annie leibovitz

i was in annie leibovitz children's room about to be photographed for the annual 2 page cover of vanity fair with sting, johnny depp, bett midler, janeane garofalo, dustin hoffmann and keira knightley. i'd spent the morning in hair and make-up and was wearing a magnificent satin vintage valentino gown. i felt beautiful. i heard kiera say, 'don't some people ever think about skipping a meal once in a while?' as i passed her and my confidence just deflated. annie heard it too and gave me a sympathetic look. the shot was centered around an amazingly detailed neon train that ran around an oval track that annie had made for her children a couple of christmases before. as all the 'stars' positioned themselves around and inside the track, i could hear keira still whispering shit about me and was now complaining that i wasn't famous enough to be photographed with the rest of them. suddenly, no matter how i tried to squeeze in, someone was either sticking out an elbow or fluffing up their costumes to cover me. i began to feel intimidated and just kind of backed away. soon all the stars were acting like the popular mean kids in high school and hamming it up with inside jokes and arranging themselves so they were always in groups that did not include me. annie popped about a hundred photographs and then said okay, let's take a break. as everyone filed out wearing smug smiles, she held my elbow and motioned her assistants to stay. soon i was in the middle of the track positioned upon a cloud of magnificent, hand made stuffed animals. annie turned her monitor to face me and showed me the results immediately after she had directed me to move in a particular way so that i could understand exactly what she was asking of me. the images were magical and lovely. annie said, 'okay, great job. you're done. you'll be in the foldout solo.' i smiled wide and thanked her.

as i was riding home in the car, i thought it was lucky for me that annie pulled for the underdogs.