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I’ has fallen asleep because of how long I’ve been stuck in this particular position Sweat pours down the sides of Bentley’s face as he’s cales but Bentley assures him Bruce’s head isn’t in the frame The French pre out obscenities Bobby’s frustration is palpable Bruce takes a break, wiping his forehead with a Calvin Klein towel, sips a wararette,his ar "Go back to section four, ask it in B sequence" Again, nothing happens The actor doesn’t know anything Hethe perfor for this part It’s all over Bobby instructs Bruce to pour acid on the actor’s hands Pain floods his face as he gazes atis sawed off

21

The actor playing the French premier’s son realizes it doesn’t matter anymore how life should be-he’s past that point now in the underground room in the house in the 8th or the 16th He was on the Italian Riviera now, driving a Mercedes convertible, he was at a casino in Monte Carlo, he was in Aspen on a sunny patio dotted with snow, and a girl who had just won the silverhim jealously He was outside a club in New York called Spy and fleeing into afa out of li into a cell phone, a stupefied date next to hi hiswas flickering and he had just finished printing his initials on a picture of a polar bear he’d drawn for her He was kicking a soccer ball across a vast green field He was experiencing his father’s hard stare He lived in a palace Blackness, its hue, curves toward hi It was all so arbitrary: prolory, acceptance There was the sound of ca toward hiure, and as it fell onto him it looked up and he saw the head of a monster with the face of a fly

20

We’re at a dinner party in an apartment on Rue Paul Valery between Avenue Foch and Avenue Victor Hugo and it’s all rather subdued since a suests were blown up in the Ritz yesterday For co, which is understandable even if they bought things a little too enthusiastically Tonight it’s just wildflowers and white lilies, just Ws Paris bureau chief, Donna Karan, Aerin Lauder, Ines de la Fressange and Christian Louboutin, who thinks I snubbed hi Just Annette Bening and Michael Stipe in a tolassy-eyed, her lips swollen froen injections, beeswax balh the party, stopping to listen to Kate Winslet, to jean Reno, to Polly Walker, to Jacques Grange just the s everywhere just another conversation with a chic sadist obsessed with origa excitedly, "Natasha’s co!" just people tan and back fro reskinned just o, drinking a Woo-Woo

Jas and he exits the roo the phone, the other hand held up to his ear to block the din of the party

"He’s certainly in hair heaven," Ja svelte in a teensy skirt and a pair of 1,500 shoes, nibbling an Italian cookie "You’re looking good tonight"

"The better you look," I murmur, "the more you see"

"I’ll remember that"

"No you won’t But for now I’ll believe you"

"I’m serious" She waves a fly away fro very spiffy You have the knack"

"What do you want?" I ask, recoiling from her presence

Behind her Bobby walks quickly back into the roo sy and she’s already a little upset that people in the lobby are dancing but she’s being brave and then Bobby spots Jah there are a lot of people to greet and say goodbye to