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mintaka14 · 3 years

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This is a bit of something that got in my way while I was working on the ML ballet AU. Turns out I still have a grain or two of Lila salt in me. Quickspinner’s Out of Your League (from the All That Remains collection) needs the credit for a bit of backstory that I had in mind here. And yes, this is Lukanette. Always.

Lila wasn’t above using her mother’s sense of guilt to her own advantage. She also had no problem with feeding that guilt. A few sighs and teary comments when her mother (yet again) had to cancel on Lila to deal with something at the embassy, or a subtle reminder about all the times Lila had been left on her own in their apartment was all grist to the mill, and Lila had to admit that it had paid off in a big way this time.

Her mother had pulled every string and favour at her disposal for Lila’s birthday party, and Jagged Stone himself was going to be putting in an appearance. Lila was jubilant.

She watched the ballroom at the embassy – how her mother had managed that one Lila didn’t know, and honestly didn’t care – filling up with her classmates and everyone she’d ever met, and she allowed herself a satisfied smile.

Of course, Marinette wasn’t there. Lila had had an enjoyable month of it, tormenting the goody-two-shoes over it, and the beautiful part was that no one had even caught a hint of what she was really doing. She hadn’t been so crass as to leave Marinette out of the party invitations, oh no! She had handed the girl a gilt-edged invite with her most charming, and insincere, smile as she made a point of telling Marinette how much she hoped that Marinette would be there. Their classmates had eaten it up with a spoon, falling all over Lila to tell her how generous and forgiving she was, given the way Marinette had been so hostile to her, and all the while Lila had smiled sweetly and watched Marinette twist in the trap.

If Marinette begged off the party, she was the bad guy for refusing Lila’s olive branch. If Marinette came, then Lila won, and she would get to watch Marinette swallow her pride and suffer all night, or crack and create drama. Either way, it was all good, and Lila had had fun making little digs and comments about the party in front of Marinette for the weeks leading up to it.

As Lila accepted everyone’s tributes and praise, greeting each new arrival with becoming diffidence and subtly trying to gauge the worth of each gift that they piled on the table at the entrance, she came to the conclusion that Marinette had decided not to put in an appearance. Her smile grew wider.

“Lila!” Alya had arrived, and swept her into a hug, surveying the ballroom, and the tables of food, with an impressed eye. Behind her, Nino grinned and bobbed his head in greeting. “Amazing party, girl. And I can’t believe you got Jagged Stone to come!”

Lila gave her a modest smile. “It’s all about who you know, and Jagged was more than happy to come when he heard it was for my birthday.” She looked around as if searching for something, and made her eyes wide and hopeful. “Did… did Marinette come with you?”

Alya shifted uncomfortably. “Er… Marinette couldn’t make it. But she asked me to wish you a happy birthday.”

Oh, no, she didn’t, Lila thought, suppressing the smirk that pulled at the corners of her mouth. Alya, you liar.

She forced her face into a sorrowful pout with just the right touch of hurt. “It’s okay. It would have been nice if we could put aside whatever this grudge is that Marinette has against me just for once, but I guess not…”

Alya and Nino smiled awkwardly. And then her mother touched her arm, a harried expression on her face as she drew Lila away out of earshot for a moment.

“Lila, sweetheart, there’s some bad news,” her mother said anxiously, and Lila felt her smile slip a little. “We’ve just had word that Jagged Stone had to cancel at the last minute.”

“What do you mean, Jagged Stone cancelled?” Lila almost shrieked. A few heads turned towards them, and Lila brought herself back under control before they could overhear. “Mama, you need to fix this. Get him back!”

“Sweetheart, I can’t. His agent said it was unavoidable, and they’re paying the late cancellation fine in the contract. At this late notice I can’t get anyone else to come instead.”

Lila let her eyes fill with tears – she’d practised tearing up in front of her mirror, but in this case the tears were very real.

“Mama,” she insisted, and the harried lines on her mother’s face deepened.

“You’ll still have a lovely party,” her mother said weakly. “The food is wonderful, and you still have the DJ for entertainment.”

“But I told everyone that Jagged Stone was coming!”

“I’m so sorry, darling.” Her head turned towards the doorway, where an aide was waving a phone at her. “I have to go take this call.”

The moment that her mother had turned away, Lila’s mouth pinched with anger and frustration, and she barely stopped herself from stamping her foot.

“Hey girl, is everything okay?”

She heard Alya’s voice call out to her, and she smoothed out her face, spinning around with artificial enthusiasm. Several of their classmates were clustered behind Alya, and she turned a smile on them as well.

“So,” Alya continued, “we’re all really excited! When’s Jagged getting here?”

Lila gave a moue of only slightly exaggerated disappointment.

“Can you believe it?” she sighed, one hand fluttering up to her chest. “Jagged had to cancel. It was last minute, and I’m so worried it’s because that awful throat condition of his has flared up again.” Her hand went to her mouth. “Oh no! You can’t tell anyone about it, no one is supposed to know, but that was why he couldn’t do the zoom call with the class last month like he’d promised.”

There was a ripple of sympathy and concern through her classmates, but then Alix made a sceptical noise at the back of the group.

“Throat condition? But you said it was sunspot interference with the internet connection.”

“No, I was trying to keep his throat problems secret-“

“It was Clara Nightingale you said had a serious throat condition, and that was why she had to cancel helping out with the charity auction like she’d told you,” Alix interrupted.

“No, that was Jagged-“

“If recall accurately,” Max spoke up, “and I do, Clara Nightingale had the throat condition. I could have Markov replay the conversation,” he added helpfully, and Lila spun around in dismay.

“No, that’s not-“

“There have been a lot of cancellations,” Alix said in growing suspicion. Lila could see the faces around her registering confusion, and there was a growing murmur as her classmates tallied things up. She had to stop this before they came to the realisation that…

“What about that interview you promised me with Ladybug?” Alya was asking her, her voice sharp. “The one that got cancelled because of an akuma, except I could never find anything about that akuma, and you never rescheduled. And that meeting that Nino was supposed to have with that director?”

