hecklongtree

I e-mailed Kelly, the woman who's the real-life basis for Eva Jane (the rejector) in my script "JILTED." I hope she doesn't die of shock, since I haven't seen her or spoken to her since 1987! Knowing that she's a lawyer in Los Angeles, I took the liberty of looking her up on Martindale Hubble's online attorney directory. There was an e-mail link right there on the web page. I couldn't resist. I sent her an e-mail.

I came right out and told her I had written a script with a character based on her. I don't want her to see a character in a movie someday, say "that's me," and wind up suing me. There's nothing defamatory in the script, mind you, but you can't be too careful these days.

I said I'd send her the script, if she wants to see it. I hope she does, since, near my script's end, Jim (the character based on me) says something to Eva Jane that I wish I'd said to Kelly in real life.

The gist of what he says is this: To pursue someone who's not immediately interested in you often makes sense, since, in many instances, the would-be lover eventually wins over the object of his affections. In other instances, the would-be lover's persistence doesn't pay off, since the love object will reject him, no matter how much he pursues her, in which case the would-be lover is just making a pest of himself. The problem is: How is the would-be lover to know whether or not his love-object will eventually come around?

There often isn't any way to tell, which is why these things often end badly--not necessarily as badly as in "Fatal Attraction" (murder) or "in "Sorrows of Young Werther" (suicide)--but badly nonetheless. As for me and Kelly, things didn't end too badly. There was a little blow up between us, dramatized in JILTED, but we parted as friends. I just hope she still thinks fondly of me (as I do of her) and that she's not annoyed at me for contacting her, after all these years.