Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Catch A Falling Starlet by Stephen Lyons Catch A Falling Starlet. “The first response you get when you tell a person you’ve lost something is always, ‘where did you last see it?’ We not only go to where an object was last seen, but to when it was last seen, then simply trace how it was lost and where it ended up. Clients will not be billed for hours spent solving any murders that might pop up along the way.” – Oliver Weatherby, retired Lobsterman and Co-Founder of the Pawskonsett Island Artifact Retrieval Company. Gus Milton and Carolyn Madore are two former grad students who now work for the afore mentioned PIARC; a secretive and reasonably profitable company headquartered on a remote island off the coast of Maine. Despite being run by a pair of retired lobstermen with no education beyond high school, the company has had remarkable success finding histories lost treasures. It helps that they have access to a time machine, cleverly disguised as a rather cramped mop closet. While tracing a valuable diamond from 1920’s Western Australia to the Golden Age of Hollywood, Gus and Carolyn inadvertently leave their time machine behind the gates of the Warner Bros. studio lot; stranding them in the past. Their only friend is Errol Flynn; but the married star is having a fling with a young actress named Lorna and the scandal wary studio bosses have banned Flynn from the lot. When Lorna turns up murdered, the only way for Gus and Carolyn to return home is to find out who killed her and get Flynn back into the good graces of the studio. Secrets of a Puerto Rican Gambler by Stephen Minch and Vanishing Inc. This masterwork encapsulates not only some of world champion Daryl’s finest work, but also some of the most influential material of the 1980s. Here we see Daryl’s now legendary Cutting Display for Triumph, his stunning, perfect “Mysterious Cross of India” Coins Across, and “The Boomerang Card of Mystery.” There are also some forgotten gems, waiting to be resurrected from the early 80s and introduced to a new audience. “In the Pinch” allows you to snatch a selection from a cascading pack of cards. You will also find Daryl’s touches on Twisting the Aces, an impossible card location, and more. Secrets of a “Puerto Rican Gambler” is Daryl’s rarest and most acclaimed work, and we’re thrilled to present this updated reprint to fans worldwide. In addition to a sparkling new edit and layout, there are more than double the original photographs. Also included is a bonus routine not found in the original book but created during the same time period: Daryl’s astounding “Double Dazzling Triumph.” Table of Contents: The Boomerang Card of Mystery – Catch a selection from a falling waterfall of cards. The Chicago Conspiracy – Trap two selections by causing them to come together. Quick Silver – Two selected cards are attracted to a half dollar, as if by magic. Holding On – Alex Elmsley’s “Between Your Palms” is a modern classic, and this is Daryl’s terrific take. The Puerto Rican Triumph – This is it! This is where Daryl’s now-famous Cutting Display debuted. The Mysterious Cross of India – A Coins Across of the Finest Order. No hand-to-hand transfers. A modern classic! In the Pinch – You trap a selection as a spectator dribbles the cards to the table! Just Tweezing – A variation of the above. Conditional Assembly – A beautiful, thoughtful take on the classic four-Ace Assembly. Twisted Aces Redivivus – If you love Vernon’s Twisting the Aces, you’ll love these fine finesses. Double Dazzling Triumph – A show-stopping closer in the key of Triumph. FOREVER PLAID. THE HEAVENLY MUSICAL HIT! We’re ringing in the 15th season of the CLO Cabaret with the first show we ever performed at this venue – FOREVER PLAID ! This show is just as perfect a fit for our unique Cabaret space now as it was in our inaugural season. This New York musical comedy hit is the deliciously funny and charming story of “The Plaids,” a classic 1950s all-male singing group, who were killed in a car crash on their way to their first big gig! Audiences will be rolling in the aisles and tapping their toes as “The Plaids” are miraculously revived to perform the concert-that-never-was in this hilariously nostalgic musical! Performing precision harmonies and executing their delightfully outlandish choreography with over-zealous precision, “The Plaids” perform some of the 1950s greatest hits: “Catch a Falling Star,” “Three Coins in the Fountain,” “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing” and “Magic Moments.” Save up to 30% with a Pittsburgh CLO Kara Cabaret Series Package. Groups of 8 or more may call 412-325-1582 or email [email protected]. BRANDON LAMBERT ( Jinx ) previously performed at the Pittsburgh CLO Cabaret as Marcus in Murder for Two and Jinx in Plaid Tidings . His musical Just Laugh (co-author Lauren Gundrum) recently premiered in New