Now make that a double, and try to imagine the impact Didier's unexpected arrival with two celebrities, actor and actress, must have had upon yours truly and my companion, the impressionable sixteen-year-old Pam.  

Yes, there Didier stood, framed in the entrance to my little sitting room, his own darkly handsome good looks sandwiched between the world-renowned blond perfection of this Hollywood Power Couple, a god and goddess whose names, regrettably but as you can easily understand I can not out of discretion reveal to you except to say that they are not in the habit of collecting children from around the world nor do they belong to any organization which in certain circles might be considered a cult.  I hope that helps limit the range of possibilities for you.  Avid readers may recall an oblique Page Six-style blind item I alluded to some time ago (Here) but more I cannot say.  I for one recognize that those who seek immortality pay a great price; I can only respect what tiny shred of privacy they are able to hold on to, and I want them all to know, whoever they are, they are always welcome and safe in my home.

I will say, however, that meeting someone you are quite sure you've never met before but are distinctly aware of having seen more or less naked is a disconcerting experience.  You cannot help wondering what you might have been doing when you did see them naked, and in addition, if you have had as full and rich a life as I have had, filled with many interesting experiences you can't always recall afterward, you may have a nagging suspicion that this vivid memory of lack of clothes has to do with something for which you owe an apology but for the life of you, you can't remember for what (or when, or where).  Then you hope they don't remember either. 

In the next moment you're thinking they seem much shorter in person, which anyone who's lived in L.A. will tell you is something that happens a lot when you meet celebrities.  

I should probably also mention that Netflicks and Movies-on-Demand have blurred the distinction between film and television and along with that commingling, as it were, the respective ways one reacts to the mediums' talent have also run together.  In the old days, there was a difference.  Reverence of the sort paid royalty was reserved for the film stars you'd worshipped from afar in the grand darkness of theaters, whereas televsion actors had been with you in the privacy of your living room while you lay on the couch in your underwear, thereby creating a sense of intimacy that tends to break down walls, if you know what I mean.  I happen to think people are still more relaxed and chummy with TV talent in ways they wouldn't dare with Oscar nominees and winners, but I must say that in this particular situation Didier's famous friends went out of their way to make me feel at ease, and I could not help but find them both very personable and life-like.

"Great place," He said, close to Didier's side, after the unnecessary first-name introductions were made.

"I adore your view," She said, stroking Didier's arm affectionately.

"Didier's told us all about you guys, haven't you, buddy?" He said, ruffling Didier's hair playfully and tenderly hugging him.  

"Oh, look, The Yellow Book," She said, noticing Volume I as she let her hand slide down Didier's chest.  "Do you know X?" She asked, naming a well-known British thespian of tremendous appeal and talent.  "He always plays Oscar Wilde?" she added helpfully.  "He has a whole bunch of these books, like a set, I think.  Or some original drawings or something..."  Her voice trailed off as she sighed and leaned her head in an almost proprietorial fashion on Didier's broad shoulder.

The other point to be made about the phenomenon of celebrity is how your reaction to it, and to the people who have it, can occasionally change quite quickly.  Almost without warning you will find yourself going from sheer delight in meeting these very special individuals so bountifully blessed with charm and beauty and fortune and happiness and privilege and fame to, in the next instance, wishing you had what they had, and by extension that they did not have what they had, which then leads to the revelation that they so don't really deserve any of what they've got, to the growing conviction that Life is astonishingly cruel and unjust, and from there it is only a short step to --

"A drink?" Pam asked our guests, shaking me from my revery.