Alison

The unexpected 'holiday' is brief, the police call Alison the next day, they traced him by his credit card. It would appear that Byron has outdone himself, hiding away in the Beverly Hills Casa Linda hotel with an extremely gorgeous, but utterly outrageous unknown actress. He tells Alison he's in love, that Odessa is a brilliant actress & they are working together on a screenplay to be the vehicle for her to display her enormous talents. His says all this without taking her eyes off the woman for a second. Alison has seen men get like that over women like this Odessa before, but she has also seen Byron in relationships with other women like Odessa, and she's never seen him get anywhere near this pathetic. He's always the one who gets fawned on. And he never let an actress influence him directorially: that he would start a new screenplay written with & for some new flame of his is utterly unthinkable. She can't look in his eyes: he has them fixed on Odessa, but he looks like Byron. Yet it is so hard to believe it's him. "Call the studio, Alison," he says, "Tell them I'm taking a break from production on the Sandman. Tell them about my new project, about Odessa. Tell them about our newest star." Right after I hurl, Alison thinks, walking a few steps away & taking the phone from her pocket.

The first person Alison called was Serena, the only woman Alison had ever seen him treat with love & respect, though it was only once. It wasn't easy telling her Byron has taken up with a hottie, but the important thing to convey was the sudden change in Byron's personality. Alison is not about to start believing in the psychic nonsense, but somebody has to confirm what Alison can hardly believe: the woman has worked some unnatural mojo on Byron. It can't just be sex, he's had the top actresses & models & as shabbily as he treats them, they still line up for the chance to be with him. He doesn't have to write them screenplays to get them in bed. Alison is on the phone with people at the studio when Serena arrives, so she waves her towards the hotel spa, where Byron & Odessa have retreated. As soon as she can get off the phone for a minute, she joins them in the spa & is immediately dismayed by what she sees. Byron won't even look at Serena, who Alison had once seen him look at with real love, kiss with real feeling. And Serena looking defeated, like she can't even try to compete with the stunning Odessa. Alison doesn't know what to say, except to shake her head sadly & say it isn't right. Serena asks for moment alone with them, which Alison gladly grants her, dialing the next person that needs to be called & consulted with. The studio of course does not want to hear that Byron wants to 'take a break' from the Sandman movie while he gets involved with another project, that will star and yet another unknown actress, who he's shacking up with in a 5 star hotel.

In the ensuing days, Byron moves back to his house in Pacific Palisades, bringing Odessa with him. Alison tries to talk him into returning to the Sandman movie, tries to make him understand that the studio isn't going to let it just sit for him: they've sunk millions into it already & it has barely begun filming. These are all things an experienced director like him should know. But he's not the Byron she's worked for all these years.

Does he even hear her? All he can do is make kissy faces with the creepy lady.

"Byron, they'll give the Sandman to another director if you drop it like this...remember how important that project was to you? You found the perfect actor for Dream in a cafe, and you were just getting him to really work the part...you can't just abandon that," she says desperately, trying to reach the Byron she was working for until just a few days ago. For a moment she sees a spark of recognition in his eyes, when she tells him they'll give his project to another director: somewhere in there is the real Byron, the arrogant bastard who thinks he's the only director great enough to handle the projects he chooses. "Let's go down to my office & discuss this," he say & Alison is suddenly hopeful.

He turns to kiss Odessa again before leaving. "I know you'll do the right thing," the strange actress says, somewhat mysteriously, as she allows Byron to go downstairs alone with Alison.

NEXT