Celebrity Liaison Ch. 03

I'm Jason Connors, I use to just be the average writer down at the Daily News, but ever since my very public relationship with Natalie Portman, I had been turned into a full time celebrity interviewer. Well, actually, in truth I was briefly fired but when Natalie offered to give me the names of several hot shot celebrities, I was back in the game, this time I'm a celebrity interviewer.

Well, things have been going well for the past 7 months or so. After a rather odd start to my new career path, things have settled down. Oh, and by odd I mean having sex with the people I'm interviewing, but that was only a 2 time thing. Once with Kate Bosworth and the other time with Michelle Monaghan. It's been 3 or so months since I had an interview with Mariska Hargitay from Law & Order SVU (I didn't screw her by the way, I was very professional), after we had finished; she had offered to get me some interviews with other celebs in TV. So for the weeks after that I started interviewing a lot of her co- workers from Law & Order SVU. Once again I would like to say that Mariska Hargitay and I are strictly friends, we don't even flirt. Anyway, in the end I ended up interviewing so many people I didn't have to do much for about 2 or so months, just crappy filler articles. And not to mention when I told the Daily News editor I was considering giving my business to another paper, they offered to pay me even more. This was the second time I had managed to squeeze more money out of them.

However once I did sell a rather good article to another paper, the Daily News shit their pants and so they were forced to hire me permanently once more. The last time I was employed here, the boss got pissed off that I never handed in my articles in time and when I did they were usually pretty scrappily done. Anyway, SVU didn't have an infinite cast so eventually I had to start interviewing again. Natalie Portman, my usual informant and ex- girlfriend was out of town shooting some new movie so I couldn't get any anything from her. Oh, and FYI, the whole thing with Natalie has also cooled down, now it's just general flirting although we did have sex again 3 times after the Michelle Monaghan interview. This was bad, I'm on the payroll again and I have no pending interviews and Natalie Portman was out of town. I'm actually surprised that Natalie still helped me out finding interviews, I mean sure she felt guilty about me losing my job in the first place but I thought once she got me started then she would back off. Maybe she's continuing to help because there's a slim chance we might get back together or maybe there might be another chance of us having random sex.

Anyway, back to my no interview problem, I didn't want to call Mariska Hargitay as she'd helped me out enough, Kate Bosworth, the first person I had screwed on the job, was filming a movie and Michelle Monaghan I haven't even spoke to since our encounter. I was looking in the TV guide and after a while this article caught my eye. The cast of the new drama movie Rendition was in town to promote the movie. This could work out very well for me I thought. According to the article, 2 main cast members, Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon were in town to do an interview on Letterman. I knew New York like the back of my hand, and if I recall, when Natalie and I were going out, she mentioned that nearly all interstate guests who went on Letterman stayed at the Hilton Hotel downtown. I picked up the phone and dialled the number for the Hilton. Let's see if I can get myself an interview with the cast of Rendition.

After a lot of discussion with the actor's managers, I managed to get an interview with the two cast members. The plan was I would interview Jake Gyllenhaal before the Letterman taping and Reese Witherspoon after. The taping took place in the afternoon so I had to get to the Hilton Hotel in a couple of hours. I was actually kinda surprised that I was allowed to interview them due to such short notice but I think because a press conference was cancelled, they needed to make up the publicity. Talk about luck I thought. Only 20 minutes ago I was completely stuff and all of a sudden I have a 2 part article.

First interview with Jake Gyllenhaal was pretty good considering I only hade 2 hours to write up some questions. The guy was pretty friendly and I got some free beer on his tab so it all worked out well. After the interview I stayed in the hotel bar and started typing the interview out my laptop. I was there for a good 3 hours before the actors returned to the hotel. In that time I had wrote a draft for the first part of the article, prepared the Reese Witherspoon interview, watched some cable TV and drank a lot of alcohol. But strangely I was still sober, or so I thought. Jake came down to say hi before heading up to his room. After about 5 minutes Reese Witherspoon arrived and we sat down in the booth.

'Been here long?' she asked in that sweet southern accent of hers.

'Nah, only just arrived,' I lied. 'So do you wanna do the interview here or you wanna head up to your room?'

'Down here is fine, I need to get some alcohol in me anyway.'

'I know that feeling, how was Letterman?'

