Laying Low in Hollywood (23 page)

   After the bows, Elena skated to me and pretty much dove into my arms, nearly knocking me over.  Then Ron wrapped me in a huge bear hug and I pretty much melted into his arms.  The cameras were panning in close, but I didn’t even care at this point.  The speculation over our “relationship” was already there, let the audience drool in anticipation for two more weeks, I thought. 

   I was trying to talk to Ron and Elena and tell them how wonderful they had done and how proud I was of them, but it was useless.  Standing there in the echoing arena, we were essentially deaf, the crowd was still roaring loudly in our ears!

   I was clinging to Ron and Elena’s hands as we headed to the “kiss and cry”.  Everyone was still screaming and calling out to us from the audience.  When the crowd had finally settled down enough that they could be heard, I was happy to hear that the judges were completely wowed by the performance, they had nothing but positive comments about the performance.

   When our scores were finally announced we had received three tens, once again, a perfect score!  I was completely elated as I squeezed Elena and Ron again excitedly.  I nearly had tears in my eyes, we had made it to the finals, I was sure of it!

   We settled into our seats, to watch the rest of the performances.  I clung to Ron’s hand the entire time.  I watched the performances, but didn’t really see much of either of them, I was in my own little world.  I doubted either of these teams could beat a perfect score.

   At the end of the performances, all three teams congregated on the ice to await the announcement.  I was almost coming unglued, I was so nervous.  Finally Zach made the announcement, team Evans was going home, we had made it to the top two!             

   I was hugging Ron and Elena excitedly.  Jorge was soon there hugging all of us.  The entire arena was in an uproar! The crowd had emerged from their seats and the entire arena was teaming with bodies.  Someone had opened champagne and was passing out glasses of champagne to the group of us that was standing there on the ice.

   If someone had told me weeks ago that my team was going to be in the final two, I would have told them they were crazy.  Who would have thought that a big clumsy football player, who had never skated before and a tiny little Russian skater would have made such a good team?  I had wondered about their motivation at the start, but they had both had the drive to take us to the very end!

   The rest of the night was essentially a blur to me, there were dozens of interviews, everyone wanted to talk to me, or my skaters, or me with my skaters to get our point of view. 

   It was after midnight when I finally fell into Jorge’s limo, completely exhausted.

   “I’m so tired!  I still can’t believe we’re in the final two,” I said, smiling at Jorge as he slid into the seat next to me.

   “You my darling, are the most popular woman on the planet,” said Jorge, returning my smile.

   “I wouldn’t say most popular woman on the planet.”

   “I actually had to stand in line to hug you...my own girlfriend!” he cried, feigning disgust.

   I giggled, I’d had a bit too much champagne so everything was exceedingly funny to me right now.  “Thank you for asking me to come on the show.  It’s had it’s ups and downs, but I’ve had a wonderful time,” I said, hugging him warmly.

   “Don’t you dare make me cry!  I’m actually going to miss having a girlfriend, I’m going to miss having you at the house,” said Jorge, his voice was emotional.

   “Oh Jorge, Jean Luc will come back from Nice and your life will be back to normal,” I told him.

   “What is normal exactly?  I really don’t want the show to end, I’ve been so happy.  Don’t take this the wrong way, but I love you Lane, I don’t want you to go back to Colorado Springs,” said Jorge, tears suddenly coming to his eyes.

   “Jorge really!  How much champagne did you have?  I admit, I’m feeling a bit tipsy myself, but I can’t stay here forever and pretend to be your girlfriend!”

   “I’m not drunk.  You’re a rare talent Lane, you’re wasting your talent in Colorado Springs.  I want you to stay here, and work for me,” said Jorge.

   “Doing what?” I was completely in shock.

   “I don’t know yet, but I don’t want you to go back to Colorado Springs and vegetate.  And I don’t want you to run off to New York with Brannon!”

   My head was spinning and I was starting to feel a bit ill.  “Jorge, can we discuss this another time, when the limo isn’t spinning,” I asked.

   He laughed and put his arm around me.  “Yes, of course, darling.”

                             
CHAPTER 27

   I woke up the next morning still in shock, it seemed like a dream that my team was now actually in the top two.  As hard as they had been pushing themselves lately, I was glad that my skaters would get to have a little bit of a break, even if it was just for one week.  

   In an effort to draw the competition out a twelve full weeks, for episode eleven, the producers were putting together a recap of all of our performances and all the performances of team Muramsatsu.  They were marketing it as an emotional journey, from day one, to the final two.  That was all fine with me, I was happy I would have an extra week to hone our program for the grand finale!

   I was having a hard time believing that in just two weeks, the show was finally going to be over.  It was going to be quite an adjustment for me, going back to Colorado Springs after everything I had been through.  I wondered what I would do now.  Would I go back to Colorado Springs and my adolescent skaters, to the house Greg and I had been so happy in at one time?  The life I had led back in Colorado now seemed like a hollow existence, like it had never really happened, I wasn’t sure I could even return there.

