(Caution: The question deals with a 22-year old movie actor kissing a 13-year old on set.)

I'm making another run at "Cory's Story", which I first mentioned in a Forum entry twelve years ago called "What Happens Now?" and later cannibalized for my 2018 contest entry "Corey's Last Concert". (Both Cory and Corey are anatomically male young Disney entertainers portraying 12-to-14 year old girl cheerleaders named Bonnie circa 1980, but their back stories are quite different.) I didn't know where the story was going in 2010 (the reason for that old forum note); I do now, or at least I think I do.

It does mean, though, that a 15-year old is telling the story in 1983 instead of a 37-year old in 2005, as I'd been planning, or an all-knowing narrator. I'm not sure yet if that works for me.

Thing is, I know what I want to do in getting Cory to Hollywood (well, Burbank) and where s/he ends up when it all falls apart. It's the part in between, when she's Bonnie at the movie and recording studios and he's Cory, sort of, elsewhere, that's looking thin, to the point where I've thought about basically skipping it ("If this were a movie there'd be a montage right here of calendar pages and magazine headlines. We are planning to sell the movie rights, aren't we?").

Getting to the point of this note -- I always do, though I tend to take so long that I'm not sure my readers are patient enough to follow me there -- one event that I'm considering has to do with the issue in the title here and at the top.

The second Bonnie film involves the character developing a crush on Robb, a 17-year old boy celebrity played by Karl, a 22-year old journeyman actor. (The producers don't want to use a real star, not only because they don't want to pay for one but because that kind of fame can be so fleeting that it's liable to date the film.) There's a brief dream sequence in which Bonnie gets to meet her idol one-on-one and give Robb a peck on the lips. But when the cameras start rolling, Karl grabs the back of Cory's head and starts giving her the full treatment; Cory's surprised and repulsed and slaps Karl's face once she can escape his grip. (Not because Cory's a boy -- something few if any people in the studio are aware of and that Cory himself is getting a little confused about -- but because like the Bonnie character, Cory's 13 years old. Cory's definitely not attracted to Karl, and this adult actor has no business doing that.)

Anyway, this is happening in 1980, decades before #MeToo and even social media. This isn't the first day of shooting; if Karl's fired, his previous scenes will have to be re-shot. In Bonnie's dreams, it's not unlikely that she'd want Robb, only four years older, to make out with her; if this weren't a Disney film it might even have been scripted that way. (That's probably going too far since Bonnie's demographic is preteen girls.)

So do they fire Karl? Cory and his mentors -- he's staying with his agents, a husband-and-wife team, because his parental situation is untenable -- certainly would want them to. I don't know which answer's more plausible, or makes the story better. Karl's not a continuing villain; if I leave this in, it's more to have one more event during this stretch and to illustrate Cory's gender confusion.

Eric