Nino wasn’t saying anything, his face hidden by his cap as he stared at the floor. The muttering was growing louder now as more people were working things out and the number of promises mounted up.

“Oh my god,” Juleka mumbled behind the fall of her streaked black and purple hair. “He was right.”

“Who?” Rose asked, but Alix was talking again before Juleka could answer.

“You didn’t need to fib about Jagged Stone being here to get us to come to your party, Lila,” Alix said as the expressions turned to disgust and disbelief.

“But I didn’t!” Lila protested, and for once she had been telling the truth. “I swear, Jagged really was coming. You have to believe me!”

“I said it was a bit hinky that Jagged Stone would have agreed to play a teenage party like this,” Alix told the group around her.

“I’m not lying!” Lila insisted, her voice growing shrill as the expressions turned to disgust and disbelief. “He did a signing for Chloe.”

“Yeah, well, that’s Chloe, and the mayor himself roped him into that.”

“But my mother works for the embassy! And I saved his kitten!”

Again, Alix snorted, and Alya had her arms folded now, frowning.

“You know, I couldn’t find anything about that online, or about Jagged even having a kitten. The more I think about it, the more I wonder why I believed that in the first place.”

“You believed Marinette,” she couldn’t help the slight snarl at that name, “when she said she designed stuff for Jagged and he came to her house.”

“But she didn’t say that,” Nino pointed out. “We saw all of that for ourselves. But now I think about it, I haven’t seen anything that proves you’ve even met him.”

“But I have! He really was coming, and he was going to sing Happy Birthday to me! He just had to cancel.”

“Sure, Lila.”

After all the stories Lila had spun, and the lies and embellishments, how could it be the truth that they refused to believe? The group drifted away from her while Lila stared after them in open-mouthed shock. She was left in a spreading circle of isolation at her own party.

The only person who acknowledged her existence was the tall boy with the blue hair over near the buffet table. Lila frowned, trying to work out where she knew him from. He was older than her class, and the ripped jeans and scruffy hoodie were out of place among the smartly dressed guests, but he looked familiar, and what was he doing at her party anyway? He raised the vol au vent in his hand in an unsmiling salute.

Lila made her way over to him.

“Now, where do I know you from?” she asked with an attempt at coyness, in spite of the fury still seething through her at her classmates’ revolt. His expression didn’t change.

“We’ve met before. I’m Juleka’s brother, Luka.”

Juleka’s brother. Marinette. She had a sudden memory of the steps outside the school and an older boy with blue hair and a guitar slung over his back, coolly warning her about what would happen if she messed with Marinette or his sister. Her eyes narrowed.

He said, “I just wanted to say Happy Birthday, and I’m sorry to hear that Jagged fell through on you.”

“Jagged?” Lila sucked in a breath at that. “What do you know about Jagged Stone?”

“You underestimated Marinette,” the blue-haired boy said calmly. “It’s all about who you know, isn’t that what you said, Lila? It’s all about connections. Except Marinette’s are real.”

She let out a smothered shriek.

“Marinette did this! How could she-“

Luka was shaking his head. “Marinette didn’t do a thing. She’s been trying so hard to take the high road, and she’s not vindictive. I did warn you, though, what would happen if you threatened someone I care about again – just because I don’t want to play your kind of games doesn’t mean I can’t or won’t.”

“Then you turned them all against me! You-“

“I didn't even need to do that,” Luka said, and gave her an infuriatingly composed smile. “In the end, all I really needed to do was tell my dear old dad how you treated his favourite designer. I didn’t even have to bend the truth to do it, and the music just played from there.”

Lila’s mouth fell open. “Jagged Stone… is your father?!”

“Surprised the hell out of me, too,” Luka muttered, and finished the pastry he was holding. He dusted the crumbs off his hands.

“Connections,” Luka said, and shoved himself away from the table. “I have them too, and I’m more than willing to use them for Marinette’s sake. Thank you for the lovely party.”

He gave her a little wave and walked away, leaving her standing there in the ruins of her reputation.

#Lila salt #Lukanette endgame

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back-and-totheleft · 3 years

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"Hollywood rabble rouser"

Late one night in the summer of 2008, I found what turned out to be a stockbroker’s iPhone in the back of a NYC taxi. Turning it on in order to contact the owner, I noticed that amongst the stock watch apps and currency converters was an icon of Gordon Gekko, the corrupt market raider immortalized by Michael Douglas in Wall Street, Oliver Stone’s 1987 tale of insider trading and corporate excess. Intrigued, I hit Gekko’s pixilated face (it felt good) and a website flashed up with an entire transcription of his infamous “Greed is good” speech — one of Hollywood’s most iconic parables to the pursuit of unrestrained greed. Whoever owned the phone found those words as important as checking Facebook or texting his girlfriend. Gekko was his hero, his daily inspiration.

Watching back Wall Street a few weeks later as news of the Lehman Brothers collapse and global recession spread, it struck me that a whole generation of financiers must have grown up, like Charlie Sheen’s character Bud Fox, yearning to be Gekko. He was the business equivalent of a rapper wanting to become Tony Montana, another Stone creation. And some of these brokers, as we’ve all since discovered, were willing to trade money that didn’t exist in pursuit of pin stripe suits, corner offices, penthouses, boats, women, and stacks of cash. Perhaps the perks made the 22-year prison stretch Gekko received at the end of the film seem like a viable risk. Or they deliberately chose to ignore his downfall.

Inspired by financial fiends like Bernie Madoff, Stone decided to spring Gekko out of prison for Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. Set in 2008, he is a reformed character that tries, and fails, to warn business leaders of the impending credit crunch. Many fans are understandably nervous about Douglas reprising his Oscar winning role, especially since his hair gel and brick phone have long been put into storage. Stone, who only agreed to direct the film because he felt that current financial climate lent itself to a sequel, understandably feels that it’s time for bankers to grow up. As the director of Natural Born Killers, JFK and Platoon he’s used to Marmite reactions. But, after giving Dubya an easy ride in W, will Gordon 2.0 be one step too far? Is the world ready for goody Gekko two shoes? Or will traders across Wall Street be deleting their “Greed is good” iPhone bookmarks forever? As they say on the stock market floor, let the bull charge.

