Day in the Life Of... DAY ONE
AJ was the first to arrive at the restaurant for their meeting. He was led to the empty banquet room, shown the liquor and beer set up on a table in a corner, and left alone. After carefully considering his choices, AJ pulled a Corona from the ice bucket, and sat down at the head of the long dinner table like a Mafia don waiting for his minions. He waited in silence, twiddling his thumbs, until..."aah, my children arrive." .
"Cameras here yet?" Nick poked his head into the room before coming in, visibly relieved that AJ was the only one there so far.
"Not yet."
"I can't believe we're doing this." Nick grabbed a beer from the table and slumped into a chair, uttering that line for the thousandth time since he'd heard the idea.
"You know why we're doing it." AJ said softly.
Nick nodded. Kevin had been over it with him until he knew the whole speech by heart. Nobody was ever going to see the Backstreet Boys as more than a boy band until people started to see them as whole people. Not just as 'boys.' And the only way to do that was to give them a full picture of who they were....by having the cameras around all the time. He would be able to tell them that they couldn't air stuff that happened, but he couldn't tell them to turn the cameras off, not for the next nine months. That would mean that there would always be a record....Kevin, and his attorneys, swore that the deal was solid, that nothing would ever get aired unless he said ok. But it still made him uncomfortable, and he didn't have to like it. He looked at AJ, "Amanda's ok with this?" One of the side stipulations of the deal was that all close relatives and friends who they were going to be in contact with also had to agree to have their conversations taped. AJ's girlfriend Amanda had to sign a contract just like AJ did.
AJ shrugged. "She's not thrilled. But Kevin says we can trust Mike Riley, and you've seen the bit on John Taylor this Chris chick did." Or at least Amanda said she was dealing with it. AJ knew there was some deeper frustration there, but she of all people understood his need to break away from the boy band image, she was the one who always picked up the pieces when he got upset over it and acted out. It killed him to see the Backstreet Boys compared to groups like the Monkees on TV, and there was only one way to stop people from doing that. To show them once and for all that they were something more.
"Yah, not bad." Nick agreed. He looked up as Brian and Howie blew into the room, followed closely by Kevin.
Kevin sat down and looked around the room. "This is strange."
Brian looked at his cousin and nodded. "Our last private moment for a long time."
"Are we SURE we want to do this?" Nick asked everyone. "I'm serious...9 months on camera..."
"We need to do this, Nick. If we ever want to be more than a boy band...it won't be so bad." Howie reassured the younger man, his hand on his back. "And we'll figure out a way to get some privacy, somehow."
"Confessions are going to be awful to do." Brian looked at Kevin. "You sure we can't get those out? There's something, I don't know, somehow, sinful, about calling these things confessions..." In many ways Brian was the most private of the group, and having one of the hardest times dealing with letting cameras into their lives. He just wanted to perform, do what he had to, and be alone with his fiancee at night. But because of this camera thing she was going to stay at home in Kentucky for most of the tour, just joining him for a week here and there. "What if they make me talk about Leighanne?" He was going to miss her terribly.
"You know it was part of the deal. No holding back in the confessions, but we can keep them from airing what we say." Kevin replied.
Chris stood outside the door to the room for a second, smoothing her hair. She knew this was the biggest assignment of her life, and could make or break her chances of ever doing a Biography series. With a smile, she knocked on the door, and opened it, looking around the room as she did. All 5 guys had beaten her there, and were looking her up and down. Never exactly a shy one, she spun around for them and laughed. "Nice to meet you all, I'm Christen Johnson, modeling Eileen Fisher for you today..."
"Chris." Kevin stood up, laughing, to welcome her. "Forgive the guys for staring, they don't get let out of their cages often. Let me introduce you." He went around the table, giving the vital stats on each of the members of the group as he introduced them to Chris. She smiled at each, trying her best to look at them as brothers. Just guys. But it was unavoidable...these were five extremely good looking men sitting in front of her.
"Nice to meet you all," she smiled, and sat down next to Kevin. "I have to say, for a boy band, I kinda expected you all to look at bit more..."
AJ laughed and reached over to ruffle Nick's hair. "Boyish?"
Chris tried not to blush and nodded. "You're not teenagers, I think I was expecting that."
"Get one thing straight, and you'll get us." AJ's smile disappeared quickly. "We are not teenagers, and we're sure as hell not a boy band."
