Chapter 81

Though Blake was gay, watching Jenny while she was shooting the climactic sex scene with Richard Riley got to him a little. As usual, they had to shoot the scene over and over and over, and watching Jenny and Riley caress each other and roll around in the bed perked up an interest he wasn't sure how to handle.

He wondered a little how Jenny would have made out in the scene if she hadn't been brought up as a nudist. Though the American version of the film would be carefully cut to avoid showing Jenny's bare breasts, they were also shooting the European version that afternoon, and though the American viewer in the theater wouldn't see much more than Jenny's bare back and the top of her bare butt, the crew in the studio was seeing a whole lot more.

Jenny was really composed, and really into her character, he thought. Even he found it hard to tell that Jenny had little serious interest in the scene, although he knew it was the case. The same couldn't be said for Riley; Jenny was getting to him before the afternoon was over with, and the scenes kept getting more passionate. "If Jenny were anyone else, I might not be taking her home tonight," Blake thought.

"O.K., cut," the director called finally. "What's a wrap for today."

If Riley thought that he didn't quite want to quit yet, he wasn't given much choice. He soon found himself being supported by thin air as Jenny swung out of bed. "You think you shot this damn scene enough?" she said to the director.

"Well, it's one of the pivotal scenes," the director said, fading for the back of the studio. Blake could pick up on Jenny's disgust with him as she headed for her own dressing room, wearing only panties, leaving Riley without a chance to get a word in edgewise.

In a few minutes, she was back, wearing jeans and a blouse. "Come on, Blake," she said. "Let's get out of here. I've had enough of this place for today."

It was the first time that Blake had seen Jenny really upset in months, but he thought he knew why: they had shot the scene over and over and over, each time trying to get it a little dirtier. "Pivotal scene, my ass," Jenny said as soon as they were in the car. "Simple gratuitous sex, just to punch the damn turkey up to make it deserve an 'R' rating. That goddamn Riley smells like a goat, and he's about as horny."

"I did think they overdid it a little," Blake commented neutrally.

"I don't know why these sons of bitches think they've got to have an 'R' rating to make money," Jenny continued her tirade. "It's a proven fact that good 'G' rated movies make out like bandits. People still like to take their kids to movies. There's nothing in this story line that needs a scene like that. A chaste kiss under an apple tree, the way they did it back in the thirties and forties, conveys every bit as much message as it will having Riley paw me all afternoon. Why the hell don't they make movies like that any more."

"Disney does," Blake commented.

"And Disney makes out like a bandit," Jenny said. "That proves my point. And even they're starting to miss the point a little. Why take a perfectly good story, add blood and guts and sex and dirty it up unnecessarily? Hell, I could make a better movie than that, and make more money."

"Maybe you ought to," Blake said. "There's no reason you couldn't produce your own movie. Maybe even direct it, like Striesand."

"I know for sure I could do a better job of directing than that idiot," Jenny went on. "I'm not a sicko, like that bastard. That's the last time I'm doing a movie with him, no matter what Knox comes up with, and that's the last time I do a movie like that, no matter how much money is involved. I don't need the money, and I don't need the aggravation. Why the hell can't someone come up with a good action-adventure script that isn't blood, guts, and sex? You don't need them to get an audience on the edge of their seats. Maybe I'll just stick to doing rock videos, although some of them are getting pretty bad."