Tim Noakes: When you were 18 your father got you to work on a financial exchange in France. Was that your inspiration for Wall Street?

Oliver Stone: No, it was a great summer job actually, because it was very exotic. My father was always into the stock market, into numbers. He loved that world in New York and I grew up on the fringes of it but I wasn’t particularly attuned to it. So it was a chance to see it first hand but I didn’t do very well as a trader. In those days you’d run from the phone booth in the back to the floor. It was cocoa and sugar. It was violent and busy. They used to elbow each other to get into the inner circle, like matadors. It was a real crush. I elbowed my way through it and got up to be assistant buyer, which was very complicated because you had to make the orders for everything right. You couldn’t screw up. A lot of money’s involved. So then I thought I should be one of the cocoa buyers. I was a little too ambitious for my own good.

Your father died before you made Wall Street. What do you think he would have made of it?

I think he would have appreciated that I had done a business movie. We always talked about it. He loved movies and he took me to them. We discussed them afterwards, which was an invaluable experience, and he would say that there weren’t many business movies. And there weren’t. There was not a specific genre. Hollywood was not into the business movie concept. It’s hard. I can understand why. It’s all financial talk, it’s not interesting to most people and it lacks those human emotions. Money is an interesting subject, however, for America. That’s why I addressed it in 1987. I thought, ‘Americans love money’, and what lengths they will go to get it is what that movie is about. Especially coming off Platoon, which is a different kind of movie. I was trying to prove that I could do something domestic with ‘Wall Street’.

The original was very much of its era.

It was the era of “Greed is good” and Reagan. With Wall Street 2, I’m obviously more mature, I’ve done more films, I have more confidence, I hope. I’m trying something a little bit deeper in the relationship field. There’s no Darryl Hannah in the movie. There’s a real English girl this time (Carey Mulligan). She anchors strongly the emotions of the film, because she is damaged. She’s the daughter of Gordon Gekko, if you can imagine what that can be like.

Michael Douglas once said that your style of directing is like taking people into the trenches. What did he mean by that?

He makes it sound like I dress him up in uniform and have a military hierarchy. Every single actor that I’ve worked with, and there’s obviously dozens now, you’d have to talk to every single one of them to get their perception. I would say some would disagree. Maybe Michael, because he hasn’t been in the military, would regard it as a military experience. I didn’t think of it that way. I think of a movie as an organisation that has to work at a very fluid pace involving a large amount of people who have to move quickly over a landscape. Call that what you will. It could be an adventure party or a military organisation. It’s really a satellite business. You form, you group, you rehearse, you shoot, you separate. It’s very nomadic. In that chemistry you bring together so many conflicting types of people who have different kinds of egos. It’s quite a mix. At the end of the day, if you look back at the — what is it? 19, 20 films — that I’ve directed, it’s just a mix of styles. Sometimes it really works with people. It clicks. I think Michael did great work on both films, so I’m very pleased with his result. My style might not have been good for him, but it works for other people. Some people, like Shia LaBeouf and Josh Brolin, were digging it. They loved the way I worked because it was intense and to the point and relatively fast.

Do you see yourself as a hard taskmaster or a disciplinarian?

No, I’m not a disciplinarian. I’m disciplined with myself and I think I try to lead by example not by imposition of my will. I try to lead by example. That’s just to say that people know that I’m trying to get this thing done. My approach is that we’re all in this together. The idea is king. We all serve that king. It is not a democracy, it is a constitutional monarchy, so to speak, with strong legislative power in the House of Lords. No, but the idea is king. I repeat that. Not the director. The idea. I serve the idea.

How do you balance the logistics with trying to create a piece of art?

Oh boy, if I didn’t tell you I wasn’t humbled so many times, you would not believe it. It’s a very humbling experience to make a movie, because you’re at the mercy of the elements. Of the winds and the weather as well as conditions that can go wrong — disease, sickness, bad tempers. All sorts of stuff can happen. Given that nature, to pull off a movie is extremely difficult. The editing room is another humiliation. All your mistakes are thrown back in your face. No matter how many good choices you make, and making a movie involves thousands of choices, you’re constantly having to question yourself again. I find it a very difficult position. I don’t think I enjoy it. I think I’m more experienced at it but I don’t think I completely enjoy it. I think sometimes it’s so painful you want to scream bloody murder and run somewhere.

What’s the cut-off point? How do you stop?

How do you stop? A famous director once said that every film is abandoned, never finished.

So you just let it go?

Some people won’t but I do let it go. I’m not looking for perfection. I don’t believe in it. I believe that a film is many things to many people and it changes over time. I think you have to feel good about it and about what you did. It hangs together and it’s going to be a story that can move an audience. It’s so difficult to pull off quickly. It takes time.

The world’s moved on since Wall Street. Were you apprehensive about creating a sequel to such a well-loved film?

Apprehensions? No. I’d have had more apprehensions if I’d had to do it in 1990, I think. Twenty-three years is a long time to call it a sequel. I think of it more as a bookend.

Don’t you think that’s laying you open for even more criticism? Look at what George Lucas did with Star Wars..

We’re not going back into that period. The beauty of this thing is that there’s a new period upon us, which is quite different, technically. It’s a different kind of Wall Street. The landscape has changed. It’s no longer 1987. It’s really a computer game now. The money has accelerated at a square root that is beyond belief from millions to billions. Hedge funds invest 30–40 billion dollars. Even to have one billion dollars is an enormous amount of money. When you hear these guys say, “Oh, it’s just a billion dollar hedge fund” it’s unbelievable arrogance. The heights are dizzying, and the losses are dizzying. It’s just unbelievable what happened. By all accounts it was a near-fatal heart-attack.

Were you planning on revisiting Wall Street is the crisis hadn’t happened?