York in Ken Davenport’s Rave Theatre Festival and won Outstanding Musical. He’s a proud member of the BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop (Harrington Award), the Dramatists Guild and AEA. ZANDER LYONS ( Sparky ) is a born and raised native of Pittsburgh. His passion for theater led him to New York City where he graduated from NYU Tisch Department of Drama’s New Studio on Broadway. He’s thrilled to return home and be a part of this wonderful show. QUINN PATRICK SHANNON ( Frankie ) This is Quinn's 12th production with Pittsburgh CLO, and this will be his 4th time performing the role of Frankie, originated by his beloved director and choreographer, Guy Stroman. Other Pittsburgh CLO favorites include Pittman/Etches in Titanic , Clown 1 in The 39 Steps , and the classic love story, The Toxic Avenger , starring his beautiful wife and goddess of the stage, Caroline Nicolian. WOOD VAN METER ( Smudge ) is thrilled to be making his CLO debut! Regional favorites include Joseph. Dreamcoat (Joseph - Helen Hayes Nom.), Shear Madness and West Side Story (both at The Kennedy Center), as well as performances at Shakespeare Theatre Co., Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, Hangar Theatre, Pittsburgh Musical Theater, Rep Stage and many others. He is a KY native, a Point Park graduate and a proud member of AEA. Enjoy the show! @Woodvanmeter. JACK HOLMES ( Understudy ) is excited to be making his Pittsburgh CLO debut! Recent credits: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Who’s Tommy (Clinton Showboat Theatre); The History Boys, Cabaret and The Who’s Tommy (Pittsburgh Playhouse). Much love to the cast and crew, as well as his friends and family! BFA Point Park University. www.jack-holmes.net IG: @jdholmes97. GUY STROMAN ( Director/Choreographer ) directed and choreographed Forever Plaid for the opening of the Pittsburgh CLO Cabaret fifteen years ago, and again for the fifth anniversary of this wonderful theatre; directed and choreographed both Cabaret productions of CLO Plaid Tidings , as well as Ring of Fire and The 39 Steps ; directed award-winning productions in NYC and around the country, including Twelfth Night, The King and I, The Glass Menagerie, Man of La Mancha, Boeing, Boeing, Driving Miss Daisy ; collaborations with Sandy Duncan, June Squibb, Lou Diamond Phillips, Sally Struthers, Jean Stapleton, Lynn Redgrave; originated Frankie in Forever Plaid in NYC, London, LA (Best Actor-LA Drama Critics) STEVEN FREEMAN ( Music Director ) is a musical director/conductor having worked extensively in and out of New York. He is taking a break from serving as a Guest Artist at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts for their production of Spring Awakening . He also serves as musical supervisor for Royal Caribbean’s production of Hairspray on the Symphony of the Seas. Recently, he was part of the musical team of Matilda, the Musical both on Broadway and the National Tour. Other New York credits include Billy Elliot, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, Damn Yankees, Grease and Chicago . He supervised international companies of Chicago in Buenos Aires, Moscow, Montreal, Seoul and Tokyo. He conducted the New York premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night at Second Stage. Regional theaters include the George Street Playhouse, the Berkshire Theater Festival, Paper Mill Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, North Shore Music Theater and the Cape Playhouse. PAUL MILLER ( Lighting Designer ) Previously at Pittsburgh CLO: 4 seasons at the Benedum. Broadway: Ruben & Clay’s Christmas Show, Amazing Grace, The Illusionists, Legally Blonde, Freshly Squeezed, Laughing Room Only. Over 20 Off-Broadway commercial productions and City Center Encores! A regular at many Regional Theatres. Over a dozen National Tours. Television: Live from Lincoln Center , Netflix, Showtime, Comedy Central, and Lighting Director for New Year’s Eve/Time’s Square for the last 20 years. Internationally: Stratford, West End, La Scala, South Africa, China, Philippines and Brazil. Actors I Love (in no order) One of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was born on August 17, 1943 in Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and his other ancestry is Irish, English, Dutch, German, and French. He was trained . 2. John Cazale. John Cazale was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to an Irish-American mother, Cecilia (Holland), and an Italian-American father, John Cazale. Cazale only made five feature films in his career, all which many fans and critics alike call classics. But before his film debut, the short The American Way (. 3. Mads Mikkelsen. Mads Mikkelsen's great successes parallel those achieved by the Danish film industry since the mid-1990s. He was born in Østerbro, Copenhagen, to Bente Christiansen, a nurse, and Henning Mikkelsen, a banker. Starting out as a low-life pusher/junkie in the 1996 success Диле&. 