Devilcountry by Craig Spivek Page B

Brando...fucken
Brando...that guy nailed it,” he’d say.  Carin took it all in.
 Sometimes there’d be adult situations or violence in one of the movies
but Giuseppe was cool about it.  He would talk to Carin like she was an
adult.  Carin had never experienced that before.  He noticed her
reading a book on acting by Uta Hagen.  He didn’t know who Hagen was but
he could tell she was interested.  He could tell Carin had talent and a
drive to succeed.  She wanted more out of life than pizza.  Giuseppe
encouraged her to act.
    “Just do it.  Your old man is a drunk idiot.   You got skills , kid .  I say do it. ”   His voice was gravelly from years of
pizza and Cutty-water.  He’d go back behind the counter and start pushing
dough out.  “I’d do it if I were your age.  Work sucks.  Avoid
it like the plague.”  She’d laugh. On his advice she saved up her cash and
started in an acting class.   She caught hell for it from her asshole
dad, but it was worth it.  She was fantastic.  Head and shoulders
above everyone else, in talent as well as physical stature.  That first
class was mesmerizing to her.  She got the bug.  It was all fueled on
pizza cash.   
    Dickie sat mesmerized by Carin as she told the
tale.  He said, “You should totally turn that into a movie.”  And she
did.  They screwed that night, hard.   Real hard.  In the morning, Carin was high on cock, love and the dream of bringing, Ode
To Uta to the screen.  Dickie was dreaming of reinventing himself as a
restaurateur, with famous friends.  He could see them all, hanging out,
laughing, breaking balls.  He convinced her to go
in on a restaurant.  Her money, his know how.  Beverly Hills was the
first location.  Two more stores followed.  Her dream project was
picked up by Universal with her and possibly Pacino attached.  She liked
the vibe at the store she now owned. It soothed her.  She would do some of
her best film work while behind the counter there between shoots.  Then
things got weird.  
    As it turned out Dickie had lost interest in her
right after the William Morris Agency lost interest in her.  Dickie wanted
to be near the Hollywood flame.  Lots of people were like that.  They
had no talent whatsoever with the exception of charm.  Dickie wasn’t
stupid.  In fact Dickie was quite sharp.  He knew exactly what he
wanted and he knew how to get it.  Dickie fed on the buzz of being around
Hollywood players, producers, directors, actors, and most important, actresses.
 Even though he couldn’t act, he knew how to play a scene.  He could charm
an actress.  Pizza helped in this process.  He hired Mexicans to run it;
perhaps that was Dickie’s greatest talent.  He knew who to hire. That’s really all a good restaurateur had to be.  Hire your
people well and sit back. He knew Latinos could run everything.  He’d put
New Yorkers in certain key positions to make it look authentic but ultimately
he’d let the Latinos handle everything.  As long as the cash kept coming
in he could impress his next actress.  Carin was gone most of the time
anyways.  Dickie had no clue as far as whether or not he was in love with
Carin, or whether he was at all able to fall in love with anyone. Love got in
the way.  He was good at the setup, the courtship, the romance. But the follow through was problematic.  He wanted status.
 Not intimacy.
    Giuseppe died the night after the premier.
 He had been having chest pains all week leading up to the event but was
too stubborn to do anything about it.  In true pizza man fashion he just
worked through it.   The poster for Carin’s new film
posted in the corner by the door.  He’d never felt more proud but
he was also a bit stressed. He wasn’t into the artsy chick flicks.  His
favorite movie at the time of his passing was The Cannonball Run . It had
been running on cable a lot and he always would catch a slice of it after
coming home from a shift.  Jamie Farr dressed