The Rendezvous Ch. 01

"See that he doesn't," the director replied, emphasizing the command with a gesture. "Your dating life is not my business, but this film is."

Alicia rolled her eyes higher. "Yes, Mike."

"You ought to date a nicer man," Erika said. "Like Rosey."

Keri raised an eyebrow, not knowing who Erika was talking about. "Rosey?"

"Michael Rosenbaum," Erika answered, smiling again. "He's starring as Lex Luthor in a Superboy remake show on your old network. We've gone out a few times. Rosie's a dumb pet name I have for him."

"I know Michael," Keri said, thinking back to the many times they'd encountered one another at the WB and various theater productions. Michael Rosenbaum was a nice guy, if a bit too bald and sarcastic for Keri's taste. If Erika likes him, she thought, and vice versa, maybe she can't be all bad. Hmm. "He's okay."

"He's a dish," Erika said. "A real Jettero Heller." Suddenly she grimaced and looked away, then back at Keri. "I'm sorry. You probably don't know who that is."

"Actually I do," Keri replied, recognizing the name of the dashing hero of Mission Earth, L. Ron Hubbard's most prominent science fiction series. Typical Scientologist, she thought to herself. Totally into the writings of her religion's founder. Just like Travolta. Great. Stop yourself, Keri. Say something she'd like. "Those books are pretty good. I've read them."

"Oh," Erika said, looking relieved.

"I'm glad you girls are getting along," Mike said, nodding at Erika. "If you'll excuse me, I have three other girls waiting." He nodded at each of them again, then turned and walked out.

Keri watched him go, then sat down across from the other two actresses. Alicia was no longer frowning at her, she noticed. Erika was still smiling. Gotta open myself up to them, Keri thought, break the ice. "Are you excited about the movie?" Damn it, why couldn't I think up a better question?

"I'm not that excited," Alicia said, grimacing in the direction of her script and then looking back at Keri. "This role isn't like me at all. It's neither memorable nor interesting. Stereotypical almost. If I didn't know better, I'd say I was being typecast."

Keri frowned. "Typecast?"

"Yeah," Alicia said. "There's a lot of typecasting going on in this movie. Just look at who's in it. Kevin Costner is a washed-up ball player- again. And he's not the only one doing something he's done before. Joan Allen is a woman who lets herself become the object of scandal."

"I respect Joan Allen," Keri said, her grimace deepening. "She always prepares for her roles so intensely. I've been looking forward to working with her."

"We are too," Alicia said, looking at Erika. She frowned at the script in her hand, then put it down. "Joan Allen's great. I loved her in Manhunter, the Contender, Ice Storm..." She shook her head. "I just wish she and I weren't doing the same role for the hundredth time. You can relate, right? Your character's pretty dumb."

"No, she's not," Keri countered. "She's just too caught up in herself and her own issues. Like Joan Allen's and yours, Erika."

Erika nodded in agreement. "Tell me about it. The girl I'm playing has a serious attitude problem."

"You're becoming well known for that role, you know," Alicia told her. "Smart girls with serious attitude problems." She counted roles off on her fingers. "You've played that role in Traffic, Banger Sisters, Swimfan, a dozen TV shows. You even played it in that MTV movie you just did, The Perfect Score."

Erika rolled her eyes. "The roles are different if you look at them closely." She looked at her script, then frowned. "No, wait, you're right, this role sucks. I keep telling my agent to give me roles that challenge me, mean something to people. This role isn't very challenging."

"You could make it interesting," Keri said. "Find challenges in it. I certainly found it challenging the first time I had to be in an on-screen relationship with an older man."

"I've already done that a few times," Erika replied. Keri could tell by the blonde's expression she wasn't exactly looking forward to repeating the experience.

"Then why are you doing this movie?" Keri asked her. "If you don't like the role..."

"I'm mostly here for my brother Dane," Erika said. "He's in the film too. It's his first big role."

"Your brother's getting into acting?" Keri smiled. "Good for him. Who's he playing?"

Erika smiled back. "Gordon Reiner."

Keri thought for a second, remembering the role. Suddenly she felt a pallor coming over her. "You don't mean the dumb kid who thinks he's gay and smokes marijuana?"

Erika nodded, grimacing. "I know, I know. I told Dane, he needs to be careful with even the hint of doing drugs. But he said playing around with drugs worked great for me, gave me a breakout role. Our parents agreed. So he's going through with it."

"That's not what I meant," Keri said. "His character's gay. Isn't it a little early for him to be doing something so..." She shrugged, unable to think of the right word.