   There had been a time when I couldn’t wait to leave Hollywood.  Now it seemed as if it would be much harder for me to leave all this behind.  Now that it was almost time for me to leave, I felt like I had finally made the adjustment to Hollywood.  Maybe Jorge had been right, maybe I belonged in Hollywood.  I feared I would be lonely when I returned to Colorado Springs, there was really nothing left for me there.  Now, everyone on the show was my family...they were the only family I seemed to have any more.  I kept in touch with my kids, but it just wasn’t the same as having them at home.

   As the days passed by, I grew more and more excited about the show’s upcoming finale.  The show’s executives were bringing both of my kids to Hollywood to sit in the guest audience for the taping of the finale.  I was excited to get to see them, and to have them meet Ron. 

   They both watched the show faithfully and they had been following all the drama.  We talked on the phone quite a bit, but they never asked me about the rumors, though I was almost certain, that they had heard the murmurings about Ron and I.

  I worried what my own kids thought about the misguided drama.  Sometimes when I watched the show on TV, it was so carefully edited, I felt like the characters were totally different there on the screen, than they were in real life.  I hoped that my own kids didn’t have a skewed view of who I was, or what my life had been like over the past several months. 

   The show itself, had changed so much over the past several weeks, there were just two teams remaining, which meant we were now allowed more practice time on the ice, which was good.  My team had been skating a lot and they could now tolerate more time on the ice.

   The bad part was that now, each person on my team had one camera person assigned to them, it was quite annoying, as if having a cameraman that followed my entire team wasn’t bad enough.  My personal cameraman Brandon, was so obtrusive, I was quite certain the two of us were going to get into a fist fight at some point, before the season was over!

   I had been very busy working on our new program for the finale.  I was happy to be enjoying complete creative control for this last episode.  I had been delighted to find out that for the last show there was no theme, and most requirements and restrictions for our music were removed.  I was free to pick any song I wanted to use, and the programs were no longer limited to just two minutes, they could last anywhere from 2-4 minutes and they must include all the required elements.  Also, for this last episode, a new element had been introduced, it was showmanship.  We could use up to 45 seconds of our music for showmanship, which would be a “setting of the scene” with props and scenery, and my team did not necessarily have to be on the ice, skating during those 45 seconds.

   I was excited, this was my chance to do something really creative and completely blow everyone away!  I wanted the program to be memorable, not only through the skating but by the entire mood I was setting.  I had skated for the European Theater Company for five years and setting the mood was definitely their specialty.  Every production I had been in with the company had been colossal.

   It wasn’t hard for me to select a song for the finale.  I knew I wanted something that I could set a grand mood with.  The song I had selected for our program was “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin.  The song, itself, was more than eight minutes long, so it needed to be extensively edited.  Fortunately, our music editor, Kevin, knew what I liked.  He could listen to a song one time and pick out the parts I considered to have the most effect and drama, and he almost always edited the songs to my liking without much tweaking.

   I loved “Kashmir”, it had always been one of my favorite songs and I thought the middle eastern flavor of the song would be a good theme for my team to run with.  When I excitedly told my team what song I had selected, Elena shrugged half heartedly, she told me she had never heard of it. 

   I gave her a blank stare, unable to believe that she had never even heard of the song.  Come on!  People told me I was abnormal because I didn’t worship Elvis Presley!

  I was much happier with Ron’s reaction to my announcement.  He told me there would be no better way to end the season than to win it, skating to one of his favorite songs! 

                 Of course, Jorge was beside himself with excitement.  Like me, he had a vision for the program when he listened to the music.  He was equally inspired and his vision for the costumes was so overpowering, he had already run to the wardrobe department to get the staff there started on them.

   One really fun thing about the show, as compared to a regular skating competition is that we were allowed and encouraged to use props of any type.  Of course, this was Hollywood.

   I wasn’t an experienced TV choreographer, so thus far, I hadn’t used a lot of props in my programs, but I had decided that since this was the season finale, I should give it a try. 

   My motto for the finale was, go big, or go home.  My ultimate plan was to go big and win!  The network was hyping up the finale, so the entire show was going to be a huge production anyway.  Since we only had to get through two teams programs at the taping, the network had removed all previous restrictions and pretty much given the choreographers full creative control.

   I didn’t want to take away from the actual skating, but I felt that playing up the mood of my song would be fun.  I had originally arranged for huge potted palm trees to be brought in and placed at the entrance of the ice, and another clump of small palm trees was going to be set in the center of the ice to give the illusion of a desert oasis.

