The Publicist (5 page)

While Mac was sidling up with a drink, Kate was still fumbling in her closet for something to wear when her phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Katie, it’s Grace, whatcha doing? I have a new painting to show you, why don’t you come over?”

“Can’t, my talented friend, I’m meeting someone for dinner.”

This spiked Grace’s interest, “Ooooh, a date?”

“No, Grace, just dinner with Mac.”

“Mac? Why?”

“He’s got something he wants to discuss with me.” Kate plucked a black sheath dress from her closet and inspected it for a minute before tossing it on the bed with three other dresses she was considering.

“
Discuss something
? I bet he does. Honey, this is Mac we’re talking about…”

“Grace, please, it’s business.”

“Then why couldn’t he discuss it during office hours?”

Kate sighed, it was a good question; one even she didn’t know the answer to, “I don’t know, Grace. He just insisted we meet for dinner.”

“Be careful, Katie.” Her friend said sternly.

“Grace, I swear, I’m not interested in Mac that way.”

Her friend almost chuckled at the other end of the phone, “Come on Katie, it’s Mac for Christ’s sake,
everyone’s
interested in him in that way.”

Patroon was buzzing when Kate arrived a fashionable ten minutes late. Mac was still at the bar sipping his first martini when he spotted her, “Katie!” he waved her over. Kate wore a tight fitting black dress that set off her sleek figure and dark hair, Mac couldn’t help but notice how her hips moved under the fabric.

“Hello, Mac, I see you’ve started without me.” Kate smiled.

“Just one, Kate. Why don’t you order something then we’ll get our table?”

“Sure, but only if you promise to tell me what we’re here for. The suspense is killing me.”

Mac lifted the glass to his lips, sipped at his martini and drew his lips into a slight smile.

“I’m sorry, Katie, I didn’t mean to keep you on pins and needles, but this is so big, I wanted a special moment to tell you.”

Kate was truly perplexed; she had no idea what it could be. “What?” she asked. The bartender walked up just then, taking her order.

“Let’s wait for your drink.” Mac said mysteriously throwing her a broad, welcoming smile. Kate was certain that many women had fallen in love with Mac just based on his smile alone. Fortunately she wasn’t one of them, she was here for business and damn it, she wanted him to tell her, but she knew better than to push.

“You’re killing me.” She laughed.

The bartender quickly set her drink down and Kate picked up the glass, “I’m ready now.”

Mac turned in his chair to face her, “Ok, here goes… You know the success we had from
The Promise
, yes?”

Kate frowned, “Of course I do, Mac, I mean, we’ve all lived through it.”

“Well, there’s more. Much more. MD has decided to publish a sequel to
The Promise
, written by one of the authors who contributed to the original book, Michael something or other, I can’t recall right now but anyway, the book will be called
The Continued Promise
and we’re scheduling it for a fall release. No one knows about this but Edward and me. Nothing has officially been released on this yet. I wanted to tell you first before we announce it.”

Kate was confused, “But what does this have to do with me?”

Mac placed a hand on her arm, “We want you to be the lead publicist on this book.”

When
The Promise
eclipsed a million copies, Kate had wondered at the time what it would be like to work on such a runaway best seller. Margaret Leeds, who had been with MD for years and was one of the most unpleasant people Kate had ever met, led the brigade to publicize
The Promise
. Despite Kate’s misgivings of Margaret, she had been in awe of her. Every detail was executed to sheer perfection and Kate couldn’t fathom, if there was a sequel out, why on earth Margaret wouldn’t be handling that too.

“I know what you’re thinking, Kate.” Mac whispered, “but let’s just say that Margaret’s off the case, in fact she’s leaving MD next week but no one knows this yet.”

“So I got this book by default. Fun.” Kate sipped her martini, just what she wanted to be, the last choice on the list.

“No, Katie, not at all, you know there are a lot of senior people who should have gotten this before you, but Edward insisted you get this job.”

Kate smiled, “Edward insisted? Or you insisted to Edward.”

Mac shrugged his broad shoulders, “I just think it’s time you get to work on a book that matches your talents. You’ve done well for MD, Kate, this is your chance to prove it.”

