Hollywood Remake (A Celebrity Love Story)

Chapter 13: Clueless

“How bad is it?” Aidan asked, as his publicist perched herself on the edge of the hospital bed and pulled out a laptop.

“Why don’t I just show you the clip,” Annette responded.

Kate stood in the doorway, looking at the two of them uncertainly. Should she leave the room? She had the strangest feeling that she’d just been dismissed.

“You’re probably going to want to see this too, Kate,” Annette called over her shoulder. Aidan looked up and held out a hand toward her. Not dismissed, then. Kate went over to the bed and took his hand, letting him draw her to a spot by the head of the bed where they could both see the laptop screen.

Annette clicked Play, and the screen was filled with a shot of two paramedics knocking on Aidan’s front door. The door opened, and Kate was clearly visible in the doorway, dressed only in a towel. Annette paused the clip as the camera zoomed in for a close-up.

“Oh my God,” Kate said, pressing one hand to her mouth in horror.

Aidan glanced up at her. “Could be worse.”

“How? I’m in a towel, Aidan.”

He smirked. “You look pretty good in a towel.”

She glared at him, and he flashed her a grin. “Hey, at least you remembered the towel,” he said. “Things could have gotten really pornographic.”

“Oh my God,” Kate said again, burying her face in her hands. “This is on every channel?”

Aidan addressed Annette. “So she’s in a towel. What’s the big deal?”

“You haven’t heard the rest,” Annette said, advancing the clip a few frames and then clicking Play again. “They have the 911 tape.”

Kate looked up. The shot of her opening the door had been replaced by footage of Aidan being carried out of the house on a stretcher. She heard her own voice on a staticky phone line, talking to the 911 operator, with the text of the conversation transcribed at the bottom of the screen:

Dispatcher: 911. What’s your emergency? 

Morgan: Help! I need an ambulance!

Dispatcher: Please tell me your location [Pause] Ma’am? Ma’am, are you there? I need an address.

Morgan: [Unintelligible]

Dispatcher: Can you say that again, please?

Morgan: 3120 Ledgewood Drive in Hollywood. Please! Please hurry—

Aidan sucked in his breath with a hiss as Annette paused the clip again. “Shit,” he said.

“I don’t understand.” Kate was looking back and forth between the two of them. “How do they even have the tape? Does 911 just give out tapes like that?”

“They didn’t get it from 911, dear,” Annette responded.

Kate looked at her in confusion.

“Let me guess,” Aidan said. “You used the leaky the phone?”

“The leaky phone?”

“The number I give people when I don’t trust them not to leak it to the media,” he explained. “That phone’s been hacked by every gossip reporter in town.”

Kate shook her head. “I called from your cell phone. You’re telling me you have two different cell phones?”

“He has three different cell phones,” Annette said. “The real phone, the leaky phone, and—“