Chapter 22

The party was a lovely event and allowed me to show all my friends how much I appreciated their friendship. From now, until close to Christmas, I would be going to the studio and would be unlikely to be able to socialise.

After that, it would be down to Tony, who I heard had been under the knife, when he had recovered. He would have all of my takes to work with and would pick what he wanted. The music would be all suited to the era, with a lot of times where the local radio was playing bluegrass. The final credits came up with the original song running, with those of us playing the ‘gals’ shown as the ‘gals’ lyrics came up. The film would be released into the New Year, with all the usual hoopla. The world premiere would be in Florida. With a private screening for the reviewers in both London and New York, in the weeks prior.

Of course, a lot of other things had been occurring while we were in Florida. Ruth had saved a dozen copies of the wedding article, with Agnes milking it for all she was worth. She had been to our garden party and was very friendly.

The Fan Club had grown into a sizeable club, and the merchandise that they were taking from us had become well worth it. A lot had happened politically in the country, but none of that bothered us. It kept on happening, with monotonous regularity, these days it was an odd year when we ended it with the same prime minister we started with. More important was that Mum and Bert had got married with Jeff and I flying in for the ceremony, and then flying with them as far as New York as they took the Hawaii trip.

I went to see the agency, and Horatio showed me my account. I had received all of my twelve million, with a half of it going into my investment fund. My two percent of ‘Turbulence’ had earned me five million and climbing. I advised him that I had been promised a percentage for taking on the direction at short notice. He told me that he had already seen the contract, and if this film was as good as my first, I’ll be one very rich lady.

The studio work went as I thought. The set builders had been busy, and we could add the scenes as needed. Kurt and Kym came in to add their close-ups. We had Kurt smashing through the doors for the last scene. We had him, his squad, and a crowd of the husbands in a shootout that led to that scene. For that we had small explosive pellets embedded into fake walls, which were detonated at the right time. We also broke a number of windows that the actual property owners wouldn’t have liked. We did some scenes with him and Jeff discussing the murders as they occurred.

One thing that was a complete surprise was when Kym left, she handed me the revised screenplay of ‘Sisters’, with an official letter clipped to it. She told me that the letter was her giving me the screenplay, to do with as I wish. It also stated that the money that had been paid as a two-film package would remain for the single film, as she was certain that it would be a money-earner. She had decided that ‘Women’ was her last big film, and that she would concentrate on writing scripts, with ‘Sisters’, to her, being too difficult to complete, if she wasn’t going to appear in it. So, there I was, with a screenplay and directing creds, and enough money to produce it. It wasn’t going to happen, as I had decided that it was bad as it was. As a kernel of an idea for something else, now that was a different kettle of fish! That was one piece of paper that I took in for Horatio.

We needed to do the bedroom scenes with Samantha and Jeff, which took all my will to stop scratching her eyes out. Jeff was much more energised on the nights after those takes. Then we did the scene with her stabbing him, with camera angles that were impossible in the actual site. We had to do the scene of the first murder, with a recreation of the room the victim had been in. It was a simple one, with him looking extremely scared and then running to the window to crash through the glass. We had already filmed the scene with Kurt and Jeff looking at the body, skewered on the real spiked fence below that window. The demon would be a C.G.I. creation, along with all the other demonic murders, except the car crash.

With those, and all the other scenes, it took until mid-November for me to wrap it up and leave it to post-production. By that time, all of the crews were calling me boss and following my direction. A few of the lesser roles took a while, but soon followed suit. Tony had popped in, a few times, and was looking healthier, but didn’t offer any words of advice. I gave him a list of all the take numbers that I thought would work, and we hugged as I wished him ‘Good Editing’.

Winter had set in, with a vengeance. We had turned the heating up, but thoughts turned to warmer places. Kym and Kurt would be in the south of France, and the lure of the sun spurred us into action. We had a look at an atlas and decided that Spain beckoned. I notified Jacquie of our plans and closed up the house, with all six of us flying to Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast. We were picked up by a stretch limo from the hotel I had booked us into, and we settled into the Balneari Les Arenes. After a few days of lazing on the beach, strolling the shops, looking at the boats in the marina, and having a good time, I realised that now I could make something like this permanent, or, at least, a winter hide-away. We spoke to a few real estate agents, and, after seeing about six places, one took us to a property that was some way north of Valencia.

