A PERFECT RENDEZVOUS

Homecoming

"Mr. Malik, could we have a picture with you and Miss Copeland?" The Los Angeles Daily News reporter shouted, raising her voice to be heard above the music and raucous clamor of the five hundred guests attending a lavish weekend party at Zayn's home. When he didn't hear her, she turned to the other reporters with a laughing shrug. "What a bash!" she said, motioning to one of the fifty tuxedo-clad waiters moving around the crowd offering trays of hors d'oeuvres and drinks to those guests who didn't want to bother wandering over to the huge white canopy where the caterers were providing lobster, caviar, and a host of delectable food. Behind them, the enormous swimming pool with its Roman columns was filled with more guests, some of them fully dressed, drinking and shouting. "He's only been out for six weeks and look at this!" she continued happily, helping herself to a glass of Dom Perignon champagne from the waiter's tray. "He's back on top of the world, hotter than ever. The kingpins of the industry are all here at his beck and call, overjoyed with the honor to be included in his 'homecoming party.'" She took a sip of champagne and, for the sake of conversation, confided something most of them already knew. "His agent said that Paramount, Universal, and Fox have all offered him any script he wants, and the bidding for his next film is up to $20 million. He's holding out for twenty-five and a bigger piece of the gross."

"Not bad for a guy who's been away from the business for five years," the CBS reporter said with a chuckle, and like the Daily News reporter, he scrupulously avoided the use of the word prison, not because he was particularly tactful, but for a more practical reason: Zayn's publicist had made it clear to all the reporters who were lucky enough to be admitted to this party that there were three subjects that, if brought up, would get them ejected and also permanently eliminate their chances for any future interviews with him. Those permanently banned subjects were his imprisonment, his dead wife, and Harry Mathison.

The NBC reporter looked at his watch, then he looked around for his cameraman and saw him standing by the swimming pool, trying to flirt with a starlet clad in a micromini spandex dress with a plunging neckline. "His publicist said he'd give us all a two-minute interview and pose for some pictures if we stayed out of his hair during the party. If he doesn't do it soon, I'm not going to be able to get this tape on the ten o'clock news."

As if finally realizing their dilemma, Sally Morrison, who'd handled all of Zayn's dealings with the media for years, motioned to them to gather into a group, then she wended her way through the crowd to where Zayn was listening to three producers who were vying for his attention while Diana Copeland kept her hand through his right arm. As they watched, Sally spoke to him, he nodded, looked over at the reporters, and excused himself from the group surrounding him, walking toward them with Diana at his side.