The Cast

by Danielle Steel

  Kait was bowled over by what she told her, and deeply touched by her confidence. She knew that ALS was progressive, which would eventually weaken all his muscles and paralyze him and ultimately it was fatal, though sometimes not for many years. The only person she knew of who had survived it was Stephen Hawking, but no one else had. And maybe Ian would survive it too. She hoped so for them, although it was a terrible blow of fate to be stricken with such a terrifying illness. There were tears in Maeve’s eyes when she told her.

  “I think you’re already as brave as my grandmother, or more so,” Kait said quietly. It always amazed her the challenges that people faced in their daily lives. So much of it wasn’t fair, and some people had such enormous courage. Maeve was clearly one of them, watching the man she loved waste away and die before her eyes, and she was still listening to details about Kait’s project. “Only you can decide what’s right, given what you’re dealing with,” Kait said as she would have to someone who wrote in to her column. “No one can make that decision for you, or has the right to. Obviously, I would love to have you play Anne Wilder, it would be a dream come true for me, but it’s just a TV series. This is your life, and that’s more important. No one has the right to mess with that or try to influence you,” she reminded her, and Maeve smiled gratefully.

  “Thank you, Kait. Ian wants me to do it. He read it and loved it too, he says the role is pure me, and in some ways it is. I just don’t know if I should work that hard right now on a long-term project, one that could last for years.”

  Kait smiled at what she said. “Thank you for your faith in me! It might give you some structure, or it might be too much pressure on you.”

  “I don’t want to screw it up for you.”

  “Think of yourself, and do what’s best for you and Ian,” Kait said generously, and meant it. It was just a TV show, Maeve and her husband were dealing with far bigger issues.

  “I’ll give it some more thought. I’d love to do it. And part of me wants to go on with normal life, which is what Ian wants. He doesn’t want me sitting around and staring at him. And I’m intrigued with all these series. They’re really working. The fans like them better than movies now.”

  Kait sheepishly admitted to her then that she was addicted to Downton Abbey, and Maeve burst out laughing.

  “Me too! I watch an episode of it every night on my iPad after I put Ian to bed. On bad days, I watch two,” which was precisely what Kait did. They chatted for a few minutes about how much they loved the show, and how sad they were that it had ended, and then Maeve got serious again.

  “The Wilder Women could be even better, you know. It’s such a strong message to women, to be resourceful and not let life do you in. Who are you considering for Hannabel, Anne’s mother?”

  “I’m not sure. Zack is a lot more knowledgeable than I am, and I know he has some ideas. I don’t know who yet.”

  “What about Agnes White? She’s fantastic. I’ve worked with her a couple of times and she’s an incredible actress. She’d be perfect for the part.”

  “Is she still alive?” Kait looked surprised. “I haven’t seen her in anything in years. And she must be ancient.”

  “Not as old as people think. I think she’s in her early seventies, which is about right for this. She had some tragedies in her life, and became reclusive and stopped working. If you want her number, Ian knows her. He was a big admirer of the man she lived with, Roberto Leone, who was his mentor. They lived together for about fifty years but never married. I have a feeling he was married to someone else and never got divorced. We had them to dinner once, they were an amazing couple. He was one of the great directors of our time, and convinced Ian to stop acting and switch to directing. And Agnes is the best actress I know. She’s my idol.” She said it so warmly that Kait was moved, and realized that she would be perfect for the part, if she was still working, or willing to come out of retirement and do the show.

  “I’ll talk to Zack about it. I never thought about her.”

  “I’d love to work with her again, if you can talk her into it. She’s always been very quixotic and unpredictable about the parts she played. She was beautiful when she was young, but she always loved the challenging roles and wasn’t afraid of them. She’s a true actress. I’ve tried to follow her example, but I have to admit, I’d rather look good on screen than have them age me forty years to play Queen Victoria on her deathbed. I’ve always thought you could be a good actress and still look halfway decent. I guess I’m vainer than Agnes.”