Kate was stunned. Mac had gone to bat for her to get her possibly the biggest book of her career. In the back of her mind she knew what Grace would say about this, that Mac was teeing her up for sex, that Mac only wanted one thing. Well, maybe Grace was right, but the rest of the evening proved otherwise. Kate and Mac spent the dinner planning their strategy. Since this was Mac’s book, he was keen on being involved in every aspect of the promotion. There was a lot to do, starting with flying out to Seattle to meet the author in the coming weeks.

Kate could hardly believe her luck. That night she had a hard time getting to sleep.
The Continued Promise
as her book, it would be her ticket to better authors, better books, and the respect she yearned for. Maybe now her career was finally going to take a turn for the better.

.

Chapter Ten

Kate arrived earlier in the office than usual. No one else was there except Edward, who was on a conference call behind his semi-closed door. No doubt haggling with MD’s French division about lack of sales in the European market.

In an average year Kate worked on around one hundred books, all of them written by authors eager to see success beyond their wildest dreams. Given the number of books published each day it was often a full time job just managing an author’s expectations. These days many of the MD books got a “stock” publicity campaign. Which generally wasn’t what Kate would have prescribed, but in most cases, she didn’t have a choice. Kate supported three of MD’s editors, Mac, Rebecca Wright, and Bernard Gould. Bernard, or Bernie as he preferred to be called, was known to get the bottom of the book barrel. Although he never referred to himself as a bottom-dweller, he insisted he got the best of the ones no one else wanted. His books often got little if any publicity, but when they did, Bernie treated each of them like they were his own personal kingdom. Lavishing attention on the authors, spoiling them rotten and mismanaging their expectations to the point that when Kate finally got a hold of them, they were so starry-eyed it took her weeks and several reality checks to bring them back down to earth.

She tried talking to Bernie about this but he’d never listen. He was just thrilled to have the authors, as dysfunctional as they might be. When he would hand Kate another book that warranted more of her attention than just a book review mailing, he would smile and say: “Our publishing cup runneth over.” Bernie’s line was legendary at MD but not in a good way. He was the kind of man who thought he was more significant in publishing than he really was. If there was an event around a publishing launch, book party, or chic author event, you could count on Bernie being there. At parties he would be talking to one guest while scanning the crowd for some other, more significant person he needed to sidle up to.

Most of the other staff dismissed Bernie, assuming he must be some distant relative of Edward Sherman or someone who knew where all the skeletons were buried. Sensing this subtle dismissal by his peers made Bernie work even harder to garner the respect of his co-workers. At fifty-four, balding, and still single, he lived for any kind of professional validation.

Kate’s plate was full this week thanks to a new “Bernie book” as they were called. This title was as far towards what Kate considered the bottom of the barrel as they could get. Based on a twenty-five year old television show called:
Thugs
. The book did not have success written all over it but Bernie wanted every ounce of her muscle put behind it.

Airing in the mid-70’s,
Thugs
was based on a married couple who had spent their life a la Bonnie and Clyde with a list of small, petty crimes on their record. One day they turned state’s evidence after witnessing a murder of a high-profile crime boss and were later recruited to join the police force. They teamed up for five seasons, fighting crime as well as their sordid past. At the end of what everyone thought was the run of the series, the show’s creator, Phil Janssen, decided to kill off the husband, thereby ending the show, or so everyone thought. Phil went to the studio head and pitched them a new version of the show. During a time when the studio’s desperately needed new shows, Phil knew his idea would at least get heard. It was a wild shot in the dark, but these types of risks were what he was known for. He pitched them a show wherein the widow would come back and be partnered with a woman. Phil envisioned an edgy show that dealt with women’s issues, crime fighting, and a bitter partner who was getting over the death of her husband and desperately needed to bury herself in her work. At first the show idea was dismissed. The only female cop anyone had ever seen was Angie Dickinson and despite the show’s success, studio execs weren’t known to be risk takers. But Phil kept pushing and finally he got their approval. The show, now renamed
Criminal Pursuit
, ran for another seven seasons and dealt with all sorts of issues including women’s rights in the workplace and sexual discrimination.