4. John Hurt. One of stage, screen and TV's finest transatlantic talents, slight, gravel-voiced, pasty-looking John Vincent Hurt was born on January 22, 1940, in Shirebrook, a coal mining village, in Derbyshire, England. The youngest child of Phyllis (Massey), an engineer and one-time actress, and Reverend . 5. Al Pacino. Alfredo James "Al" 'Pacino established himself as a film actor during one of cinema's most vibrant decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies. He was born April 25, 1940 in Manhattan, New York City, to Italian-American parents, Rose (nee Gerardi). 6. Tom Hanks. Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California, to Janet Marylyn (Frager), a hospital worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks, an itinerant cook. His mother's family, originally surnamed "Fraga", was entirely Portuguese, while his father was of mostly English ancestry. Tom grew up in what he has . 7. Michael Shannon. Michael Corbett Shannon was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, the son of Geraldine Hine, a lawyer, and Donald Sutherlin Shannon, an accounting professor at DePaul University. His grandfather was entomologist Raymond Corbett Shannon. Shannon began his professional stage career in Chicago. His . 8. Susan Strasberg. Susan Strasberg was born in New York City on May 22, 1938. From the time of her birth, she was destined to be an actress, as her father was Lee Strasberg, acting coach at the famed Actors Studio in New York. In 1953, Susan made her acting debut in the episode Телев&. 9. Stephen Graham. Stephen Graham was born August 3, 1973, in the small town of Kirkby, Lancashire, to a pediatric nurse mother and a social worker father. His paternal grandfather was Jamaican, and one of his grandmothers was Swedish. After years of small parts, he finally got his big break in an unexpected way, . 10. Nikolaj Lie Kaas. "There are those who miss being in-depth with the world," explains Nikolaj Lie Kaas in an interview with Politiken on April 29th, 2001, "but for me superficiality means a lot - that's where I get my drive." This is an interesting comment from an actor, whose acting always strikes a deeply personal . 11. Joe Pesci. Compact Italian-American actor Joe Pesci was born February 9, 1943 in Newark, New Jersey, to Mary (Mesce), a part-time barber, and Angelo Pesci, a bartender and forklift driver. Pesci first broke into entertainment as a child actor, and by the mid-1950s, was starring on the series "Star Time Kids". 12. Robert Duvall. Veteran actor and director Robert Selden Duvall was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego, CA, to Mildred Virginia (Hart), an amateur actress, and William Howard Duvall, a career military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at Principia College (Elsah, IL), then served a . 13. Sam Rockwell. Sam Rockwell was born on November 5, 1968, in San Mateo, California, the only child of two actors, Pete Rockwell and Penny Hess. The family moved to New York when he was two years old, living first in the Bronx and later in Manhattan. When Sam was five years old, his parents separated, at which . 14. Ulrich Thomsen. Ulrich Thomsen graduated from The Danish National School of Theatre and Contemporary Dance in 1993, after which playing on several theaters in Copenhagen, i.e. Dr. Dantes Aveny, Mungo Park and Østre Gasværks Teater. His debut on film was in Ole Bornedal's Ночной . 15. Vincent Cassel. Blue-eyed Vincent Cassel was born in Paris to a leading actor father, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and a journalist mother, Sabine Litique. Often labeled as a tough guy because of his roles, eclectic choices and talent have made of him a star of European cinema. First in Ненав&. 16. Christopher Lee. Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it . 17. Christopher Walken. Nervous-looking lead and supporting actor of the American stage and films, with sandy colored hair, pale complexion and a somewhat nervous disposition. He won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Охотник на ол&. 18. Harvey Keitel. American actor and producer Harvey Keitel was born on May 13, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York City, to Miriam (Klein) and Harry Keitel. An Oscar and Golden Globe Award nominee, he has appeared in films such as Martin Scorsese's Злые улицы (1973) and . 19. Steve Buscemi. Steve Buscemi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Dorothy (Wilson), a restaurant hostess, and John Buscemi, a sanitation worker. He is of Italian (father) and English, Dutch, and Irish (mother) descent. He became interested in acting during his last year of high school. After graduating, he moved to. 20. Kirk Douglas. Cleft-chinned, steely-eyed and virile star of international cinema who rose from being "the ragman's son" (the name of his best-selling 1988 autobiography) to become a bona fide superstar, Kirk Douglas, also known as Issur Danielovitch Demsky, was born on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York. . 