She looked at AJ, meeting his gaze, and nodded slowly. "Got it."
"So tell us about yourself." Howie asked to break the silence that followed. "You've heard the basics on us, and read them, I'm sure."
"Sure." Chris smiled. "I've been at MTV for 3 years as a segment producer, doing mainly biographical shorts for the News show. Before that, I was a PA at Dateline NBC. Went to NYU as a poly sci major, and just kinda stumbled into the TV biz, but I can't imagine myself doing anything else now." She looked around the table and played with her napkin. "Before the cameras get here, I want to say something."
"That'd be great, Chris" Kevin said encouragingly.
Nick looked at her, his eyes slightly narrowed. "When are they coming."
Chris checked her watch. "We have about half an hour left."
"It's like counting down to d-day." Brian chuckled.
"It's not funny." Nick snapped.
"Look, guys," Chris looked around the table, making sure she met everyone's gaze. Took a while to find Nick off in the corner. "I know that what we're going to be doing here for the next 9 months is very strange, and bound to be very uncomfortable at first. So there are some ground rules I want you guys to know.
"First and foremost. If you have a problem with the show, the cameras, the cameraman, anything, you come to me IMMEDIATELY. Absolutely everything and anything is relevant, and I don't want anyone letting any problems sit. Any time, day or night, just come talk to me. You're going to be getting production books when my crew gets here, those will have my contact information in it.
"Second. As you guys know, we get to film it all. But we're trying to stay out of your way doing it. Julia's my assistant producer, you'll meet her when the crew arrives. She'll need access to all of your rooms in each city to install cameras, and various other things. Also, if I'm not available for some reason for number one, Julia will always know how to find me.
"Third. Any ideas about the show, suggestions about how to work the cameras better, anything, I'm always open to hearing it. I'm telling your story here, so I want it to have your voice.
Chris paused for a second, looking at the faces before her. AJ's looked fairly open, like he was willing to give this a shot. Kevin, she'd known would be no problem. From what she'd gathered from Mike, this whole thing was partly his idea Howie looked, well, scared, she wouldn't be surprised if Nick up and slapped her, and Brian was white as a sheet. "I want to know what's worrying you."
"Confessions." Brian asked. "How do those work?"
"I have a tour bus that will double as a set for the confessions, we'll do them on road trips. Only one of you will be in the bus with me at a time. No other crew members or staff will be on board, aside from the driver. The confessions will just be conversations."
"Camera?" Kevin asked.
"Already installed on the bus. I want you guys to feel comfortable, relaxed. Like you're just having a talk with an old friend."
"You're not an old friend." Nick muttered.
Chris looked at Nick. "I know, but I hope to become your friend. I'm here to do a job, as are you. But we're going to be spending a lot of time together, and it would be a lot easier if we got along."
"I think we'll be fine." AJ nodded. "We're all very used to the spotlight, after all this time, I'm sure we can take this."
"What else." Chris looked at Howie closely. "Howie?"
He looked into her eyes, "we're putting a lot of trust in you." He said softly.
"I know," she lowered her eyes, she saw something in his eyes that saddened her more than she expected, "all I can do is swear to you all that I will do nothing but tell the truth. If you guys have anything to hide, this is the wrong thing to be doing."
"I don't have anything to hide." Howie replied.
Nick got up to grab another beer. "It's the lies that hurt."
"That's why I'm here, Nick. For all of you. To set the story straight."
"Chris, you around here?" Julia's voice called from behind the door. "They won't let me in..."
Chris jumped up and opened the door to find a very large man on the other side. "This is my crew..." She explained to the security guard, who let her bring the crew in. She pulled Julia aside as the camera and sound men made their way into the room, "go talk to the security chief for the guys and get badges and all sorted out, we don't want to have any problems with access." Julia nodded and barked some orders out to her crew before disappearing into the hall again.
"That was Julia," Chris pointed to her departing figure. "She'll be back, but you'll probably most often see her running around. Anything you need that we can get, she's your gal." She sat back down, watching as the guys stared at the camera in the corner. "So you guys know, as much as possible, we'll be filming from cameras on tripods. Meaning, the crew will come in, set up, and leave, long before you get here. When they do have to actually stay to film, like now, they'll be as unobtrusive as possible. Don't pay attention to the camera at all, just try to forget it's there."
