Chapter 3

Dean

“Bella, I don’t think I can keep going with this Instamatch thing.”

“What? Oh, no you’re keeping it. Have you seen the press today?”

I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. There did seem to be more paparazzi in front of my building than normal that morning, but that happened sometimes. It all depended on which desperate story the tabloids were running on that day. The paparazzi were all about money, and I could never really figure out why some days they loved me and some days they were nowhere to be found.

That morning, I had been warned by the front desk of my apartment that I needed to take the back door. It wasn’t common that there were so many paparazzi out front in the morning, but it wasn’t totally unheard of either.

“You know I don’t keep up with that stuff,” I said to Bella, my agent as I plopped down in the large cushioned chair across from her desk.

“Hollywood hottie Dean Morrison caught in bed with a barely legal girl,” Bella read from a tabloid in front of her. She then flashed me the picture they had, although I knew which picture it was going to be.

It looked bad. I couldn’t deny it. The bright pink sheets and boy band poster on the wall made me look like one sick dude for going home with this girl. I closed my eyes and said a little prayer that she really was of legal age. She had to be; I mean, she was living in New York with roommates and had handed her identification over to the waiter for verification. But I still needed a little reassurance after I looked at the absurdity of that photo.

“She was twenty-two,” I defensively added. “Really, she was. I saw her hand her identification to the waiter. This is not my fault. I wasn’t even going to go home with her, but I got drunk and caved in.”

“Hey, I don’t care if she was eighteen. As long as she’s legal. This is so great!”

“You are a strange woman. You know that right? I look like her father,” I said as I disgusted myself with the idea of it all. “God, this is so bad. I’m sorry. This is bad.”

Typically, I didn’t care much for what the tabloids said, but obviously, I didn’t want to look like some creep. It was all because of that Instamatch app and my friend Ren for forcing me to meet up with this girl. I wouldn’t have gone if I didn’t feel bad he had already told her I’d be there.

“It’s good Dean, it’s very good,” Bella said with a huge smile. “The girl did an interview with the tabloid and reports she met you on Instamatch. Dean, this is huge. Your rate for that contract just skyrocketed. You’re going to be pushing two million in only a couple of days. This story is going to go national, maybe even international. This is so perfect.”

“Did Ariel at least confirm her age? God, please tell me she confirmed her age.”

“Yes, she told them she was twenty-two. This is the biggest celebrity news of the day. We need to get you on some talk shows, or maybe radio; I’ll make some calls. We are going to take advantage of this for sure.”

I didn’t share my agent’s enthusiasm for the story or the news that it was going to go national. Being a celebrity was hard. Having every decision play back to you with the spin of the media didn’t make life move forward at all. Instead, I felt like I was constantly stuck in a tabloid version of my own life. Every decision had to be curated to ensure my public image of myself didn’t look bad. If I made a wrong decision, I lost money and my livelihood. If I made the right decision, I had a stable couple of months. I was getting too old for this shit. and just wanted to go about acting in my Broadway show and land another damn movie so I had some stability after the show was over.

My previous finance people had mishandled all my earnings up until about a year before. Of course, they had enough money to pay themselves very handsomely, but all my other investments had turned into crap, and I was left with barely a penny to my name. Luckily, I still had my assets and the ability to get my job on Broadway while I pulled my life back together. It had been a horrible time in my life, and it was all caught by the paparazzi. My downward spiral was to their enjoyment as they posted picture after picture of my failings.

New York was better, though. The few paparazzi that stood in front of my building were polite. They followed me occasionally, but my life was pretty boring in New York, and they had money to make, so they weren’t around very often. I liked who I was in New York. I liked acting on Broadway and hanging out with my investment friends on Sundays. In New York, I had started to feel like a normal person and not just a piece of meat that sold stories.

