by Peter Pogany

Created on: August 31, 2010

The modern two-story mansion in a sparsely-populated area northwest of Houston is not your pillared, Greek revival type that so willingly rents its attic to ghosts. But this circumstance was hardly any solace to an up-and-coming movie star who found herself alone and frightened almost beyond description on the night of April 20, 2010. 

The owner of the extensive property - whom we will call simply Bernie - was a top oil executive. He had another house in Houston’s exclusive River Oaks (besides condos in New York, London, and Cairo) but that was still occupied by his second wife from whom he was allegedly getting divorced.

The young actress (let’s cover her identity with the name Marianne) was in Houston, shooting scenes for a new Hollywood sensation. In the spirit of Southern hospitality and perpetual good times, Bernie’s country club invited the entire crew “for an evening of celebration.” Everybody went, from the haughty, impossible-to-please director to the third grip, clinging to his beer bottle.      

Poor super-rich Bernie. The savage "coup de foudre" Marianne unleashed turned his mind and spirit into scrambled eggs.     

“I must have this woman or I have lived in vain” was the only coherent thought that emerged from his miserable confusion after a fairly long, attention-provoking "tête-à-tête."   

Considering that he was almost twice her age, it is hard to ascribe such a “hook, line, and sinker” to a simple rush of humors.       

Fame, tinsel, and gossip penetrate the celebrated female’s curves, eyes, hair, skin - every gesture she makes, every piece of cloth she wears, every word she utters - with a magic-mythical erotic sway. Marilyn Monroe, the prototype of collectively constructed super-enchantress in living memory, had been pursued by powerful men, not for her “true self” but for consuming the vortex our audiovisual civilization created around her, a commodity of the highest distinction like a Rolls-Royce or a 007 Aston Martin.

Luckily for Bernie, his display of disquietude and self-assurance, anguish and vital optimism did not leave Marianne unaffected. Just divorced (the endgame of a hurtful dissolution) and having lost her father in a tragic automobile accident two years earlier made her feel very much alone in the world - fatigued, vulnerable, receptive to

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