It was perfect. A Spanish Villa in an enclave of larger houses, several kilometres north of Valencia. The nearest town was Playa Puebla de Farnals, with a huge development of tall apartments between us and the town, and not much at all to the north. The villa was almost on the beach, with just a wide esplanade from our wall to the sea. The access road was on the inland side of the house, and it led to the Cami-PlatjaA, which then linked to the Avinguda de lar Mer and straight inland to an interchange on the V21, that would take us back to Valencia or north to Barcelona.

I signed the lease and emailed my copy to Horatio to add to the regular payments from my account. We had enough rooms for everyone, the kitchen was modern and there was some furniture still in it. A week later and all the beds, chairs, appliances, and entertainment had been delivered and set up, so we piled into the Mercedes V Class people mover that Colin had chosen, to move into the villa for Christmas. We agreed on cards only, and some of them needed a Spanish-English dictionary to see the jokes.

It was a totally relaxing time, with all of us taking long walks along the promenade (called the Passeig Maritim), trying to cook as many different types of Spanish food as we could, and just relaxing after what was, for me, a full two years. We took a ferry ride to Palma with our people mover for ten days, just driving around the island and staying anywhere they had the room for us. I fell in love with a little place on the north-east coast, called Port de Pollenca, and bought an apartment in a new high-rise, overlooking the sea, on the southern edge of the town. We didn’t furnish it, but just left it empty for the moment. There was an airport at Palma, so we could fly there directly. It was big enough for two, in comfort, as I wanted it as a bolthole for Jeff and me to be alone.

We watched UK TV, with some streaming, and could see the news of the storms and snow that we had escaped from. In the middle of January, David gave me a call, thanking me for suggesting that we had a crew on standby to go to Cornwall. We had nearly an hour of fine weather and storm shots in the can from the same viewpoint, so there would be no need for manufactured storm scenes. He told me that we would be doing the studio work from the middle of March, with any location scenes shot in late spring. He asked for my address and said he would courier two copies of the final screenplay to us. Almost as an afterthought, the devil in him told me that he had just come back from Los Angeles where he had picked up a Golden Globe for directing ‘Turbulence’.

When we got the screenplays, we were both in working mode, sitting in the sunshine with our pencils, making notes for a few days. Some of my ideas had been used, and some had been the basis for C.J. to become more inventive with his action. The tension almost leapt off the pages and I was hooked. We let the others have a look as well. Ruth was aghast at the two extra murders but had to agree that it had to be done for the sisters to live.

We had a call from Jim, to tell us that ‘Turbulence’ had been nominated in the Oscars. Seven times! It had also been nominated for BAFTA awards, for Best Film, Director, and Cinematography. At the end of the month, we were closed up, with the villa in the hands of the cleaning, gardening, and security firms, and on a plane back to Gatwick.

We had no chance of winning some, I was sure. There had been good films in the cinemas last year. I thought that we had a good chance with Cinematography, Director, and Original Screenplay. I wasn’t sure about the Best Actor, Actress, or Picture. The seventh nomination was for the music score. We had invitations for the main cast and crew members, with Jeff as my plus one. The Fan Club had gone into overdrive when the announcements were made, and David had organised a fresh set of cinema posters with the Nominations overprinting the original artwork. A couple of boxes of these were sent to Sherona, at the school. Of course, our favourite airline just had to offer us a charter to go to California with the owner coming along for the ride. David was excited, as his first film had only become a hit after its release, so didn’t qualify with the required number of screenings in its first month.

David and Cecil got their BAFTA awards but were pipped for the Best Picture. Some of us had attended that ceremony and congratulated them on their wins. We had a party at the hotel that night. It was a good start for the film, and a possible pointer for the Oscars.

We ended up with over half the plane filled with our people. I took our four close friends, and we also took Sherona and Sharina, with their parents. They wouldn’t be at the actual presentation, but there were places, with a big screen, for them to look on. Our dress supplier had come to the party, and our cosmetics supplier would be doing all our make-up when we were there.