No, that was the catalyst for it. It wasn’t the only reason. It was a wonderful idea for a script, that Gekko would be a different type of person. That he would start from the outside. He didn’t have power or connections anymore. Time had passed. He was dated.

Is Michael Douglas in danger of becoming a pastiche of what made Gordon Gekko good?

I feared that. That’s why we approached it in a wholly different way. Michael is playing it twenty-two years older, he’s coming out of prison. Michael has changed in that interim. He was a charming rogue, certainly, in the Eighties. You saw a lot of that in his subsequent performances. You saw a lot of Gekko in later films, so I think it was smart to move away from that pastiche, as you call it, because it would have been boring after a while. There are flashes of the old Gekko, which I love, but it’s not like the charming reptile, so to speak. It’s a different man now. I’m not saying that he’s a wholly reformed figure looking for a martyrhood, but what’s interesting about him is what he’s going to do, and how he’s going to play the game to get back. He has suffered extensively in prison, his family has fallen apart, his oldest son has committed suicide. It’s very tough on him.

How did you persuade Michael to get back on board?

Frankly, I didn’t convince anybody. I passed on the script in 2006. It wasn’t important for me to make it. I felt, what was the need to make this movie if it was going to glorify the pigs on Wall Street? They were really making money and it was ugly. There was a spate of books too like The Wolf of Wall Street, which was a big hit and they are going to make a movie out of that. There was kind of a surfeit and there was sickliness to it all. I got turned off by it. I passed, and I moved on with my life, and I did W and World Trade Centre and stuff like that. Then there was this crash and the crash changed the equation I think, I hope.

Do you think the original message of Wall Street failed because young traders ended up idolising Gordon Gekko?

That’s a very good question. Frankly, I wondered at times. The original Wall Street came about because of my experiences on Scarface. I was living in New York and I was hanging out with the dealers and the mob. That whole scene in Miami was a very shocking thing in 1982–3. Wall Street, was like Scarface north. I was suddenly seeing people my age, in their twenties, making millions of dollars, so easily, so quickly. Moving inordinate amounts of money. Also, snorting and drinking. The partying scene had really kicked in big time in the 80s. It was all new to me, so that’s how that was born. Then it went to excess. But I was very clear that Gekko was the antagonist in the movie, but as you say a lot of young people caught on to him. I do think, and perhaps I’m retrograde, that although he was not feted at the time the anchor of the movie is Charlie Sheen.

But no-one wanted to be Bud Fox.

Well that’s the movies. They want to be heroes. They want to make money. I did meet a lot of people in their 40s that said, “When I saw your movie I was studying this-or-that at this-or-that school, I was going to do history or medicine or law but then I saw the movie and I moved to Wall Street for that reason.” The the kicker was that some of them were multi-millionaires, one of them was a billionaire, and they had moved to Wall Street because of the movie. I said, “Oh boy, I wish I had a royalty on that.” These guys are really rich.

I find that quite worrying.

I gave birth to some rich people. But some of them did good. Some of them created something. That was the whole point of the original. Not to shit on Wall Street but to basically say, ‘Look, this is an engine of capitalism’. This can work. My father always felt that Wall Street was a good thing. It creates companies, it finances new companies, creates research and development, and it does. It still does, by the way, it’s not forgotten but it’s been buried in the greater picture of making bigger profits and more greed, but it’s still there. Wall Street is a good thing. It was a good thing and it can be a good thing.

Throughout your career critics have said you shouldn’t glamourise the people you put on the big screen. Do you like to provoke that reaction?

No, I like to make bigger-than-life characters but ‘World Trade Centre’ is about two very ordinary men who were real heroes. On Bush I guess you could say I supped with the devil and brought out all the reasons I thought why people voted for the guy. There is this fundamental thing which Americans like in him, and I was trying to root that out and how he became President.

You were criticised for making Bush too likeable.

You can fault that, but he was re-elected. I didn’t like him. I was very clear — I empathised. Empathy means I walked in his shoes, or tried to. As opposed to sympathised. I don’t agree with anything he said. Anything. I think he was a disaster. It was a nightmare eight years.

Do you think you were too soft?

No. I wish I’d done it a year earlier and it would have been more timely. He was out of favour when it came out, because of the economy, but frankly the movie was about the national security state which concerned me more.

Why are you drawn to these anti-heroes?

They don’t do me any good. Nixon, too.

I see a lot of similarities between Tony Montana and Gordon Gekko. In Scarface, Tony says “You need people like me to point the finger at and say, ‘That’s the bad guy’”. Do you think film critics see you in that light?

I think you’re right. I think film critics have me as a punch ball. It’s an easy target, I guess. I’ve been misidentified with the characters, but I think over time you see that there’s a whole assortment of different characters. But I agree, I think that’s true and I think that’s hurt me. It’s hurt my career as well as some of the political statements I’ve made and positions I’ve taken in documentaries I’ve made. They’ve hurt me too and they’ve given me a profile that’s not necessarily me, it’s just a profile. Absolutely.

There’s been huge furor recently that you’re reported to be attempting to humanise Hitler, Stalin and Mao Zedong.

I think it’s out of context. I did use the word ‘scapegoat’ and I think that was an unfortunate word, but frankly it’s a very interesting history that we’re putting together. We’re using the facts that we have, that are known but have been forgotten. There’s no question that Hitler had a big hand up the ladder. He didn’t come out of nowhere. He is a Frankenstein, he is a monster and I have no sympathy for him, but he was created by a Dr Frankenstein. That Dr Frankenstein is a very interesting mixture and you have to study cause and effect to understand history, otherwise you don’t learn anything from it. It’s my fault because I’m interested in the world, and I’m willing to go out there. I’m not trying to provoke, I’m trying to look for the truth. I’m trying to shine a light. For Christ’s sake, I feel like we’ve become so politically correct that you can’t do shit anymore. You’re not supposed to turn around.

Do you feel like you sometimes exploit sensitive subjects too much? More than some people can take?