“How is this even a story? Basically, I slept with a girl I met at a bar. Like every other adult man on the planet. Are they really just excited that she’s so young looking? I don’t get this tabloid fascination, and I will not be doing interviews,” I said grumpily, although I knew exactly why they latched onto the story. Ariel was a pretty, young girl, and there was proof that I had been in her bed; the salacious nature of the media was just too much to resist that sort of sexual story.

“Dean, it’s a story because there’s a picture. Don’t grump about it. This is a good thing. Women are going to have you on their radar again. They’ll be remembering just how handsome you are. Men are going to admire you for landing a hot young chic. Nothing about this story is bad.”

“I wasn’t aware I was totally off of anyone’s radar,” I said under my breath.

I knew not to argue with Bella. She loved the public relations and marketing world. I hated it. But my life was in the public eye now; there was no changing it, and my goal was to land a good movie after my show ended, so I just had to roll with the media punches and use that momentum to get me what I wanted in the end.

The actors that were tortured by their careers were the ones that never learned how to use the media. Instead of always letting them use you, a long-term actor had to learn to use them. The media were so easily manipulated that it was like a child’s game. It had taken me losing everything to realize just how powerful the game could be.

The problem with the mainstream media was that they waited for the tabloids to release something before they looked into it. Regular media outlets were hardly doing their own research at all and certainly weren’t putting the work into developing their own stories. Back when I had first started making films, I often had news reporters who would contact my agent and set up in-depth interviews. They usually had some interesting angle they were pushing, and there was an actual storyline, but not anymore. Social media, tabloids, and reality television ruled the airwaves more than movie stars.

“Okay, so they have their story. How do you want to use this to our benefit? Remember, I will not be doing interviews right now, though.”

“I set up a couple of social media accounts for you last year that I’ve been posting to for you. I think you should start making an effort to use them. Your fans want to see what you are doing. They want to see your posts, not your agent’s posts.”

“Bella, I can barely handle this stupid dating app. Plus, I don’t want to get into the whole social media thing. It’s just one more thing I’m going to have to keep track of.”

“Here, let me show you this one app. It’s the easiest. You can post short 140 character statements and even add photos if you want. It’s called Twitter.”

I rolled my eyes. Even I had heard of the app before; I wasn’t a dinosaur. I still didn’t want to mess with it. I didn’t want to be known as the old guy who posted stupid things on the apps, and Twitter seemed harder than Instagram to me. At least on Instagram I could just post a photo and be done with it.

“Okay, so is it on my phone? I think I would prefer Instagram, though. That’s the one where I just post a photo, right?”

“Yep, I have them both on here. Now just type something in this section for Twitter. If you want to upload a picture with your post, then you click here.”

“I love beautiful women. Thanks for a fun date last night Instamatch,” I said as I typed and laughed.

I was being facetious and hadn’t expected her to take me seriously at all. It was a joke. I was joking with the amount of information and joking about my own personal life; it wasn’t something I actually wanted to post. I would never really post something like that for everyone to read.

“Perfect! Wow, that’s so perfect. Here, let’s make sure we have linked to the Instamatch account. You need to put the ‘at’ sign in front of their name. Also, it helps to see what hashtags are trending right now and see if any will fit with your post. Oh, great here we go, hashtag ‘he’s still got it’ that’s all about you.”

“You really expect me to post this?” I asked after she had edited my post. “This is such a blatant manipulation and advertisement for Instamatch.”

“Yes! Dean, this is how you make millions with social media. This is exactly what you need to be doing. If you want to send a text to me before posting, I’ll help you edit and get it ready. But I want you posting once a day at least. It doesn’t have to be about Instamatch. Post your thoughts. Pictures from your day. I really don’t care. Just get your face out there now. We’ve got a hold of the public interest. We can’t let go of it if you want to get some movie offers again. You can alternate between Instagram and Twitter if you’d like. Do you want me to go through Instagram with you?”

