34

Lana

Adam Pride the photographer was getting on her bloody wick. They’d been there four hours and her mouth had begun to ache from smiling. He was obsessed with the wind machine, and the make-up artist wouldn’t leave her alone, fussing with her hair after every shot, it seemed.

‘OK, now I really want to see the sex in your eyes,’ he said. ‘I need you to connect with me through the lens.’

Tosser, she thought.

‘Let’s try some sitting down.’

She obeyed without complaint, though her patience was wearing thin. She was desperate for a drink, but Frankie the publicist had had ‘a quiet word’ with her before the shoot.

‘Just so you know, Adam is … he’s in recovery,’ she’d said, her voice sombre and serious. ‘So it’s strictly no booze in the studio, I’m afraid.’

Frankie’d done several of these publicity sessions with her and had quickly learned that Lana needed wine to make it all bearable.

‘Oh, OK. Well, you can always sneak a bit of vodka into my orange juice!’ she’d said jauntily.

But Frankie had clearly thought she was joking. Lana sighed. It was going to be a very long day.

Four outfits, three make-up changes and another hour later and the photo shoot was finished. Next was the interview. The Sunday Edition had sent their ‘top’ celebrity interviewer Ryan Pearman to sit with her for an in-depth profile piece. She was always wary when it came to these things, but it had to be done – it was part of her contract with any acting job to engage in press and publicity.

She joined him in the chill-out area of the vast white studio. He was already armed with two Dictaphones (‘Just in case!’), a battered notebook, on which she glimpsed a list of scribbled questions, and a glossy publicity pack that the PR team had sent out to all the press. The new flagship series she was promoting had garnered massive media interest. Not because of Lana. And she knew this. But because of her co-star – American film goddess Katya Molenski.

The show was Katya’s comeback after a dark period of drug addiction and a spell in rehab. She had gone straight to LA once filming finished, so the British press in the main had had to settle for Lana when it came to the interviews. She was very much taking one for the team. Ryan would rather be sitting opposite Katya right now, and they both knew this. But still they played the game.

‘So!’ he launched in. ‘You’re playing a sex addict with a score to settle.’

The Dictaphones pointed defensively in her direction, ensuring everything she said was captured on tape.

‘Yeah, she’s a great character,’ she replied.

Lana had done so many of these promotional interviews by now, she knew the answers by rote.

‘I knew as soon as I read the script that I simply had to play the part,’ she lied. Truth be told, she’d have settled for anything when her agent called with the offer. Work was a bit thin on the ground last year and the only reason she got the job was because Carrie Heath had dropped out. Carrie was Lana’s nemesis. She actually liked her a lot: they’d worked on a couple of films together. But she always got the parts Lana would love, leaving her to scavenge for the leftovers.