GobSmacked82

Hi shippers,
Remember that Kevin has referred to TBG as the "ultimate make-out movie" with good old-fashioned "boy-girl" stuff in several interviews? And how we wondered if those loves scenes ever made it into any released version of the movie, particularly VHS/DVD? Well, just imagine how Whitney would have reacted if some of those scenes made it into the rough cut, and if she saw it.

* Just as a side note, I'm a huge romantic comedy fan, so I like to write about Kevney in that context. LOL. Just one of those things. I hope you enjoy!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pulling off of Lakeside Drive in Burbank, Calif., Whitney swings her car into a parking space at the offices of TIG Productions. She turns off the engine, then drops the car keys into her lap and then leans back on the seat. She hopes to snatch a few moments of personal time before heading into another meeting.

This one is with Kevin. Seeing Kevin is usually fun, but when he called several days ago, he said he wanted to discuss her finished scenes with her. Whitney's insecurities had risen again during their brief chat. He was princely, as usual, but Whitney feared that he was simply being his usual good-natured self in the face of a serious problem. What if she was terrible and they had to reshoot scenes? She hopes that is not the case, because can't remember her days ever being this full. The meetings, filming, photo shoots, and 'behind the scenes' mini documentaries had completely engulfed her life since Thanksgiving. Now it is almost Easter, filming has wrapped, and post-production work is going on. She is craving long afternoon chat sessions with her mother again, particularly now that planning for the wedding is in full swing, and after July she would be working practically nonstop to finish the soundtrack and then embark on her tour.

She reaches over to the cup holder to gather her tea, keys and handbag when a rap on the car window startles her. When she turns around, she sees Kevin standing there, smiling warmly and gesturing for her to roll down her window. Whitney smiles back, opens the car door and swings her legs over to the side to slide out.

"It isn't 5 a.m., so I'm hoping you're glad to see me," he smiles.

Kevin watches her leave the car, dressed in a slightly short khaki pencil skirt, a knit top with a wide neck that almost slides off one shoulder, and gold strappy sandals.

“No Kevin. You’ve caught me at a good time, just before 5 p.m.,” Whitney says.

Kevin slams her car door shut and walks her to the studio’s offices. He pushes the front door open, and ushers Whitney in first.

"You know, I've never been to your studio office, the big office," Whitney says, laughing. "I get to see the house that Kevin built."

"Yeah, well maybe one day you'll see my actual house," Kevin smiles down at her, which stops her laughter. "I just sometimes hold parties and things, you know, for the people who work at TIG, on our projects and stuff. We love to entertain."

As Kevin leads Whitney to a small screening room, she remembers the first and only time, actually, that they made love. It filled her with joy and terror at once, then guilt and a resolve not to go down that path with him again. In the weeks that followed, Whitney tried to refocus on her job, which dragged her out of bed at 4 a.m., and sometimes went long into the night. She adhered more to a business-only, work and go home routine, but she was never cold. That would have been impossible with Kevin. When he wasn’t encouraging her, pushing her and sticking up for her, he was her partner in crime on the set.

Once, after the Christmas break, Kevin found phony tattoos depicting blood dripping from a thorny rose, and he talked Whitney into transferring it onto her shoulder, for one of the Miami glamor concert scenes. The costuming crew thought they'd have to cover the ghastly art, and almost murdered them both when Kevin revealed the joke.

As she follows him through the space, she tells herself not to watch his shoulders, his casual gait, or even his smile as he waves goodbye to the last couple of stragglers who are heading home for the evening. Then they stop short of a set of double doors, and Kevin points to a popcorn machine.

"Would you like some popcorn, Whitney?"

"No. I have my tea," Whitney shakes her head, and holds up her mug. Kevin shrugs and helps himself.

Kevin explains that they will watch an initial edit, a version that probably won't make it into the theatrical release. As Kevin gestures and talks, Whitney feels her old admiration for him stirring up again.

He goes to the projector room to set up the film.

Whitney fishes a Billboard magazine and a highlighter out of her handbag. She starts marking stories as she reads.

"Taking names?" Kevin says leaning close. He laughs at Whitney's startled reaction, and drags a hand across her shoulder. The feel of his strong, gentle touch sends an electric surge through Whitney, and she takes a deep breath to regain her composure. It supplants her anxieties, only to replace them with a different kind of excitement.

"OK, so it's running," he sits next to Whitney and turns to look at her. "First, I want to say that you were a real pleasure to work with, Whitney. We were all rooting for you, and you didn't let us down. Not for a second."

"Thanks, Kevin," Whitney smiles and quietly sips her tea. "It's a relief to hear that."

As the movie starts, Kevin puts a foot up on the chair back in front of him, and one leg of his jeans hikes up revealing cowboy boots. Whitney tries to focus on the screening, but Kevin's attractions are so pronounced, particularly because they haven't seen each other in two months, that her mind wanders easily.

People underestimate him and how smart he really is. Look at him rubbing his temples, probably figuring out where he can cut, edit, that sort of thing. I wonder what else he can do with those digits? Wait! No, focus, Whitney!

Whitney lifts her cup of tea, now lukewarm, to her lips and takes a slow drink, just as Kevin leans over to grab a handful of popcorn.

"We're gonna market this as the ultimate make-out movie, Whitney," Kevin winks. "So I want you to try to behave, even though your mom and a chaperone are nowhere to be found."