Well, that’s why I like the English. They’re much more out there and they’re willing to explore subjects that the Americans are not. Having been to war, having seen the devastation America visited onto Vietnam, I cannot just be another typical American and live in isolation. My taxes are going as we speak to blowing up people in Afghanistan. I don’t feel good about that.

Back to Wall Street. Gekko says “Every dream has its price”, what’s the biggest price you’ve paid to get to where you are?

I’d have to talk to my psychotherapist, who I haven’t seen in ages. I suppose the price is that you do have long absences from home and normal quotidian values, at times. Your children grow up and you have to readapt to the fact that you haven’t been the attentive father. That’s a big issue, but I have been as attentive as I can be in taking care of them. Still, there’s gaps there. Divorces have happened. Those things.

I see Wall Street as epitomising the ruthlessness of the Eighties. During that era did you find yourself being a slave to the success that you had earned?

Yeah, I suppose everybody can become a mental slave to the need to produce. Remember, I was on a roll in the sense that I had to get financing for very complicated movies. I felt like I had a mission. To get JFK made in that era was very tough, still. You need heat. To make that movie after The Doors you need to keep rolling. In a sense I worked very fast, and hard, but I knew that I could get things done. Nixon was sort of the end of the line. I was making movies all those years. Platoon was impossible to get made. So was Salvador. Every single fucking one. ‘The Doors’. They were always problems. There were always tremendous issues. You asked what the price is? The price was to keep going fast, before they change their mind. The idea was ‘Wrap it up, get another one done’. These are tough subject matters. With ‘Nixon’ I’d done eleven or ten, I was exhausted. Frankly, I needed to take a break.

What kept you moving on? Obviously the pressures that you’re talking about manifested in different ways. You had your drug problems earlier on, but how did it manifest when the financing started to crumble down? Did you resort to those kind of vices?

I think there’s other factors. There was a lot of living. A lot of pain. Children. Divorces. This and that. But I think I have been very successful. I got movies made that wouldn’t have been done in the normal radar. They were not on the scope.

In Wall Street 2 Shia LeBeouf says, “No matter how much money you make, you’ll never be rich”. With all your success, do you empathise with that sentiment?

Of course I do. I don’t think money is the solution to happiness. Life is complicated, but certainly money can have the opposite effect. It can make you unsatisfied with life, and make life harder for you. There are two effects of it. One is that it leaves you unsatisfied, you always want more, as we see from these billionaires. Two, it leaves you falsely content and over-satisfied.

And you’re not either?

I don’t feel that way, no. I feel like I’m one trade away from disaster.

The new film is called Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. What gets you off to sleep?

What gets me off to sleep? Sonata. Medication. I’m just joking. The best solution for sleep is having lived a full day and tried hard to live life fully. That makes you feel the reward of sleep.

-Tim Noakes, "The Hollywood rabble rouser sets his sights on a new generation of Wall Street wolves," Medium, Mar 3 2010 [x]

#medium #tim noakes #w.#wall street #wall street: money never sleeps #oliver stone

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nightlovechild · 4 years

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Table Manners - Deceit’s Week. (Day 5: Moceit)

Warnings: Arguing, male character using feminine terms & feminine nicknames, BDSM Themes, Manhandling, Food (involved in play), Anal fingering, Bondage, CBT, Masturbation, Light knife play, Swinger lifestyle mentioned briefly, Alcohol, Object insertion (could be not safe in real life), anal penetration, ruined orgasm.

Summary: When Dimitri forgets to act like a proper hostess, Patton turns him into a four course punishment instead. (Human AU!)

Notes: This story was written before the release of Deceit’s real name. Deceit's name is Dimitri.

Hearing the door close, Dimitri prepared himself for a H-E- double hockey sticks of an argument. Patton's leather shoes sounded off of the hallway tile as he stepped quickly into the dining room.

"Dimitri Alexander Sanders, I would like to say that was impressive. But that would be an understatement. The absolute extent you will go to… and risking my job like that!" Patton scolded.

"Your Boss is scum. He was pressuring that girl into his charade, just like he pressures you into staying in your tiny cubicle everyday. I was fucking sick of it. Plus you know My motto: If you are going to lie, do it with style and grace. That floundering fool had neither; so he got what he deserved!" Dimitri said with venom. Setting the dirty dishes down and turning with a fiery flare of his long silk skirt. The high split sliding up to show off his bare leg down to his fuck me pumps.

Patton was looming in the doorway, loosening his tie and biting his bottom lip at the lustful sight. He wanted to stay mad at Dee's risky behavior at the dinner party. But the growing tent in his pants was detracting from his intimidating stance. What was a good man to do with such a hot, tempting, dirty...

Dimitri rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Well, could we get the speech about morals and being a good hostess under way? Let me see if I can get you going…Something, something...lying is wrong, but being disrespectful is worse. That in reality nice guys come...in first." Dimitri drew out his words with devious purpose. While letting his polished nails tap against his hips in a striking pose.

"No. I think this lesson will need to be more physical." Patton shook his head in disbelief as Dee made a challenging gesture by waving his hand.

"Bring it on."

Within seconds Patton had Dimitri face down, ass up in the air. Forced into spreading his legs to gain some type of balance at the sharp angle of laying against the tabletop. The struggle was always over quickly in the face of Patton's true strength.

He let Dee enjoy the pinned sensation by letting him struggle and wiggle. Because Dee was never able to get away when Patton’s hand was in the middle of his back. Patton's free hand flipped up his skirt. Making the beauty fight not to whine out loud as his ass cheek was cupped and squeezed. The grip making his panties pull tight against his sensitive cock.

"Come on, Pat. I know you want to spank me. Do it. Smack my ass. Punish me. I outed your boss with one phrase and a Facebook photo. The Mistress almost cried." Dimitri circled his hips, grinding against the tabletop. "I'm getting hard thinking about all the fabrications he is going to have to weave to fix what I picked apart in seconds. You have to punish me, please?"

