We were joined by Jack and Bev Mass. Bev had lost her bid to get reelected as state’s attorney for Cook County, and her term was almost up. She held a seat on my board of directors. Jack was my CFO and the managing partner of Mass Investments.
The final person in the room was Megan Crowley, who held multiple roles for me. She kept track of the day-to-day financials, did all things technical, and was also very good at investigating stuff. If we planned to do something, she did much of the research.
As anyone might have expected, seeing me rolled in in a wheelchair caused a stir, and we had the predictable conversation as to what happened. I offered Brook the choice of going shopping or staying for the meeting. To my utter surprise, she opted for the meeting. I’d seen her look of interest in the various shops as we’d driven up Hollywood Boulevard. Based on that, I would have bet a large sum that Brook would have picked shopping.
◊◊◊
“I call this meeting to order,” my dad intoned.
Uncle John and Ms. Dixon, with Shannon Goehl, our corporate counsel, had joined the meeting via conference call. With my mom in the room, we had all the board of directors accounted for.
“This is not an official board meeting. With David’s trip to USC, we wanted a chance to meet everyone who’s based in LA and get updates about what they’ve been up to. For those of you on the call who might not be aware, David was in a car accident last night and was injured. While he may not be able to play football for three to six weeks, he’s okay,” Dad said.
“I’ll talk later about how we plan to spin this and reassure key people that he’s fine,” Frank said.
Frank was referring to my movie deals that were in place. Once word of my accident got out, people like Chubby Feldman, the director of my James Bond movie, would be worried I might not be able to perform. God forbid if my face had been scarred.
I zoned out at that point as I watched each person in the meeting. Kent seemed excited to have the management business growing. Combining the services of our publicist and management partnership was appealing. He talked about each client they’d signed and the ones they were working on. Brook took copious notes. If you had just walked in and hadn’t known any better, you might have thought it was she who owned the business, not me.
◊◊◊
When the meeting broke up, Dad pulled me aside.
“I’m glad I came, but it’s obvious that they don’t need me. That is, unless you think otherwise,” I muttered.
“No. It looks like Kent and Frank have things under control. Caryn keeps tabs and tells me if there’s anything that needs our attention.”
I smiled because I’d apparently finally gotten through to him that I wasn’t needed. He’d been doing what he thought was right. It was my money, and he felt I should be involved.
Maybe someday. It was enough for me to know that we had people in place who were both motivated and trustworthy. My grandma had been right when she told me I should build something with my money instead of merely investing it. The way the markets were going, so long as I wasn’t losing money, I was ahead.
“Halle is coming in so we can talk about the car wreck. Fritz says they have more information, so we’ll be staying a little later than we’d planned,” Dad informed me.
Kent, Frank, and Caryn stayed. I wasn’t really surprised when Saul showed up. Halle had an expected and an unexpected tagalong: Rita James and Lexi Andon. Fritz came in with Flo, Halle’s security person. She’d been left behind at Zak’s to see if the bedroom had been monitored.
Halle rushed over to me when she came in, and there were tears in her eyes.
“This was all my fault …” she said, and I cut her off.
“Nonsense.”
“If you hadn’t been with me, you never would have been hurt. When they took you away in the ambulance, I thought the worst. I’m so happy you’re going to be okay,” Halle said and planted a kiss on me.
I glanced over at Brook and saw she surprisingly wore a contented smile on her face as she looked on.
Everyone gathered around the conference table. Halle sat on my left-hand side, with Brook on my right; Halle grasped my uninjured hand for support. Caryn called Ms. Dixon and Uncle John to have them on the conference call.
We did introductions around the table for the benefit of the two on the phone. When we got to Lexi, she introduced herself as my new personal assistant for
“Lexi’s the daughter of Paul Andon, the studio exec who signed me for the two
