Rise of Roxy Ch. 04

Roxy hung her head.

Mal barked, "Look at me."

She sighed and looked up into to his grin.

"You handled Di Roach brilliantly and I reckon she really loves you because it takes a bitch to recognize one. If you ever want publicity from now on, then just call Di and say you were just calling to say hi. She'll know what to do."

Roxy looked as if she couldn't tell if Mal was bawling her out or praising her.

"And you know Roxy, I've been here in Production for twenty-three years and on day one of my first promotion I hoped that in my time he or she would rise from the ranks and Aloha, here you are, probably the hottest property this TV company has ever had, although most of them don't have a clue it's happening. You're the next big thing Roxy providing you win hearts and respect for your acting and you continue walking around as if you don't care a shit about anyone or anything, that if it's not acting then you're not interested."

"Mal..."

"Come away with me for a dirty weekend soon Roxy, before you become untouchable."

Roxy swallowed and looked at the 66-year old and quavered, "Mal don't you think you are a little too old for me?"

"Jesus Roxy, I wasn't expecting you to be that contemptuous so soon."

They laughed and she felt soft feelings for Mal and so she said, "Very well, just the one dirty weekend and providing you check that your medical insurance is up to date."

"Jesus Roxy," he protested. "I'm very fit for my age."

Roxy went down a floor to her office wondering what to wear for the first seduction. A guy as old as Mal might wear a nightgown and nightcap. Would he just fumble in the dark and wish to do it with them both dressed? Where guys his age no longer interested in pussy but rather just desired to crash against a girl's butt? Could a guy his age still come?"

She called her aunt and requested information. Anne giggled and said one of her friends had been on a cruise and drunkenly landed up in bed with a German guy of almost eighty. Apparently he pulled out when Glenys screamed not to come in her and he shot an arc over her and over her bedhead to mess the wall.

"Omigod," Roxy shrieked and the two women laughed like hyenas.

"See you later," Roxy said, still shaking with the giggles. She'd invited Anne and Tom in for the studio's cocktail party at 7:30 to celebrate the new show. Roxy called Di Roach who called back an hour later when Roxy was re-reading the scripts for tomorrow's pre-filming of the next two episodes of The PA. The plan was to shoot four a week to build up stock but at present no one knew how long the show would run because it lacked a major sponsor.

"Hi darling, calling to abuse me for something in that article?"

"I thought it was impossible to abuse a bitch?"

Di, who was in her early forties, laughed wildly. "God I like you."

"Thanks and thanks for showing me up in a good light, er I think. I'm calling to invite you to the studio at 7:30 this evening for a cocktail to mark the launch of The PA and oh your husband too. I um I don't have many friends and..."

"Of course Sam and I will show darling. We like being seen in the best company. May I bring a photographer?"

"Oh yes of course but Mrs Roach I'm not after..."

"But you should be dear and call me Di. I can't be your friend if you insist on calling me Mrs Roach. The photographer will look after the work. Sam and I will be coming to get drunk."

"Oh an excellent idea. I'll have to stay sober in case someone in the media calls after they've seen the show."

"Would you like some media mongrels to call you Roxy?"

"Well that would be nice."

"Then leave it to me."

"What do you have contacts with other media people?"

Di laughed. "God you are so naïve that it's a real pleasure knowing you. I'll enjoy watching you blossom. Wear Irish green tonight darling."

"I-I don't have a dress that color."

"Darling we are talking about your career. Go out right now and buy a short halter-neck iridescent green dress and book in to studio make-up to get your hair done. Oh and try to get matching shoes and don't wear a necklace, I noticed yesterday you have a stunning neck as well as great breasts. You're the girl baby and this is your night."

"Omigod, I'm..."

"Roxy stop it. Bitches never become nervous."

An hour later Mal found Roxy in Mrs Smith's office having coffee.

"You only met Di Roach recently, right?"

Roxy looked at Mrs Smith and Mal said he was talking to her.