21. Jeremy Renner. Jeremy Lee Renner was born in Modesto, California, the son of Valerie (Tague) and Lee Renner, who managed a bowling alley. After a tumultuous yet happy childhood with his four younger siblings, Renner graduated from Beyer High School and attended Modesto Junior College. He explored several areas of. 22. Jodie Foster. Jodie Foster started her career at the age of two. For four years she made commercials and finally gave her debut as an actress in the TV series Mayberry R.F.D. (1968). In 1975 Jodie was offered the role of prostitute Iris Steensma in the movie Таксист (. 23. Brendan Gleeson. Brendan Gleeson was born in Dublin, Ireland, to Pat and Frank Gleeson. From a very young age, he loved to learn, especially reading classical text in and outside the classroom. He took great attention to Irish play writers such as Samuel Beckett, which eventually led to him performing in his high . 24. Viggo Mortensen. Since his screen debut as a young Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Свидетель (1985), Viggo Mortensen's career has been marked by a steady string of well-rounded performances. Mortensen was born in New York City, to Grace Gamble (Atkinson) and Viggo . 25. Edward Norton. American actor, filmmaker and activist Edward Harrison Norton was born on August 18, 1969, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was raised in Columbia, Maryland. His mother, Lydia Robinson "Robin" (Rouse), was a foundation executive and teacher of English, and a daughter of famed real estate developer . 26. Robin Williams. Robin McLaurin Williams was born on Saturday, July 21st, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, a great-great-grandson of Mississippi Governor and Senator, Anselm J. McLaurin. His mother, Laurie McLaurin (née Janin), was a former model from Mississippi, and his father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, was a Ford . 27. Anthony Hopkins. Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, . 28. Gene Hackman. Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Anna Lyda Elizabeth (Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman, who operated a newspaper printing press. He is of Pennsylvania Dutch (German), English, and Scottish ancestry, partly by way of Canada, where his mother was born. After . 29. Tom Sizemore. Tom Sizemore rose in prominence throughout the 1990s, establishing himself as a memorable tough-guy actor, sought by the most respected directors in the business. Thomas Edward Sizemore, Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Judith (Schannault), an ombudsman staff member, and Thomas Edward Sizemore, . 30. David O'Hara. David Patrick O'Hara was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Martha (née Scott) and Patrick O'Hara, a construction worker and raised in the Pollok section of Glasgow in a large Catholic family of Irish descent. His paternal great-grandfather was Irish. After leaving school he was accepted for a Youth . 31. Russell Crowe. Russell Ira Crowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand, to Jocelyn Yvonne (Wemyss) and John Alexander Crowe, both of whom catered movie sets. His maternal grandfather, Stanley Wemyss, was a cinematographer. Crowe's recent ancestry includes Welsh (where his paternal grandfather was born, in Wrexham). 32. Willem Dafoe. Having made over one hundred films in his legendary career, Willem Dafoe is internationally respected for bringing versatility, boldness, and daring to some of the most iconic films of our time. His artistic curiosity in exploring the human condition leads him to projects all over the world, large . 33. Christian Bale. Christian Charles Philip Bale was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK on January 30, 1974, to English parents Jennifer "Jenny" (James) and David Bale. His mother was a circus performer and his father, who was born in South Africa, was a commercial pilot. The family lived in different countries . 34. Billy Bob Thornton. Billy Bob Thornton was born on August 4, 1955 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to Virginia Roberta (Faulkner), a psychic, and William Raymond (Billy Ray) Thornton, an educator, high school history teacher, and basketball coach (now deceased). He is the older brother of James Donald (Jimmy Don) (born in . 35. Christina Ricci. Precocious, outspoken child-teen starlet of the 1990s, Christina Ricci was born on February 12, 1980 in Santa Monica, California, the youngest of four children of Sarah (Murdoch), a realtor, and Ralph Ricci, a lawyer and therapist. She is of Italian (from her paternal grandfather), Irish, and . 