Part 6: The Media SpotlightThe shit hit the fan when I flew back to London to film the trailers for the show. I met with Sky One's press to plan the launch of the series which was going to happen in a couple of months. Everyone was very excited and we all knew we had a hit show on our hands. We knew it was going to be big, but didn't know just how big it was going to be.
Sky One's press said that the boys had stopped returning their phone calls. None of us worried. But then the production company got a fax from a top London Law Firm, Shillings. The boys had teamed up together with Shillings and were suing the production company for sexual assault!
I flew back to New York to get away from the press because the story had broken through Broadcast Magazine and everyone wanted the story. My management and Sky One press flew out to see me and talk me through what all of this meant.
It was then that it really exploded. The UK tabloids all jumped on the story and it was everywhere. The tabloids had got hold of a picture of me from the show and my picture was everywhere. All kinds of rumors and lies were being peddled about. Sky One had to shelve the show while the court case was pending.
Then the journalists started phoning my friends and family. You don't know just how clever the media is until they are trying to hunt you down. I could not say anything to anyone because I had signed confidentiality agreements and the boys could use anything I said in the court case. Huge amounts of money were being offered for my story.
I don't know how the media got hold of my friends and family. My only guess is that someone sold my itemized phone bill from a hotel I was staying in. It was a really hard time. I felt as if I had no voice. I couldn't stand up for myself because of the court case. I had to remain silent. I was even featured in the American People magazine. I would go into the drug store and there was me in the news stand!
We were all nervous that people I knew would sell their stories. But I soon realized what strong friends and family I have. They all supported me. I had to keep telling them, and myself, that what was getting printed was not the truth and that one day soon I would get the chance to tell my side of the story.
It felt that all the world was against me. The media were all saying that I has wrong tricking the boys. That this was "cruel TV". When the internet caught on the story went global. Japanese news sites to even the Hindustani Times in India!
Sometimes I just found my self crying. I wondered what I had let myself into. It all seemed too big. Too immediate. Too fast. How could I battle against these huge media companies?
Thank God for my management. They believed in me right down the line. They encouraged me and protected me. When I was desperate to just tell my story to journalists and fuck the consequences they calmed me down and let me know that this was actually going to be great and that getting the bad press out all at once would give me the space to tell my story when the time was right.
I can look back on that time and know that what the boys did was actually great for the show. It made the show notorious. Everyone wanted to see it. They made the show go global and I knew I had to wait for my chance to seize the moment and let everyone know who I really was. What I really am.
Well, the Guys settled with the production company 4 months later and got paid off. Its funny how cash makes a person's psychological distress melt away. I think I would respect the guys more if they had decided never to have let the show be broadcast. I wonder what they spent the money on.
I got the phone call out of the blue to let me know that the boys had settled, the court case was over and the show was going to be broadcast in 4 week! Sky One wanted me to come to London straight away. I was booked on a flight the next day.
I arrived in London under intense secrecy and security. No one was to know I was in town. The journalists were looking for me again and I was whisked off to a flat in Knightsbridge. Just near Harrods. The plan was that I would give The Sun my exclusive story in return for editorial approval and a photo shoot that we could control.
It was really important at this point to be in control as much as we could. I was briefed on how to give interviews (this was my first one in my life, and the most important one). We were all nervous about what the media reception would be. Would they say that I was a freak? I determined in my mind that honesty and integrity were the best way forward.
We did the interview. I talked about my life, how I became what I am and what was driving me. I enjoyed it. I really got a lot out of talking about what makes me tick and what my motivations for the series actually were.
I had to lie low until the exclusive story was published. This was 4 days in London holed up in the apartment. I couldn't go out in case a paparazzi saw me. We spent the time planning what we were going to do for the promotions.
When the Sun story finally came out it was great! They loved me! This was such fantastic news because the Sun is not the most liberal of newspapers. Now we went to work with a vengeance. The next two weeks were full of interviews, guest appearances on radio and TV and being seen about town by the Paparazzi.
It is an incredible experience to be in a limo with the paparazzi climbing all over shouting my name trying to get pictures of me. I had great fun. It was amazing to have such attention and everyone liked me. The newspapers and magazines were really supportive and the radio shows had me in hysterics. I intrigued everyone. They wanted to know everything about me. They just could not believe that I had been born male.
It was an intense four weeks. I learned how to deal with the media. And I was so happy that the show was such a huge success and the newspaper coverage so supportive. Suddenly I realized that I was a celebrity and that everything had changed.
Continue to Part 7: The Future
|