Erika shrugged. "Dane's like me, he loves a challenge. He's up to it, too- he's got potential."

"I'm not saying he doesn't," Keri insisted. "It's just, well..." Damn it, say it, she told herself. You have to know. "You're a Scientologist, right? Your family raised you that way?" Erika nodded in response, and Keri took a breath. "You have to forgive me. It's just whenever I see a big Scientologist actor asked whether or not he's gay..."

Erika cut her off with a wave, smiling. "I know. That's the big challenge Dane's going for, he wants to break the stereotype. Of course to do that, he needs support. That's why I'm here."

"It's good that you're doing this for him," Keri said. Then she frowned again. "Aren't you afraid, though? You know, of backlash?"

Erika laughed. "What, you think someone might disassociate themselves from us over this? Please. Dane's acting, it's not like he really is gay. Smart people will know the difference. And if anyone's dumb enough to disassociate themselves from us based on this... well, they can go visit Xenu."

Keri was confused again. "Xenu?"

"Xenu is what Scientologists call the Devil," Alicia explained. "He's an alien space god sealed in a volcano, the enemy of humanity."

"Oh," Keri said. She turned back to Erika. "So I guess you're saying they can go to hell?"

"Exactly," Erika nodded. "You don't know much about my religion, do you?"

Keri shook her head. "I really don't want to know." She caught herself, frowning. "I'm sorry, that kind of came out wrong."

"It's okay," Erika said. "I know what you mean. The media gives some people way too many opportunities to make asses of themselves on the air. You know what happens when you ride an ass in search of an ass."

"Yeah," Alicia smiled. "Or when you ride an ass refusing to dismount."

Keri laughed at the words, then frowned, not getting them. "Um, was that in Hubbard's Dianetics or something?"

"No," Erika replied. "It's from something Bruce Lee wrote. What, did you think L. Ron was the only philosopher we could look up to?"

Keri blushed. "Well, I..."

Erika threw up her hands. "Damn the media! There they go again, ruining things for us! Don't they know religious debates are never worth it? People are going to believe what they want to believe, and if you ask them to comment on their religion, they can't help but do so favorably. It leaves little room for tolerance and makes us all look like stupid jerks."

Alicia shook a finger at her. "Well, maybe if so many of you didn't have such a problem with having your religion satirized..."

"Who doesn't have a problem with that?" Erika asked, glaring at the redhead. "People just need to remember to laugh about it. Our founder laughed every time he kidded people about our religion being started just for money. He even satirized the way people saw us when he wrote Mission Earth."

"He did?" Keri asked. "I thought he was satirizing Earth in general."

Erika nodded. "And Scientology's part of Earth, and it was a big influence on L. Ron, so naturally it crept in. Read the books again, you'll see how."

"It's been a long time," Keri said, thinking hard and realizing she could only slightly remember the books. "Maybe I should re-read them."

"Do it," Erika encouraged her. "Ignore the bad stuff." She smiled. "Look, I'm sorry about all the scandals, okay? I'm not in the habit of denying them. I've even tried to do what I can to rectify a few. I support my friends who visit psychologists. I hang out with followers of other religions. I've appeared on shows like Touched by an Angel. I donate portions of my earnings to funds like the Lisa McPherson Trust."

Keri stared at her, mouth falling open. "Wow. Your religion lets you do all that?"

Erika waved a hand and giggled. "They don't control me. Some people have given me grief about it, but I don't care. I snipe right back. Every religion has things it's done in history people shouldn't forget. The Muslims have al-Qaeda, the Jews have Palestine, the Catholics have the Spanish Inquisition."

Keri's face went aghast. "The Spanish Inquisition?" she repeated. She definitely had not been expecting Erika to bring that up.

"Yeah!" Erika threw up her hands in a pout. Then she put them down and sighed. "I'm sorry, it's just sometimes when I read what people are saying about me online, they lash out at me purely based on misunderstanding of my religion. I don't like it when people do that. I try to get revenge on them by showing them how wrong they are about me. You can understand revenge, right, Keri?"

"Sure," Keri said. "I suppose."

"Revenge is a sucker's game," said Alicia.

"Not if you do it the right way," Erika snapped, then turned back to Keri. "I get revenge with roles all the time. When I played Madison in Swimfan, I was showing all the people who said I couldn't do the role that I could. I'm doing it again here, telling off a director on camera. I couldn't believe Mike was going to let me do that at first, but once I realized how much he likes to laugh at himself..."

