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ing to wonder if maybe we didn t have as much in common as I used to
think. Other people seem to have these friends that they ve known
since they were like in the playpen, or at least that they went to high
school with, but I m not very good at keeping those people around.
Old friends never seem as exciting and cool as the new ones and
Stephanie who I met a year and a half ago, when I started working at
Absolutely Fabulous had seemed rather exciting for a while. But I m
not going to let her make me feel guilty for the rest of my life, I think, and
decide to play her cold game, too, and not even respond to the e-mail.
If I see her in the elevator, I decide, I ll be cordial but distant.
I write the Ken Stinson piece in record time and the New York ed-
itor e-mails me back within minutes to tell me how thrilled she is with
my work on this an altogether unprecedented event. A few minutes
later, Brian walks in smiling, saying the New York editor was just rav-
66 A N N A D A V I D
ing to him about my work, and hands me a piece of paper. I glance
down at it and see that it s an assignment to interview Kane a
British singer who specializes in inexplicably popular adult contempo-
rary music and tends to date actresses.
 You re giving this one to me? I ask, surprised. Within the world
of Absolutely Fabulous, this is a choice assignment and would typically
go to a more senior-level reporter who specializes in music.
 Yeah, I figured he ll like you, Brian smiles. I tell myself that my
luck has clearly turned and things are going to start getting better
from now on. Names like Rick, Gus, Adam, and Stephanie sit lodged
in the back of my mind, threatening to fill me with self-loathing, but
if I can keep busy enough, I know I can ignore them all for the
time being.
I read everything I can find about Kane on the Internet and then go to
meet his manager a dour woman with a sensible brown bob in the
lobby of the L Ermitage hotel. She escorts me up to the seventh floor
without saying a word, silently leading me down a hall and opening up
a room, where Kane is waiting.
Though not by anyone s standards attractive, Kane nonetheless
radiates massive amounts of star quality or perhaps it s the gleaming
diamonds in his ears and around his neck. He stands in the middle of
the hotel bedroom in a white linen suit, wearing a beaming grin.
 Come in, come in, he says, leading me through the room s sit-
ting area and into the bedroom, then shutting the door. To his man-
ager, he calls out,  Janet, we ll call you if we need you.
I feel immensely relieved to be rid of the grim, personality-less
manager every now and then you ll encounter a rep who insists on
sitting in on the interview, which is about as nerve-racking as the no-
tion of a parent sitting in on an adolescent s date.
Kane settles his enormous frame onto the queen-sized bed, his
white boots dragging dirt onto the down comforter, and pats the space
next to him.  Come join me in bed, darling, he says, his rather lovely
British accent making the sentence seem less like a sexual come-on
and more like a sensible suggestion.
And, truth be told, either one is fine by me. Getting a flirtatious
rapport going with people I m interviewing is one of my tricks of the
trade my other main one being confessing intensely personal infor-
68 A N N A D A V I D
mation to subconsciously motivate them to do the same. It also
doesn t exactly hurt my ego if a guy significant enough to be inter-
viewed by Absolutely Fabulous flirts with me.
So I climb onto the bed willingly, just a tad nervous that Manager
will come in and catch me, the allegedly professional journalist, in
this compromising position. But I soothe my nerves about this by
being extra vigilant with my questioning, and Kane compliments me
on both my questions and my overall personality.
Then again, at a certain point it becomes clear that Kane is com-
plimenting me on just about everything, and the conversation is turn-
ing into something more akin to a date than an interview.  I don t
have any brothers or sisters, do you, Beautiful? he lobs back at my sib-
ling query, and though I m happy to answer him, I m also quick to
point out that Absolutely Fabulous readers don t give a rat s ass about
the details of my life so we might as well focus on him.
 Look, don t worry so much about your article, Kane says reassur-
ingly.  We ll make it great.
 We haven t even talked about your first album yet, I protest.
 Look, I have an idea, Kane suddenly says, rather abruptly.  Why
don t we finish this interview at my house?
 Really? Brian had told me that Kane didn t allow reporters
there.
Kane glances at the door and then back at me.  I just didn t want a
whole slew of photographers traipsing through, but you could come,
he says.  I think it would make your story a lot better.
Glancing at him, lying on his back with his heel crossed over his
knee and looking quite pleased with himself, I quickly weigh the pros
and cons. Pro: I could do a kick-ass story, wowing Brian and everyone
else that I was able to talk a source into an at-home interview. Con:
He could be a date rapist. But this is unlikely. Additional con: It s
definitely possibly unprofessional. I think of Cynthia Jordan, an Ab-
solutely Fabulous coworker who s so serious and by the book that she
probably would have marched right out the hotel door and over to a
sexual harassment complaint center if Kane had suggested to her that
P A R T Y G I R L 69
she interview him while lying next to him in bed. And then I think
about how much I dislike Cynthia, and how dull her life seems.
 What time tomorrow? I ask.
 Seven p.m., he answers quickly. And then, after glancing in the
direction of the sitting room, he says,  Love, don t mention this to
Janet. Why don t I just give you my address and we ll plan to see each
other tomorrow? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]