“No, I’m sure I can figure it out. You know I am sick and tired of feeling like a doormat to the media. I’ll do my best, but I really don’t understand all this social media stuff. I also don’t want the media spinning my life to their whims. I’m happy with my life right now, and I don’t think they need to make me look like a sad ‘has been’ in every story they do.”

“I think the tides are turning, Dean. This dating app is just what we need.”

“If we can turn this into a direction that I want to be seen in the media, then that would be worth my time.”

“It’s going to be worth your time, Dean. I’ll help you. Bam, we are going to kick ass this year; I can feel it.”

Bella was standing up and literally bouncing from excitement. I couldn’t help laughing at her enthusiasm over a one sentence post. I found it unlikely that I would get all that much attention from posting to social media, but I sent the post through and hugged Bella as I headed to the theater for my show that night.

Luckily for me, Bella had picked up a couple of other clients in New York, so it made her flying back and forth a little more worthwhile. She still preferred to spend her time in Los Angeles, though, and I couldn’t blame her. The sunny skies and beaches were really hard to give up when I had to move to New York.

Acting in theater was so much different than acting in films. On a film, I could do as many re-takes as I wanted until I got a scene right. On the stage, I had to do it once and hope it was good enough. The mental side of theatrical acting was much more emotionally charged because the stakes of each scene were so tremendous. If I did horrible in one scene, it would leak over to the other characters, and we would all be agitated with each other by the end of the show. Because of that, each of us put our heart and souls into the show. Each of the other actors and I wanted to ensure we didn’t disappoint our fellow castmates as well as the audience.

***

“Well, looks like you had a busy weekend,” Cat said as I walked backstage.

“It was just a normal date.”

“Now I see why you turned me down. I guess I’m too old for you,” she joked.

“What if I told you I really didn’t have a specific type of woman that I liked? I love all women,” I said with a cheesy smile.

“I’d ask you to show me one of those tabloid photos that had you with a woman over thirty.” She laughed.

Cat had just turned forty while doing the show, and she looked fantastic for her age. She had been in theater since she was a child, and her acting skills were ten times better than mine. The real reason I had refused to go have drinks with her was because we were doing a year-long show together. As beautiful as she was with her milky smooth skin and huge almond brown eyes, and as much as I admired her, I wasn’t going to ruin my opportunity in theater.

“You know I would have posted pictures of you on a tabloid in a second if we hadn’t been working together,” I said with a laugh.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what they all say,” Cat hugged me, and we both fell to the couch. “So how are you handling it? Does your agent know yet?”

“Hell, my agent is excited.”

“From what I’ve seen, it’s good press. Basically, they are playing you up as a hot celebrity playboy who just can’t help landing a young chic. I mean, nothing like who you really are,” she said, raising a laugh.

“I know right?”

“Seriously, though, good for you. You deserve a little print time. How’s the movie role shopping going?”

“Not so great. I got offered a sidekick part.”

“Yikes, that’s not good.”

“Hey, maybe that’s where I’m at in my career now. Sidekick is better than father parts, right?”

“You’re not a sidekick, and you’re not a goofy dad; you are the lead character, and don’t you settle for anything less.”

“Thanks, Cat.”

“Dean! Where’s Dean?” I heard the director, Dale, yelling before he walked into the room. “There you are, my man. It’s so good to see you.”

Both Cat and I looked at each other quizzically as Dale stood in front of us with a huge smile, an unusual smile for a man I had grown to know as one of seriousness. Dale wasn’t really the smiling type of guy. He yelled a lot. Occasionally, he would grimace when we did a scene perfectly, but certainly, he wouldn’t smile. He either wanted something from me, or I was about to be fired, both options seemed to be the only thing I could think of that would make him this happy.

“Are you on drugs, Dale? I know some places you could go to get help,” I quipped at him.

“Dean, I just want to say how excited I am that you’re on this show. It’s really been great working with you. I want you to know I’m here if you need anything. Do you have enough food backstage? Can we get you anything special?”

