Learning How to Fly

One day the telephone rang and it was my agent calling with what I hoped would be an audition. Instead, she told me an actor who had seen me at Jan Natarno’s wanted her to give me his telephone number so I could call him if I so chose. Disappointed, I wrote down the number and thought, “No way am I calling. This is the last thing I need.” I couldn’t even remember which one he was. Then, as I sat on my bed looking out over the pool and view, I remember thinking as clearly as if it were yesterday, “Why not call? It’s not as if it’s going to change my life.” Wrong again.

His name was Steve Hirsch and we arranged to meet. I don’t remember where we met the first time but when I saw him I had a vague memory of seeing him in Jan’s waiting room. He was tall with dark hair and was from New York, just the type I was staying away from these days. But I was needy and desperate and, since no offers had been made yet on the house, was facing eviction, and Steve made it clear he was very much interested. Best of all, Erika liked him and we had fun together. Steve was an actor who also drove a limo but he had big dreams and was certain he would achieve great success in the business. One day he drove me to the top of a hill near Bel Air and pointed to a mansion across the valley. “I’m going to live in a house like that one day” he said with total conviction. And like I had with Kevin, I believed him.