36. Danny Aiello. Danny Aiello was an American actor of Italian descent, and enjoyed a lengthy career in film. He was once nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role as Salvatore "Sal" Frangione in the comedy-drama film "Do the Right Thing" (1989). Aiello was born in Manhattan, New York . 37. Val Kilmer. Val Kilmer was born in Los Angeles, California, to Gladys Swanette (Ekstadt) and Eugene Dorris Kilmer, who was a real estate developer and aerospace equipment distributor. His mother, born in Indiana, was from a Swedish family, and his father was from Texas. Val studied at Hollywood's . 38. Dustin Hoffman. Dustin Lee Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, to Lillian (Gold) and Harry Hoffman, who was a furniture salesman and prop supervisor for Columbia Pictures. He was raised in a Jewish family (from Ukraine, Russia-Poland, and Romania). Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955, . 39. Anthony Quinn. Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (some sources indicate Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca) on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to Manuela (Oaxaca) and Francisco Quinn, who became an assistant cameraman at a Los Angeles (CA) film studio. His paternal grandfather was Irish, . 40. Temuera Morrison. Temuera Derek Morrison BIO Temuera Derek Morrison is a New Zealand actor. After training in drama under the New Zealand Special Performing Arts Training Scheme. One of his earliest starring roles was in the 1988 film Never Say Die, opposite Lisa Eilbacher. In 1994, he received attention for his role. 41. Liam Neeson. Liam Neeson was born on June 7, 1952 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to Katherine (Brown), a cook, and Bernard Neeson, a school caretaker. He was raised in a Catholic household. During his early years, Liam worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, a truck driver, an assistant architect and an . 42. Marion Cotillard. Academy Award-winning actress Marion Cotillard was born on September 30, 1975 in Paris. Cotillard is the daughter of Jean-Claude Cotillard, an actor, playwright and director, and Niseema Theillaud, an actress and drama teacher. Her father's family is from Brittany. Raised in Orléans, France, she . 43. Burt Lancaster. Burt Lancaster, one of five children, was born in Manhattan, to Elizabeth (Roberts) and James Henry Lancaster, a postal worker. All of his grandparents were immigrants from Northern Ireland. He was a tough street kid who took an early interest in gymnastics. He joined the circus as an acrobat and . 44. James Woods. James Howard Woods was born on April 18, 1947 in Vernal, Utah, the son of Martha A. (Smith) and Gail Peyton Woods, a U.S. Army intelligence officer who died during Woods' childhood. James is of Irish, English, and German descent. He grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island, with his mother and stepfather . 45. Eli Wallach. One of Hollywood's finest character / "Method" actors, Eli Wallach was in demand for over 60 years (first film/TV role was 1949) on stage and screen, and has worked alongside the world's biggest stars, including Clark Gable, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner, Peter O'Toole. 46. Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, to Dorothy (Nidelman), a radio actress, and Christopher Ford (born John William Ford), an actor turned advertising executive. His father was of Irish and German ancestry, while his maternal grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Minsk, . 47. Billy Crudup. Known as much for his rigorous career choices as for his talent and chiseled good looks, Billy Crudup has been straddling the line between serious actor and "it" leading man for several years. Crudup was born in 1968 in Manhasset, New York (a Long Island suburb), the middle child in a family of . 48. Ewan McGregor. Ewan Gordon McGregor was born on March 31, 1971 in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland, to Carol Diane (Lawson) and James Charles McGregor, both teachers. His uncle is actor Denis Lawson. He was raised in Crieff. At age 16, he left Morrison Academy to join the Perth Repertory Theatre. His parents . 49. Brian Cox. Brian Cox is an Emmy Award-winning Scottish actor. He was born on June 1, 1946 in Dundee, Scotland, to Mary Ann Guillerline Cox, maiden surname McCann, a spinner, and Charles McArdle Campbell Cox, a shopkeeper and butcher. His father was of Irish ancestry and his mother was of Irish and Scottish . 50. Colin Farrell. Colin Farrell is one of Ireland's biggest stars in Hollywood and abroad. His film presence has been filled with memorable roles that range from an inwardly tortured hit man, to an adventurous explorer, a determined-but-failing writer, and the greatest military leader in history. Farrell was born on . 51. Djimon Hounsou. Djimon Hounsou was born in Cotonou, Benin, in west Africa, to Albertine and Pierre Hounsou, a cook. He moved to Lyon, France, when he was thirteen. Hounsou has graced the catwalks of Paris and London as a popular male model. He has since left his modeling career and has worked on Гл&. 