keyword "pilot" title "meltdown" in "the next big thing" flash fiction

I was well-jaded to celebrity sightings at that point, working for the modestly famous myself. I wasn’t anyone, of course, just a gofer in a small production office, go for this, go for that but it still inured me to that feeling of shock like “famous person is real and right here in front of me!”

There used to be a store called Meltdown in Hollywood, not sure what’s there now but it’s gone, I’d go there every few weeks to buy comic books. It was wonderful, spacious and clean, not the dusty little back-room folks used to think comic shops are.

The people I worked for owned a bookstore on the other side of town where I had a discount but to repeat, on the other side of town and understand, distance driven is half of anything there, so I just bought my books at Meltdown.

Sorting through the new, I heard a murmured commotion and when I turned around, there were a dozen agog that the actor Jack Black was shopping there and while I was inured I was fascinated by how folks reacted to fame. He was looking through old back-issues of the Fantastic Four, just wanting to buy some comic books but that’s not how it works in Hollywood, a cell phone in one hand to his ear, sifting with the other.

The throng hovered behind, paper in their hands, maybe to be autographed, head-shots or scripts they wanted passed along, the very substance of concentrated desperation, people believing this was their one chance to interact with the gods and become one. A crowd of would-be moons begging to reflect someone else that they too may glow.

He waved them off as if to say “phone!” as he searched and while they kept polite distance, they remained at their satellite’s length. I was within ear-shot of the actor’s side of the conversation, talking to an agent about some upcoming project as he went. Something about a pilot, a trailer, profit points on the back-end, all the things an actor might talk to his representative about in a movie about an actor. They steadfastly held orbit until…

After a while, he said the same thing about a pilot. The same thing about a trailer, the same thing about points. I looked back and saw no light on his cheek, the phone had been off the entire time. This was just what he had to do if he wanted to go into public at all.

I’d like to say that was the moment I left L.A. then and there, having learned a lesson about fame but, no, I failed and went home like everyone else does. About all I learned then was, when I was going to be famous, I’d need to hire a gofer like me to pick up my comics. Hollywood does that to you, something in the smog makes you think no matter what happens, you are going to be the exception. You never are.

Last updated July 25, 2018