Today's Blind Items - Dancing Boy Foreword

Epigraph

The only wisdom we can hope to acquire
Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.

The houses are all gone under the sea.

The dancers are all done under the hill.

            TS Eliot, “East Coker,” The Four Quartets

Foreword

I'll make this short, not least because it is just after 5am on the third Saturday of duck hunting season, and I have better things to do. The dancing boy called me last night, you see, to write a foreword for the expanded version of his forthcoming docu-drama, “The Dancing Boys of Hollywood,” knowing full well I wouldn't have time to properly consider his request, or even read the script. So, I'm giving him what he deserves, just now, which is very little.

But none of it surprises me. I first met him close to 40 years ago during the production of a holiday pageant wherein he played the little drummer boy. It was, by his own telling, his first and last good childhood experience with show biz. Even then, at 7, he was lazy, showy, and overly-sensitive to criticism. Also, he was late, always, always late.

Still, I agreed to say something polite about his story, not least because much of it is true. First, he asked politely, which usually helps. Second, he showed me his current draft of “The Dancing Boy: A Hollywood Story.” It appears he'll be playing a fictionalized version of myself, his mentor, a brash, outspoken Hollywood conservative and writer who is also one of the good guys.

Third, and this part is really a shot in the dark. The dancing boy and I share a love of booze, drugs, women, and fast cars – okay two or three of those things. And every time he gives me a script to read I scribble the words “rat trap” (ie p.o.s.) on the title page, the sort of hot rod so hastily assembled at the last minute, and so jury-rigged together, it was going to take the full grace of God for it to even make it to the street race, let alone win.

But I keep going back to my one caveat. Back when I got started, it was all rat traps. The picture was either going to succeed and make a fortune, or crash the studio. And if the wind is just right, and the angels on his side, maybe, just maybe, his Hollywood dreams will only have been delayed, not denied.

                                                                                                                                                             J*** M*****
                                                                                                                                                             2 November, 2018