"Believe me, beauty. You're going to get it again and again. Once here on the table, once in the limo, and once again in my new corner office." Patton smirked as he flipped Dimitri over.

Dee's high pitched squeal and astonished face saying it all.

"We did it? You're a partner now?" Pulling Patton in for a kiss.

"Yeah, Mr. Axer and I had a talk. Finished straightening him out. Told him to get his house in order before it ruined the business. Then he said if I could handle you all these years and remain such a saint being a partner should be easy." Patton said as he ground his throbbing bulge against Dee panties. Sealing their lips together in love and excitement.

Dimitri blindly grabbed behind himself as the kiss grew more heated. His rings clicking against the long glass vial as he gripped the extra virgin olive oil. Thrusting the bottle against Patton’s chest.

"Use it to fuck me, right now, or eat me up like your appetizer. God, just fucking need you. My big business man. My money maker." Dimitri demanded with a moan. Rolling his hips to enjoy the friction of his lace panties against Patton's hard pressed slacks..

"Awe, my dirty girl. So cute when he wants this breadwinner cock, huh?" Patton purred as he stripped his husband bare. The dress going over one shoulder and the panties going over the other.

Dee's cock slapped against his own abs from being so turned on. Patton's words were always his undoing. Losing patience, Dee leaned back pouring the olive oil all over his own cock and thighs. The slippery oil running down his balls then coating the cleft of his ass cheeks. Setting the bottle down, Dee hooked his hands behind his knees to spread himself even wider as Patton watched, entranced.

"Now don’t you look like a feast? But, pretty girl, you know this isn’t the position for taking a punishment. This looks more like you’re begging for a reward.” Patton stepped close, his finger tips running around Dimitri's rim.

"Punish later, fill me up now. I already set the mood to be stuffed. So jump to it." Dee mouthed off with a mischievous smirk.

Patton shook his head and slowly worked his fingers deep into Dee’s body. Getting his dirty girl worked up into a moaning mess in a matter of moments then dead stopped and pulled out.

“You are a slick one. I'll give you that.” Patton said as he wiped his hands clean on a discarded napkin.

Dimitri groaned loudly at the pun. Starting to sit up, only to be held in place.

“You always say the rule in making the deepest longest lasting impact is to set the mood, right? Right. So, how about setting the mood for your punishment? Your four course punishment." Patton growled. Gripping Dimitri's waist and pushing him into the middle of the table.

‘Oh god, yes. Let’s see how creative his self righteous fury gets us this time.’ Dimitri thought to himself as Patton stalked around him.

Patton began gathering things up while removing other items to give Dimitri room to relax back onto his elbows, legs spreading to offer a succulent view.

“What are your conditions for setting the perfect dining mood?” Patton asked as he laid out the items.

“A wonderful hostess knows the power of a glorious centerpiece, fine china serving up delicious food, glasses of high priced drinks and good guests.”

“Well, since you don't make for even a nice hostess, let's see this if this suits you better.” Patton plucked the brightly colored fresh flowers from their vase, “Are you a glorious centerpiece?”

Soft flower petals danced a path down Dee’s body. Water droplets, from the stems, fell across his skin as Patton worked the flowers over his stomach and down between his thighs. Flipping the flowers over Patton picked up the silk ribbon he had in his newly acquired pile of goodies.

Dimitri watched as his rock hard cock was bound to the bouquet. Grunting when the bow tightly cinched around his balls. Patton continued to tease and stroke the silk ribbon making Dimitri add his own dew to the flowers.

“Knees closed. Legs flat.” Patton ordered. Unzipping his pants to easily reach in and stroke his own aching need before moving to Dee’s other side.

Dimitri bit his lower lip as his gaze shifted from his masturbating lover to the flowers that were standing straight up due to the special position. Rolling his hips as Patton continued to survey his handwork. His normally calm face is suddenly full of speculation. Buttoning up his pants again, regaining his composure. The seconds dragging on until Dee couldn’t take the silence anymore.

“Well? Am I glorious, my love?” Dimitri asked as he ran his hands over the length of his body.

“Yes, the best centerpiece I’ve ever seen, My little China doll. But your fine body makes me hunger for more. Let's see if you could make a better plate with delicious food all over you?" Patton said as he began placing tiny bite sized treats on Dimitri’s body.

The placement of the last snack at the base of his neck forced Dee to lean his head back keeping the treat in place. But it also made Dee blind to Patton’s actions since he couldn’t move his head. Dee let out a shocked breath as cold metal points slid over his exposed nipples while an ice cold flat metal followed.

Patton chuckled as he placed a fork, with its tines pointed down, on Dee’s hard nipple and a clean butter knife, flat side down, on his other nipple. Picking up a spoon, Patton smirked as he watched the body underneath him shake with desire.

"Stop trembling, my plate. You're making the flowers shake." Patton smirked.

He fought to lay still as his ravenous husband tucked into the first treat at his naval. Slowly, Dimitri took in the sounds of lip licking and humming about how good each sweet tasted. Dee growled at the familiarity of the sounds. Flashes of Patton sucking him or their swinger friends off made him want to break the punishment and force his husband…

Then his mind blanked out as Pat picked up the fork and knife. Slowly dragging the utensils over his skin, tracing hearts and stars all around the last two delicate sweets. Pushing the silverware in, making pink marks show as Dee moaned and panted.

"Hubby, don't play with your food. It's not good manners." Dimitri scolded with a breathless voice.

“Of course my darling.” Patton answered sweetly. Tossing the silverware over his shoulder, leaning down, and eating the treats off of Dimitri’s bare flesh. Patton's hot lips and sharp teeth gently nipping his skin. Dimitri was gasping, leaking onto the flowers as he could feel the hickeys blooming under his skin as Patton pulled back.

"Your sounds are making me thirsty, dirty girl. Are you thirsty? Do you want champagne or a tall clean glass of water?" Patton paused, brushing the stray locks from Dee’s face.

Dimitri smiled at the check in, “water” being their code word for being done. Snaking his hand out to Pat’s, Dee gave him reassuring squeeze.