“Um, I’m good, Dale, thanks,” I said in total shock.

Dale turned to leave without further explanation, but I wasn’t about to let that happen. I was pretty gullible, but not even I believed that act he was putting on. He wanted something from me, or at the very least there was something going on that he wasn’t telling me.

“What’s up, Dale?”

“Yeah, I’m starting to think maybe you are on drugs,” Cat added jokingly.

“Okay, I’m not sure if it’s just because of the tabloids or what, and you know I want to believe it’s because our show is so damn amazing. But we have officially sold out all of the remaining shows this month. Not just tonight’s show, not just this week, but the whole friggin month!”

“What? No! Really?”

“Yeah, it’s got to be your screwing around, and all the television shows talking about it. Thanks, Dean.” Dale laughed and slapped me on the back. “Thanks for taking one for the team.”

It wasn’t like our show had been doing horribly. We had respectable numbers, and with the last-minute discount tickets we sold before each show, we managed to have a mostly full house each night. But if we were selling out at retail price, that was huge. Hardly any Broadway shows actually sold out at retail. This was awesome.

“Glad my sexual life could increase sales.” I laughed as Dale left the backroom and turned toward Cat with a questioning glance. “Do you really think this is all because of that tabloid story?”

“Yeah, Dean. You went viral. The world loves reality television. Do you know what going viral means?”

“Sure. Yeah, of course, I know,” I lied.

Cat knew me well enough that she saw right through my lie. We were closer than any girlfriend I had ever had. Working together six days a week made it impossible not to become close friends with each other. It was nice to have a woman as a friend and for me not to have totally ruined the relationship in the time we had known each other.

“It means that the perfect storm has happened. It was a slow world news day. You have a good story where no one gets hurt. And both you and the girl happen to be pretty damn likable. Even the press I’ve heard her doing is good. She likes you and is only talking nice about you and not giving any sordid details. It is the perfect storm, and your PR team is going to have some serious fun with this for at least a week.”

“I don’t really have a PR team, just my agent and I.”

“Are you doing social media now? Did she help you set that up? Why don’t you have a public relations team, Dean? If you want to get back into the Hollywood scene, you’re going to need to start playing their games again.”

“Yeah, look I have Twitter and Instagram now,” I said as I proudly held my phone out to show her. “That’s a good start. I’ll work on the public relationships team a little further down the road.”

“Jesus, Dean, you have five hundred notifications on Twitter, what did you post?”

Her stern look had me worried. I had no frame of reference to know if what I posted was normal for Twitter or not. I really was just trying to be funny, and of course, trying to wrap the Instamatch deal into it. I didn’t intend to go on another date for the app until later in the month, but I wanted the company to feel like they had gotten their money’s worth in hiring me. I was good with endorsements, making them happy was always my priority, and I had never had any trouble with my past deals.

As Cat scrolled through the social media notifications, she was laughing and clicking things. I watched what she was doing but still didn’t really understand what was going on.

“So people thought I was funny?” I asked.

“Dean, they love you! You’ve got thousands of subscribers, and I saw a couple of marriage proposals.”

“What? No? That’s just crazy.”

We laughed and read through some of the messages. Cat showed me how to repost things like their messages, and even respond. It was fun, and for the first time in a very long time, I felt like a star again. There were fans out there that still liked me. Hell, they loved me.

“How’s your dating app going? I bet you have tons of ladies matching with you now.”

“I don’t know; I haven’t been on there today.”

“Oh, God, let’s check it out,” Cat said with pure excitement in her voice.

I was terrified of what we might find when we opened the app, but I was a little excited as well. It was starting to feel more like my life used to be. As much as I hated to admit it, I really did enjoy the energy that came with being famous. At least, I enjoyed it when it was positive and involved sexy women throwing themselves at me.

“Oh, well you have way too many messages to read, but I’m going to swipe right on a few of these women.”

