A Hollywood Ending

I was unsettled two nights ago to discover that a woman was murdered early that morning, apparently shot multiple times in the back by her fiance, in the hallway of an historic apartment building along Hollywood Boulevard. The police brought the alleged shooter in after a standoff lasting a few hours, in which he refused to come out of his apartment.

My wife and I knew both of them. We had had dinner and drinks together on a couple of occasions, although not recently and we weren't close friends.

Enedine was an aspiring makeup artist and Paul a former stockbroker who had ambitions about producing movies in Hollywood, starting with his own script. He not only asked for my help on that script, but wanted to create a production company together. I didn't want to go into business with him or get bogged down rewriting his script, but I did read and evaluate it for him. Eerily, toward the end of that story, Paul's main character was holed up in his apartment with a gun.

Hollywood attracts ambitious dreamers. A lucky few have their dreams granted; for most the dreams gradually fade away. And some tragically fall prey to the darkness of others.