  They both laughed at that and Kait didn’t blame her, and she was impressed to see that Maeve didn’t look as though she’d had any cosmetic “work” done on her face, not even Botox. She was beautiful for her age and she looked real, unlike most actresses their age, who were unrecognizable after too many face-lifts.

  Maeve glanced at her watch regretfully then. They had been there for two hours and the time had flown. The foundations of a friendship had been laid, even if she didn’t take the part. And given what she was facing, Kait could understand if she didn’t. Her husband was infinitely more important.

  Kait could sense that Maeve was torn between living a normal life and becoming a nurse, which would depress them both even more. She shared with Kait that Ian had said he wanted to see her coming and going, working, and leading a full, healthy life, and he would live vicariously through her, since he could no longer work himself and missed it fiercely. Maeve said he had fallen in love with Kait’s story and wished he could direct it.

  “I should get back. I try not to stay out for too long if I don’t have to, and the nursing shift changes in half an hour. I should check on what’s going on,” she said with a sigh and a smile at Kait. “You have no idea how wonderful this has been. Whatever happens, I’d love to see you again. Besides, I need your advice about my girls.”

  They both laughed at that, and Kait grabbed the check when it came. They squabbled over it briefly, and Maeve said it was just one more reason to meet again. “And don’t forget about Agnes White for Hannabel. Talk to Zack about it. He seems to have an eye on some big names, and she should be on the list, whatever it takes to convince her. I’ll email you her home number. She may not have an agent anymore, if she’s not working.” They exchanged information, and promised each other to stay in contact and meet again. “She always preferred working on projects where her great love Roberto Leone was the director, but if she likes your director, she might do it. Has Zack made a deal with anyone to direct yet?” That would be an important factor for Maeve too.

  “I don’t think so, he’s talking to a few. He wants a woman.”

  “I agree, although Ian wouldn’t. He always likes male directors better.”

  The two women hugged when they left the deli. It had been a wonderful two hours. And it had gotten colder. It was six o’clock by then, and Maeve pulled her hood up and headed toward Central Park with a wave, as Kait hailed a cab to go home, thinking about her. She was a remarkable woman, and everything Kait had thought she’d be and more.

  She took her coat off when she got back to her apartment, as her cellphone rang. It was Zack, and he sounded stunned.

  “What did you do to her?” he asked in a tense voice.

  “Nothing,” Kait answered, sounding baffled. “I thought we had a great time. Did I do something to offend her?”

  “I don’t think so, Ms. Whittier,” he said, his voice switching from shock to jubilation. “I just got an email from her about ten minutes ago. Four words. ‘I’m in. Maeve O’Hara.’ Kait, you did it!” Kait was as floored as he was, and just as thrilled. Even more so, she was deeply impressed by the woman she had just spent two hours with, and knew she would make the show a huge success, and would bring Anne Wilder to life.

  “We have to shoot it in New York for her, or the vicinity,” Kait said. “That’s the only condition she told me about.” She didn’t explain w
hy to him out of respect for Maeve and Ian, since they wanted it kept quiet about his grave illness.

  “I know, her agent told me. I don’t care. I would shoot it in Botswana if that means we get her. The network is going to go insane. We can’t go wrong with Maeve O’Hara playing Anne Wilder.” He was over the moon about it, and so was Kait. It would make the show a sure success, if they had a good script for her.

  “She suggested Agnes White for the part of Hannabel, by the way. She said she’d be fantastic,” Kait said matter-of-factly.

  “We can’t, she’s dead,” he said smugly. And he had someone else in mind, who was good with comedy and might lighten the part, particularly if some of the dialogue was funny.

  “I thought so too. Maeve says she’s alive. She’s in retirement, or a recluse or something.”

  “I’ll check it out,” but he liked his pick better, although the actress was being difficult and laying out a lot of conditions and benefits he didn’t want to give her, and had a very tough lawyer negotiating for her.

