On our way to the press conference, I had time to reflect on this budget/splurge dichotomy that had been used to torment me over the past year. During the prep meeting, Rita and I had disagreed on where to hold our meeting with the press. She wanted to do it at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, right in the heart of Beverly Hills’ swanky area. I’d wanted something more economical. We were talking about the people who hounded us, not studio executives. Guess who won that argument. I should have just shut up because she’d been doing this kind of thing for years. Halle teased me and called me cheap, which irritated me and made me dig my heels in.
I knew I wasn’t winning when Caryn joined us and agreed with Rita. Talk about killing my crusade. If anyone was cheap, it was Caryn.
That was how I found myself on the Rodeo Terrace that overlooked the legendary Rodeo Drive. We’d originally planned to hold the press conference in the early afternoon so that the information would be released in time for the evening news on the East Coast. Bev Mass had been correct when she warned us about our time window because the police had requested an interview for just after lunch. Luckily, Frank and his team worked their magic, and we were ready at 11:00 a.m.
I worried that we wouldn’t be able to get the press there in time, but underestimated the lure of a scandal. Frank led us out to a table with a lectern at the end. I was joined by Halle, Rita, Fritz, and Lexi, who’d volunteered to talk about what she’d seen. Frank stood at the lectern and got the press to quiet down.
“Halle James will read a prepared statement, and then we will show you videos of what happened. We will have the other people you see up here make statements, and then we’ll open it up to questions,” Frank said and sat down.
Halle’s statement outlined the different times that Zander had crossed the line, on and off the set. Bev Mass’s background as a district attorney had paid off when writing the statement. Words matter when describing what happened, especially the legal definitions. Bev assured us that with just the written statement, any rookie DA would be able to put together the case against Zander. Putting bad guys away was her passion. Once Bev knew we’d made the decision to go after him publicly, she wanted to make sure we didn’t mess up the case before it went to trial.
Once she’d read her statement, Halle decided to go off-script.
“I think about young girls today … I don’t want my future daughter, your daughter, or any person to be afraid that they will be punished if they speak out about being abused. Especially if their abuser is in a position of power. I was lucky in that I have a powerful mother who supports me, and that support negated much of the leverage my attacker had over me.
“Even with that support, I was forced into a room, and I absolutely believe that if my friend hadn’t been with me, I would have been raped. When he was thwarted, he thought he could do even more damage, and attempted to kill me and the people I was with. Unfortunately, my close friend David A. Dawson was injured when our car was rammed by Zander Lewis’s bodyguard. The coward then fled the scene,” Halle said as she became overcome with emotion.
If I could’ve gotten up without almost passing out from the pain, I would have gone to her. I was glad that her mother stepped up and give her a hug of comfort.
“Mark my words. Zander was just doing what he assumed from prior experience he could get away with. In the coming days, others will come forward and share their experiences of this predator,” Halle concluded, then collapsed into her mom’s arms.
I was impressed. I’d never seen this many people from the press sit that quietly before. Their usual MO would be to start shouting questions. Frank had one of his people begin showing the videos. He ran through them all before having the rest of us comment on them.
I hadn’t seen the whole thing before.
You could tell that Zander was losing his self-control. I had no idea why Halle seemed to be trying to reason with him.
