April 6, 2012
Actors, Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kathy Bates, Ewan Stewart, Frances Fisher and Victor Garber were all standing on Pier 54 in New York City, each of them had received a phone call from Titanic director, James Cameron asking for all of them to meet him there.
Kate was the last to arrive, in her blue jeans, white shirt with black blazer on top, sunglasses that pulled her beautiful long, blond hair back from her face. She looked all around at her fellow actors with a confused face. While Leo was wearing a tee-shirt, and jeans, Kathy in a blue skirt, black blouse, her pretty, silky gray hair blowing effortlessly in the wind. Ewan Stewart looked as great as he did in the film, only you could tell he had aged a bit, but he had gracefully aged, he wore blue jeans, and a black, button up and down shirt and a jean jacket over top. Frances looked exceptionally great in a black, mini dress, a black blazer with brown, cowboy boots, her pretty, red hair down on her shoulders. Lastly, Victor looked just as great as he had fifteen years ago, in his black shirt, black blazer and blue jeans.
"You guys got a call from James too?" Kate asked, in her British accent.
Kathy laughed briefly and shook her head.
"I got my call right in the middle of me shooting Harry's Law in L.A." Kate said with frustration in her tone. "He wouldn't say what this—meeting was for, just to meet him here."
"Well today, Titanic 3D comes out in theaters," Leonardo said, "so maybe it has something to do with that. I—I don't know, I took a red-eye from Australia last night, after I got his call."
Victor looked all around with curious eyes and with his mind wandering with thoughts.
"No, no this—this is where the Carpathia docked with all of its Titanic passengers, in 1912." Victor said while looking all around the area they were in. "He wouldn't just ask us to meet him here for the 3D movie. Something's up with this."
"What possibly could that be?" A voice said in between laughter from behind Leonardo.
The actors turned around and saw actor Billy Zane standing there, Billy who portrayed, Cal in the movie, Titanic. He looked still like the same ole' Billy, except he was bald, but that was being covered by a tweed hat he was wearing, along with the green blazer he was wearing, dark blue light sweater underneath, blue jeans and sun shades he had on. He looked like he had come from some Hollywood movie premiere.
Leonardo laughed.
"Billy, long time no see, how's it going?"
Billy nodded and smiled.
"I'm doing pretty good, Leo, ya know, work, taking care of my daughter, stuff. How are you?"
Leo nodded.
"Pretty well, just busy too," Leo responded as he walked over and greeted Billy with a hug.
"So what's going on here?" Billy asked. "Why did James ask us to come here?"
Frances shrugged.
"Your guess is as good as ours." Frances said in a low voice.
"Yeah, we've been standing around here for almost an hour and no James." Ewan stated. "This is a bit confusing."
"Well maybe we—" Kate began to say, until she was interrupted by her cell phone ringing. "Oh, maybe this is him now."
Kate took out her cell phone and clicked it open and put it to her ear.
"Hello?" Kate answered.
"Kate, hey, are ya at 54?" James asked.
"Uh, yeah James, we are. What's going on here?" Kate asked.
"That's him?" Leonardo asked. "Put him on speaker, so we all can hear."
Kate nodded and put James on speaker phone.
"Well, there's a ship coming in a few minutes," James said on the phone. "It's an um—cruise ship called The Osänkbara . All the media is on there, ET, Access Hollywood, E! News—all the crew who worked on Titanic, um—even me, and I want you guys to board it for a few hours, its part of the press party that I'm doing for today's opening of Titanic in 3D."
"What!" Kathy asked with a "what the hell?" expression.
"Oh HELL no." Billy blurted out.
"Here, here," Leonardo agreed. "I'm sorry, James, but I—I don't have time for this, I've got to get back to Paris, I'm filming a movie on Monday and I need today and the rest of the days to prepare."
"Oh come on, guys, I'll pay you for doing this alright?" James said. "Its important, do you knowhow big and successful the movie was that you all were in?"
Ewan and Frances sighed.
"I—I don't know mate, I mean, I have a function to go to on Saturday in London." Ewan said.
Frances looked down and briefly smirked.
"I'll board it, James." Frances said with a smirk. "I—I loved Titanic the first time and I'll love it again this time—promoting it ya know?"
"Thank you Frances, I truly appreciate it, dear." James said.
"Hold on, hold on," Billy said, waving his hands in front of him quickly. "You want us—US the actors of a film about Titanic, a ship that sunk, to board a ship, that's coming on the SAME pier that the Carpathia dropped off the passengers of the sunken ship, Titanic, that was portrayed in the film we were in. Um, does anyone else see any problems with this?"
Leonardo laughed.
James laughed.
"Oh come on, Billy!" James said with some humor filling his voice. "Its for the movie!"
"Uh, I—I don't know about that either, James." Victor said with a shrug. "I mean, shit, this is a little eerie, it's a couple of days from the anniversary of the Titanic sinking and you want us to get on a ship?"
Billy scoffed and shook his head.
"Exactly, hell no, I'm not doing it." Billy said. "I'll be damn, if I'm playing as Caledon Hockley for real on some damn ship, a few days from the Titanic's sinking anniversary."
