AN INTERN AT a Hollywood production company was vying for an assistant job when he found out his boss was dead. “I got a call telling me not to come in, and I wondered if I was fired,” he says. He’d spent the weekend deep cleaning the office. Did he break something? Maybe he was in trouble for taking a photograph of a prop from one of the company’s hit movies? “It wound up being way more of a serious issue, however.” His boss had died by suicide.
When he was called back to work, one of the company’s producers gave him a promotion of sorts. He was no longer an intern, he was a runner, which meant he’d get a small hourly wage for doing anything he could to help a company in crisis. “No matter what they asked, I just said, ‘No problem,’ ” he says. Organize funeral flowers? No problem. Run errands for grieving loved ones? No problem.
Then he was asked to help deal with his late boss’s office. “I found a lot of drugs in there,” he says. It was the first time he had seen anything like it. “I was like, This is Hollywood. This is drugs.” Higher-ups debated what to do with the controlled substance in question. “I just was like, ‘You guys, if you want to take this giant bag of drugs into another room, I’m never going to ask you what happened to it."" He was subsequently offered the assistant job.
"To this day," he says, "I think that's why I got it."
When the news broke that Matthew Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, would face up to 15 years in prison for illegally procuring the ketamine that led to the actor’s death, a shudder went through assistants all over the entertainment industry. It was a serious there-but-for-the-grace-of-God moment. After all, the assistant community knows how hard it is to say no to a Hollywood boss.
Denne historien er fra The Hollywood Issue 2025-utgaven av Vanity Fair US.
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Denne historien er fra The Hollywood Issue 2025-utgaven av Vanity Fair US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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HUGH GRANT
The star of Heretic on his dearest loves (dishonesty, his barbecue) and greatest nemeses (scissors, Colin Firth)
MURDER AT HAMMERSMITH FARM
Two months before his assassination, JOHN and JACKIE KENNEDY wrote, directed, and acted in a James Bondinspired home movie in which the president was \"killed.\" VF reveals the story behind the spoof, along with neverbefore-seen footage from that day
ALL HER OWN
Joan Didion's marriage was one of the most revered in American letters. But before there was John Gregory Dunne, there was Noel Parmentel Jr.-the man who broke her heart. As LILI ANOLIK reveals in this excerpt from Didion and Babitz, the devastation lasted a lifetime
KAREN READ'S FIGHT
Prosecuted for her police officer boyfriend's mysterious death in a wild case that ended in a mistrial, the former equity analyst has maintained her innocence. Moreover, she claims that law enforcement has conspired to frame her. As her retrial looms-calling into question the concept of double jeopardy-Karen Read speaks out
MC QUEEN'S GAMBIT
IS STEVE MCQUEEN A HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR WITH A THRIVING FINE ARTS PRACTICE OR A THRIVING FINE ARTIST WITH AN IMPECCABLE HOLLYWOOD STREAK? HIS WORLD WAR II EPIC, BLITZ, IS ANOTHER VIRTUOSO WORK IN A CAREER FULL OF THEM
All the Pretty Little Horses
When he was 42, CORMAC MCCARTHY fell in love with a 16-year-old girl he met by a motel pool. AUGUSTA BRITT would go on to become one of the most significant-and secretinspirations in literary history, giving life to dozens of McCarthy's characters across his celebrated novels and Hollywood films. For 47 years, Britt closely guarded her identity and her story. Until now
STAR STRUCK Hollywood 2025
It's the MOST AUDACIOUS ACTORS who POWER HOLLYWOOD and THRILL AUDIENCES. VF TOASTS 12 of the INDUSTRY'S BRIGHTEST LIGHTS
The Tie That BLINDS
When the news broke that Matthew Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, would face up to 15 years in prison for illegally procuring the ketamine that led to the actor’s death, a shudder went through assistants all over the entertainment industry.
The Art of THE DEAL
What it took to get my movie about Donald Trump and Roy Cohn in front of an audience
Both Now Sides - Selena Gomez is seriously in loveand making the best work of her career. With the audacious Emilia Pérez hitting theaters and Only Murders in the Building returning to TV, the actor, singer, entrepreneur, and mental health advocate talks, about the climb
Selena Gomez is seriously in loveand making the best work of her career. With the audacious Emilia Pérez hitting theaters and Only Murders in the Building returning to TV, the actor, singer, entrepreneur, and mental health advocate talks, about the climb
