June 20, 2007
I've heard this before, and allegedly Very Bad Things is loosely based on it to some extent. However, I always thought of it as a Hollywood legend until I recently met someone in the producer's family. When I say family, there is one widow and one child. No other family. None.
A fairly minor producer died within the past month or so. It wasn't really noteworthy for the most part, but there were three or four very happy actors to see him pass. All of the actors are aging, but not George Burns old or anything. In fact, they are still A list at least by reputation. Could they carry a movie OR television show on their own anymore? Probably not. Are they regularly in movies AND television? Yes. See, back in the day there was a party like you could only have in Hollywood's glory days. Martinis, cigars and lots of beautiful women. Well it turns out that one of the beautiful women didn't go home at the end of the night. There was some incident involving either five or six actors. Two have died. Not knowing what to do, these actors got a studio gofer, now our dead producer and told him to get rid of the body and not tell anyone about it or tell anyone where the body was buried. Throughout the remainder of the producer's life, these actors took care of him, but were always afraid he would spill the secret because he was the only one who knew where the body was buried. No body, no case. Now, they are just worried that something will show up in the estate sale and some person will stumble onto a letter or some other evidence hidden in a desk drawer which will come back to haunt them. Maybe that's why one of the actors offered to buy the house with everything in it at a price that is twice what the place is worth. Still waiting to see if it will be accepted, but there won't be an estate sale yet for sure. The actors think they are being careful and that their true motives are unknown. Not at all the case, but the producer's widow is happy to take their money and be done with it. One hint is they have all been in at least one western. Although it could be on television OR in a movie.