A Night With Johnny Grant - Part Three

The actress that walked up to the table was at her peak. She was getting nominated and winning the big awards and was on a nice long streak of great roles and she was stunning. At the time she could play comedies, romantic comedies and of course would long be remembered as the smoking hot actress in one of the biggest movies of all time. That role seemed long ago when I saw her, but she was a presence in that room. One hundred or so diners in that room and I don't think anyone was talking to each other, or if they were, they were doing so while looking over at her. This was a movie star. She might not be a movie star now, but she is still B+ list and I saw her a few months ago from across the room and she still could command a room when she wanted. At some point that night a few months ago, we crossed paths and as we always do when we meet said what OE first said to her when he saw her that night (Lets call her NQ).

I expected OE to have a huge grin on his face. I mean this actress was coming to him. Instead, he looked like he was ticked off. The first words out of his mouth were. "Where the f**k have you been?" No hello, or good to see you. No pleasantries whatsoever. It was just straight to what he was thinking with no filter. There was no offer for her to sit or any other courtesy shown. Watching NQ and OE stare at each other, it looked as if neither was going to blink. NQ said that she only found out the night before that OE had been looking for. OE then said he left word with a guy we will call PI and that PI had been trying all over the place to find NQ.

PI was and is an actor. He is actually still on a hit network show but in a minor recurring role. He had his run a couple of decades ago and was about five years removed from the end of a long running hit show. The thing is our actor also had another side business and apparently as a result of that side business and connections he had, met OE. They had a long shared history together and that history apparently included NQ. Our actress was not always an actress and sometimes had to make ends meet. Now, even though she was arguably the biggest actress in the world at that time, OE wanted her to earn some money to help out a friend of his.

Lets take a break for a second. All of this banter between NQ and OE was filled with half sentences and things that did not make a lot of sense to someone who was put right in the middle of this. Later Johnny filled in some of the blanks. Some. There were a ton of blanks he didn't ever fill, and he kept a lot of secrets. He told me several hundred, but he kept several thousand to himself. One of the blanks that he answered was that NQ actually married a guy just to have an excuse to avoid OE's requests. Even though OE was an a-hole who would cheat on his own wife in a second, he would never force NQ to cheat on her husband. Now that NQ had split with her husband though, the past year or so had been one excuse after the other. She tried to work as much as possible just to avoid even having to see OE. Bringing in PI though notched everything up a level. She knew it was serious which is why she showed up. That last little bit I got directly from NQ. I had not seen her since that night until we ran into each other of all places at a grocery store. Ice cream aisle. I closed one of the glass doors and there she was. She remembered that night and I reminded her of what OE had said to her when he saw her and since then, we use that line. Being the inquisitive person I am, I started asking her some questions, and she also filled in some blanks. Obviously she didn't know me, so her answers were somewhat guarded, but she was still talking to me while my hand nearly froze from holding that ice cream so long. Over time we talked more and because of that grocery store meet she actually got me a client or two. Now, back to the restaurant.

NQ agreed to meet whoever OE wanted her to meet, but only for a drink. I found out later they did meet for a drink, but she refused to do anything more with him and OE decided it was fine and found someone else for the guy.

NQ said her goodbyes and turned around and headed straight for the door. All dressed up and alone and every guy watched her walk out of the place.

I had a lot of questions for OE, but Johnny told me to not ask any for a few hours and to be very careful if I chose to do so. I ended up not asking him very much at all that night except things that I knew he would answer because they were all about his successes. Later that year though I saw him and had drinks with him the same weekend I wrote about a long time ago with some members of the original 90210 cast. He was much more forthcoming then. He seemed different too, maybe because he didn't have to do anything but talk to me, and not be the center of attention at a restaurant in Hollywood. That conversation is for another day though.

Shortly after NQ left, plates of food started appearing. No one had ordered anything, but no one was supposed to. Everyone ate what OE ate and he always ate the same thing so the food just started coming out. There were lots of plates and lots of waiters so I stood up to give them more room and while I was up thought I would take a quick lap around the place. Take it all in. I could not have been gone for more than two minutes but when I got back there was another guy sitting in my seat and talking to OE. There was no room for me, so I just stood there looking like a fool. I think OE kind of liked that.

Final installment tomorrow.