"Yes."

"Well how the hell have you managed to convince her to call around and invite sixteen media people here tonight to watch the show and then interview you at a press conference?"

"Um my sheer personality?"

"Roxy!"

"I invited Di and her husband here as my guests tonight and she asked was I expecting media interest. I said I hoped someone would call and she said to leave it to her, that's all. What's so wrong with that?"

"Well she's invited sixteen boozy media people to our cocktail party and Jesus her husband Sam Roach is the enemy, he's general manager of Channel 7."

"Well he's coming to get drunk, not to headhunt your people or to steal production plans."

"He's the enemy Roxy. Enough said. You know what to do."

"I certainly won't be telling him not to come. I know you went running to Bette Hill with the news and she shrieked "Oh no, not the enemy" and that panicked you. God you two ought to grow up. I bet you guys get drunk together at media award evenings."

"Well yes, I admit that..."

"Roxy has you by the balls over this Mal," Mrs Smith sniggered. "Come on, admit it."

Mal shuffled and screwed a finger between his neck and shirt collar and mumbled well he guessed his was extra-sensitive and thinking Sam Roach might be after Bette's job when she leaves because Channel 8 was the city's premiere broadcaster.

"Mal either this stupid charade stops right now or I'm walking."

"I apologize Roxy. I'll personally welcome Sam when he arrives."

"Well thank you and don't forget Sam has a wife called Di Roach."

"No Roxy. There's no one you fear, is there?"

"Only God and Mrs Smith," Roxy smiled and Mrs Smith cackled.

Roxy had a light restaurant meal with her leading man, Brett Silver, and his French-born wife Bernadette.

"I almost didn't come," said the 55-year old. "But I was too curious."

"I'm delighted you chose to do that," Roxy smiled. "Brett mentioned this morning you were angry that I had described him to that reporter as being almost as thick as me and she published that in the Herald."

"Yes I was really to scratch you."

"I knew it wasn't true but I was simply type-casting. Have you read the script?"

"No Brett prefers me to see his work cold, so I see it as viewers see it, not being in the position to prejudge and he can then respect my opinion."

"Oh my, that's really clever. Well you'll see when the show screens we are meant to be a couple of a laugh-a-minute oddballs. I'm scatty as a dollar watch and he's as dour as a fence post."

"I don't see you as being scatty."

"And off-camera I don't see Brett as thick as a fencepost."

Bernadette laughed and said Roxy was very clever, that she now felt like kissing Roxy.

"Go on and make it sexy. Brett told me you lived in France until you were twenty. I've never had a sexy kiss from a woman."

"I'll kiss you but not sexily," Bernadette said, giggling. "You are incorrigible I think. Brett had told me you were really sweet. He's right."

"Can I be incorrigible and yet sweet?"

"Perhaps only you can," Bernadette laughed.

Roxy returned to the studio, had a shower and then had her hair done, pinned high. She then went to Wardrobe and was delighted to find Mrs Mead, a prim and proper motherly woman was there. The woman was a real artist.

"No no, your bra is wrong for this dress."

"Then might I borrow yours Mrs Meadows."

"Omigod, you can't borrow other people's underwear Roxy."

"Why's that?"

"Oh Roxy. Stay put will I break-out a suitable bra for you."

"Okay but I need to show uplift this evening. It's my big night."

"Yes and you are a big girl in terms of bra size. I would prefer to bandage them down but you are boss and I know what you mean by your big night."

The cocktail party venue had been changed from the bar to Studio C because of the influx of media people and Studio 8's own media people had demanded to be invited when discovering they were being left out.

Mal was darting around like a barroom fly holding a half-full paper cup of beer when he looked up, saw Roxy and gaping slammed into a waitress carrying a tray of dips and sent her flying.

He pulled the tearful young woman to her feet and he yelled at Roxy, "It's all your fault looking unbelievably sexy like that."