"Champagne sounds lovely. What g-glasss.." Dimitri stuttered then hissed as the ice cold liquid hit his stomach.

Patton took the champagne like a body shot. Once, twice, by the third time Dmitri was shaking so bad it was making the bubbly liquid spill.

"Be a good cup now. Let me drink you down." Patton scolded as he poured the alcohol down the flowers so it would flow over Dmitri's cock. Sucking, slurping, and licking as his dirty girl got closer to the edge. Patton pulled back when the champagne’s taste became salty.

“F-Fuck don’t.. N-no don’t stop.” Dee begged and squirmed. The flowers flicking the alcohol this way and that with his desperation.

“Are you my good girl?” Patton whispered.

In Dee’s current state he didn’t hear. So, Patton bent down next to his ear. “Are you my good girl? My beautiful Medusa? My awful wonderful hostess?”

“Yes! God, Patton, need you. Feel so empty. Please!” Dimitri whimpered, spreading his legs even more.

“How about I give you a small goody to curb your gnawing hunger?” Patton reached into his pile of items gripping a clean soup ladle with a very phallic shaped handle.

“Yes! Give it to me. Want it! F-fffuck.” Dimitri whined as Patton kissed his forehead while sliding a thick long cold shaft into his oil slicked hole.

“This is how you make our guests feel when you question and charm them to your wiles. So invaded and so deliciously full…,” Patton fucked the smooth ladle handle faster into Dimitri’s body, “of your devious motives.”

Dee couldn’t answer but take everything Patton was giving. Patton climbed up on the table, unzipped his pants, freeing his hard cock from it’s clothed prison.

“Bet you want me to reward you? Take this long cold metal shaft out of you and put my warm loving thick cock in your ass don’t you?” Patton started fucking the ladle into his whimpering lover even faster.

Dimitri nodded as his cock jerked and leaked on the flowers and ribbon. When he was right at the edge, his whimpers turning into groans, Patton undid the ribbon around Dee’s cock, all pressure was gone. Then the ladle pressed against his prostate on the out stroke. Dee keened as his orgasm tore through him with nothing touching him. No sexual gratification, just a ruined orgasm. Opening his eyes, blinking up with a teary look Patton was stroking himself, fast and firm.

“Oh god baby. Took your punishment so well. Came all over yourself just for me..” Patton’s words were lost to moans as he came. Marking Dee’s stomach and chest as he stroked himself through his orgasm. Fully enjoying himself as his husband watched from below.

"Water, Pat, water, please." Dee held up his shaky arms.

Patton switched completely, tucking himself away. He easily picked up his love, cuddling Dee close as he sat down in the head chair of the table. Pouring real water, the ice clinking into the glass then held it up to Dimitri's lips. Taking a deep drink then hiding his face in Patton's neck.

"What's your color sweetness?" Patton tried to keep his voice level to combat the fear they had gone too far this time.

"I'm green. Just feel tiny and.. and…"

"Vulnerable?"

"Yeah. No guards, no lies. Want this with you."

"But you're okay?" Patton gently guided Dee to look at him.

"Yes, Patty." Dimitri smiled demurely then he hid his face again.

"I think a dip in the hot tub then a massage sounds like a good start to our aftercare what do you think?" Patton asked as he stood up, letting Dee wrap his arms and legs around Patton as he walked them out onto the patio.

The setting sun and hot water always grounded Dimitri while the bird's fading songs and bubbles grounded Patton.

"I can't wait for the next dinner party." Patton sighed happily.

"I can't wait for the next after party romp about my horrible table manners." Dimitri giggled as Patton growled.

#sanderssides/sm/ut/challenge #Dimitri's week #Deceit's Week #Day 5 #notsafeforsanders #deceit sanders #patton sanders

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aion-rsa · 7 years

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Emerald City: EP Shaun Cassidy Talks Dorothy’s Grown-Up Adventure

We’re definitely not in Kansas in any more.

“The Wizard of Oz” remains one of the most beloved films of all time. “Emerald City,” a 10-part NBC event series premiering tonight, features many familiar faces from Oz, but doesn’t ever attempt to duplicate the same magic. The producers cherry-picked different elements and characters from L. Frank Baum’s various books — there’s still Dorothy, a twister and a place called Oz. From there on, “Emerald City” explores new territory.

Dorothy is a hardened, 20-year-old nurse played by Adria Arjona and works at a local hospital. Toto stands as a frightening German shepherd police dog. Glinda is hardly a goody-two-shoes, and the Wizard has dubious intentions.

Executive producer Shaun Cassidy, who starred as Joe Hardy in 1977’s “The Hardy Boys Mysteries” and enjoyed success as a teen pop star before establishing himself as a successful producer on “American Gothic” and “Invasion,” recently spoke with CBR about bringing Dorothy over the rainbow again, crafting an adult fairy tale, the state of magic in Oz and putting twists on iconic characters. In addition, Cassidy discussed the possibility of reimagining the Hardy Boys for a new generation.

CBR: How intimidating was it tackling these iconic characters?

Shaun Cassidy: If the approach had been, “Let’s remake ‘The Wizard of Oz,'” I would have said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t want to be involved.” But that was never the approach. Matt Arnold had an idea, which was picked up and run with by Josh Friedman, who is a friend of mine, and David Schulner. He got into developing it and all of us are in the same building at Universal. We’re all friends. I was working on a different show at the time on Amazon. David was working on something else, but we talked to Josh occasionally and what he was crafting. I was fascinated by his ideas. I said to him, “If this ever gets on its feet and I’m available, I’d love to work on it with you.” As fate would have it, he ended up not being on the project. The project kinda died because there was a difference in approach between the studio, network and Josh. It all sadly collapsed for nine months.

