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The
Stargazers II: Melody and Jack
Synopsis
Melody Ridgeway had it all at the age of 22. In Hollywood, a
town where everyone was scrambling to reach their own private
pinnacle, Melody had achieved her's before she became of legal
age. A teenaged "punk-rock" journalist, Melody went
on to become the youngest staff writer for The Hollywood Reporter,
doing a column entitled 'On the Scene'.
During her twenty-second year Melody's car careened over a cliff
in the Hollywood hills and smashed on the rocks below. She spent
six months in a hospital, during which she learned to walk again
and cope with the spinal damage caused by the accident. Then
she went to her parents' ranch in the San Fernando Valley, where
she spent the next two years recuperating. It was then that
she started to write film scripts, and a book on the history
of punk rock/New Wave music.
Melody met Aurora Lawson during those years, when Aurora was
a college student. An aspiring photographer, Aurora was working
as a supermarket clerk, and taking concert photographs for a
local promotions company in her spare time. In 1985 the only
person who wanted to get out of California more than Melody
Ridgeway was possibly Aurora Lawson.
In July of that year, Melody acquired a literary agent in New
York. That was where the adventure that was nearly the end of
Melody and tragically, the end of Aurora, began.
By the spring of 1986, Melody had another agent in London, and
a British publisher for her book. She and Aurora decided to
go to London and do some books together. The first was to be
a biography of a band from Scandinavia who had made it big in
England and then the world. Everything went so well during the
months before their departure, Melody felt she was recovering
the astonishing good fortune of her earlier years.
Her optimism was more than a little premature. The first months
Melody and Aurora spent in England they lived on almost nothing
and survived only through a series of complicated schemes, some
far less than legal. By the time Melody's contract was signed
with the publishing company the two girls had become far closer
than mere friends. They moved into an expensive townhouse, and
embarked on writing two books together and spending too much
money.
Aurora's grip on reality began to slip when the proposed biography
on the Scandinavian rock group, VALHALLA, fell through. She
became obsessed with Marc Hasler, the lead singer of the group,
and was convinced that once she met him they would be a lifetime
couple. When the biography fell through, Aurora's opportunity
to meet Marc slipped away, and she became determined to find
another. None of the other men she met in London were of any
interest to her -- she wanted Marc Hasler and no one else.
This was at the beginning of 1987, and just after Melody returned
to California for Christmas, leaving Aurora alone in London
for three weeks. Feeling abandoned by the woman she had come
to look upon as her family, Aurora withdrew into herself and
spent every day on the telephone with Melody, and every night
getting drunk with her friend, Anthony Lewiston. At a Christmas
party, Aurora met Ned Lewiston, the younger brother of Anthony.
It was Ned who would come between Aurora and Melody and eventually
destroy their friendship and business.
The same time the biography deal fell through, Paramount Pictures
became interested in a film script Melody was writing. It was
Aurora who first took them the script, which made later events
even harder for Melody to comprehend. While Melody and Aurora
continued to work on their books together, Melody could feel
Aurora pulling further and further away. She started spending
more time with Ned and his friends, and Melody began to panic
as her funds at the bank started to dwindle. Her British publisher
had never delivered the two international contracts they had
promised her, and Melody was beginning to wonder what she and
Aurora would do.
In late spring, the bank cut off Melody's funding, and she could
no longer pay the rent on the townhouse. Her publisher had run
into monetary problems in the publication of the book, and Paramount
had barely begun work on the script. The last week in May, Aurora
moved to Ned's house in West Hampstead; and when Melody realized
she could only buy enough food for her two cats, she left them
several large bowls full and slit her wrists. Discovered by
a neighbor, Melody was taken to the hospital, where the doctor
advised her to return to California to recuperate. She managed
to raise the money to get there, but left most of her possessions
and her work with Aurora; who assured her she would try to get
them funds over the summer.
The reports Melody received from Aurora during that summer were
strange and contradictory, but by the autumn their business
affairs seemed to be looking up. Aurora had several possible
television contracts for Melody and a proposed magazine column
for them to do together.
In October of 1987, Melody returned to London accompanied by
another friend; an artist named Natalya. Natalya was told by
Aurora that she had arranged a showing for her at an Arts Center
in London, and made several valuable contacts for her at galleries.
But when Melody and Natalya arrived in London, it was to discover
Aurora was working for an escort service and they had nowhere
to live. Despite her dubious work, Aurora had no money. Her
expensive camera equipment was gone and so was Melody's furniture
and over half her personal possessions.