'Great, it was good fun.'

'Crap, I should really introduce myself,' I extended a hand and she shook it. 'Jason Connors, writer for the Daily News.'

'I'm guessing you already know my name.'

I was trying to act professional but she wore this really sexy black dress and I couldn't help but stare at her cleavage. Luckily I don't think she noticed. And so the interview began. I asked simple questions about the new movie, fame, Oscars, her future, family, friends and all that crap. I was unaware at how sarcastic I was slowly becoming. It was the alcohol.

'And so how are you coping now with your divorce now?'

'Well I'm fine but I'm just mainly worried about the kids.'

'Ah don't worry, I can't imagine that guy being much of a dad.'

Yeah, believe it, I said that and many other things.

'Getting much more publicity after Walk the Line?'

'Yeah, the offers are just rolling in. And I think that now people are offering me much more mature roles which is just great.'

'Get anything with a decent sex scene in it?'

She was obvious surprised by the question but answered it none the less.

'Not really, I don't usually go for the sex oriented scripts.'

By the time we were finished about 20 minutes later I think we were both just aching to get some rest and she was just aching to get rid of me. As I stood up and stumbled around for a moment and she obviously noticed it. I hadn't realised that in the past few hours I really started to get drunk. But it was supposedly noticeable as I realised I had probably been slurring my words and losing focus these past few minutes. Reese now realised why I was so blunt and so rude. I was drunk.

'You are so drunk.'

'I wish. One more beer should do it.'

'How long were you really waiting here before I arrived?'

'Not long, 15 minutes...ok 30... ok 1 hour.'

She laughed and gave me that big smile of hers. 'And I take it you were drinking most of that time.'

'Yeah well, your friend Mr Gyllenhaal offered to buy me drinks so how could I resist.'

'Wait, you interviewed Jake before we went to Letterman. How long have you been here.'

'3 hours.'

She chuckled again. 'You drive here?'

'Yep.'

'Well you ain't driving back like this. You can stay in my hotel room until you sober up.'

'Sweet, thanks.'

'But no funny business, I'm single but I'm far from a swinger.'

I tried to grab my laptop but in the process almost dropped it so Reese took all my stuff up for me. I don't think I'm technically drunk, just sort of disoriented and clumsy. However I think I did pass out once I got into her room.

When I woke up, it was 1 o'clock at night and I was lying on a very comfortable couch. I stood up and took a drink of water from the fridge before I realised this wasn't my apartment.

'You're up,' said a voice I recognised as Reese Witherspoon's.

She was standing in the doorway of her room, noticeably tired and I could tell I just woke her up.

'Ok, the last few hours is kinda a blur, fill me in.'

'Well you became drunk during the course of our interview so I brought you up here to sober up.'

'I wasn't that drunk was I?'

'At first to be honest I thought you were just an asshole but then I realised you were drinking your brains out. Coffee is a better way of staying awake.'

'I'll keep that in mind for next time. I'd just like to say I'm sorry for acting like a jerk, getting drunk, being such a bother and trying to stare down your dress.'

She gave me a tired laugh. 'You know honesty is the best policy not always.'

'Tell that to Natalie,' I said.

'Natalie?'

'Portman, we're kinda in, well, I don't know what we're in at the moment.'

Reese's eyes lit up. 'Wait, I remember you now, I saw you at a premiere of Natalie's film Closer. We didn't meet but I saw you when the director pointed the two of you out me. I thought you two had broken up.'

'We are. I thought you didn't know Natalie, she never said anything.'

'Not well but I talked to her a tiny bit here and there at certain events. So you're broken up, that's too bad.'

'Yeah, I guess we're just another pair of single people in New York.'

I paused for a moment as I looked over my papers and read some of the crap I had written.

'Damn, was I really that obnoxious?'

'Yes, I didn't like you at first but then that turned to amusement. I was confused because Jake said you were really nice.'

'Well it's really late and I gotta go. Thanks for everything; I'd probably have slammed my car into a traffic light or something if you hadn't brought me up here.'

We said our goodbyes and I left.

The next morning I was trying to salvage what I could from the interview. I was back in the Daily News office building and the boss was once more pressuring me to hand in an article. I looked at all my papers from last night. Sure the Jake Gyllenhaal interview was my normal work but the one with Reese Witherspoon was a mess. At about 3 o'clock I was very surprised to find that she had called me.