  When they hung up, Kait saw that she had an email on her iPhone from Maeve too. It said, “Thank you for everything! Here’s to a great show! Love, Maeve.” Kait stared at her phone and grinned broadly. The Fates had smiled on them again. She wondered if this was how her grandmother had felt when she sold her first batch of cookies to the neighborhood restaurants. Maeve was going to be a huge part of the package, and attract the other talent they wanted. They were on their way.

  Chapter 7

  The two weeks Kait spent in Los Angeles were crammed full. She met with two agents on the first day, and selected one of Zack’s recommendations. They were nothing like what she’d expected. She thought they’d be very Hollywood, in jeans, T-shirts, and gold chains. Both greeted her in enormous offices, at the two most important agencies in L.A. The walls were covered with expensive art by Damien Hirst, de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock. The men themselves looked like New York ad men, or bankers, in impeccable custom-made suits, crisp white shirts, expensive ties, and serious John Lobb shoes. They were the epitome of conservatism, with short hair, clean shaves, and perfect tailoring. And their conversations with Kait were as serious as they were.

  She would have been satisfied to be represented by either one, but the second one, Robert Talbot, was slightly warmer, easier to talk to, and answered more of her questions, so she decided to go with him, and called to tell him an hour after their meeting. He sounded delighted, and assured her he’d start going over the contracts immediately and get back to her. When she saw Zack, she thanked him again.

  She looked at film clips of all the actors Zack was considering for the other parts. The actress he wanted for Hannabel was still being difficult, and hadn’t signed yet. The actress they all liked best for the part of Maggie was an unknown, but she was perfect in the role, though Zack still wanted to attach another big name to the show to balance Maeve. The fact that Maeve had committed to the show made other important talent want to join them.

  They had a popular, sexy young actress named Charlotte Manning to play Chrystal, the bad-girl younger daughter. She had the reputation of being difficult and unreliable, but she was exquisitely beautiful, was twenty-two years old but could play fourteen in the beginning, and had been in enough movies and series with short-term roles to have a face and name people would recognize. Younger audiences would love her, especially men. She had the right look for the role. She had dated every bad-boy young actor in Hollywood, and rock stars who got arrested. She was so right for the part, and so hot at the moment, that the network loved her and was pleased. And they had a possible big star to play Loch, since he only appeared in the first few shows and then he died, so it wasn’t a long-term commitment for a busy actor in feature films.

  On her third day in L.A., Kait was scheduled to meet Becca Roberts, the screenwriter that Zack had raved about. He had set up the meeting in his office, at nine A.M., and she showed up two hours late. Kait was there on time, and Zack kept assuring her that Becca was young and a little flaky but she was great. When she finally arrived, she was wearing dark glasses and looked like she’d put on whatever clothes she’d found on the floor, with a pixie haircut that seemed like it had never seen a brush. She groaned as she walked into the conference room and saw Zack conferring quietly with Kait.

  “Oh God, you’re here,” Becca said, melting into a chair at the enormous table, like a kid sliding into the back row in school, and asked his assistant for black coffee. She slouched in her chair, and looked about fifteen years old. She was twenty-four, but Zack continued to swear she was the best and one of the hot young talents in L.A. “I’m really sorry. Yesterday was my birthday, and I got a little crazy last night. I came home at five A.M., my phone died and I couldn’t find the charger, so I had no alarm. Thank God my dog woke me up half an hour ago. I got here as fast as I could. The traffic sucked. I live in the Valley,” she said to Kait as though that explained everything.

  They were off to a bad start, Kait was trying to be patient but thought her excuses were pathetic. She couldn’t imagine this disorderly hungover waif writing a hit show, or even a bad one. She was waiting for her to say “The dog ate my homework” next.