"Yeah, right." Howie sighed. "Having a camera in my bedroom's going to be weird." He had been thinking about that, for some reason, a lot the past few nights. He'd been having nightmares ever since his sister died. He didn't want that showing up on MTV...the thought made his skin crawl.
"You won't see it." Chris reassured him. "It's already there. Just don't think about it."
"And no cameras in the bathroom." Brian stated.
Chris laughed. "None."
"Ok." Kevin held up the menus to the restaurant. "Anyone hungry?" "STARVED." AJ jumped up and grabbed the menu like a maniac. "I can't believe we've been sitting here without eating...and need more beer." He waved his empty bottle in the air.
"Down AJ." Brian laughed, looking over the menu. "I'm going to take off, actually, I promised Leighanne I'd spend tonight with her." He stood up. "Was nice to meet you Chris, I'll see you tomorrow."
Chris nodded. "Julia will hook you up with your crew outside, just let her know you're leaving. Have a good night."
The rest of them stayed and ate dinner, AJ, Chris and Kevin dominating the conversation with stories of their stupidest moments on camera until they were laughing like old friends.
AJ pushed his chair back from the table and rubbed his stomach. "Good meal. Not a Big Mac, but still."
Chris laughed. "Oh yeah, I read about you and McDonalds..."
"What else did you read?" AJ waggled his eyes at Chris and looked her up and down. "They tell you I'm the best..."
"AJ..." Kevin laughed, cutting him off.
"Yeah, I think they said that was Kevin..." Chris looked over at Kevin, grinning.
"Mr. Sexy" Nick snickered, finishing off his beer. He stood up, running a hand through his hair, "I'm outta here y'all, I gotta get one last swim in before we head out tomorrow."
"We should probably all head back, it's getting late." Kevin stood up as well, looking over at the camera in the corner. "We just ignore that, right?"
Chris nodded. "Just go. I'll take care of the rest." She said goodbye to the guys one by one, and watched the crews take off after them. Linked GPS systems and radio cameras in each of the guys' cars would cover them until they got to wherever they were going, so they would always be covered. For now...for 9 months to come.
Day in the Life of: DAY TWO
Brian was the last one to show up at the airport, his camera crew in tow. "Morning." He dumped his bags on the floor of the VIP lounge, and went in search of coffee.
"You sleep last night?" Nick asked the guys. He was slumped in a chair again, looking much like a Saint Bernard who had grown to 250 lb., but still thought he was a puppy.
"Like a baby." AJ yawned. "Amanda's been taking yoga or something, I tell ya man, I didn't know this stuff was possible that she does..."
Kevin rolled his eyes. "Right....Nick, you have trouble sleeping?" The older man sat down next to Nick, "all ok?"
Nick shrugged. "Fine. Just creeped out a little."
"Yeah, the cameras." Howie sympathized. "I found them in my room."
"Me too, I couldn't sleep until I went and found them all."
"I was going to look, but Leighanne wouldn't let me...said it'd be obsessing." Brian added in his soft twang.
"She's right, we shouldn't be so concentrated on the cameras." Kevin said firmly. "You guys don't need to tear your rooms apart every night."
"Just one night, I needed to see where they were." Nick grumbled, crossing his arms across his chest.
"I thought of one fun side effect of the cameras." AJ grinned, feeling a need to relieve some tension.
"What, AJ..." Howie said in a tired voice.
"This!" AJ jumped up, did a pelvic thrust into the air, and ran to the closest cameraman, licking the lens all over. "Ick..." he made his way back to the seat, "tasted like Windex."
Nick found himself laughing at AJ despite himself. He honestly didn't know where the ultra grumpy mood came from, he just hadn't been feeling very happy the last few weeks. Since he heard this idea, really.
"That's our flight." Kevin stood up as he heard the gate announcement. "Let's go.." He headed off out of the lounge, waiting impatiently at the door.
"Come on Frack, let's go to LA." Brian grinned, and pulled Nick up. "California girls..."
"Aww yeah...Nicky Nick's looking for the hottay's baby...." he laughed and followed his friend to the plane.
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Chris stumbled out of bed when the alarm went off, cursing the god that invented early flights. She was about as far from a morning person as you could get, and had rather enjoyed the flexibility of her schedule at MTV. That was changing now, with her 5am flight. She gulped down some room service coffee, and joined Julia in a cab for the trip to the airport.