52. Kevin Spacey. Kevin Spacey Fowler, better known by his stage name Kevin Spacey, is an American actor of screen and stage, film director, producer, screenwriter and singer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in. 53. Jennifer Connelly. Jennifer Connelly was born in the Catskill Mountains, New York, to Ilene (Schuman), a dealer of antiques, and Gerard Connelly, a clothing manufacturer. Her father had Irish and Norwegian ancestry, and her mother was from a Jewish immigrant family. Jennifer grew up in Brooklyn Heights, just across . Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie. Lindsay Lohan moves through the Chateau Marmont as if she owns the place, but in a debtor-prison kind of way. She’ll soon owe the hotel $46,000. Heads turn subtly as she slinks toward a table to meet a young producer and an old director. The actress’s mother, Dina Lohan, sits at the next table. Mom sweeps blond hair behind her ear and tries to eavesdrop. A few tables away, a distinguished-looking middle-aged man patiently waits for the actress. He has a stack of presents for her. Lohan sits down, smiles and skips the small talk. “Hi, how are you? I won’t play Cynthia. I want to play Tara, the lead.” Braxton Pope and Paul Schrader nod happily. They’d been tipped off by her agent that this was how it was going to go. They tell her that sounds like a great idea. Schrader thinks she’s perfect for the role. Not everyone agrees. Schrader wrote “Raging Bull” and “Taxi Driver” and has directed 17 films. Still, some fear Lohan will end him. There have been house arrests, car crashes and ingested white powders. His own daughter begs him not to use her. A casting-director friend stops their conversation whenever he mentions her name. And then there’s the film’s explicit subject matter. Full nudity and lots of sex. Definitely NC-17. His wife, the actress Mary Beth Hurt, didn’t even finish the script, dismissing it as pornography after 50 pages. She couldn’t understand why he wanted it so badly. But Schrader was running out of chances. His last major opportunity was about a decade ago, when he was picked to direct a reboot of “The Exorcist.” He told an interviewer, “If I don’t completely screw that up, it might be possible for me to end my career standing on my own feet rather than groveling for coins.” A few months later, he was replaced by the blockbuster director Renny Harlin, who reshot the film. Renny Harlin! Schrader is now 65 and still begging for coins. Pope, dressed in a checked shirt and skinny tie, looks like a producer. His fingers are constantly, frantically, scanning his iPhone. In the fall of 2011, he connected Schrader with Bret Easton Ellis, whose grisly satires brought him early notoriety and who had lately turned to screenwriting. The three were set to make “Bait,” a shark thriller, based on a screenplay Ellis wrote, but the Spanish financing vaporized. Schrader suggested they do something on the cheap that didn’t look cheap. Pope worked his connections with Lohan’s agent, and that’s why she is sitting here on this spring day. Ellis is noticeably absent, holed up less than a mile away waging one of his frequent Twitter wars. (He has mounted social-media jihads against David Foster Wallace, J. D. Salinger and Kathryn Bigelow.) He thinks Lohan is wrong for the part, especially if she’s cast opposite the porn star he courted online. But he spent all his capital getting his man cast. Also, his condo is under water. Ellis will give in. Schrader, Pope and Lohan talk details. The film, “The Canyons,” has a microbudget, maybe $250,000. Ellis, Pope and Schrader are putting up $30,000 apiece. The rest will be raised on Kickstarter with promises of cameos, script reviews and — for the low, low price of $10,000 — the money clip that Robert DeNiro gave Schrader on the set of “Taxi Driver.” There will be no studio looking over their shoulders offering idiot notes. The actress will get $100 a day and an equal share of the profits, but no vote in decision-making. This last clause is nonnegotiable. Schrader goes over some ground rules; no trailers on set and one contractually obligated, four-way sex scene. Oh, another thing, Schrader adds: he will not try to sleep with her. This was probably a more relevant point in 1982, but no matter. Lohan stands up and says goodbye, telling everyone how excited she is to be working with them. She leaves the restaurant, followed by her mother and the mysterious man with the presents. Back at the table, Pope straightens his tie and exhales. He turns to Schrader​ and asks a simple question. “What do you think?” Schrader knows he should be terrified, but he’s as giddy as the son of dour Calvinists can be. “I think this is going to work.” If Schrader wasn’t worried about Lohan’s