There comes a time when you have to cut a so called friend loose. Especially one who lies to your face constantly and yet,when you later confront him with the the truth, thinks this particular trait makes him cute and endearing; part of his charm. The kind of person who'll stick a knife in your back and then justify his actions without conscience.
I'm talking about Bill George, a world class liar who presents himself to the world at large as a successful writer and agent. In reality, he is dreamer and a loser whose grandiose ideas have a way of ending up as permanent residents on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams. And George has been dancing this fandango of failure for over thirty years while I've occupied a front row seat, witnessing his various schemes and endeavors eventually crash down around him . Ignoring the previous train wreck, and not learning a damn thing from it, he simply picks himself up, dusts himself off and it's on to the next big idea.
But no matter how many failed ventures George has involved himself in, he keeps pushing on hoping that one of his starry eyed dreams comes to fruition and makes him both rich and successful. Unfortunately, he is neither. He lives in a modest home left to him by his parents and,seeing as how he doesn't hold down a full time job, probably lives off of money that he inherited. His mother once told me," He has stars in his eyes." While I'm sure there have been those in his life who have attempted to bring Little Billy back down to earth, he sees things as he wants to see them; not as they are. George is like the eponymous character in The Beatles song Nowhere Man,only he's despicable rather than pitiable.
When I first met George over thirty years ago, at first glance I was impressed as I overheard him on the telephone discussing various film and book deals with supposed movers and shakers in the entertainment industry. Eventually, I came to discover George made these Pie In The Sky deals with people of his similar ilk; fellow dreamers who talked big, but couldn't deliver;much like George himself. Hell,they couldn't deliver a quart of milk if they owned a dairy truck.
Now to be fair, George actually is an agent. However, he's not as well connected in the film industry or as high powered as he presents himself to his clients who just happen to be young, pretty women with little or no acting experience what so ever. George is in reality a bottom feeder;a tiny,microscopic,insignificant amoeba who'll get his trusting clients parts in micro budget,straight to video turd fests that will do zip,zilch nada,squat for their careers. After these poor schmoes figure out this little fact of life, they kick George to the curb. Unfazed, he simply goes out and finds some other starry eyed dreamer who'll buy his line of bullshit hook, line and sinker.
When I punt kicked this sleazy, smarmy little dick out of my life in 1993 after hanging me out to dry(I had written an article for a French magazine and never received payment for it)I had no intention of ever seeing him again. However, my mother died in 1999 and when I found out that George's mother had died a few years later, I empathised with the emotions he was going through and feeling that my friend needed me, I reconnected with him. I found out, much to my eventual disappointment, that George remained a backstabbing,lying,scheming creep who hadn't changed one iota. He was still smarming and sleazing his way through life,using people in order to achieve his grand and lofty dreams of fame and fortune.
The ironic thing is, George once complained to me that he was losing his friends and couldn't fathom the reason for their departure. Surely it can't be anything he's done. He's so honest, dependable and truthful. Yeah, and I just won the Powerball! If integrity was money, George wouldn't have enough to buy a gumball.
In 2004, I began working on Bill George's web site Red Hot Planet. And so began two years of being rewritten without my permission, having to fight George tooth and nail to leave my articles alone,being promised payment for my work and yet not seeing one damn penny, in addition to other equally shitty deals that went down during that period. All engineered by that ego maniacal piece of shit Bill George.
To be continued.....