Natalya and Melody attempted to sort things out, but with no
money and nowhere to stay, they were frustrated at every turn.
After two weeks they realized they would have to return to California;
the day before she left, Melody learned that Aurora was addicted
to Cocaine, and she realized then where the money and possessions
went.
After Natalya and Melody arrived back in California, they looked
for jobs there. Melody did temporary office work and began a
correspondence with Jack Hayward, the film star who was interested
in her script, Paradise Lost. Paramount didn't have the money
to launch such a huge production, for which the budget had been
set at 30 million pounds; but Hayward caught the interest of
a large studio in California. Despite this, Melody was depressed
by her continuing lack of money and everything she lost in England.
In February of 1988, Melody's life and the lives of everyone
around her were changed forever when she won 5 million dollars
in a Reader's Digest Sweepstakes. During the next several months
Melody, Natalya and her mother went mad, buying new cars and
a townhouse for Melody; and having her parents' house remodelled.
Natalya quit the low-paying job she had managed to find, and
went to work for Melody, as her assistant. Once she no longer
needed the money, the movie deal went forward, and Jack Hayward
invited Melody to come to London and meet him.
In May, Melody and her mother went to London. Melody's mother
Marjorie left to visit her cousin in Brighton, and Melody met
Jack Hayward. They continued the friendship they had begun by
letter, and Jack took Melody to a party and a nightclub. One
night, shortly after her arrival, Melody went out to dinner
with her friend Dorothy and Dorothy's daughter, Beth. Dorothy
told Melody that Aurora was dead, from an overdose of heroin.
Melody didn't believe Aurora was dead, and when she learned
that Aurora's family never recovered her body she consulted
Jack, who advised the hiring of a private detective. Jack asked
Melody to marry him, although they had never been lovers. She
refused, but they did consummate their relationship and discover
they had the potential to love one another. Melody wasn't certain,
however -- Jack's initial reason for wanting to marry her was
so that neither one of them would be hassled by potential suitors
in pursuit of their money; a reason Melody found singularly
unromantic.
Jack took Melody to a party where she met Marc Hasler, the rock
star who had been the object of Aurora's obsession. Although
their meeting was not particularly propitious, Marc would prove
to be an important factor in Aurora's life.
Two weeks later the private detective returned, with the news
that Aurora was living in a flophouse in Brixton. When Jack
and Melody found her, Aurora was half-dead and in a state of
withdrawal. They took her to a private sanitarium in Sussex.
During the rescue of Aurora, Jack was confronted by Ned and
shot him in the groin, leaving him for dead.
Although Aurora improved in health, and her drug dependency
was being conquered, she seemed to have lost the will to live.
Melody didn't know how to give it back to her, and wondered
what would happen to Aurora when she, Melody, returned to California
-- Aurora refused to go back.
At a benefit with Jack, Melody ran into Marc Hasler again, and
told him the story of Aurora. He offered to visit her at the
hospital, thinking it would be one visit to cheer the girl up.
When he saw Aurora, however, Marc fell in love with her, and
continued to visit her frequently.
Natalya arrived from California with a report for Melody on
their business there. Natalya found Melody a new agent -- a
large agency with offices in Los Angeles and New York, with
whom Melody gratefully signed. They then took over negotiations
for Paradise Lost with LucasFilms.
While Natalya was in London, Melody introduced her to Nathan
Carter, a friend from when she was first living there, and they
immediately hit it off. Just before Melody returned to California
with Jack, Natalya informed them that she would be staying in
London, and was going to marry Nathan. Overjoyed, Melody helped
her plan her wedding, and she and Jack also planned to return
for the wedding, in the fall.
Jack offered to employ Aurora in his corporation, which was
headquartered in New York but would be opening an office in
London in the near future. Melody was skeptical about Aurora's
ability to work or to be a good employee, and one night, before
a date with Marc, Aurora overheard a conversation between Melody
and Jack regarding her future. She disappeared that night, and
even Dick Morris (the detective) couldn't locate her.
Melody returned to California, accompanied by Jack. Although
she still refused to marry him, the lovers reached a loose arrangement
to travel and live together...sometimes. It was Marc who located
Aurora, and when he did he didn't give her any options -- he
moved her into his townhouse, and under his supervision she
was cleansed of her drug abuse.
While in California, Jack introduced Melody to his friends Cameron
and Diana Prince. Diana and Melody became good friends, and
Cameron arranged to direct Melody's second movie, The Faerie
Queen. Diana returned to London with Melody in the spring; Jack
followed them when Paradise Lost finished filming.