The show starred two upcoming actresses: Leslie Warren, who was part of the original husband/wife team and Melanie Brooks, who filled the bill of the sassy, single sidekick very well. Together they were a strong duo with loads of chemistry and a show high profile enough to capture at least a bi-weekly mention in the trades. After
Criminal Pursuit
was canceled, the women went their separate ways. It was rumored that Melanie was gay but her sexual exploits with male producers, co-stars, and the occasional studio head quickly squelched those rumors. Leslie was the polar opposite, she was married with three small children at home and a solid career divided between Hollywood and Broadway. The women drifted apart after the show ended but now, twenty-five years after the groundbreaking program had aired, the studio, which now owned the old episodes planned to release them to the public on DVD in a newly-formatted edition. Phil was thrilled that his old show was being given this opportunity. He hadn’t done much since
Criminal Pursuit
had ended and he longed to relive his Hollywood heydays. When Phil got word that the show was being put out on DVD, he quickly went to work writing his memoirs, calling it:
Criminal Pursuit: The Show, the Women, the Legend
. When MD signed Phil, Edward wanted to change the name. He remembered the show but felt the term “legend” was a bit off the mark. Phil threatened to pull the book if the title was changed and since one of MD’s largest shareholders was Phil’s nephew, Edward gave in and gave the book to Bernie, figuring Mac would walk if he gave him a title that could very well sink into obscurity.

When Kate heard about this book, she rolled her eyes. The biggest problem with a twenty-five year old show is that those who remembered it didn’t care and those who could be prime buying markets, wouldn’t know the show from Adam. Because of a syndication deal gone bad, the show was pulled out of circulation years ago, so unlike a
Lucy
episode or
Gilligan’s Island
, you couldn’t find it anywhere, not even on YouTube. Kate knew this wouldn’t bode well for the book, so she decided to make the focus less on the show and more on the message of the show: women in the workplace. After considerable hours watching the old episodes, Kate discovered that many of the issues still facing women today were ones the show dealt with. It wasn’t a huge hook but it would be a good start. The next thing Kate had to do was coordinate with the studio: Central Broadcasting Company (CBC), to make sure the timing for the DVD release and book were in sync. Dealing with the studio had been a nightmare. The seemingly twelve-year-old they assigned to this project had no clue what he was doing and Kate had flown out to Los Angeles more times than she cared to remember to discuss the bi-coastal launch and pairing of the book and DVD. Bernie was nowhere to be found during this process, something that didn’t surprise Kate a bit. He was usually conveniently “unavailable” once the book headed to the PR department.

Kate’s focus this week was on the Los Angeles premier, followed by a party hosted at the Museum of Television and Arts in Beverly Hills. The red carpet event was going to be covered by all the major networks, a feat Kate wasn’t sure how she had managed to pull off. During her first round of calls with the TV stations, most of the reactions she’d gotten from the producers were “What’s
Criminal Pursuit
?” It had been a long project and one Kate wouldn’t be sorry to see come to an end. On the heels of the Los Angeles premiere, the group would fly to New York in time for the DVD release where they would appear on
Good Morning America
,
CNN Showbiz Tonight
,
Ellen DeGeneres
and several others. It was going to be a packed two weeks. Kate hoped she was ready.

Thus far in the process Kate had only met Phil, but she’d done enough research on the two women to know who they were, what they liked, and what to be prepared for. Phil lived in Florida with his assistant of thirty years, Myrna. Leslie and her family lived in New York but would spend summers in San Diego and Melanie still lived in Beverly Hills and, it was rumored, had turned her attention to young men. Very young men. It was also rumored that she had a drinking problem. The only time she had appeared in the news in the last ten years was when the Beverly Hills police found her running down Rodeo Drive, completely naked. Melanie insisted she was acting on a dare but the tox screen showed high levels of pills and booze in her bloodstream. Kate was preparing herself for anything. Touring with aging actresses, one of whom was an alcoholic, a former producer who was more arrogant than anyone she’d ever met before in her life, and a yet-to-be-met assistant who found it impossible to write a single email that wasn’t in all-caps made her head pound. For good measure Kate packed an extra bottle of aspirin before she headed to JFK.