Chapter 33: Diva

Romantic Comedy Series 60

Once the news broke that Diana Sinclair had set foot in Kuala Lumpur, Daniel immediately called her management team to pitch the idea to meet with her. It took us three days of waiting anxiously before we got the reply from them, agreeing with our request. They set the meet up to be done in Hotel Vistana and we were all game for it, until two hours before it when we received a call from her manager cancelling the meeting as Diana had to to depart for Penang for a personal matter (?) and changed the meeting to a day after it. Came that day, we were let down once again as Diana was leaving for Singapore and again, for a personal matter (?). However she allowed one of Hey's representatives to come down to meet her in Singapore at their expenses. But in prior to that, her team requested that we gave a full biodata of the person that would be interviewing her later (it was me) together with a picture of me (not a passport picture, a full one!) Daniel did not say 'no'. He fulfilled every term. A few hours after that, they agreed to take me to Singapore. Daniel promised to accompany me down there.

One of her people reached out to us to give the flight tickets to Singapore and later another appointment was set up. But once we were landed at the airport, we received a bad new once again. Diana already left for Johor Bahru, this time. But they did apologized and we were picked up by her people to a new meet up place, which was Hotel Seri Malaysia Johor Bahru. I took a long sigh witnessed by Daniel who later tried to calm me down. "She better not do this one more time! Urgh..." I whispered to Daniel.

"Don't give up Marina. Smooth sailing never made a skilful sailor."

"I hope we will get more than just a line from her!"

"The more lines, the more dollar sign for us"
We both chuckled over the joke. The two photographers who joined us fell asleep in the car. It was a boring journey. Travelling across the Johore-Singapore causeway at the peak hour was no fun. We reached Seri Malaysia a few hours later. In the lobby, there was Diana's assistant waiting for us.

"Hi, I'm Aaron..." he introduced himself. "Come with me please… Diana is waiting for you in her room. Oh, by the way, only two people are allowed to get in all right?"

I looked at Daniel, and then to the two photographers that came with us.

"So, how Daniel?"

"You and Rushdee. How about that?"

We both nodded. We followed Aaron to Diana's room. I did not know why, but I was feeling tremendously nervous to see her. I was not quite sure what to expect and how to behave.

"When you interviewing her, don't be nervous. Just see her as your sister. She respects that," Aaron gave me some tips, before I stepped into her room.

"Hello..." she greeted me. On her bed. Playing with her Blackberry.

"Hello..." I replied with a smile from ear to ear. I gave her my hand, to shake with hers.

"Could you please pull me up? Urghh it's so hard to get up when you already lied down," she asked for my help as soon as she as soon as she shook my hand. Without much question, I pulled Diana by her hand and she got up slowly. Her assistant, Aaron, was in the bathroom at the time.

Diana asked me to be seated on the sofa. I can smell her fragrance mixed in the air. She was wearing a scallop-detailed dress in hot pink. He looked rather feminine that time, different than her usual image in the media.

"I'm sorry Marina. I had to cancel our sessions before," Diana said.

"That's okay..."

"Wait, what is he doing here?" Diana pointed on Rushdee who was prepared to record the interview.

"He will be recording the interview," I said briefly.

"Oh! Are you sure you guys are from a magazine? Not a TV station?" asked Diana. She then whispered something to her assistant, like she had a problem with it.

"This is the first magazine that do it and I am not happy with this," said Diana straight to my face.

I just gave her a forced smile. Had Daniel been there, I was certain he would have noticed my death stare. To be honest I had objected this idea of his to record this interview visually.

"I'm just kidding..." Diana added, with a smile. That relieved me so much even though I did question myself if she had really meant it. "Okay...start it up!" Diana picked her fingers as a sign she was ready.

"Okay, Diana. Like any other interviews Hey did before, I’d like to ask, at this moment, can you share with us what do you see in yourself now?"

From her facial expression, I thought that she might have felt that the question was a bit strange. But she took some time to think about it and answered it anyway.

"I love money. I love boys. I love coffee. I'm a hardworking woman and I'm creative."
Of course, that answer did not settle me and I wanted more.

"How about something you don't see in yourself?"

"I'm unable to see that. I just...can't."

"Okay..." I answered with a smile. But seeing the reaction on her face that seemed bored by the question, I was lost for words.

"We can't have everything in this world," Diana added, smiling.

I proceeded with all the questions that Daniel and I had planned. Throughout the interview I noticed one thing, this was not the Diana Sinclair that I knew. She seemed nervous, and unsure of all the answers she gave us. This was not the rich and reputable woman that I had seen on the newspapers.

"Do you cook?" She asked me that question, all of the sudden.

"A little bit," I answered in giggles. I thought it was a funny and random question.

"Maybe you can make me a risotto before you leave?"

"No problem. As long as you have all the ingredients"

"Hahahahaha!" Diana laughed non stop, a tad bit like a pirate. "So...what does all this got to do with my new film?"

"S.O.S?" I asked back, trying to hide the fact that I knew very little about it.

"Yes. Don't tell me you never heard any of it before?"

To be honest, at that point, I had not got the chance to watch that film yet. I just read the reviews in the magazines. I became a little panic. My head went blank. I only had those that I had written on papers. But I tried to stay calm and composed.

I tried to talk about all the general things that I had read about it, like some a few sad things she had mentioned in the Secret Garden.
"You are trying to portray her as a woman who lives in sadness."

"Oh no! All I tried to say was..."

"There are just so many press that portrayed me as a crazy woman to the public. When I am far from that."

"You know. People are afraid to get close to me because I'm famous and powerful. That is the dilemma of the people like me."

I let Diana spoke her heart out for a little bit. That conversation had led her to talk about her former husband, Mirza Adam Sinclair eventually. Later, I asked her to talk further about sex, economy and politics. But she seemed uninterested.

"This is boring! Can we talk about other topics?"

"You made millions out of this topics, and you called them boring?" I jokingly said to her, hoping she would not feel offended.

My joke changed the mood of the interview, unexpectedly. Diana no longer hid her boredom on my questions.

"What if you ask me questions now..."I proposed.

"That’s a good idea," she replied. Her face lit up, her mood drastically changed for the better.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"We just broke up..."

"And what was the reason?"

"He called it quit."

I did not know what had got into her, but Diana kept asking me one after another question. Everything about me, my family, my life including some confidential questions only I should have known. It did cross to me to give her fake answers or in other words, to lie to her, but to think that I was not a celebrity at all and nobody would read it, I decided to just be honest with all her questions.
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"What did you ask Diana yesterday?" asked Daniel to me, as soon as Diana's manager told him that she did not like the interview session.

"What we have discussed the other day. Questions that we felt would be appropriate."

"Hmmm....that's weird," added Daniel. He frowned and clearly was thinking about something.

"If it's weird to you, it's even more weird to me. When the interview ended, I shook her hand and I did not see any unhappy signs in her face at all. She even told me that she could not wait to see me again. And now this!?"

"It looks like we need a different strategy, Marina," suggested Daniel. He took a deep breath.

"I think so, too..."

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