The Principle Of Chance by M Howson Read Free Book Online

raised his eyebrows.
    ‘Your Selina is making a cake of
herself on live TV!’
    They watched in amazement how Selina
was shouting at everyone on The Lucas Show, not knowing she was in the live waiting room, where appearing celebrities waited for their turn and the
audience could see and hear them.
    Selina obviously wasn’t aware of
this. She could have been, but she hadn’t listened to the production assistant
when she arrived late for the show. The assistant tried to tell her, because
she was late and the show was nearing the end, she only had five minutes to get
ready. Selina rushed into the first room she saw, expecting it to be a dressing
room.
    ‘What do you mean I’m late?’ They
heard her addressing a frightened looking assistant.
    ‘I am sorry but you are an hour late
and Mr Lucas will have to fit you in at the very end of the programme.’
    ‘What? Do you know who I am?’ She
screamed at her, out of control. ‘I don’t wait for anybody, do you understand?’
She fumed. ‘Tell your Mr Lucas he can stuff his show up his backside for all I
care!’
    Selina marched up and down in the
waiting room. Nobody was telling her she was live on TV. The assistant hurried
up to her with a tray of sandwiches, which she promptly knocked out of her
hand.
    ‘What do you call this? I don’t eat
bread, where is the organic fruit I ordered?’ She demanded.
    ‘Selina, this is Mark John Lucas,
you are live on the show!’ They heard a voice addressing her.
    Selina looked around surprised.
‘Hello Mark, where are you?’ She said sweetly.  
    ‘I am here in the studio and we CAN
all see you and hear you.’ He said, fully aware of the massive viewing figures
he was getting right now. The girl had screwed up big time!
    ‘You can see me?’ She had just
realised what had happened.     
    ‘We all love listening to you. How
refreshing….’ Mark was pushing it. He won’t have another show like this again.
Talk about the ratings!
    Jack clicked the TV off. ‘I don’t
suppose she knew what she was doing.’ He tried to take the edge off the
situation.
    ‘She is finished in this city,
Jack!’ Frank said with a heavy heart.
    ‘That’s an understatement Frank.’
    ‘There are thousands of talented
actresses who would give anything for a life like Selina’s.’
    ‘Tell me about it.’
    Frank dialled Ross. ‘I suppose
you’ve heard the news?’
    ‘I’m watching it live.’ Ross said.
    ‘Have you finished filming the
scenes with Selina?’
    ‘Yeah, all done.’
    ‘Don’t do anything with it for now;
we’ll have to recast her part. She can’t stay in my movie. How many
scenes are we talking?’
    ‘Not a lot Frank, but it will mean
extra money.’ The budget Ross had for the film was nearly gone.
    ‘Money isn’t a problem, Ross; tell
everyone they will get paid.’
    ‘Great, thanks Frank.’
    ‘You
will have your new actress by tomorrow!’
    Frank finished the call. ‘This just
shows how quickly your career can be over in this business!’
    ‘On the other hand, actors can get
away with murder, if they are represented by a shark of an agent.’ Jack
implied.
    ‘True.’ Frank agreed, fed up with prima
donna behaviour. ‘Selina will pull through, but she's finished at my
studio!’ He didn’t care about the money.
    ‘Let’s move on.’ Frank suggested.
‘Enough of Selina for today.’
    Frank started outlining his plans to
Jack as Justin had already left. Frank had already arranged to start filming.
Jack guessed that Frank had used his contacts to get the film rolling. If
people had the opportunity and luck to make a movie, it still would take months
or even more to get it off the ground and actually start rolling, but not for
Frank.
    ‘Why didn’t you tell me about this
movie Frank? You gave me a screenplay to read without a word. I was there
reading your beginnings and mine .’
    ‘What do you mean? I did!’
    ‘There was only one person who knew
what we went through, and that was Justin.’