#99 kindness (remix) ~ All About Eve

Feb 05, 2007 23:26

title: Modern Girls
prompt: #99 ~ kindness (remainder) // a remix (with permission, and to her prompt) of So Few Come Back, a gorgeous yuletide '04 story by wearemany
fandom: All About Eve (1950)
pairing: Eve/OFC, Eve/Claudia, Eve/Margo
rating: K for kissing
words: 6x100 (excluding titles and dates)
thanks: to iamsab, for holding my hand, in this as in all things
A/N: "Cinema and Stardom" series, #7 (the end!)


Starry Night Out
Playbill, 1950
It's every Broadway fan's fantasy to twinkle among the Great White Way's constellation of stars. This month, Playbill grants your wish by whisking you away with us to one of grande dame Margo Channing's infamous soirées. The champagne always flows freely in Miss Channing's elegant uptown townhouse, a merry scene where everyone who's anyone rubs elbows. In the parlor, playwright Lloyd Richards hobnobs with critic Addison DeWitt -- apparently there are no hard feelings after that last review! Meanwhile, we spot Miss Channing's comely young charge Eve Harrington gossiping gaily with rising ingénue Claudia Caswell. Watch out for those two, boys!

Kisses are currency, and I spend them wisely. Secrets are currency too. I may act dumb, but I know enough Broadway math to calculate the value of secret kisses.

Eve and Margo, teacher and student. It's not that I think Eve Harrington will do me any favors, but when she locks the door of Margo's powder room behind us I know she knows we're playing the same game. Kissing her back (twisting artfully so my show of resistance thrusts my breasts into her hands) is the least I can do.

I'll have my own Eve Harrington, one of these days.

Eve's Eden
Ladies' Home Journal, 1953
Graciously playing the role of host, Eve Harrington entertained LHJ poolside at her stately Hollywood home. With her bygone Broadway companions now remembered in the faded sepia of "school chums," she extolled "the youthful spirit of my Hollywood set." She demurred, however, as to her preference for the vim and vigor of any particular gentleman! Mention of her new picture, based on a play of some notoriety, found her more effusive. Miss Harrington described the film version as "modern," assuring this reporter that "the audience will see in it what they want to see in themselves. True fans always do."

I always expect stars to look different in the flesh. But Eve Harrington, lithe and supine as Venus on a deck chair, is every bit an image. I hear myself fawning like a spaniel and wonder what role I'm playing in her offscreen drama.

The best stories are the ones I can't write up for the magazine, the ones you have to read between the lines. Miss Harrington's bare skin is velvety against mine, her lips lush and demanding.

I let myself imagine that one of these days a starlet will be kind enough to return my forgotten notebook herself.

Time for Grown-Up Glamour at The Children's Hour
Variety, 1954
Also seen at the premiere was Mrs. Bill Samson (formerly Margo Channing), unaccompanied by her husband. The Broadway baroness is credited with launching her erstwhile protégé's career, but by all indications their friendship has since chilled. Mrs. Samson had nothing but warm words for Miss Harrington's performance in this latest picture, however. "Eve was never afraid to take an unsavory role and make it her own," she commented, "that's no doubt why she's had such success." The Children's Hour's adult themes may scandalize certain moviegoers, but in the eyes of fans and confederates alike, Eve Harrington's Hollywood halo remains untarnished.

Every time she makes a new picture, I resolve not to see it. Every time, I find myself directing my driver to some run-down theater late in its run, praying I'll evade the paparazzi.

This time, I tell myself that Margo Channing, even Margo Samson, doesn't behave this way. Margo Channing walks the red carpet. Margo Samson has put her Broadway days behind her, but there's no reason she wouldn't attend an old friend's premiere if invited. No reason she wouldn't greet the picture's star with more indifference than disdain.

Eve Harrington. One of these days I'll get over her.

challenge100, author: projectjulie, fandom: all about eve, remix, challenge99

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