A Taste of Entertainment Industry Gossip
Diana Marks and her old friend Producer Sterling decided to grab lunch near the film set after running into each other, and Diana brought Avery Hayes along.
At the table, Director Conrad King introduced Avery to the movie's two lead actors. Since they were all strangers, they just exchanged a round of polite nods and smiles, and that was that. There was no alcohol, as the crew had to get back to filming that afternoon.
Avery had the Bar Exam in two days, a half-day test. Conrad did some quick mental math and told her to head straight to the set as soon as she was finished.
The mention of the Bar Exam made both Raphael Valenti and Melina Warner, who were sitting at the table, look up with a flicker of surprise.
Melina couldn't help but ask, "Didn't you already take the Bar Exam last month?"
So much for celebrities claiming they don't follow online gossip.
Even an A-lister like Melina knew perfectly well that Avery had taken a major exam a month ago.
Avery had been a trending topic more than a few times recently, and her entire life story had been dug up and put on display.
Some student from her old high school had even posted a picture of her from the school's awards wall.
With that kind of buzz, any celebrity who spent time online would have had to be living under a rock not to know who she was.
While she was trending, you could bet a bunch of actors in the industry were fuming.
They'd worked their asses off stirring up some minor drama for a bit of publicity, only to be completely overshadowed by a viral story about some regular person.
Anyone pretending not to know Avery at this point was just faking it.
"The Bar is in two parts," Avery explained patiently. "Last month was the multiple-choice section. The test in two days is the essays."
Melina nodded, her expression clearing. "Oh, so it's different from other exams."
Avery just gave a small smile in response.
Raphael, on the other hand, was quiet through the whole thing, just listening to everyone else chat with a polite, fixed smile.
Back when she was still practicing law, Avery had been a little curious about the two biggest names in the business, Raphael Valenti and Damian Royce.
After all, when people on screen were that good-looking, who wouldn't want a second look?
That's why she'd craned her neck at the airport that one day, trying to see if Raphael really lived up to the hype in person.
But ever since Diana had warned her to keep her distance from him, that curiosity had completely evaporated.
Even now, sitting across the table from him, all she felt was a polite detachment.
Especially after hearing about the incident at Stellar Media a year ago, she'd lost all fascination with actors from the big three agencies.
A little superficial politeness was all that was necessary.
So, from start to finish, Avery barely spoke to Raphael, only offering a few noncommittal hums whenever the conversation drifted his way.
Melina, however, was someone Avery felt she could actually be friends with.
A former child star, Melina was a phenomenal actress who had never signed with an agency, managing her career by talking things over with her parents.
Her father was actually sitting right outside their private room, chatting with Shane Croft and the others.
Avery felt none of the pressure she associated with the big agencies when talking to Melina.
They chatted off and on, and at one point, Melina leaned in and quietly spilled the tea about the last-minute replacement of the third female lead in their movie, *Bones of Mountains and Rivers*.
The story wasn't exactly a secret if you were in the right circles.
Pretty much everyone in the industry knew that the original actress cast in the part was about to get hit with a major scandal.
She had landed her role through a powerful investor, a classic industry move.
Trading favors for roles wasn't exactly rare.
It was just like the audition that morning.
Wasn't Roman Duke trying to do the same thing?
The only difference was, he wasn't connected enough to get to the A-list resources, so he'd had to pull strings as a screenwriter just to get in the room.
The original third female lead, however, was playing in a different league and had found herself a top-tier investor.
It was a transactional relationship, so outsiders couldn't really judge, other than to gossip about it behind closed doors.
But the problem was, the actress thought that hooking up with a top executive gave her a free pass, and she started bullying a makeup artist on set.
Unfortunately for her, that makeup artist happened to be college friends with the executive's wife.
The makeup artist had only meant to dig up some dirt on the actress but accidentally discovered her friend's husband was cheating. After snapping photos of the two of them tangled up in bed, she immediately sent them to her old friend.
The wife, predictably, was furious. She came from money and was a force to be reckoned with herself, she wasn't about to let it slide.
She showed up at the hotel with a crew of bodyguards and caught them red-handed.
She announced right there that she was divorcing him and, on top of that, would be taking legal action against both her husband and the actress.
Apparently, the executive had used their joint funds to buy the actress quite a few expensive gifts.
At that point, it wasn't just a simple casting couch situation anymore.
This was a full-blown affair, and the actress was his mistress.
The whole thing hadn't gone public yet, but only because the wife hadn't officially filed the lawsuit.
The second she did, the actress's career would be over.
And even if a lawsuit never materialized, those photos were bound to leak eventually.
The producers of *Bones of Mountains and Rivers* realized the actress was a ticking time bomb and immediately moved to replace her.
That was why they were scrambling to find someone new, even a month into filming.
Avery's eyes crinkled with amusement as she listened, staying quiet the whole time. But the way she listened, focused, making eye contact at all the right moments, seemed to give Melina exactly the audience she needed. Before they left, Melina even took the initiative to add Avery on Messenger.
After lunch, Conrad took Melina and Raphael back to set. Diana and Producer Sterling, however, seemed to have more to discuss and ducked into a nearby cafe. Avery, Shane, and Wyatt Riggs headed back toward Stellar Media.
After leaving the hotel, Avery got in the car and buckled her seatbelt.
Just as she was about to roll up the window, she saw Raphael.
He'd left a little earlier with Conrad but was now standing by a grassy median, talking to a woman who looked completely wrecked.
Her long, wine-red hair was a tangled mess hiding her face.
They were too far away for Avery to hear what they were saying, but she could tell from the woman's frantic body language that she was incredibly emotional.
She was clutching the front of his shirt, her grip so tight it was twisting the fabric into a wrinkled mess.
She seemed to be pleading with him for something, but he was clearly trying to pull away, his handsome face tight with impatience.
*Click.*
The sound of a camera shutter from the passenger seat made Avery look over at Wyatt in surprise.
"Wyatt, when did you get a camera?"
"Bought it when we were in California," he said. "That woman is Sienna Blackwood. One of the actors who terminated her contract with Stellar Media last year."
Wyatt glanced down at the photo on his camera, and after confirming it was clear, he set the device aside, pulled up a file on his phone, and sent it to Avery.
He was nothing if not cautious and efficient.
After Avery's audition, he'd noticed the strange way Roman Duke was looking at her and Diana, so he'd immediately told Shane to stay behind and keep an eye on him.
What Shane reported back had set off alarm bells, prompting Wyatt to contact the company and request the files on all the actors who'd jumped ship.
"Of the six actors who left Stellar, the three who went to Zenith Entertainment are still working, but not doing great," he explained.
"The two who went to Daybreak seem to have been blacklisted. They haven't gotten any work since they left."
He tilted his chin toward the scene outside.
"Sienna is one of them. But I don't think she's just been blacklisted. Judging by the state she's in, she might be on drugs."