A year after their meeting, Jack was still hoping Melody would
marry him one day, but realized that his objective had been
achieved anyway -- they were such a famous couple that no one
ever approached either one of them. In London during the spring
of 1989, Melody's book Punk Retro was released. Neither Melody
nor any of her friends knew anything of Aurora since Marc Hasler
rescued her the previous fall -- at the release party for the
book, he told Melody that Aurora was in Norway with his family,
and they were going to married.
In the summer of 1989, Melody and Jack returned to London for
the opening of Friends House -- Melody's rehabilitation center
and halfway house (a project which was completed mainly by Diana
Prince, Natalya, and Melody's friends Reggie and Dorothy --
hence the name). It was there that Melody finally saw Aurora
again. Aurora and Marc were now married, and Aurora was pregnant;
something that amazed Melody -- she had been told Aurora couldn't
become pregnant without having an operation that terrified her.
Apparently she had gone under the knife for Marc, and now her
entire life was centered around him.
Melody's friendship with Diana Prince, and her relationship
to her volatile husband, helped Melody realize that not everyone
was as independent as she; Aurora was a weak-willed woman who
needed the assistance of a very strong man.
After becoming involved in a battle between Cameron and Diana
Prince that nearly ended in the couple's divorce, Melody and
Jack entertained them at the London house. Aurora showed up
in the middle of the night, beaten and bruised -- her story
was that Marc nearly killed her after she fell down the stairs
and lost the baby. But when Marc showed up later that same night,
more bruised than she and with a vicious knife-slash down his
face, it became clear that Aurora was the psychopath in their
odd coupling, and a pathological liar into the bargain.
Aurora went to see Cameron's psychiatrist at his insistence,
but when it was determined she was well enough to return to
Marc, she attempted to strangle him and then jumped into the
Thames from the Hammersmith Bridge.
Melody and her friends went on to fund a number of Friends Houses
in London, and to make plans for some in the U.S. Melody enjoyed
success and the love of Jack, but never forgot Aurora and the
unique friendship they shared, even for a short time.
Sample Chapter
Melody's Journal: Remembering California
September, 1988
Yesterday was Aurora's funeral, and I tried to remember just
when I first met her, but I couldn't do it. One day, in 1984,
I think, she was just there, in my life, like a favorite toy
or a vase someone gave me as a gift -- but it would be hard
to conceive of someone who would give Aurora Lawson as a gift.
When I had the accident, Aurora was still in college and working
as a clerk in a supermarket. That was how it really happened,
I suppose...my mother met her first. Mom meets people all the
time, and everyone she meets always loves her; at least, I can't
recall anyone who ever disliked her. Or had
the courage to say so, if they did. My mother looks like someone
out of one of those old 1930's comedies -- Penny Singleton,
forty years later. But her personality belies her looks; she's
one of the most forceful, determined women I've ever known.
Until I met Aurora, that is. Everyone loved her, too... particularly
then, when her beautiful face was still round and childishly
glowing...before she saw Marc Hasler, and all the problems began.
But that was still in the future, that autumn in 1985.
Aurora was one of those people who seem to be born with more
problems than most, but physically she had most of her fellows
beat.
I've always realized that my early years were luckier and more
successful than I deserved -- at least, I've always thought
so when I see how other people suffered through their own. I
was the only child of doting parents who were solidly middle
class in material wealth (though fortunately not in values)
who put me through college and supported me in all my crazy
schemes. Then, when I was twenty-two, my Mustang convertible
careened off a road in the Hollywood hills one balmy summer
night and plunged over a cliff. At four in the morning even
Hollywood is relatively deserted, and I lay unconscious in the
open car for several hours before I was discovered by a man
from a nearby house, on his way to work.
When I arrived at the hospital I awoke to find myself unable
to move, in a state of mental panic and acute terror. My parents
arrived later from their house in the valley, and were told
by a young, grave-faced doctor that I would possibly not walk
again. I had spinal damage, and would be spending anywhere from
a month to a year in the hospital.
It never occured to me to believe what I was told (I am my mother's
daughter, in many ways), but I did spent the next six months
in that hospital. I knew I wouldn't be able to work for awhile
after they let me go home, even though I could walk -- very
slowly and painfully. I returned to my parents' house for what
I thought would be a few months.
It was two years before I could walk without pain, and was deemed
well enough to work again. I was ten thousand dollars in debt
and had gained fifty pounds in excess weight.
Before the accident, I was the youngest staff writer for The
Hollywood Reporter; before that, a teen-aged "punk-rock"
stringer for a number of music and entertainment magazines.
