosterone. Such was the force of Kendrick’s personality that they almost missed the incredibly cute young guy dogging his left heel. The blond who looked like a refugee from Muscle Beach. o. kind of young to be turning up to a meeting like this. Which meant he was a new kid on the block, one of the handful that get straight on the fast track every year.., more female sighing. Studio work didn’t give a young woman a lot of time for socializing. David Tauber smiled at each one.of them, right in the eyes.
‘OK, guys, are we ready?’ Sam asked his-team as they stepped out into the back lot, standing in front of the small exclusive building where Tom, Eleanor and a few of the most senior VPs had their offices. ‘Are we all clear on everything?’
They nodded: Tauber, who was repping Zach and
tLoxana; Mike Campbell, head of his domestic movie division, who was repping Fred Florescu; and Kevin Scott, because Sam needed a script guy to be in on this. Kendrick winced again at the sight of Kevin’s crumpled tweeds. Couldn’t the guy get some style lessons from his movie boys? Mike, in his regular black Armani, and the Tauber kid in that chi-chi little brown deal? Personally, Kendrick didn’t like a man who so obviously took trouble over his appearance. Seemed a little faggoty. But shit, the girls in the offce seemed to melt into a pool of seething hormones all over Tauber’s feet. And it was his first big meeting as an equal with agency hotshots, so Sam guessed he could dress how he liked. Maybe Eleanor Marshall would go for it too, ,but Sam knew
Colleen McCallum had been David Tauber’s shot, and one had been all he needed. Weird that it was someone like Colleen who had brought him .Zach Mason. But that C&W producer knew everybody, and the music business, as Tauber had discovered, was a very small place indeed…
He dried himself briskly and slipped into his Joseph Abboud suit. Milk-chocolate cashmere, the perfect weight and cut and colour for a midmorning pitch. Set offhis sandy hair and gleaming tan, too. After all, Sam had made such a big deal about Eleanor Marshall chairing the meeting, and
50
Marshall was a woman, after all. A woman with the power to green-light his project. A woman with the power to make his career.
Then he could really tell Kevin Scott to go fuck himself. He wanted that loser out of the agency. He wanted to break tkoxana and Zach together.
He checked himself out in the mirror. Armani shoes, leather briefcase, classic Wayfarer shades, and a movie package that Sam Kendrick had OK’d himself.
David Tauber was ready to go to work.
Sam Kendrick strode into the Artemis lobby like a pro football player or a running politician. He always moved that way when he was under stress; kind of a natural defence mechanism. Nobody would ever guess it, the way he beamed at the receptionist and headed down the right corridor’to Eleanor Marshall’s office without being asked. The secretaries and a few low-level female execs sighed slightly as he passed. Kendrick had that rolling confidence, that animal gait to his body that spoke of money, power and excess testosterone. Such was the force of Kendrick’s personality that they almost missed the incredibly cute young guy dogging his left heel. The blond who looked like a refugee from Muscle Beach. o. kind of young to be turning up to a meeting like this. Which meant he was a new kid on the block, one of the handful that get straight on the fast track every year.., more female sighing. Studio work didn’t give a young woman a lot of time for socializing. David Tauber smiled at each one.of them, right in the eyes.
‘OK, guys, are we ready?’ Sam asked his-team as they stepped out into the back lot, standing in front of the small exclusive building where Tom, Eleanor and a few of the most senior VPs had their offices. ‘Are we all clear on everything?’
They nodded: Tauber, who was repping Zach and
tLoxana; Mike Campbell, head of his domestic movie division, who was repping Fred Florescu; and Kevin Scott, because Sam needed a script guy to be in on this. Kendrick winced again at the sight of Kevin’s crumpled tweeds. Couldn’t the guy get some style lessons from his movie boys? Mike, in his regular black Armani, and the Tauber kid in that chi-chi little brown deal? Personally, Kendrick didn’t like a man who so obviously took trouble over his appearance. Seemed a little faggoty. But shit, the girls in the offce seemed to melt into a pool of seething hormones all over Tauber’s feet. And it was his first big meeting as an equal with agency hotshots, so Sam guessed he could dress how he liked. Maybe Eleanor Marshall would go for it too, ,but Sam knew
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