Victor and Frances laughed.
Kate looked at Leonardo and Frances with an unsure look.
James was heard sighing on the other end of the phone.
"Do it and there's three thousand in it for all of you." James secretly lied.
"Three thousand? Really?" Kathy said with a raised eyebrow of interest.
"THREE thousand." James repeated.
"Ok, I'll do it," Ewan said quickly. "But damn it, I want my three thousand by the end of the week."
"Alright, alright, that can be arranged." James said.
Leonardo sighed and frowned briefly.
"For three thousand, I'm in too." Leonardo said in a frustrated tone. "I—I guess I can go ahead and promote this film—one more time."
Frances looked at Leo with a slight smile.
"Geez, Leo, with the way you make it sound, you seem like you hate the movie now." Frances said lightly.
"NO, I—I don't hate it, Leo responded, "but imagine being stopped every five minutes, everywhere you go, because fans everywhere are shouting 'Jack!', 'Look its Jack, and he's without Rose!'"
Kate and Kathy laughed heartily.
"Its annoying after a while." Leo said. "I mean, what about Inception, Gangs of New York, my other films?"
"Well you could've handed me some of the attention." Billy said. "You wouldn't believe how hated I was after playing Cal, people coming up to me, telling me I was a jerk, a bastard, one eighty year old lady even SLAPPED me."
Ewan and Kathy gasped.
"No, you've gotta be lying, Billy." Kathy said with a smile and disbelief in her voice.
"I am NOT." Billy said with a slight frown. "It took years and I mean YEARS for people to realize Cal was just a CHARACTER."
"Damn, that's fucked up, Billy." James said. "So, will ya do it?"
Billy looked at Kate's phone, from which James was talking through and raised an eyebrow of disbelief at James.
"Oh how heartfelt that seemed James, really," Billy said sarcastically.
"I'll do it," Rose said almost hesitantly, "if Leo will do it, then so will I."
"Well Leo, will you?" James asked.
Leo sighed and frowned. He looked at Kate and could tell she wanted to do it. Kate always loved the movie Titanic, even though she only saw it once. She practically bombarded James with requests to portray Rose in the film, so of course Kate wanted to do it.
"Alright, alright, I said I was in, so I'm in." Leo said with a brief, a very brief smile. "Who am I to turn down three thousand?"
Kate laughed and hugged Leo happily.
"Oh what the hell, it's only one day, I'll do it too." Kathy said with a smirk.
"Great!" James said happily. "Billy, Victor, how about you two?"
Billy looked with an unsure look.
"Well," Billy said. "How many people are on it? How many lifeboats do they have? And please tell me none of Bruce Ismay's relatives had anything to do with the ship."
Kate, Leo and Victor laughed.
"No Billy," James said between a laugh he himself had. "Its only um—a small amount on board, I forgot the exact number and there are plenty of lifeboats and it's only for ONE day, Billy, and Victor. COME ON! Its Titanic, its what made you all stars!"
"Hey! I was already a star!" Kathy snapped.
Kate laughed.
"Yeah I remember you in Misery," Kate said with a smile. "Fucking picture scared the shit out of me for weeks."
Kathy laughed.
"You and my mother both." Billy said with a smirk.
"Sorry, Kathy, its what made some of you all stars." James said.
Victor sighed with a worried expression. He hesitantly nodded.
"Um, al-alright." Victor said hesitantly. "I—I just—I—"
"You what Victor?" Leonardo asked with curiosity.
Victor looked down and frowned. He was worried but he didn't know about what. He just had a feeling, a bad feeling about all of this.
"Well I'll oblige and do this." Billy said. "Only I HAVE to be back by tomorrow in L.A., my daughter and my girlfriend and I are taking a week trip to Cancun on tomorrow."
"Uh, yeah, sure you will, Billy." James said quickly.
"Good, well its settled." Billy said confidently. "Now get this fucking ship here so we can get on, its freezing out here."
"No shit, it feels like forty degrees." Kate said with a slight shiver.
"Its New York, remember?" Frances said with a smile. "Its always freezing in New York in April."
Leo laughed.
"Well relax, the ship should be coming any moment now." James said. "Uh, I gotta go, but when you get on, just relax, have drinks, enjoy. The press party doesn't begin until four, um—see ya on there—bye."
Before Kate or any of the other cast members could say anything, James hung up.
"O—k, bye?" Kate said which garnered a laugh from Kathy and Ewan.
"Oh look, there's the ship now, look." Leo said as he pointed out at a HUGE, white and blue ship that was sailing towards them and the pier.
The ship looked AWESOME, the outside design looked exactly like The Titanic, but you could tell it was different by the windows, the windows and the deck looked more like the windows and deck off of the Royal Caribbean. The actors all looked as the ship sailed towards them and the pier.
"Damn, that's pretty fucking big." Frances said with a slight chuckle.
"Not any bigger than—" Kate was interrupted by Leonardo.
"Oh no, don't even say it," Leonardo said with a smile, which made Kate laugh.
Victor stared at the ship with suspicious eyes, there was something about the ship, he didn't know what it was, but he knew it was something. Something that was making his stomach twist in knots.