Wendago

Met with Nancy Cotton at Icon films to discuss possible TV shows. That was fun. Sometimes you mesh with an exec. Rarely but it’s nice when it happens.

Mel and I went to the Comedy Store to see her cousin Sarah’s attemp at stand-up. Mel still hasn’t recovered from Dean’s passing and kept trying to get out of it. She just wasn’t in a laughing mood. She still cries every day. But Sarah was good. We were both proud of her. Stand-up ain’t easy.
Of course, the funniest part was her walking to the stage and accidently slamming into a waitress and destroying two dozen beers and mixed drinks. After it happened you could have heard a pin drop. I was red faced with embarrassment for her. But she recovered and that took guts. Overall I thought she did a great job.
I hear Mel crying again.

Well, Maila is a class freaking act.
She got no love for Tim Burton and she is so like Riesner I nearly teared up a dozen times. She refers to him as “Dink”. She told stories about their whirlwind love affair. He’s the guy who came up with the name “Vampira”. She says when she hit it big and started hanging out with Brando and James Dean that he wasn’t into the party scene. He stayed home.
She says she never cheated on him but that he cheated on her. But she grinned when she said it so I’m guessing they cheating on each other.
She said she came in at 3 AM one morning and found him waiting up. He asked her why she bothered putting her clothes back on. She punched him and he chased her with a knife. She ran out barefoot and never went back.
She and he stayed in touch over the years but she was under the assumption that was was piss pot poor. I didn’t tell her differently.
The bottom line is, Maila is wonderful. She has a website, Vampira’s Attic, where you can buy odds and ends from her past, artwork, signed photos and the like.
I also just spoke with Chris Torres (Sean’s assistant). She told a slightly different story of finding Dean’s body. Chris is a former New York DA who moved out here to write for crime drama TV but has yet to get her big break. So she’s slumming it at Sean’s.
She said the whole morning of Dean’s death was a mess. Once they got there she wanted to call the police. Sean was devistated and couldn’t function. Chuck was in a daze. Sean’s girlfriend made a b-line into Dean’s office and started searching for his will. Then what’s-her-name found the will and went through the roof. She was pissed off that Sean’s Ex-wife was not only mentioned but that she was getting more than Sean. And evidently Sean’s girlfriend wasn’t mentioned. Chris said it was disgusting.
I spoke with Noel and Jess and Chuck and Chris and it seems Sean is blind or can only see out of his penis. His girlfriend had evidently been playing Riesner for over a year. She ran Susan off and she ran Mel off. Susan said she’d schedule a time to visit Dean and then the girlfriend would suddenly show up. Susan would get uncomfortable and leave. The Girlfriend became the only woman in his life. Giving him massages and pedicures. Mystery may be solved.
It’s a bit disturbing but I know Riesner. I bet you a billion dollars wherever he’s at right now he’s staring down here laughing his ass off.

Dean’s father was a silent film director. Chaplin, Keaton, he knew and hung with that crowd. Dean even acted as a child in a Chaplin film. He refered to Charles as “Uncle Charlie” and acted as “Dinky” Dean.
I spoke with Sean just now and he finally told me what he knew. Dean passed away in his sleep. Chuck Simon, a producer who worked with us on “Full Moon Dick”, was living with Dean . Chuck and his trusty SPCA canine were making their morning trip down the hall to wake Dean when the dog suddenly stopped cold. Chuck said he knew immediatly.
He found Dean sideways on the bed with his legs hanging off…as if he were about to get up. And in typical Dean Riesner fashion…he was wearing a pair of leapard skin briefs. Chuck said that he looked very peaceful. Chuck called Sean who showed up with his girlfriend and Chris (his former assistant).

I can’t believe I found her. I went to the Micky D’s and stood in the parking lot for ten minutes staring at the near apartments trying to decide if any of them looked suitable for a Hollywood Vamp. Truth is…they were all shitholes. Not a great part of town.
I went in and started asking the workers if they had ever heard of her. Most of them, being younger than myself, had never even heard the name and thought I was nuts. But some goth dude in his late forties was scarfing down a quarter pounder and overhead me talking to the manager. He told me that he had recently seen her name on an autograph site. Basically you send cash and she returns an autograph.
I rushed home and hit the site. Sure enough there was an email. I wrote an eloquent letter explaining Dean’s passing and their relationship. Within a couple of hours a polite fella out of Chicago replied. He told me that he snail mails Maila a couple of times a week and handles her internet stuff for her. She doesn’t have a phone, nor email, nor any other way of contact. He was however willing to give me her address.
I drove to the address. It was a block from the Micky D’s I visted earlier. I knocked and a round woman decended the stairs. Beautiful eyes. And I could see the young Vampira benath the years.
We sat on the stoop and I told her about Dean’s passing. She cried. Later she told me that she wasn’t crying about Dean but that she had an eye infection.
Funny old broad. I can see why they married. They are both grumpy old bastards. What a wonderful woman. I promised to vist her tomorrow and to take her to and from the service.