reputation, it might be because he is familiar with dysfunction. As a boy, his mother showed him what hell felt like by shoving a needle into his thumb. His father lobbied to prevent “The Last Temptation of Christ,” a film his son wrote, from playing in their hometown, Grand Rapids, Mich. After his father died, Schrader found that he owned VHS tapes of all of his films, but none of them had been opened. In his 20s, Schrader slept with a gun under his pillow because he could fall asleep only if he knew there was a way out. Now he never travels without thousands of dollars in the currency of half a dozen countries. Schrader is convinced he can manage Lohan. He thinks he has seen it all. Thirty years ago, he directed an alcoholic George C. Scott in “Hardcore.” One day, Scott wouldn’t come out of his trailer. He called Schrader into his booze-soaked sanctuary. “You’re a great screenwriter but the world’s worst goddamned director,” Scott said. “Promise me you’ll never direct another movie, and I’ll come out.” Schrader dropped to his knees and promised. A few weeks later, Scott read in the trades that Schrader was going to direct “American Gigolo.” Next time he saw Schrader, he bellowed, “You’re a liar.” It was true, Schrader had broken his promise, but this was Hollywood. Manipulating someone like Scott — or Lohan — was his vocation. Still, it wouldn’t be easy. At their second meeting, Lohan complained to Schrader about a biopic she was shooting for Lifetime, in which she played Elizabeth Taylor, one of her role models. She proclaimed the director a jerk, her co-star a nightmare and the crew unfriendly. On it went. Schrader listened for a while. He looked stricken. He softly tapped his balding head on the table. Lohan asked him what was the matter. “That’s going to be me in two months. You’re going to turn on me.” The actress touched his arm softly. “C’mon, Paul. That won’t happen.” He chose to believe her. That summer, he developed a pet line to steel the less brave. “We don’t have to save her,” Schrader said. “We just have to get her through three weeks in July.” A month later, Schrader would be standing naked in a Malibu bedroom, missing his dogs and trying to coax Lohan out of her robe. Turns out three weeks can be a very long time. I first met Schrader in 2009 while he was trying to get a combined Bollywood-Hollywood thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio made. “This is the future of filmmaking,” Schrader told me over lunch in Manhattan. “Global financing. The American market is tapped out.” But the Indian money dried up, and DiCaprio lost interest. The film slipped away. By 2011, Schrader, who built his career on making movies about dark loners, was convinced that traditional financing for the films he liked to make was gone forever, along with the audience willing to drive five miles and pay $12 to watch them in a drafty art house. Well, the audience was still there, but they were at home. He thought his future lay in pictures that would not only play indie theaters but also be available on video-on-demand the same day. Recent movies like “Bachelorette,” with Kirsten Dunst, and “Arbitrage,” a Richard Gere thriller, made a comfortable profit that way. Schrader hoped to follow that model, but on a skimpier budget. He wrote his two partners a manifesto of sorts last January: “The script has to be multicharactered, relationship-based, full of sharp dialogue, set in contemporary locations and have a certain outré value. . . . Cinema for the posttheatrical era. . . . We could attract interesting actors and create a profile for the film via social media. It would be something that we own.” Like Schrader, Ellis was at a crossroads. After his early successes, “Less Than Zero” and “American Psycho,” Ellis’s books hadn’t sold as well, and tired of the novel as an art form, he moved to L.A., looking to break into movies. But nothing had gone into production recently, and he was itching to get something made. He went to work on the script while Pope strategized. Schrader could talk a good game, but it was Pope who would have to implement the plan. Pope suggested making “The Canyons” the most open film ever. There would be daily Facebook updates, and the cast would be made up entirely of actors selected from audition tapes sent to the movie’s Web site. Pope argued that this populist approach could be applied to financing as well. He explained Kickstarter to Schrader: all they had to do was come up with some good prizes, and kids of all ages would pledge money online to be associated with artist outlaws like Schrader and Ellis. Soon, the film was offering donors a Schrader script-critique for $5,001 and a week working out with Ellis and his trainer for $3,000. In a month, they raised more than $150,000. Ellis cranked out a first draft in six weeks. He had recently become fascinated with James Deen, a 26-year-old known as the Porn Star Next