'Hello.'

'Hi, Jason, it's Reese Witherspoon, you left your wallet here last night so you might wanna pick it up soon because I'm leaving to go for the airport at 6.'

'Ok, seeya in 1 hour?'

'One hour is fine.'

As I walked into the hotel, I didn't even glance at the bar and made my way up to her room. I had tried my best to look presentable because I wanted to prove that I wasn't a complete drunk after all. When I stepped out of the elevator on her level I saw a man pounding at her door and heard quite a bit of shouting. I was surprised to see no one else was there. I ran over to the guy and immediately caught the smell of whiskey in his breath. He was dressed in a crappy dirty jacket and had long messed up, greasy hair.

'Hey buddy, what the hells going on.'

The drunk turned to me and grabbed my collar.

'That's Reese Witherspoon in there, I just wanna say hi but she's being a fucking bitch at the moment.'

'Jason, is that you?' I heard Reese shout from inside.

'Yeah,' I replied as the drunk continued to slam his fist against the door. 'Call hotel security!'

I drunk turned to look at me. 'Security, I'm not doing anything.'

I thought about my options for a moment and then replied. 'No, it's for her, get security up here so they can get her out of the damn room.'

'Hey! I like your thinking mate,' he said patting me on the back.

At the moment I just felt like punching the guy in the face but I resisted the urge. Hotel security came up surprisingly quick and the drunk immediately shouted to them.

'Thank god you're here, can you get Miss Witherspoon out of her room.'

The security guards just looked at each other and then at me and I said.

'Take him away boys.'

'Hey, what's going on dude? I just wanna say hi, but-' he stammered as the guards dragged him away.

Even when the elevator doors closed I could still hear him shouting. Slowly the door to Reese's room opened and she stood there looking around the hall way.

'Hey, I wasn't that bad when I was drunk was I?'

She smiled, 'No, you were just funny.'

'I'll take that as a compliment.'

'Although at first I was ready to stab you with a fork.'

'And what did I do to deserve that?'

'Well you asked me if I was going to be in any decent sex scenes.'

I laughed. 'I would've asked you that even if I wasn't drunk.'

She laughed and slapped me playfully on the arm. Before reaching over to the counter and handing me my wallet.

'Ah, there it is.'

'I pretended to check inside to see if all the money was there.'

She gave me a bemused look. 'I get 20 million per movie, which means I don't exactly steal $45 from journalist' wallets.'

'Yeah well, even if you ruled the world I'd still check.'

She laughed again. 'It took you awhile to get here.'

'Yeah, I was pulled over because of a broken tail light and I didn't exactly have my wallet handy. Luckily I have my contacts.'

'Ok then.'

'So where is everyone else?'

'Oh, I'm alone in this hotel. The rest of the crew have just disbanded. Some went to the airport already; others are visiting family in Queens, stuff like that.'

We were both quiet for a second and I realised that we were flirting with each other. Or I was anyway.

'Listen, my flight doesn't leave for another 2 hours so you wanna grab a drink or something?'

'Drink? After last night, no. Although I'm up for coffee.'

She chuckled again. 'Coffee will be great.'

She checked out of the hotel and we left in my car. I was very surprised at the amount of luggage she had and I barely managed to fit it all in the trunk. I wonder if this means I'm driving her to the airport. Anyway, we had a nice cup of coffee and I found myself disappointed she was leaving. She turned out to be really nice and she even likes my tiny little quirks and sarcasm that some girls hate. And I think she really likes me as well because many times she asked if I was going out with anyone or if my thing with Natalie Portman was over. Eventually we just sat there and I asked.

'When do you need to be at the airport?'

'Plane doesn't leave for awhile but I probably need to get going in around 1 hour.'

I was upset by that and she noticed it. She leaned in and whispered in my ear.

'You know, I'm sure that the hotel concierge won't mind if I stayed in my room a bit longer even though I did already check out.'

'And what will we do there.'

She looked around and said. 'I'll think of something.'

We walked out into the side alley of the coffee shop where I had parked my car. We were about to get in when we heard a familiar voice talking to us.

'So, you aren't my buddy. You just wanted Miss Witherspoon to yourself you greedy fuck!' said the drunk as he stepped out from behind the dumpster.