Keri smiled. "Everyone should be able to laugh at themselves." Suddenly a thought occurred to her. "So is your brother doing revenge too? For all the flak Travolta and Cruise have created about the possibility of their being gay?"

Erika laughed. "You might say that."

Alicia grinned and looked at the blonde. "What are you rebelling against, Erika?"

Erika grinned back and gestured with her marker. "Whaddaya got?"

Keri raised an eyebrow, looking at each of them. "Is that from a movie or something?"

"The Wild One," Alicia said. "It's a classic."

"Oh." Keri rolled her eyes, remembering how many actors she knew liked to frequently imitate great moments in the movies. Erika and Alicia weren't the first she'd met. She liked to do such imitations herself sometimes. They could get annoying, though, when one didn't know the line. Keri blushed. "I remember that movie now."

"I love that movie," Erika said. "We all need a role like Brando's role in there. A breakout performance, a great role that wakes the public up to us. My role was in Traffic, Alicia's was in Fun..."

Keri nodded. "And mine was in Felicity."

"Right," Alicia said. Then she frowned. "Listen, Keri, I owe you an apology. I kind of assumed you would be a bimbo because of your show and..."

Keri stopped her with a raised hand. "It's okay. You aren't the first fan who's done that. I'm guilty of making stupid assumptions myself."

"Me, right?" Erika asked her. "You assumed I was going to be an uptight religious jerk because of everything negative the media's shown you about Scientology."

Keri blinked. Wow, she thought, she saw right through me. "Uh, yeah, I guess I did. I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay," Erika said. "I've made mistakes too." She looked down at her script, then back up at Keri. "You know Scientology's not really a bad religion, it's just misunderstood. People call us a cult and accuse us of brainwashing, but they forget we're also the ones who said things like 'On the day we can fully trust each other, there will be peace in the world.' We try to foster tolerance, understanding, self-knowledge. If you want to know more, I have some pamphlets."

Keri shook her head. "I'm not here for a religious debate. I already know what I believe. I'm just here to do a movie."

Erika smiled. "That's fine. If you ever want to talk about it, though..."

"I don't," Keri cut her off, then grimaced again. "I'm sorry. It's just, I went through something just like this on my last film."

"Mel Gibson, right?" Alicia asked. She shook her head. "The big Christian evangelist."

"He's not all bad," Keri said. "He pulled some fun pranks on the cast and crew while we were making our movie. I hated it at first, but then I laughed, and well..."

"Laughter is good for the soul," Erika said with a smile. "Anybody can agree on that." She closed her eyes, then reopened them, looking mirthful. "So you know Mel Gibson," she said to Keri. "Could you introduce me to him?"

"Maybe," Keri answered, confused. "Why?"

"I'm thinking of trying out for that film he's doing about Jesus," Erika said. "I have this role I want to play, and..."

Keri gulped and cut her off quickly. "Mel's very protective of that movie. He's already very worried about what people are going to think of it. I'm not sure he'd be open to other people's suggestions."

Erika blushed. "Sorry. Let me guess, I'm not the first person who's asked you that."

Keri shook her head. "No."

"Sorry," Erika repeated herself. "It's just, well, if he's worried about building religious tolerance, I could help him. I've thought of a way. I'll admit it's pretty radical, but if it works right..."

"Do not ask her about it," Alicia interrupted Erika, glaring at her and then looking at Keri. "It's a very dumb reckless idea. Erika gets a lot of them."

"I'm not the only one!" Erika shot back. "Look at all the dumb movies you've been in!"

"We've all been in dumb movies," Keri said, knowing she wanted to stop that debate before it got started. Damn it, I need to stop all these debates, she thought in the same instant. Religion, movies, so many other things in life do too much to divide people unnecessarily. I can't let them do it here. "Can we talk about something else?" she asked the other two girls.

"Sure," Alicia said.

Erika nodded, smiling. "What do you want to talk about?"

Hmm, Keri thought, where to begin? You've already begun, she reminded herself. And you didn't do so well. Oh well, such is life. Now's the time to do better. She thought for a minute, then shrugged. "How long have you two known each other?"

"Tom Cruise introduced us a few years ago at the premiere of Vanilla Sky," Alicia said. "He's a nice guy. A little crazy and full of himself, but a good person. A very inspiring actor."