Door. Deen, whose real name is Bryan Matthew Sevilla, is the Jewish son of Pasadena rocket scientists​ — really. His 4,000 films have gained him a cult of female fans because he is well endowed and sensitive. But Ellis didn’t see Deen as harmless. He wrote the script with Deen in his head for the role of Christian, a classic Ellis sociopathic trust-funder, convinced there “was a devil behind the Jewish boy-next-door cute guy.” Ellis’s Christian liked to bring men and women to his Malibu mansion for sex with Tara, his emotionally and economically dependent girlfriend. Christian and Tara would be caught in a sordid triangle with Ryan, a not-bright but cunning pretty-boy actor. There would be sex and a murder and more sex. Ellis and Deen exchanged flirty tweets as he wrote and the two met for dinner at Soho House in Los Angeles. Afterward, Ellis was even more convinced that Deen was perfect for Christian. Schrader had his doubts, concerned about trying to break bad habits learned over thousands of porn movies. Ellis countered that the other actors read the part with a certain campiness; only Deen read it with the correct malevolence. Eventually, Schrader showed tapes of the three finalists to his wife at their upstate New York home. Hurt told her husband that Deen was the one. Around the same time, Pope reached out to Lohan. Ellis was skeptical, afraid of the melodrama Lohan would bring to the project. But Pope and Schrader reminded Ellis of what he said in an essay for The Daily Beast the previous year: “Do [Americans] really want manners? Civility? Empire courtesy? No. They want reality, no matter how crazy the celeb who brings it on has become.” Ellis was riffing on Charlie Sheen, but it could have been Lohan. The first child of a drug-abusing, felonious stock trader and a failed dancer, Lohan survived her Long Island childhood, moved to Hollywood and became America’s newest sweetheart with winning turns in “The Parent Trap” and “Mean Girls.” She cut an album that went platinum. In 2006, she was the best thing in Robert Altman’s “Prairie Home Companion.” The future was hers to write. Then​ — as the voice-over in an “E! True Hollywood Story” would put it — it all fell apart. Big-budget films need insurance in case an actress dies or becomes incapacitated and can’t go on with a role. Lohan’s misadventures made her uninsurable, her work dried up and she settled in as a generation’s snarky punch line. But Pope thought the talent was still there. (She would make it through “Liz and Dick,” a Lifetime movie, with the paramedics having to be called only once during the shoot. This was progress.) Besides, “The Canyons” was so low-budget that they didn’t need insurance. If she disappeared, Pope, Ellis and Schrader would simply lose their stake. Lohan helped her cause by agreeing to a screen test. You could see playing Tara wouldn’t be a stretch for her. The large green eyes that read cute a decade ago now conveyed cornered desperation. Of course, casting two known quantities blew up the anyone-can-win, D.I.Y. ethos of the project, but nobody asked for his money back. A few months after the Chateau Marmont meeting, the cast gathered at Prettybird studios in Culver City for the first read-through of the script. At the head of the table was Schrader, with Ellis to his left. Pope sat at the far end. The actors filtered in and took their seats. There was just one missing: Lohan. Schrader welcomed everyone and then opened with: “Lindsay said she couldn’t make it today, and I told her that was fine, but I have an actress in Paris waiting by the phone.” He paused, and the room tittered. “She’s on her way.” Killing time, Deen kept looking at his phone. Meanwhile, Nolan Funk — a pompadoured Canadian cast to play the weak link in the film’s love triangle — scrunched his brow and read the script quietly to himself. About 20 minutes later, Lohan arrived with a tiny assistant in tow. She smiled nervously and took her seat, adjusting her floral peasant shirt, rattling her bangles. Schrader gave her an impatient paternal look and then started talking about the film. But Ellis and Funk were distracted. Across the table, Funk could see that his name had been crossed out in Lohan’s script and underneath were the names of three or four actors as possible replacements. Ellis saw that Deen’s name also had a line through it. Lohan’s private doubts did not diminish her public enthusiasm. She had a thousand thoughts on Tara. Schrader mentioned the character was a failed actress. “Rejection for an actress is formative.” Lohan snorted a laugh. “Well, it’s nothing like going to jail, I can tell you that.” The usually poker-faced Ellis cracked a wry smile. “Well, that’s also formative.” Schrader mentioned that he was still trying to cast a psychiatrist, a small but pivotal role. “I called Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe. They’re not available. So, any ideas?”