Tami might have left it alone and played the supportive friend. But something told her that Lexi ultimately wasn’t good for him, and in fact, might be horrible for him. In all honesty, Tami probably should have let it go because David wouldn’t listen to her if she broached the subject. But she plowed ahead because he needed to open his eyes to the possibility that his former PA was just using him. Forcing him to face this just might do that.
“Isabel is just being insecure. Ben can be the typical Hollywood bad boy, and she must know that he hasn’t always been faithful,” David said.
“You’re talking about his pursuit of Halle James?” Tami asked.
“Yeah,” he admitted.
“And you don’t think that Lexi will fall for his charms?” Tami prodded.
David got a pinched look and shook his head ‘no.’
She knew of his possessive streak when it came to women. If he ever thought that Lexi had cheated on him, he would be done with her. But David wasn’t in a committed relationship with Lexi, so Tami also knew that he couldn’t tell Lexi she couldn’t sleep around.
What was it that he’d said to justify his and Lexi hooking up? That they were young, healthy adults who were just helping each other out? Tami knew him better than that. He’d also admitted that sex changed everything for him. David had feelings beyond friendship for Lexi.
“Then everything should be okay,” Tami said with a weak smile. “Let’s go enjoy your big night.”
It took him a few minutes to get out of his head, but he was soon acting like the guy everyone loved.
◊◊◊
Before dinner started, Rita came in and found David. He excused himself and was gone with her for about thirty minutes. When he came back, Isabel was holding onto his arm and smiling. Tami would bet that Isabel was still mad about Ben and Lexi but had figured out that David wasn’t the one to blame.
He took Isabel to her seat and pulled out her chair. She quietly thanked him before he stepped over to join his mom and Tami. Chubby Feldman nodded to David as if to say, ‘job well done,’ before getting up to speak. Chubby made a short speech to thank everyone before the servers came in with the food.
Over dinner, Carol told David that she would organize his party.
He looked at Tami, and she just shrugged at his unspoken question about whether she’d shared the event with his mom.
Tami noted that David acted a little nervous when his mom had just agreed to help. Tami was sure that he would have to pay his mom back for this favor at some point. It was always the ones that weren’t defined that worried her boy. The thing was, he was no longer the pushover he was growing up. David could actually say ‘no’ if he wanted to. The problem was, he rarely said ‘no’ to his mom.
After dinner, it was time for the red carpet. Tami bailed on that and let Carol face the British press as David’s plus-one. When the stalkerazzi began to shout their wildly inappropriate questions, his mom didn’t disappoint. She’d asked Frank to give her dirt on some of the worst offenders.
“Which cast members are you shagging?”
“Shouldn’t you be more worried about your wife finding out about that little tart you have on the side in Chelsea?” Carol shot back.
“Is it true that …”
“And you! Did anyone find out that you were the one that sold those pictures of Prince Narsan in Morocco?”
The paparazzi had no idea how to handle David’s mom. He bent over laughing when they all went quiet. No one wanted to play ‘next one up.’
David finally pulled his mom into the theater so they could find their seats.
It wasn’t too long before the lights dimmed and the movie started.
◊◊◊
Chapter 3
David
Among the many things that make a James Bond film so memorable are the over-the-top chase scenes. More importantly, whether he was escaping from henchmen or doing the chasing himself, Bond always managed to look both cool and exciting while doing it.
David had learned that many of those exciting scenes, in fact, happened mostly via movie magic. They used rear-window projection to show a scene in the background of a stationary car in a studio. It made it look like the car was in the middle of a high-speed car chase. They did it that way because it was impractical to take an entire film crew to a busy urban area. Either it would be too dangerous, too costly, or simply wasn’t allowed.
Since those days, technology had made what seemed impossible back then doable now. Chubby Feldman, the director of Devil May Care, had envisioned what he called the ‘Million Dollar Scene.’ His goal was to film this chase scene from beginning to end in one take.
This was the last one David filmed. Chubby claimed it was because it was so complicated that he wanted to do it right. David suspected that because he was doing his own stunts, Chubby was worried he would either die or get hurt and not be able to finish the movie.
The ultimate goal was to create the most exciting opening scene since Spectre. That was where they dropped a building on James and then ended the opening with a fight scene in a helicopter.
The tradition of showing a pre-title action scene began with From Russia with Love, the franchise’s second installment. It was short, only three minutes. In many ways, David felt it was probably the best of all of them.
It didn’t have any over-the-top action, and no one went faster than a walk. Red Grant was an assassin stalking James through the grounds of a huge villa. The tension quickly built as James heard Red when he stepped on a branch.
A game of cat and mouse ensued until Red suddenly appeared behind James and used a garrote to kill him. It was then revealed that the man everyone thought was James was actually someone else, wearing a mask, and this was a test run for killing the real James Bond. Thus, they avoided ending the series.
Chubby had worked with the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force to accomplish his goal. He’d worked with them to borrow drones, planes, and helicopters to film the whole sequence.
David had yet to see the scene because after filming it, he’d had to hurry to the airport to jump on a plane to New Zealand to film his Star Academy movies. So, when the lights dimmed in the theater, he leaned forward in his seat because he wanted to see how he almost died.
He was a little worried because he was bracketed by his mother and Tami. Either one might kill him after they saw what was to come. The film started, and the James Bond theme music began. David turned to his mom.
“I love you,” he said as a preemptive attempt at preventing her from throttling him.
The scene began with a wide shot of London, with Westminster Abbey and the London Eye observation wheel in the distance. The drone turned and climbed, focusing on a large plane that grew in the picture as the drone angled closer. In a few seconds, it showed David standing on the open back ramp of a C-17 Globemaster cargo plane, flying at 10,000 feet.
All of a sudden, the image split, showing two points of view. The first remained the drone’s view, while the second was from David’s point of view. A ‘chest camera’ mounted just below his throat showed what he saw as he turned to briefly scan the plane’s interior.
This was an ‘establishment shot,’ designed to immerse the audience in the scene in question. Then both cameras showed him turning quickly to leap from the plane.
“Is that you?” Tami asked.
He and his mom locked eyes for a moment before they turned back to the movie screen.
David was wearing a wingsuit with a twist. It was an e-wingsuit built upon BMW’s iEV technology and powered by a chest-mounted rig. He glided for a moment and then fired off the engines. It was like he’d been shot out of a cannon. Chubby later sent David an email letting him know they’d clocked him shooting through the sky at 185 mph.