"Excuse me, but why would I need a chaperone?!"

"I know how you ex-Catholic school girls can be. All that pent-up energy and—"

"Dream on," Whitney bounces a few popcorn kernels off Kevin's forehead and they return their attention to the screen. Moments later, Whitney glances over as Kevin drums his finger on his leg and peers straight ahead.

Man, I forgot how good he smells. Like soap and leather. And did he always have that broad chest? Wait! I should remember this. He took his shirt off for me a few times!

Whitney crosses her legs and arms at the thought, and fights for control again. Then Kevin nudges her.

"Whitney look up. Here you come!"

Whitney regains her presence of mind just in time to see herself, on a huge screen, rise out of a chair and pull her sweater closer around her. It's almost overwhelming, actually, to see herself up there that way, but she's tickled at the same time. She doesn’t say anything, just smiles and shakes her head in a little bit of disbelief.

Kevin has a huge satisfied smile on his face as he watches Whitney portray Rachel. As Rachel, she’s high-handed, impossible, resentful and generally hard to deal with. Nothing like the sweet, humble and generous girl he’s gotten to know over the last several months. At times, Whitney talks over the dialogue, and Kevin gently quiets her, asking her to focus and absorb what’s happening in the scenes as they play out. But Whitney scrounges for reasons to avoid observing Kevin, so she ends up talking through the movie.

“Rachel has no manners!”

“See I would have slapped Frank right there. Tuesday morning brunch!”

“That’s hot. I really don’t blame Rachel for trying to get with Frank after he picked her up and ran out the club. Mob scenes at clubs are a itchb!”

Whitney’s peanut gallery routine begins to annoy Kevin, so he wraps his right arm all the way around her shoulder and covers her mouth with his hand. The deleted undressing scene in Rachel bedroom plays out, as both Kevin and Whitney begin to shift around awkwardly in their seats. They sneak furtive glances at each other and at the floor and their laps.

Then the post-date scene at Frank’s house plays out in full. Whitney’s eyes widen as she watches herself, not the body double, go through the steamy interlude with Kevin. The whole scene passes in under 45 seconds, but Whitney winces, covers her face, looks away and looks back again. It feels weird, strange, very close to home to be sitting in Kevin's arms like that watching the scene, and she finally pulls Kevin’s hand off of her shoulder. Kevin drags his hand across his chin as he pauses a moment before speaking.

“What did you think about that, Whitney?”

Whitney can barely look at Kevin, much less speak. The scene is set at night, so thankfully a pale blue moonlit room shades a lot of it. But still, the whole scene brings that day flooding back to her mind, and the feelings that she’s been trying to squelch for the last hour prevails.

“It's something, something else, really," Whitney says, bouncing her foot up and down on the ball of her foot. "I’m a little speechless, really. And anyway, you'd prefer it, if I, if I didn't talk through movies, right?” she says. "So maybe it's better if we talk about it later. Later on?"

“That’s true. You have a very strong point there,” Kevin says, flashing a crooked smile. After watching his lips curl up mischievously, Whitney loses control. She makes a slight, almost imperceptible move toward Kevin, which sets off a chain reaction of him pulling her to her feet and into his arms for a deep and longing kiss. He walks her backward, out of the short row of seats, out of the room and into the common area.

Whitney clutches Kevin’s shirt as he rushes her down a long hallway. She’s no longer fighting for resolve, but has already moved on to praying for forgiveness.

“Whitney, please don’t recite any scriptures. Not now!” says Kevin, and he pulls her into a conference room and slams the door.

Meanwhile, in the screening room, the rest of the film plays to an inanimate audience. There are no other staff or producers to rage at the breach of confidentiality of a film in post-production. He had already locked the front door, and every decision maker on the film was either traveling or swamped with other concerns. And no maids are around to lament over Whitney’s spilled tea mingling with Kevin’s popcorn crushed into the floor.

Later that afternoon, Whitney is sitting on a chair in the conference room, dressed again and stretching her back. She gets up to find her gold sandals, her head bobbing up and down like an object in the ocean carried by a mild current. Kevin laughs and shakes his head, shoving his feet into his boots again.

“What is it?” Whitney fastens a single earring, three jingly gold loops, into her right ear.

“Nothing, I just, well when I said this is supposed to be a make-out movie, I didn’t expect results to follow this quickly, that’s all,” he says.

“Oh well,” Whitney starts wiggling her foot into her sandals. “But that version, with the … crazy scenes, that’s not the final cut, is it?”

Kevin smoothes back his hair and shakes his head. “Not absolutely, but if we see something we like, we'll definitely keep it. Why?”

“Because that first full-blown lovemaking scene … it’s a bit close to home, don’t you think?”

“Whitney, I’ve done worse,” Kevin smiles. “Didn’t you do your homework on me before signing up?”

“No, Kevin,” Whitney holds onto the back of a chair and pushes it toward the table. “You were just showing off before, being Mr. Sex Symbol. But that scene in there, that’s too much. I’m serious. It’s too real and too much!”

“Oh, Whitney come on,” Kevin says. “People are obviously gonna put it all down to us telling a story in a perfect way—“

But Whitney doesn't want to talk about perfect storytelling, about real emotions or how her fiance will react when he sees the final theatrical cut, and if those scenes make it in.

“Kevin, you’re not listening! You need to take them out! If you don't ... I'll never, ever deal with you again!”