Three fifty-two.
His phone rang at three fifty-five.
“You didn’t tell me you were going to be inThe New Yorker.”
“Dad, hi.”
“Good piece.”
“You think?” Jack asked, and immediately regretted it. He didn’t need his father’s approval.
“You made the right choice turning down that Hollywood person.”
“Mm,” he said vaguely, refraining from pointing out that he hadn’t asked for an opinion on the Books with Blair offer, then or now.
“That’s not what we do,” his dad said.
“That’s not what you do, and it’s not what I do.” Which was subtly but importantly different fromThat’s not what we do. “Dad, I have to go. I’m doing a Friends of the Library dinner tonight, and I’m trying to get some work in beforehand.”I’m trying to get some staring at the screen in beforehand.
“So it’s dinner with rich assholes.”
“It’s dinner with rich assholes,” he said, both because it was the path of least resistance and because it was probably true. “Sometimes you have to have dinner with rich assholes.”
“But do you? If those rich assholes don’t have anything you want, do you?”
“Apparently some rich assholes give their money to the library.” And apparently Jack hadn’t become acompletecynic.
“Well,” his dad said, “don’t let it distract you from your purpose. You can’t ask for another extension.”
He was aware. He was also aware that his father had never missed a deadline.
“Bye, Dad.”
Three fifty-seven.
He googled Blair Kellermoon.
Chapter 2
Humiliation Is a State of Mind
“Blair Kellermoon and Reginald Johnston confirm split; actress and producer will divvy up real estate portfolio, pets”
People, August 26, 2024
Actress-producer Blair Kellermoon and megaproducer Reginald Johnston are divorcing after twenty years of marriage. Documents filed Tuesday indicate the divorce is uncontested.
Johnston, a former Paramount executive who left the studio in 2017 to form his own production company, is the force behind the blockbuster “Inkery” series, though he has credited Kellermoon with introducing him to the books that are its source.
Known for her starring turns in such iconic rom-coms asI Found YouandHidden Gems, Kellermoon has of late tried her hand at producing, with her shingle, Moonpics, behind such streaming hits asThe Girl Behind the DoorandThe Swallows. More recently,Green Light, a young adultGreat Gatsbyretelling that Kellermoon has called her passion project, fell apart after the departure of writer-producer Gerhard Tolhart; this on the heels of Kellermoon being famously rebuffed by novelist JackBranksome when she tried to secure his smash-hit debut novel for her book club.
Having been tapped by Disney to direct an as-yet-untitled stand-alone installment in the “Star Wars” universe, Tolhart cited scheduling conflicts and wished Kellermoon well, though rumors abound of personality conflicts between the auteur and the actress-turned-producer. Tolhart’s departure is the latest in a series of mishaps for the project, based on a novel by the late Angela Laredo.
Kellermoon, 39, and Johnston, 43, married in her hometown of Savannah, Georgia, and share two children, Calvin, 21, and Esme, 18. Kellermoon and Johnston are terminating their rights to spousal support.
The formerly globe-trotting couple have sold their New York apartment and Park City, Utah, chalet. Sources close to Kellermoon tellPeoplethat she will retain a Hollywood Hills three-bedroom Tudor built in 1929 that she has owned for two decades, and that Johnston, a vintage car aficionado, will remain in the $27 million Calabasas estate the couple has called home, which features 10 bedrooms and an eight-car garage.
Blair was trying to be the kind of person who didn’t jump every time her phone dinged, but it didn’t take much these days. Her mother would have said she was a bundle of nerves. Martha, her old shrink, would have said she had an anxiety disorder.