Keri smiled, glad the new plan was working. "Mel was like that too." Suddenly one of her fantasies flashed into her mind, a stupid one that hadn't worked out. There was an ache between her thighs at the memory. Oh no, Keri told herself, gotta think about something else. Think of a famous guy who has been nice to you. Tony, think of Tony. That didn't help. Tony Lucca was her best friend, and more besides. Thinking about him and their last night together, so long ago, was not the best thing to do. Keri knew this as she felt the ache and feeling of wetness between her thighs increase.

"And Kevin Costner will be the same," Alicia said. "I'm looking forward to meeting him."

"Yeah, so am I," Keri said, smiling and trying to push down another fantasy. Stop it, she ordered her mind. I swore I wouldn't have such thoughts anymore!

As Keri declared this to herself, there was a knock at the door. "Come in!" Alicia called out.

The door opened to admit Mike Binder and another girl. A young blonde, her skin tanned and creamy. Her blue eyes were wide, her long hair combed back from her face. Keri looked over her figure and found it slim but still developing. She was dressed in a violet sweater, red T-shirt, and pale blue jeans. Keri thought she knew her from somewhere but couldn't place it. She's a teen idol, I think. TV? Movies? Music?

"Everyone," Mike caught their attention, "this is Evan Rachel Wood. She will be playing the part of Popeye."

"Hey!" Erika stood up and grinned. "You're that girl from Thirteen, aren't you?"

Thirteen! Keri thought. Of course! Once & Again too- she played Jessie. How can I have forgotten? She noticed Alicia was frowning deeply at the young girl.

"Yeah," Evan Rachel Wood said, extending her hand to Erika and smiling. "You're Erika Christensen, right? The role you played in Traffic was a major part of my inspiration for Tracy."

"That's me," Erika shook her hand and laughed. "You did a teenage drug addict very well, even better than I did. Or at least my brothers thought so." She rolled her eyes, then smirked. "Good to meet you."

She seems nice, Keri thought. Best introduce myself. She stood up and extended her own hand. "Hi, I'm Keri Russell."

"You starred in Felicity, right?" Evan said. Keri nodded and the young girl smiled again. "I watched your show a lot when it was on. I had one on ABC at the same time. Once & Again?"

"Yeah," Keri nodded. "I remember that show." Boy, do I ever remember that show, she thought to herself. Most realistic depiction of divorce and teenage life I've ever seen. And that ratings stunt they did in the third season- oh, I've watched it a thousand times. How often did Amanda and I want to do the same thing on Felicity? JJ would never dream of letting us, even if he knew. And now I'm meeting that girl in real life, doing a movie with her. "You were Jessie, right?"

"Yep," Evan replied. Her eyes took on a wistful look as she spoke. "I miss my show. Yours too. Mike tells me you're going to be Emily. If you need any tips on playing an anorexic teenager, let me know." She glanced at the other woman in the room. "Hey, you're Alicia Witt, right? You were on Twin Peaks and Cybil."

The redhaired girl nodded, still grimacing. "More recently, Ally McBeal."

"And Sopranos," Evan added. "I really liked you on there."

Keri gasped, pushing down another sudden fantasy. That was her favorite Sopranos episode too- she had watched it more than any other. Damn it, she thought to herself. Why can I not quit thinking about sex?

"Is everything alright, Alicia?" Mike asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I thought you were getting Mandy Moore for Popeye," Alicia said.

The director sighed. "Her schedule didn't fit ours." Then his expression changed to a prideful smirk. "Evan totally blew away my other two candidates. She's a veteran actress who's recently worked with Al Pacino and Ron Howard. I worked with her myself a long time ago, back on American Gothic. She's very precocious for her age. Perfect for Popeye."

"Thanks," Evan beamed at him. "I look forward to working again with you. Mind of the Married Man was so hilarious."

"You really think so?" Mike asked. Evan nodded and grinned.

Alicia rolled her eyes. "Oh boy." Keri felt herself agreeing. That show stunk to high heaven, she thought. I didn't see much of it, but I couldn't watch it, the jokes were so dumb. What is wrong with Evan? Does she feel the need to suck up to people? Why would she, with all the great work she's done?

"I'll leave you four to get to know each other," Mike smiled at them. "Please call my office if you need anything. Take all the time you like." Bowing, he turned and walked out.

"Great guy, isn't he?" Evan chuckled as the door shut. She took a seat beside Keri and looked at each of them. "It's nice to meet all of you. I love your work."

"Likewise," Erika said. "So you're playing Popeye."

"Yeah," Evan said, then frowned. "Hey, have any of you been able to puzzle out why she has that name? I've read the script over a dozen times, but the explanation's not in there."