“Fine, I don’t care.” I laughed. “But none that are twenty-two, please. At least thirty.”

I was starting to feel much more comfortable with the idea of posting on social media. I still didn’t have an idea of what I was going to post about, but if everyone was going to love what I had to say, then that made it a lot more fun.

“Twenty-eight,” she laughed. “This one is twenty-eight; I’m matching you with her.”

“Whatever floats your boat. I’m not planning on going on a date with another girl from there for awhile. I can’t handle the attention I’ve got right now; I’m certainly not ready for it to increase.”

“Hi Dean, let’s meet for coffee tomorrow so I can show you how good I can suck on your candy cane,” Cat said as she read a message off my app.

“Wow, unmatch her.” I laughed.

“What? No way; I just said, ‘when and where baby’,” Cat replied as she started to laugh.

“Oh, come on. I’m not going to meet some serial killer or a stalker. Unmatch with those crazies. Why is she talking about sucking on a candy cane? That’s weird.”

“You have a picture on your profile with you holding a giant candy cane. Did you look at any of the pictures on your profile or did your agent put them on there? This girl is cute, though, I’m keeping her.”

“Delete the crazies please,” I said as I finally got dressed for our show that night. “I don’t have the energy for those, and let me see what photos are on there.”

“Fine, I’ll delete all the girls who seem to have matched with you just because they know you. The fan-girls will be gone, but I’m keeping this horny one. You might have fun with her.”

“Is she a fan girl?”

“Not that I can tell. I think she just likes your candy cane,” Cat said as she started to laugh.

“You know, I’m not sure what’s going on with the women in my life, but you all seem to be having a lot of fun with me and this dating stuff.”

“Dean, you deserve to have some fun. Don’t take everything so seriously. Just because you have more eyes on you doesn’t mean you need to change who you are. Relax. Go with the flow, go on some dates and have fun.”

“I used to be relaxed, and then my finance managers stole all my money. Now I have to be focused.”

Cat grimaced at the memory of me going broke. We had talked about it a few times after a long night of our show. I didn’t trust my money with anyone else and had joined an investment club so I could learn how to manage everything on my own again. It was tough having such a public stumbling block, but I was pushing forward.

“What do your friends think of this whole dating app thing?”

“Oh, you know them; they like anything that involves women. Ren even helped me set it up and showed me how to do everything. They are good guys for sure. I think we will be friends long after I leave New York.”

“Wow, you are going out with this girl for sure,” Cat said as she read a message from one of the women on Instamatch. “Seriously, even if it’s just a night of fun; here, you message her back.”

“What do I say?” I grabbed my phone and read through the messages Cat had been sending for me to Angelina. They had me blushing because they were so forward. “How about I just say something like, ‘Do you kiss your dates with that filthy mouth?’ that would be funny,” I laughed and shook my head as I put my phone down.

This Angelina girl seemed fake to me. She was probably a guy who was pretending to be this hot chic. I seriously doubted there was a woman on the end of that profile.

“Oh, she seems fun. You are just as dirty when you want to be. Plus, look at the girl. She is stunning. She actually looks familiar; maybe she’s in the theater too? What does it say she does?”

“It doesn’t say; the only thing on her profile is a random poem.”

“Well, she’s artsy; you should message her some more and then set up a date,” Cat said as I set my phone down and we made our way to the stage.

“Having a social life is exhausting; I don’t know how people do it.”

“I know; it’s probably just because you’re old,” Cat said as she punched me on the arm and pushed me toward the stage.

She was right, though. I was getting old, and dating was getting harder than it had ever been. I didn’t mind the idea of finding a woman to marry someday, and it dawned on me that my job with Instamatch could be a good way to practice my dating game. Obviously, I wouldn’t meet someone that I wanted to date in the long term, but I could practice the whole dating ritual and see what I was looking for. Maybe this job would turn out to be a positive for both my professional and personal life.