The waitress, dabbing her eyes, sobbed, "Oh Miss Reeves, you look like a movie star. It's such a privilege seeing you up so close."

Roxy kissed the boggling 20-year old and asked was she hurt.

"No that awful man charged into me. I thought he was after a grope."

Mal looked ready to sink through the floor.

"He's so old he will have forgotten how to grope dear," Roxy said and Mal, recovering from his second shock, apologized to the young woman and couldn't stop glancing at Roxy.

As the waitress gathered up her tray and a cleaner arrived to deal with the mess, Roxy whispered, stop staring at me like that Mal otherwise I'll throw a jug of iced water over you.

"Sorry."

"Thanks."

Brett and Bernadette arrived and they eyed Roxy hugely but made no immediate comment about her appearance.

The two women hugged and then Bernadette whispered that Roxy looked gorgeous.

"Well Brett has reason to feel proud of you," Roxy said and earned a return smile.

Mal brought Di and husband Sam over and introduced them to Brett and Bernadette. Di, looked lovely in a LBD although rather boney, then kissed Roxy and introduced Sam.

"Hi Sam, I know you're a big shot in the opposition but it would have been uncivil to have invited Di and not you."

"Well Roxy we all get a little too precious about our little empires at times. You have plenty of media people streaming in. We never attract them like this."

"Well I guess it's who you know who can crack the whip," Roxy said, smiling at his wife. "Please excuse me for a while. I'm supposed to be a greeter."

"Yes of course. I must say that color looks great on you."

"Why thanks Sam, the guys around her never appear to notice what I wear."

The evening wore on well and it was time for everyone to move into the small theatre.

The show flowed well and was hilarious, opening with Bambi (Roxy) wheeling a trolley loaded with office equipment into a very untidy office and smiling nervously and asking, "Are you Chubby?"

"No my mother has always kept me this slim?"

"Eh, sorry I'm in the wrong office. Help me turn this trolley around will you. I've never been able to drive."

"Is that so," said the guy, spinning the trolley around. "Then what are you good at?"

"Nice try buster but if I said what I'm really good at you might claim sexual harassment. I've got big boobies you know."

"No I didn't know. Whose office are you looking for aimlessly?"

"Who's Aimlessly?"

"Oh god. Tell me the person you want and I'll guide you there."

"Chubby Allen."

"There's no one of that name working for this company but I'm Chuddley Allan."

"Oh then I was right the first time."

"If you can be right when being wrong then yes I suppose so," said Chuddley (Brett). "I suppose there will be an employment issue if I refuse you as my new PA."

"Yes definitely. Um what's an employment issue?"

"Oh God," Chuddley groaned.

"Might I have the large desk?"

"One, two, three, four, five. No you take that vacated desk."

"Okay."

"I say Bimbo."

"Try Bambi and I might answer."

"Bambi have you thought of working for another company?"

"No why. Are you resigning your job? Perhaps I could succeed you because you don't appear to do anything except stare at my boobs."

"I wouldn't do that Bambi. It would be classified as sexual harassment."

"Since when are boobs harassment?"

Chuddley sniggered and said, "When you are attempting to remove your tee shirt that is much too tight."

As the interplay continued, Roxy watched the journalists leaving in ones and twos and then a big bunch. She was dismayed and then glad her aunt and uncle were away at a law conference and so were not there to witness her humiliation.

And then Di whispered, "Sorry darling, neither or you are comedians. Stan and I must go."

"Bye," Roxy said listlessly and nodded back when Stan nodded at her.

Only a handful of people were left at the end and the bar reopened.

"It's a disaster," she said to Mal.

"Only to learned critics," he smiled. "We won't can it. We'll shoot the eight episodes as planned. Guys nursing beer bellies in bars, nurses, office girls and assorted non-critical people who like a good laugh will watch it, but the walk-out we just witnessed has delivered an unbiased message."

"Am I done for?"

"You will be under assessment. Come over and meet my wife."