"How's it going?" She hadn't had a chance to catch up with Julia after the meeting last night.
"Ok," Julia replied. "We had a slight problem with Nick last night, but it was resolved easily enough."
"What happened?"
"Cameraman trying to light a shot of Nick swimming in the beach at night. It was a stupid move, the guy was a stringer from somewhere, I sent him packing. Nick was less than thrilled at having his private beach lit up at 2am."
"The crews know, nothing intrusive, right?"
"They know we mean it now." Julia pulled out her Palm Pilot to check her list. "Beyond that, nothing worth mentioning. We have about 20 hours so far, between all the cameras."
"20 hours?? They didn't sleep much last night, did they."
"Some of them did, but Nick, Brian and Kevin were all up pretty late."
"We don't have a beta deck for the plane so I can watch, do we?" Chris asked, hoping against hope...
Julia laughed. "We're not made of money, darling. We do have one for the tour bus, at least, so you can start reviewing when we get to LA tonight, if you don't mind sitting on the bus. The trucks have them as well, obviously."
"It's strange, Jules, we have to find where the story is for each week. Look at these guys lives like they're characters. Like last night's episode would have been the Nick incident."
"We should show a least a little of him getting mad...let Dave filter it black and white, flash screens..."
"..unless he tells us not to." She shook her head. "You know that's going to be the hardest part, the fact that they can pull any footage."
Julia agreed. "But what can we do...doing this under any other conditions would be cruel to them."
"Well, we might as well get Dave editing up a couple minutes of it when we get out to LA, we're tight on production time, it looks like finding a story a day may be the way to do it. Tomorrow's our first real day on tour, we'll have a better idea then."
The cab pulled into the airport and the ladies stared at the number of teenage girls surrounding the terminal.
"There must be hundreds..." Julia breathed, as the taxi slowly made it's way through the crowd. "Just at an airport."
"The crews are with the guys?"
"They've been here for 2 hours, and they're on a different flight than us" she replied. "Now I see why, jesus...how do people find this stuff out." She pulled a small mini-dv camera out of her bag, rolled down the cab window and started filming. "B-roll can't hurt."
"Of course." Chris smiled. That's why Julia was as invaluable as she was, she thought of everything.
When the cab finally stopped, Julia sprung out and ran over to interview some of the fans, quickly drawing a crowd of her own. All the girls were eager to be interviewed by the little camera, the words 'MTV' bringing stars to their eyes. Julia finished up her interviews, thanked the girls and joined Chris by the baggage stand. "I remember being one of them." She said softly.
"Me too." Chris grabbed their boarding passes and they headed into the terminal. "Who'da thunk it, right? Now we're traveling with the band."
"Oh, if only Donnie Wahlberg was a Backstreet Boy" Julia laughed, then grimaced. "At least the Backstreet Boys can sing."
"Can they?" Chris asked. "You know, with all the preparation for this trip, the one thing I didn't do was hear their music."
Julia stared at Chris. "You're a riot. Yeah, you'll see at the concert tomorrow night. They're really good."
Chris smiled. "Good." They made their way onto the plane and settled in First Class. "You know I'm a big theater girl, I love good voices."
"You want to borrow my discman for the trip? You can listen?"
"Sure, why not." Chris accepted the discman and settled in for the trip.
Day in the Life Of - Day Three
"Press badge please?" Chris was pushed back by a burly-looking man as she attempted to follow Nick into the press conference. She frowned, and shoved the pass around her neck into his face before heading on in. "Sheesh," she muttered.
Nick heard her and turned around grinning, "make friends with the security, Chrissy. They're our friends."
"Yeah, so I gather. Now go." She pushed Nick in the direction of the front of the room, and headed to her place behind the camera. He'd started making jokes with her yesterday, which she took as a good sign. Nick and Howie were the two guys who still had yet to loosen up on camera....she could see it in their footage, no matter what they were doing, they were stiff.
Not that she was watching the footage that was coming in anymore. She discovered after the first day that there was no way she could continue talking to the guys and watching them. It had to be one or the other, otherwise she would feel far too intrusive. So Julia and Chris had a talk, and decided that Julia would do all rough show edits and review the tapes. Julia was pretty happy with the decision, actually, she told Chris she felt like a voyeur, and that the attractiveness of the subject matter didn't hurt either. Chris hadn't had an opportunity yet to tell the guys she was no longer reviewing stock footage, but intended to soon. They would need to tell Julia, from now on, if something happened that they didn't want airing, not her, as she wouldn't see it.