Reese instinctively back away towards the adjacent wall.

'Hey man, calm down.'

'Fuck you. I just wanted to be friends with her but you like some greedy prick wanted her all to yourself.'

He suddenly punched me in the face. I was caught off guard and fell back into the car. I heard Reese shout for him to stop and then heard her screaming as sounds of a struggle started. I stood up still a bit shaky and looked at the drunk and Reese. He was clawing at her clothes and had her pinned against the wall. She tried to push him away with little luck. I charged at him and pulled him off of her and swung him around into my car. He fell back with a thud but was seemingly unhurt. I should really keep my body in better shape I thought. The drunk (I really am getting sick of calling him that) charged at me again but this time I ducked under one punch but was hit as his other hand came crashing in under my jaw. This time I fell back, more disorientated than before and struggled to get up.

'Jason!' I heard Reese shout.

'Just run!' I shouted back.

I lay there unable to get up and looked as he grabbed Reese from behind and pushed her up against the car. I watched sickened as he tried to pull down on her jeans and planted his face in her chest. I still tried to get up but the pain was overwhelming. Reese was near tears now as he undid her jeans and was pulling apart her blouse. I got up one more time but I had barely gone anywhere when the drunk turned around and punched me in the gut. I was down for good this time and watched as Reese struggled to get him off. Reese was lying flat on the bonnet of the car now and the drunk continued to take off her pants but Reese persisted. I got really pissed off when I saw him slap her in the face and pulled her jeans down to her ankles. He had her blouse open now and was trying to take off her bra. But now Reese was had lost control and was kicking and screaming furiously. Frustrated, the drunk slapped her again in the face but this time flipped her around face down on the bonnet and pinned her arms above her head with one had and with the other he started to take off her panties. I was pissed off. If I hadn't parked my car out back this wouldn't have happened. And the people in the coffee shop wouldn't be able to hear because of the noise from the kitchen. Shit, I don't wanna be the guy who got Reese Witherspoon raped. I continued to try and get up but I was too weak. He was taking off his pants now and had Reese leaning over the bonnet with her ass pointed right at him. He whispered something into her ear and was about the rape her when I heard the back door of the café open and the owner came out shouting while brandishing a rather large kitchen knife. The drunk tried to attack him but the guy was big and immediately knocked him unconscious with one hit.

'Everyone ok?' he asked once the drunk was on the ground.

'Not really, call the cops, ask for a sergeant Gordon to come down here personally' I replied weakly. The owner dragged the drunk inside and called the police immediately

I crawl over to Reese as she tried to pull herself together. I sat her up and leaned her against the car.

'You ok?'

'Yeah, you?' she said gently touching my bruised face.

'I've been better.'

She pulled her panties up and put her jeans back on and started to button up her blouse when I said.

'Listen, that cop I told the owner to call is a friend of mine, he'll handle this nice and discreetly. You should get back to the hotel room; I'll meet you there soon.'

And so my friend, Sergeant Gordon came. We obviously wanted to keep Reese out of the paper work so Gordon decide to just charge the guy on assaulting me and causing unruly behaviour in both the hotel and the coffee shop. I thanked the owner of the coffee shop, Bill, and he promised to keep quiet about the whole incident. So all in all the incident was kept on the off the record and on the QT. When I finally got back to the hotel room, I found Reese sitting on the couch quietly. She was somewhat startled when I came in.

She smiled uncomfortably. 'I think I'll miss my flight.'

'It's all been handled.'

I watched her for a moment as she stared into nothingness.

'Look, I want to apologise.'

'Why?' she said suddenly turning her attention to me.

'I should've done more and-'

She cut me off and put her finger to the lips. 'You did what you could. If you weren't there it probably would've been much worse. So thankyou.'

We sat there in silence for almost 2 minutes when se leaned across and kissed me on the lips. I was caught by surprised and barely managed to process what had happened when she kissed me again. I was stunned and she just laughed naturally for the first time since the incident.

'I really needed that.'

I smiled. 'Let me try.'

I kissed her and she laughed again. We looked at each other before we suddenly lunged at each other and passionately kissed. I slipped an arm around her waist as I lowered her down onto the couch. I paused for a moment and looked at her.