"We have already chatted and she's very sweet. I won't be sleeping with you Mal." "Jesus I thought that might be your decision if you met her. I told her not to come but she insisted."

Roxy's phone went and Mal drifted off.

"Hi are you okay? I guess the knockers are telling you that was crap."

"No it's much worse Mrs Smith. The few people remaining are smiling politely and keeping their distance. All the journalists walked out."

"That's too bad. Do you want to come over?"

"No thanks but that was a lovely gesture. I'm off to cry myself asleep."

"That's fine but don't kick yourself stupid. You are an actress in need of a good script and good direction, and accept nothing less. You place is drama, keep right away from light entertainment and musicals. I mean that Roxy."

"I hear you Mary. Good night."

Two days later at the senior management meeting, CEO Bette Mill said, "I've accepted Mal's recommendation that we can The PA after Episode 8. We have to save our own faces and although media critics slated it as juvenile and mainly agreed that Roxy had slammed into a wall as a wannabe comedian, the ratings are climbing, although short of being spectacular. We probably will have to let the poor girl go."

"No she has enormous potential as an actress."

"Mal we admire your loyalty and know you have backed her since you auditioned her but we don't have the budget to have her sitting around and not earning her keep."

"Less than an hour ago Billy Jones asked if he could have Roxy for the role of Alicia Young in 'The Amazing Miss Young'. He says the actress we hired for the lead wants out because in rehearsals she's found the role is too demanding for her."

"Mal what the hell is going on here?" Bette demanded. "We are sinking a quarter of our total drama budget into our blockbuster."

"Yeah well we didn't know Cheryl's husband was about to break up her marriage when we hired her after exhaustive auditions, did we? She's losing weight and has failed to snap out of it despite undergoing counseling. I'd told you about this."

"Yes, yes. But you assured me she'd rise above this."

"She was making progress but then he mother had a coronary."

"Oh crap but I am sympathetic. You better suspend rehearsals and try to find a replacement from professional theatre."

"Why do that when we already have the right person on our payroll?"

There were murmurs around the table.

Bette said, "We know what you are thinking and I hear building resentment. We are in our jobs to make the right decisions Mal."

"Exactly and that's what I'm doing."

"And if I over-rule you Mal?"

"Bette we are all professionals here. I'll tell you what. I want you to ignore your desire to play safe and for you to make a professional decision. You moved into your position via Production. You've seen Roxy at her best and seen her latest hiccup. Are you prepared to back me professionally and go for Roxy, well knowing her place in front of the camera is in drama."

"Why are you attempting to force me over this Mal?"

"Because only you and I and Mrs Smith are aware in Roxy we possess the hottest actress Channel 8 has ever had on its payroll."

Bette and Mal looked at the expressions of disbelief on the faces of many of the other executives around the table.

Bette said grimly, "I agree with you Mal. Go for it and I'll take responsibility for the decision."

"Thanks for your belief in Roxy, Mrs Smith and me Bette. And believe me, you have nothing to fear and those of you others here who are disbelievers, prepare to eat humble pie. The hour-long 'The Amazing Miss Young' over 16 episodes will set a new benchmark for Channel 8 theatre."

"Please don't inflame the team any further Mal, they look ready to implode."

"Thank you Bette. May I leave now and get things rolling to minimize disruption?"

"Yes of course."

Mal found Roxy in Mrs Smith's office reading her letter of resignation to her mentor.

Grinning, Mal grabbed the letter off Roxy and ripped it up.

"Come on Bimbo," he said kindly. "We are off to place you in work in real drama. You are the replacement for the struggling lead in our blockbuster this year, 'The Amazing Miss Young'. I have just fired the unfortunate woman and I guess this means a big pay increase for you."

"No. You are insane."

"Off you go Roxy, you are cluttering my office. The part of Alicia Young is close to being exactly right for you. Make the part yours."

"Hold me Mal," Roxy said.

"Don't vomit," Mrs Smith cackled.

More to Come