   Then, after doing a bit of research, I realized that most of the Kashmir region of India was not really desert, as I had envisioned that it was, but Jorge didn’t want me to change a thing. He told me that the words of the song set the scene as a desert and he wanted to go with the original plan.  He liked the idea, and told me that America, as a whole, had no clue where Kashmir even was anyway, so all my worries were for nothing.

   The most exciting part of my Kashmir theme, though, was my biggest idea.  My idea was, to have my skaters ride into the arena on a live elephant at the very beginning of the program.

   Jorge was completely beside himself with excitement!  He thought it was the greatest idea ever!  I was pretty excited myself, but I hadn’t told Elena yet.  She was pretty much scared of any animal larger than a chihuahua.  It was going to take a lot of convincing to get her to ride in on a live elephant.

   I was also getting wardrobe on the task of making some sort of authentic looking saddle, or pad for the elephant.  It needed to be showy looking, but functional.  I didn’t want the elephant to get cut by a team member’s skates, even though I knew it was a small risk, elephants had very thick skin. 

   We would also need to find a elephant handler, though hopefully, that would come with the elephant.  I wasn’t quite sure, I’d never rented a elephant before!

   I was glad to have a week with no new program hanging over our heads.  Ron was still recovering from his lumbar strain and I didn’t want to overdo him.  Hopefully, by the night of the finale, he would be completely recovered.

   We were working hard on all our elements, before the finals we had usually spent two hours on the ice in the morning.  Now that the finals were approaching, we had two hours in the morning and two late in the afternoon.

   We also tried to spend time in the gym, Ron liked to blow off steam by lifting weights.  I was enjoying my time in the gym, though I guess I must admit, the best part about going to the gym was the outstanding view.  Seeing Ron’s muscular legs in shorts everyday was definitely worth it! 

   Unfortunately, lately, we were obligated to spend a great deal of time going to interviews and photo shoots as the final two teams in the competition.

   The producers were gearing up for the finale of the show and they were going all out with the promotions!  It was the rumors of romance between Ron and I, that seemed to be getting the most attention.  Neither Ron or I had confirmed anything, so of course, rumors were running rampant.

   It seemed as if everyone had their own theory.  Some people thought that the entire romance had been created by the producers of the show, as some sort of a lame attempt to grab ratings from a rival network. 

    Some people, of course, thought that we were having a secret romance, but were laying low, because Ron’s divorce was not yet final. 

   The most hilarious view, brought up one evening on late night TV, was, that Ron and I had been having an affair, but it ended, but the network was still using it as a ploy to grab ratings.  The late night TV host was predicting that Ron and I would have a lover’s quarrel on the night of the finale, and it would be the most spectacular fight on TV.  I was almost surprised that they weren’t placing wagers.
              I could only roll my eyes when I heard the speculation.  Didn’t these people have anything better to do with their lives? 

   Unfortunately, as the finale grew closer, things weren’t getting much better.  I was relaxing on the couch one evening, I was nearly asleep as I listened to music on my I-pod, suddenly I was jolted awake by a shrill scream.  I sat up abruptly.

   “Jorge, what the hell?” I cried, pulling my earbuds out and staring at him in shock.

   “Look, he said, pointing at the TV screen in horror.

   I looked up at the TV, the late night TV host was introducing his next guest, it was Maurice Dubois!

   “Tonight our first guest is Maurice Dubois from the reality TV show “Fire on Ice”.  Maurice was the cameraman assigned to team Jensen at the very beginning of the season.  He got to see his team in all kinds of situations, on and off the ice.  Welcome Maurice,” said the host.

   “Thank you for having me,” said Maurice, smiling for the camera, I cringed disgustedly, I could barely stand to look at him, he was such a slime ball!

   “I’m sure all our viewers have heard all the speculation about the possibility of a blossoming romance between ex football star Ron Brannon and his current coach and choreographer on the show, Lane Jensen.  We were wondering what you noticed as an insider. I mean you were there on the ice with them every day.  Do you think it’s true, that Lane and Ron might be having a bit of a romance, or is it just a bunch of hype invented by the network to grab ratings?” asked the host, leaning toward Maurice smiling, his eyes wide in anticipation.

   “It’s definitely not hype, it’s all true.  In fact, I can assure you there were sparks between them on the very first day.  They’ve been trying to hide it since the very beginning, when the show first began.  I know that they had been trying to hide it at first, since Ron was supposedly happily married, but Lane and Ron had something going on, even before his wife started the divorce proceedings.  It was all very secretive, but I could see what was going on,” said Maurice.
             

   “Now I just want to let all our viewers know, we have interviewed several promoters for the show and the official word coming from the network is that Lane Jensen is living with Jorge Broussard, who is the chief producer of the show.  Our reporter, Shannon Bright, spoke to Jorge today and he told her that he and Lane have been in a relationship for quite some time, it began just weeks after the show began.  He told Shannon that all the speculation about a relationship between Lane and Ron is nothing but a bunch of garbage,” said the host.