Blown for Good - Marc Morgan Headley [125]
As the power was still on, chances were it was one or both of the first two. Sometimes someone blew the Base and then Dave found out about it and was outraged, so no matter what the deal was, we were most likely screwed.
Gold after lunch muster was held and it was a quick one. An announcement was made that anyone who was on the Cine event crew was to meet in the Cine Conference room for an urgent meeting. Well most of the event crew were either still at the Freewinds or on their way back to Gold, and those of us who were here were just getting used to sleeping six hours per night again and not in the mood for more event craziness just yet. We headed over to the conference room from the dining hall.
After we all filed in, the CO Gold, Lisa Schroer started to speak over the Conference room speakerphone. She was at the Freewinds still. She said that we had another event that had to be put on at the Freewinds!
“We are going to throw a birthday party for Mr. Cruise aboard the Freewinds!” she happily exclaimed.
What the hell did that have to do with us? Damn, we thought we were going to have to do a bunch of work for an event. That was close! Who gives a crap? Play some music, bake a cake and we are good. Happy Birthday, Tom!
“So this is what we need,” she began. Most of us are ready for the cake and whatever else they needed and then we realized that this party would be like no other. She started listing what they needed, “I will list it out. Write this down. We will need to know the status of all these items in the next few hours:
1. All of the production truck gear needs to be gotten back.
2. All of the cameras and decks need to be set back up at the Freewinds.
3. All of the musicians’ gear needs to be brought back.
4. All of the audio gear needs to be sent back.
5. All of the sets items need to be sent back.
6. The teleprompters need to be sent back out.
7. We need about 15 plasma flat screens sent out here.
8. Any event crew who were on their way back to Gold need to be sent back to the Freewinds.
9. Whatever gear is being rented, the rentals need to be extended for at least another week or two.
10. Cost is no matter; the costs will be taken care.
11. There is a sushi restaurant in Santa Monica that Mr. Cruise loves. That restaurant needs to be airlifted out to the Freewinds. The chefs, the sushi, the whole place needs to be set up at the Freewinds.
12. Every single movie that Mr. Cruise has been in needs to be located.
13. Get these movies to Video Editing.
14. An hour long video will be made from these movies and cut to music.
15. Also, the DVD authoring crew needs to get out here so that some DVDs can be made on the ship.
16. If we think of anything else we will let you guys know.
“Okay, so you guys have your marching orders, get it done! I will call back at the end of the night to get a report on where everything stands. All department heads better be on top of their items and be able to report up!” She hung up.
The looks in the room were like no one had ever seen. A birthday party for Mr. Cruise that would take place aboard the Freewinds? We throw a birthday party for L. Ron Hubbard and that costs $400,000. Now we are going to throw one for a public Scientologist that will rival that? Wow! The stuff that happened at the Int Base never ceased to amaze me. Oh, and the list of stuff they needed sent back was ALL of the stuff we sent in the first place. She might as well have said, “Send it all back.” That would have been quicker and more accurate.
As the day went on and people were burning the phone lines to get their stuff sorted out, we began to find out what the party would entail:
1. There was going to be a big show in the Starlight Cabaret.
2. It would be a music show just for Tom Cruise.
3. All of the hit songs from each of his movies would be performed by the Golden Era Musicians.
4. There would be moving visuals playing behind the stage that were the best scenes from all his movies.
5. These would also be playing on tons of plasma flat screens throughout the Starlight