Then, they reached out to David, who had been working on it at the tail end of the Josh version. He knew where some of the bodies were buried. He was open to putting Dorothy front and center. Josh wanted to treat it as an ensemble piece. The network and studio were interested in walking in this world in Dorothy’s shoes. They called me and said, “You’ve produced a lot of big, sword-building shows. Will you work on this?” I said, “Yes,” but David and I both called Josh and said, “Why don’t you come and work in it with us?” He said, “No, no. I’m off of it. You guys are awesome. Let’s see what you can do.” It’s been this weirdly beautiful relay race with the baton being passed from one person to another. We took a lot of what Josh had done and threw our own spice in the soup and came up with our own ideas for these 10 hours.

What was the biggest challenge was not retelling or reinterpreting these stories or characters. There have been many reinterpretations. Some successful and some not. But, there has never been what we’ve set out to do, which is to take all of these characters, put them in a world that feels timeless, and, yet, feels grounded for a fantasy and very relevant in terms of a lot of subject matter we deal with. They feel very timely to these issues that are at the forefront of political discussions today.

EMERALD CITY — “The Beast Forever” Episode 101– Pictured: Adria Arjona as Dorothy, Toto — (Photo by: David Lukacs/NBC)

How are audiences introduced to Dorothy in this story and what is your spin on her?

She’s older than the Dorothy of the books. Our Dorothy is a young woman. She’s 20. She’s a nurse. She is left on the doorsteps of the people she calls Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. In our story, I don’t think they are related by blood, but they were chosen by the woman who dropped Dorothy off there.

She grew up as an adopted child and she has yearned to know her biological parents. But, she has anger. She has abandonment issues. As she says in the pilot, “Wishes she was more. Wishes she were more accomplished. Wishes she was fully realized.” That may be a defensive posture because she’s afraid. It’s scary and painful. She can’t engage in relationships to any depth. Part of Dorothy’s journey is finding out who she is, finding her strength, opening her up and becoming a fully realized human being. It is a thematic journey our story is on, which is trying to find a way to marry the two forces that are currently at conflict — magic and science. This is the story of alchemy. If Dorothy can bring those two forces together, Oz can be healed and united. Then, Dorothy can be healed.

The series also features a major character named Lucas, played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Who is Lucas and what does he add to this adventure?

He is the impressionistic version of the Scarecrow. He’s a man who has lost his memory. He’s lost his brains, but he hasn’t lost his ability to think. He doesn’t know who he is. He’s been left for dead. Dorothy sort of picks him up on the yellow brick road and off he goes with her, again trying to find himself. Our Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion and Wizard are all searching to make themselves whole as well. Specifically, with the Scarecrow, because he’s on the same journey with Dorothy, things happen and they begin to fall in love. Of course, the rug gets pulled out from under Dorothy as Lucas gets his memory back. We find out he has a whole other life that’s going to be in direct conflict with their hopes and aspirations.

How does the Land of Oz view magic?

There’s a war raging on. The Wizard [played by Vincent D’onofrio] has come to oppress magic because he fears it. He has tried to trade his notion of science — he’s introduced electricity and other stuff — and brought it into Oz to oppress those who were in control before, namely the witches and the previous regime. Magic that is innately in Oz comes of nature. Magic was organic in this world and now it’s been oppressed. That’s a dangerous thing to do, to oppress the natural order of things.

What was the thought process behind making the Wizard the main antagonist?

I’m not sure he is. He’s one of them, for sure. Glinda is a pretty formidable force, too. The war is between them and Dorothy is in the middle of it. The Wizard is a very frightened, very little man. In that sense, you can say he’s very much like the Wizard of the original film. He’s a fraud. Our man is a man behind the wig. He’s a tragic figure. It’s only in his quiet moments, when he’s alone, or when he’s with people who know the truth about him, do we see a version of the real him and how sad he is and how scared he is. I don’t know if he’s an arch-villain. He’s a scared little man — and scared little men do dangerous things.

EMERALD CITY — “The Beast Forever” Episode 101– Pictured: Vincent D’onofrio as The Wizard — (Photo by: David Lukacs/NBC)

Dorothy previously encountered winged monkeys, the Wicked Witch of the West and poppies. What obstacles does she face on her adventure this time?

They are numerous and relentless. There are the witches alone. First, it’s Ojo and then it’s West. There’s the actual landscape itself and the stranger in the strange land aspect of it. There’s the wrath of Glinda. Then there are the Wizard’s soldiers, who are hunting Dorothy to kill her.

With so many books to mine, do you have ideas for further installments?

Oh, yes. There are so many books and so many different characters. We’re looking forward to it. If we have any success at all, we will definitely dive into a second year. One of the benefits of writing all 10 years before ever shooting is David and I spent a lot of time on the set talking about, “What if we do this? Maybe we should try that. Maybe we should introduce that character.” Mother South is going to be a great character.

Shifting gears, Netflix has tapped into TV nostalgia lately and revived a couple of past series. Has there ever been discussions about updating “The Hardy Boys Mysteries?” How would you feel about those characters getting a second life?

It’s not the first time it’s been mentioned to me. Other people have suggested I revisit the Hardy Boys in my current job. I would love to do that. I’ve thought about it long before Netflix was doing it. I have a very specific take I would love to apply to the Hardy Boys. One of the challenges about the Hardy Boys is they are a very successful series of books that have been around forever. You can’t mess with them too much or change them too much. Unlike “The Wizard of Oz,” it’s not public domain.

And, if you look at the stories, they were pretty simple. Even in the TV series I was in — you can’t do a story about Joe loses his bicycle. They were turned into FBI agents by the second year because the show was fighting to add more drama to the stories. The original books are simple little stories. But, I have an approach that I’d love to apply to it. I don’t know where the rights are. I think they are at Fox. I know that Ben Stiller had been trying to make a movie, sort of a “Hardy Men” movie. If anybody is out there listening, and wants a sharp young kid to look at those “Hardy Boys” books again, I’m your guy. I think there’s a cool approach to retelling those stories now that would honor the original, and, yet, make it feel contemporary.

“Emerald City” debuts 9 tonight on NBC.

The post Emerald City: EP Shaun Cassidy Talks Dorothy’s Grown-Up Adventure appeared first on CBR.com.

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