If I thought the premiere nights were big, this event was on steroids! The logistics were sent to us, with our exact times to arrive at the entrance to provide a steady stream of celebrities on the red carpet. Being one of the Best Picture nominations, we were among the later arrivals. The main table was Kurt, Kym, David, Irene, me, Jeff, Cynthia and Moyra, Jack, Lisa, and C.J. - with his boyfriend. There was a second table with the other stewardesses and their partners, plus Eric and his wife. A third had Cecil, the main camera and sound guys, the writer of the music and their partners.

There were rules about what we could, and couldn’t, say if we got an award, although these were usually ignored by the more vocal winners. There was a huge crowd in the hall, the compere was a comedian with a questionable script. One of the other films had been a musical, so the entertainment was songs from the film. When we got into the actual awards, the one for the Musical Score was an early one, and we won it. The writer went up to collect his statuette and gave a short speech about how wonderful it was to be asked to write the score and thanked David for the opportunity.

Our next nomination was for cinematography and Cecil was the winner. In his speech, he thanked all us girls who, he said, improved his vision as he watched us act. Straight after that came the Best Original Screenplay. C.J. went up to collect the award, dragging Kym with him. He thanked David for turning his words into such a wonderful film and thanked Kym, who had rewritten some of it as it was being filmed. She gave a short speech thanking everyone involved in the making of what was a fun project.

Then, as a surprise to me, our two comediennes came on stage with the compere, and proceeded to parody his earlier jokes, but with more bite and slightly risqué punchlines. We were all in tears from laughing, as they ended their act with a thanks to David for including them in ‘Turbulence’. If anyone in America hadn’t seen the film, I was sure that they would be urged to go, after seeing those two.

The next award was Best Director, and David was up against some of the biggest names but was announced the winner. He hauled me and Kurt up on stage with him and declared that we had made the film almost too easy to direct, but he had done his best to curb our enthusiasm. As I expected, we didn’t get the Best Actress and Best Actor, our parts were nowhere near as prolonged, or intense, as those that did win.

There was more music before the Best Picture award was announced. It was better than fifty-fifty that we would win, and we did. Three whole tables were on their feet, hugging and kissing, as David dragged everyone up on the stage to receive the Oscar. It was manic, it was intoxicating, and it was a whole lot of cheering and clapping. After the speeches and the on-stage interviews, we all went back to our tables to collect our bags and awards, to go to a party that our friendly airline owner had organised.

Of course, we all had to be in a photo opportunity with him again, but it was no longer a chore. I borrowed the Best Picture Oscar and took it down to the big room where our other friends had been watching the event on a big screen, along with a lot of others. When I walked in, I was smothered with kisses from all the rest of the crew, my friends, and the fan club leaders. We had a big session with me and lots of others with photos where I held the statuette. By this time, a couple of security guys in the room had seen what I was carrying and were standing nearby.

After a while, I told them that I had to take it back to the main party, but that I would see them all tomorrow, unless I was called in for interviews. We would all be flying back to London on Monday morning. I found out, later, that Sherona and Sharina had called the girl who handled the website content, waking her up and sending her a picture of the three of us with the Oscar. That was on the website as the Sunday sun was rising over London.

Back at the main party, only Jeff had noticed that I had been gone, as I rejoined the throng. It was a relief to hand the Oscar on to others to hold, with the person I handed it to being Eric.

“Get someone to take a picture, Eric. Then you can send it to your TV director.”

“Thank you, Julia. This is a precursor to next year, when ‘Thirteen Women’ is nominated. I’ll be able to send him a picture with me holding the Best Supporting Actor. That’ll really piss him off!!”

The party went until the early hours, and it was a bunch of very tired stars who went to their beds. I know that some were still going as the sun rose, but it had been almost too much to take in. Security gathered the Oscars to put in the hotel safe and Jeff almost carried me to our room, where we truly celebrated the day as he gave me a little award of his own.