She watched the press conference start and the regular questions started up, "Do you have any girlfriends?" "Boxers or briefs?" "Ideal date?" all until "Rumors have it MTV is developing a new television show based on you guys. True/false?" Chris froze. The announcement was supposed to be made in 3 days, the day before the series would premiere. Shock the world, had been the idea. What the hell...she pulled out her cellphone and ran outside.
"No comment." Kevin responded quickly.
The press conference ended quickly after that, and Chris joined the guys in the limo for the trip to the staples arena for sound check and rehearsal.
"How did that get out?" Howie asked.
"These things happen.." Chris frowned. "Call it another example of how insanely popular you guys are. The rumor was posted last night on a fan's website, someone on an aol account sent her the tip. It was picked up by the Post this morning, they started poking around...you know what they found..."
"Expenses, you and Julia taking off..." AJ nodded.
"Anyway, it works out fine, we could use a little bit of hype before the actual announcement. I know you guys didn't want the series premiere to overshadow your tour launch, and I have MTV's promise to you that it won't. They won't be acknowledging the rumor until we announce the show, the day before it will start, as planned."
Kevin stretched out in the limo, "Thanks, Chris. I think these things shrink every time...." his outstretched arms smacked Nick in the head, "oh, wait, it's just Nick taking up more space..."
Nick smacked Kevin's hands away, "Watch it, Train, we gotta lady present.."
"You threatening me?" Kevin joked, grabbing at Nick's hair.
"Sheesh Kevin, what's with you today." Brian pulled his cousin away from Nick, laughing. "Nick didn't even have to set you off today."
"Pick on Nick day, that's all." Nick mock-pouted, and turned to stare out the window.
"Aww, look at poor Nicky," AJ jumped across the limo to squeeze Nick's face, "so cute." AJ framed Nick's face between his hands and turned to Chris, "now there's your killer shot, lookit that smile."
Nick smacked AJ away from him, feeling embarrassed at the usual teasing and joking he took from the guys. He looked at Chris and returned her smile, feeling somewhat happy for the first time in days.
Chris' heart melted at Nick's smile. His eyes lit up, he looked like an eager little boy, and she couldn't help but beam a grin in reply. He was absolutely adorable, and with that smile...she looked away before her face could turn red as her thoughts spiraled into the gutter out of her control. I've been single far too long, she thought to herself...looking at a 20 year old that way. So wrong...
"Is this going to be your first concert of ours tonight, Chris?" Howie asked, breaking her from her thoughts.
"I can't wait, I really like your music. I've always been a sucker for guys with good voices." She grinned.
"Wait until you see me tonight then, baby, I'll have you melting..." AJ winked.
Chris could imagine the lure of AJ on stage...tonight was going to be fun. She heard faint screams as the limo pulled around a corner and into the arena parking area. "Sounds distant..."
"The Staples Center has an underground entrance, so we can avoid the fans entirely. We're not always so lucky." Howie explained.
They got out of the limo in quiet, and headed into the Arena. The guys quickly were shepherded off to final costume fittings, while Chris was left to wander. She made her way to the stage, and peeked out.
The place was HUGE. Gigantic. She stepped out on stage cautiously and looked around, way up into the top rows, all the way back....she couldn't imagine being alone on this stage, with all those eyes on her.
"And performing for your pleasure tonight ladies and gentleman, Ms. Christen Johnson!" She jumped as a voice boomed on the speakers around her. "And what will the lady be singing?" Howie strolled onto the stage, a cordless microphone in hand.
Chris laughed and backed off the stage, "Oh no, I'll leave the singing to the professionals, thanks."
"Sure?" He held out the mic and looked into her eyes. "Could be fun? Everyone's still doing their fittings."
"Maybe another time." Wow...his eyes...she'd never noticed them before. Very dark, piercing eyes, like they could see the depths of your soul. Very eerie, almost. "I'll see you guys tonight at the show, I have to get back to the hotel and do some work on my laptop."
"Cya later then," with a wave, Howie walked off the stage.
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