For The Reporter I covered rock music events in a column entitled
On the Scene, many times reporting from whatever trendy club
was the "flavor of the month" in Los Angeles. Now,
at the age of twenty-four, I had become last year's 'flavor.
No one remembered me and no one wanted to. In a city where trends
change monthly, who was likely to remember someone who had disappeared
two years before?
During my convalescence my parents bought me a computer, and
I wrote a book covering 30-years of history about punk rock
and New Wave music. I met Aurora while I was still working on
the book, and she was in college studying to be a photographer.
It impressed me that she was, in addition to working in a grocery
store and her college classes, stringing on a semi-professional
basis for a rock music promotion company, taking photos of groups
on tour.
During the two years of my convalescence, I saw Aurora only
in passing, when I went to the supermarket where she was working
as a clerk. She was always smiling and cheerful, and seemed
so happy with life that it never occured to me she might want
something different.
In 1985 I acquired an agent in New York, one who was particularly
interested in books about rock music. It was Tanya who first
suggested I relocate to London, where she felt there was more
chance for an American journalist, who would be considered an
exotic item by the British.
After the accident and my subsequent abandonment by the people
I'd believed were my friends in Los Angeles, I decided she was
right -- it was time for me to leave California -- and London
seemed far enough away and exotically exciting enough for me
to forget the last few dismal years in its' romantic ambiance.
I was hoping to go during the summer of 1986, thinking with
any luck my book would be sold by then.
Somewhere around September of 1985, I mentioned my proposed
emigration to Aurora, who surprised me by expressing a wish
to go herself. She had finished her two years in junior college
with an AA degree in Photography and didn't feel ready to go
on to a university yet; but even more, she was waiting for her
chance to escape from California, as I was.
October of 1985 was the turning point in our friendship, when
I invited her to a Halloween party. Looking back now, I can't
remember what prompted me to do so, when up until then we had
only been the most casual of friends. From that night on, however,
we became inseparable. There was no idea of Aurora
coming to London with me until Tanya suggested I write a star
biography. Once the concept was broached, I jumped into it with
all my old enthusiasm. Now, I consider that to have been my
first mistake.
I telephoned Aurora, and we set about coming up with a group
that a. Was an enormous success; b. Was new enough and hadn't
had much written about them and c. Lived in London. It was in
November that Aurora mentioned the group VALHALLA. I knew very
little about them, although I had seen them on MTV once. We
went to a record store and looked through the disgusting teenybopper
mags, trying to find something on this mysterious trio. There
were plenty of photographs of them -- three Viking creampuffs,
complete with torn jeans, bulging muscles and chiseled faces.
There was very little information, however -- it was obvious
teenagers didn't bother to read much anymore.
I was prejudiced against the group at the beginning -- I didn't
relish the idea of doing one of those trashy bios that are 80
percent staged photographs and 20 percent stupid narrative that
catalogues the lead singer's favorite color and what the drummer
looks for in girls. But as time passed, and no better subject
presented itself, I started to mellow towards the trio, and
once I began to watch their videos and listen to their music,
I realized there was more to them than their record company
bio was revealing. Their music had a romantic, haunting quality
that was different from anything I'd heard before.
I mentioned the group to, Tanya, who was very enthusiastic about
the whole thing and told me she was certain the proposed book
would be the first of a series I could do on a variety of groups.
Giving in to the idea of using VALHALLA was my second mistake,
I later realized.
It was because of VALHALLA that Aurora decided to accompany
me to London. Again, I can't remember, now, exactly whose
idea it was, but it came about due to the need of a photographer
to work on the biography. And if I was going to need a photographer,
here was one ready and eager (even panting) to be at my side.
It began in January of 1986, and gradually grew over the next
several months as we completed the proposal for the Valhalla
book, tentatively entitled Out of the Land of the Midnight Sun.
In March, the proposal was completed, and I had acquired another
agent, in London.
Shirley Ponsenby was an associate of Tanya's agency, and in
March she began marketing my book in London. A copy of the VALHALLA
proposal went to Shirley; and one to the manager of the group.
As a staff writer for The Hollywood Reporter, I was accustomed
to dealing with stars and their managers. What I had never encountered
before was a manager so vain and unscrupulous he would lead
me on a "yellow brick road" dance for nearly a year.
At the end of that time he would attempt to appropriate the
book proposal and write the book himself.
Not having been blessed with even the smallest degree of "second
sight" and therefore having no knowledge of any of this
in the spring of 1986, we were on top of our little California
world. When I spoke to Tracy Slaughter in June there was no
indication of anything but the best of intentions on his part.