  “I love the bible,” Becca said to Kait. “I’ve actually been working on the first episode for the last week, and trying out some different directions on it. I’m not sure about the grandmother, though. I don’t think we need her, she’s such a bitch. I have an aunt like that, I can’t stand her. I think we’ll alienate the viewers. I think we should cut her out.” Kait could almost feel the hair rise up on the back of her neck as Becca said it.

  “The whole point is that she’s tough on Anne in the beginning, but when the going gets rough, she comes around, and even learns to fly to help the business. She’s a good balance for the others,” Kait explained, and Becca shook her head.

  “I don’t buy it, and Bill, the oldest son who gets killed, reads like he’s gay. He’s such a wimp.” Zack looked like he was going to cry, and Kait glared at him meaningfully as though telling him they were wasting their time. She was not going to agree to anything the young screenwriter had suggested. The only thing she had in her favor so far was that Zack said she was fast, and could have a script ready to shoot by July first. Anyone else could stall them for a year. And the network wanted them shooting by July and on air in October. Maybe Becca could do it, but what would she write? Nothing Kait wanted associated with her show, not from what she was hearing. The only thing keeping Kait in her chair was Zack, and not wanting to be rude to him.

  “Why don’t you show us what you’ve got,” Zack said calmly, “and we can work from that, and see where it goes.”

  “Can you print it for me here? Mine is broken,” she said, pulling her laptop out of her backpack. She sent the file to Zack’s assistant, who came back with three copies five minutes later and handed a set to each of them. It was Becca’s preliminary work on the script for the first few scenes.

  Kait only got three pages into it, set it down, and looked directly at Becca when she spoke.

  “This has absolutely nothing to do with the story I wrote. If you don’t like the bible, you don’t have to do it, but you can’t rewrite the whole thing on your own. The premise of this is all wrong. And the dialogue is too modern for the time. This isn’t a punk rock musical, it’s a family drama, and starts in 1940.”

  “We could speed it up,” Becca suggested, “and start it later. It’s so old-fashioned the way it is,” she complained.

  “It’s supposed to be,” Kait said tersely. “That’s the whole point. Anne Wilder succeeds and builds her business at a time when that was nearly impossible to do, in a field that was almost exclusively open to men, and closed to women.”

  “I get that, and I really like Maggie. She’s kind of a tomboy. It would make more sense if we do her as a lesbian. This could be about fighting for gay rights in the 1940s.”
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br />   “It’s about fighting for women’s rights, gay or straight,” Kait said bluntly, wanting to end the meeting as soon as possible.

  “I can take another crack at it,” Becca said, glancing at Zack to rescue her, as Kait looked daggers at him, and wanted out. Becca was wasting everyone’s time and clearly wasn’t capable of giving them the script they needed. But much to her dismay, Zack refused to give up. Becca was available, she wrote quickly, and he was convinced she could do the job.

  “Becca, focus,” he said to her quietly. “Do you remember when you wrote Devil’s Daughter and you were completely off the mark at first, and turned yourself around? You handed in the best damn script I’ve ever seen, and you wrote a hit show. You need to do that now. You’re off point on this one so far, but that can change. This show could run five or ten seasons, which would be great for you. But not the way you’ve interpreted it. You have to wipe the slate, clear your head, and try again.”

  She looked sobered when he said it, and both disappointed and confused. “You want a script like Devil’s Daughter?” She seemed surprised.

  “No, I don’t. But I want you to do what you did then. You turned it from the worst script I’ve ever seen to the best one. I need you to do that again.” He was adamant and sounded strong. He wanted The Wilder Women to work, and they needed a script right away. A great one, or the network would postpone it, or back out and shelve it forever.

  “You don’t like this one, huh?”

  Kait and Zack both shook their heads.

  “Let me tell you something,” Zack said bluntly. “We have Maeve O’Hara to play Anne Wilder. She won’t do a script like this. We’ve got Charlotte Manning to play Chrystal, you can go crazy with that. But we’re not doing an LGBT manifesto here. This takes place in the 1940s and ’50s. It’s about women in aviation, not gay rights,” Zack explained.