Stars and Guitars Series

Talk to a Movie Star is an online subscription service that allows fans to have conversations with a vast stable of Hollywood’s best and brightest. It’s not real, of course. An operator wearing a facial motion capture device sits in front of a console, and after the subscriber chooses a character or actor, the operator then appears onscreen as that celebrity. What these fans choose to discuss with the simulations is their own business. There is often a romantic element to it, but subscribers can talk to their idols about anything. There are movie buffs who enjoy asking the stars of yesteryear about what it was like being in showbiz back then, and film students who query directors as a creative exercise. TTAMS is different, thought-provoking, and, as the saying goes, all in good fun. When Joyce met Valerie in college, she seemed to be just another code-monkey, roughing it in the dorm. Joyce soon discovered that Valerie lived in the world of cinema, where happily-ever-afters never failed to occur, but Joyce could see right way that the vivacious, fun-loving tech would go far. So what if she was a little strange, always quoting movies to get her point across in conversation? Valerie was brilliant, and genius is allowed such eccentricity. When they first met, Joyce would’ve termed her friend’s imagination as staggering. But since they’ve launched Talk To a Movie Star, Joyce has learned that there could be another term for her friend’s imagination. Delusional, perhaps. Talking to her favorite actor is something that Valerie does frequently, and she doesn’t need a computer interface to accomplish it. Reality collides harshly with fantasy when an old lover suddenly reappears. There had been no romantic storybook ending for Valerie and Brett. Valerie is distraught, and Joyce vows to shield her friend from the kind of messy, real-life details that don’t always resolve themselves pleasantly before the scene fades to black and the credits roll. Joyce figures that she owes it to her best friend - Valerie’s fragile mental health might just be at stake, not to mention the future of the world’s hottest infotainment service.

Cal Bascomb and Ernie LaBelle were once the drummer and second-guitar for one of the world’s premier rock bands. But that ended when their multi-platinum singer called it quits, and the two old friends drifted apart over the ensuing years. Cal did a little studio work and Ernie joined another band. He liked to tour because the road was where his groupies were.When Ernie receives a letter proclaiming that one of those one night stands produced dividends – the writer says she’s his 18-year-old daughter – he’s stoked. He recalls that the young woman’s mother had given him quite an unusual evening. “She had a little place right around the corner from our hotel.” “Was that the one –? The devil-worshipping chick?” “The very one. I don’t know if she was a devil-worshipper per se, but she wasn’t a Jehovah’s Witness. Some kind of witchy thing, definitely.” Ernie’s daughter plays guitar, just like her legendary daddy. She (and the rest of her band, as well) also consider themselves to be of the blood, just like her mother. They’re convinced that ritual, sacrifice, and invocations to the forces unseen will guarantee them rock and roll fame. Cal is appalled, but happy-go-lucky Ernie ignores their good-luck charms and their talk of foretellings satisfied and prophecies yet to be fulfilled. “Who cares what they believe?” the proud papa tells his drummer. “As long as you don’t start believing it and I don’t start believing it. This chick wanted to have my kid. She wanted to make another great musician, just like me. The least we can do is help out the band.” Cal doesn’t care too much for the band, and even less for the witchcraft, but Ernie’s daughter is beautiful and talented, so he decides to go along for the ride. The ride quickly turns bumpy, but the supernatural is just a fairytale to the once-famous drummer and guitarist. “All that mumbo-jumbo only works if you believe in it in the first place, right? Like voodoo dolls?”