He even hinted that the group would be interested in working
with us on the book; that it could be an official biography.
During this period (roughly between January and June), Aurora
began to have a series of strange dreams involving the lead
singer of VALHALLA, Marc Hasler. What we didn't know at the
time was that Aurora did have strong psychic abilities, latent
most of her life, which would eventually drive her to the brink
of madness, since she had no talent whatsoever in determining
her own affairs with any degree of accuracy. We were never to
discover why these powers had chosen that moment to manifest
themselves after so many years.
During the months to follow, I received explanations from various
"experts" on the subject -- that Hasler was experiencing
trauma and Aurora, having him on her mind, picked up on his
"radio waves"; that Aurora and Marc were "soul
mates"; a theory that seemed to have validity, based on
what has happened, now. Certainly there never seemed to be any
proof that "soul mates" were necessarily good to or
for one another; they could just as easily be destructive and
cruel. I don't know about the validity of any of the explanations
given; but Aurora's dreams turned out, later, to have happened
to Marc Hasler during that period.
As June approached, I started to panic, and considered postponing
the departure date until that Autumn. There had been no solid
offers for the book, Punk Retro: The Music of the No-Future
Generation, from any of the New York publishers Tanya was touting
it to, and Shirley hadn't had enough time to solidify anything
in London. We were scheduled to stop in New York on the way
and meet with the editors of several publishing companies; Tanya
felt this might bring in some offers.
Aurora convinced me to take the plunge, and I capitulated, despite
the fact that I had no money at all -- Aurora was paying for
everything. When she had plenty, Aurora was the most generous
girl I'd known.
We were scheduled for a week in New York, and before we left
California Tanya told me there would be offers for me when we
arrived; possibly even a contract for me to sign. After this,
I felt better about going, thinking we would at least arrive
in London with the promise of money in the near future.
And we did have a place to stay until we were able to get some
money from a publisher and find our own flat. My cousin Martin,
in his early 30's, seemed to have done quite well for himself,
from what I'd heard. A producer for BBC television, Martin owned
a house in West London and he assured me there was plenty of
room for both of us to stay there for a month.
On June 1st we shipped eleven cartons of clothes, china, kitchen
supplies and pictures from San Francisco to London. The shipment
would take five weeks to arrive, by which time we were certain
we'd have our own place. On June 11th we left for New York,
as optimistic as two young women have ever been as they set
off to make a new life for themselves.
From the time our plane set down at Kennedy Airport, everything
that could possibly go wrong obliged us by doing so. That should
have been a clue as to what was to come, but we weren't listening.
We'd made our plans carefully, but there is that old proverb
about the plans of mice and men. I was to come to the conclusion
that it applied to women, too. Not only did we have a lot of
luggage, we also had an enormous box containing gifts for my
relatives, business papers, photographs for the book, hats,
shoes, etc. We were overburdened with luggage to the extent
that a bus into New York was out of the question. We had arranged
for a rental car for several days, to be picked up at the airport.
When we arrived at the Hertz rental agency next to the airport,
Aurora realized her credit cards were missing -- they had been
left somewhere in California. I hadn't had any credit cards
since before the accident. Without credit cards, you can't rent
a car.
We finally found a cab to take us into the city. It was then
we discovered that the hotel we had booked into (near Columbia
University and frequented by exchange students from around the
world) was on the edge of Harlem; and they had lost our reservation
despite the deposit Aurora sent them to hold the room. Naturally
the Reservations Director wasn't around at
one in the morning, so I spent an hour talking the desk clerk
into a room the size of a closet, containing one single bed.
Once a fold-up cot had been moved into the room we couldn't
get to either bed without climbing over the other.
The next day, I discovered Tanya had made none of the appointments
she promised with editors who were reading Punk Retro. Shirley
Ponsenby had a publisher in London who wanted the book, so they
were planning to sign the contract in England first and work
on the states later. This would mean a lot more money for me
in the long run, or so they told me. But no one had bothered
to tell me that we could have skipped this trip to New York,
and save ourselves a lot of money that we would desperately
need.
Two days later we had dinner with Tanya at a trendy restaurant
in Greenwich Village. The clues were starting to add up, but
I was too distraught to see them. Tanya had used up her expense
account money for the month; so we had to pay for our own dinner.
Aurora found a bug in her salad. Tanya's boss, the head of her
agency, who had been very eager to meet me only the month before,
was now too busy. We cut our stay short and left for London
the following morning, convinced that once we reached the magical
city, our luck would change.
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