Sunday morning, we were having breakfast in the room when the phone rang. It was David, who told us that we were to be in the lobby in thirty minutes, and a minibus was coming to take us to a TV studio. We had a lightning shower and dressed for the public. At the studio, we were made up and sat with two mid-morning show comperes, with clips from the film and a range of questions about how it was made and what we were planning to do to top that.

David answered most of the questions, except the one about what he had planned. He just said that he had another project in mind, with C.J. writing the screenplay, again. When I was asked, I said that I had not long ago finished a film with Kym and Kurt, and it was their place to answer. Kurt said that the film would be released, sometime in this year, so watch out for it.

We were back at the hotel in time for lunch and met up with all those that we had left behind. It was several tables of very tired looking, but happy diners. We talked about what we could do, that afternoon. One of the waitresses told us that ‘The Grove’ was open on Sundays and was worth a look. We decided that this was for us, but first I needed to go and change into jeans and find some sunglasses.

It was Jeff and I, our party and the fan club who found our way to the Grove. A few other crew members did come along, but it was our group who stopped there to make sure that we saw everything. There was a big Nordstroms that took a lot of time, and we all had some bags when we left that store. The guys had been taken by the silk ties at very low prices, while I had bought a couple of slip dresses. We found a concierge where we could store our bags as we explored further. I liked the Paige store and the Dolce et Gabbana, the twins were happier in the Brandy Melville store which had more teen items. We stopped for a snack and then took our purchases back to the hotel.

We had a late dinner scheduled and were able to change back into proper outfits for it. We had two big tables, with all the thirty, or so, who had been in the main hall, plus another three tables for our guests and the crew members. David made a nice speech, in which he thanked everyone and made sure that we had plenty to drink by proposing toasts to all and sundry. I asked the waitress for soda water as I didn’t have a head for a lot of alcohol. Sherona took lots of pictures, many showing up on the website later.

We had an earlier night, as we had to pack and be out by ten Monday morning, to get to the airport. On the flight home, the atmosphere was joyful. I made sure that we all had pictures taken with the cabin crew. The flight crew came out one at a time to join in. The airline owner had pictures taken with most of the girls, with the statuettes arrayed in front. I think that he considered it all a winning situation. I realised why he was so pleased as we taxied towards the terminal, passing under the streams of foam being pumped from two airport fire tenders. I could see crowds of people lining the viewing decks. Were they waiting for us?

When we were opened up to the airbridge, the flight crew came out and stood to see us off, and the cabin crew lined the airbridge. Cynthia and we ex-crew made sure that we gave each and every one a hug as we left the plane. They would be back in the air in a couple of days, with their memories. We would be in the madhouse that I predicted that we were about to enter.

We were all diverted through the VIP lounge, and they had organised a special customs and immigration team to process us. Of course, the Oscars needed to be properly inspected, ending with all five in front of the officials for a photo. We were offered the opportunity to go back airside to waiting coaches, and everyone except us main players took that offer. We had a big session of hugs and kisses as they took their luggage and left. Then it was just David and Irene, me and Jeff, Eric, and his wife, C.J. and his boyfriend, Cecil and his wife, and the score writer and his wife.

The chief customs officer wished us good luck as the doors opened to pure bedlam. The airport police were keeping the hordes at bay but the noise, as we emerged, was deafening. They were shouting questions, I was almost blinded by camera flashes, and everything suddenly became incredibly bright as the TV lights were switched on. David led us out to the waiting crowd, waving his hands for a bit of decorum.

I saw Agnes, with her photographer and Laurie, a bit further along, so I walked towards her, ignoring all of the questions and microphones being shoved in my direction. I had to raise my voice to talk.

“Hello, Agnes, thanks for welcoming us. You could have left the rest of these guys at home, though.”

“They all want a piece of you, Julia. A British Director with British stars bringing home Best Picture doesn’t happen every day. We can’t talk here, can I come over to your place, in a couple of days, with a full crew? That way, you can be more relaxed, and we can get an in-depth article on you, the film, and your plans.”

“All right. I’ll get our PA at the agency to set it up. Right now, we have to figure out how we’re going to get to our cars, without calling in the riot squad.”

“There’s a group of security guys that have just come out of the exit from customs. I think that they’ll help if you ask them nicely.”

Marianne Gregory © 2024