The Picture of Donna Gray and other stories

By Peter Kranz

The Picture of Donna Gray
An actress tries to rejuvenate her flagging career with one bold movie.

The Goodbye Loving
An entrepreneur's last fling with his ex.

ThunderClap
The boss of an investment firm resorts to blackmail to get the pleasure she craves.

Sylvia Tree
A young man is attracted to a beautiful woman. The trouble is, she is his best friend's girl.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kranz Words
• Release date: Mar 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393910411

Book preview

The Picture of Donna Gray

She gave her cigarette a last pull and then stubbed it out on the wooden armrest of her chair. She was naked except for a small towel covering her nether region. The director had called out Action and she was due to make an entrance. She stood up slowly and the towel fell off. She could here gasps among the camera crew. She smiled to herself.

Men.

Such weak creatures. They can’t look at a naked woman without catching their breath.

The cameras were rolling, she knew and they’d be pointing at every part of her body. At nearly forty, she had the body of a twenty year old. Not many women can say that about their own bodies but then not many of them would be able to afford a personal trainer, Botox treatments and the occasional plastic surgery from the best plastic surgeons available.

Ron what-his-name stood in front of her. He was naked too. At thirty, he recently acquired fame as the lead actor in a science fiction movie. And now he was supposed to be her paramour in this contemporary movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Donna Gray.  She played the main character, Donna Gray, who, like the original character, seduces the character played by Ron.

Hello Sebastian, she said to Ron, who was playing the part of Sebastian Vane, one of Donna’s love interest.

Ron was dumbstruck. Looking at her nakedness, he forgot his lines. He stood there, frozen, staring at her. She heard barely suppressed snickering among the camera crew.

Cut! yelled the director, William Howard III.  He stormed into the set.

Ron, what the hell’s wrong with you? This is the third time you’ve forgotten your lines.

Ron blushed. Sorry Bill, this is the first time I ... I’m ... not ... wearing any clothes in front of the cameras.

Maybe you should practice in front of the mirror or your girlfriend first Ron, she said. Then, she stormed off the set, still completely naked. She ignored the bathrobe that a female camera crew was holding for her.

Lana! the director called after her. Where are you going?

I’m going home!

You can’t do that. We ain’t done yet.

I’m tired, she shouted, heading for the changing room. Maybe we should get someone else. Ron is an asshole.

Ron White grimaced. He was now wrapped in a bathrobe. Fucking bitch, he thought.  One of these days ... I’ll ... I’ll ...

Ron! Bill shouted. Get dressed now. I’m going to shoot two other scenes with you that doesn’t involve her highness.

Ron sighed. He remembered how happy he was when he was told that he was going to star opposite Lana Ray, once considered by many to be the hottest actress in the business. Although her last two movies bombed at the box office, she was one of his favorite actresses. He thought she was the epitome of beauty, sensuality and grace. Not only that, if he were to star opposite her, her fame might rub off on him, further bolstering his fledgling career. Unfortunately, as he now realize, Lana Ray was a diva. Her fifteen years as the most sought after actress in Hollywood had gone to her head. He had heard rumors that she was notoriously difficult to work with and now he was finding that out for himself.

He still considered her very beautiful and sexy however. Seeing her stark naked in front of him, barely an arm’s length away, completely disrupted his composure. Worse, he was naked as well and he was sure everyone on the set had seen how aroused he was. He forgot his lines and his tongue went on strike. He had seen her in various stages of undress in the movies but there was never any shot of her completely naked. He was in his late teens when he first watched one of her movies and he used to fantasize about holding her naked body in his arms, touching her and kissing her luscious lips.

He stopped himself. Maybe he’d expected too much from her. She was human after all. Maybe she was tired. He knew he was. He’d kept himself pretty fit by eating carefully and exercising regularly, but the rehearsals, the constant shooting and re-shooting of scenes were draining everyone. He could see fatigue on faces of everyone on the set. That’s why she was behaving like a b- No, he shouldn’t use that word. He’d call her up tomorrow and talk to her, have lunch with her. Maybe that’ll break the ice and they might just work together well.

LANA RAY EASED HER Mercedes S 450 into the empty parking lot in the underground carpark of her condominium. This was one of the properties she owned which she stayed in while she was filming. Just twenty-five minutes’ drive from the studio, it had been her home for the most part of the year. It was located in the affluent part of the city with round the clock security.

She slammed the door of the car and stormed into the elevator, wrapping her leather coat tightly around her. It was the only piece of clothing she had on. She was so angry at the studio with that stupid Ron whatever-his-name-was that she developed a splitting headache. She had rushed into her changing room, grabbed the coat and wrapped it around her body, not bothering to put on her underclothes, jeans and T-shirt that she usually wore to work.

Once inside her apartment, she kicked off her sandals and flung the leather coat away. Then, she swallowed two Advil tablets from her medicine cabinet with whiskey and flopped onto her sofa.

Fuck you, Ron, she said as she closed her eyes and tried to breathe slowly, the way her psychiatrist had taught her. Yeah, her shrink, that fucking Dr. Richards ...

He’d told her that she was had an obsessive-compulsive streak and was a perfectionist to boot. These traits were suppressed and dormant when she was just a young unknown actress but now that she had achieved fame, they’d risen and had made her and those around her miserable. She’d also been treated multiple times for depression.

Take some time off, Lana, he’d told her. "You have enough money. You can afford to take a year or two off. You need to rest. Your mind needs to rest. Go round the world. Enjoy yourself.

"Stop overthinking Lana. That’s your problem Lana. You always imagine that things are going to get worse than they really are. You got to stop this or it’ll kill you