While Jon's family was getting filled in on the lives of luxury in the limelight they were about to be living, an altogether different scene was unfolding a few hours down the coast. Inside a nondescript rented studio space, five people not used to being kept waiting were counting the minutes and wondering when filming was finally going to start. It had been thirty minutes since she'd arrived on set, such as it was since they were basically standing in a room that only had a few chairs and a long table in it, and Parvati was seriously beginning to regret letting her agent talk her into taking part in this show. Not only was the production seemingly running behind, but, based on initial impressions, she wasn't thrilled about the four people she'd be spending the shoot with.
She knew them all by reputation, but in person she couldn't help but find herself getting a little irritated. Madison, currently sitting with her feet up on the table, had complained no less than 7 times in the last half hour that production staff had taken all their cell phones. I mean, I get it, I'm bored stiff too, but try and be professional, Parvati griped to herself. She was also trying her best not to feel jealous of the younger women, including Madison who was wearing a truly tiny black top, little more than a glorified bra, tight yoga pants and a basketball jacket, proudly displaying both her perky cleavage and washboard abs. It was really just a workout outfit, albeit an expensive one, and something Madi could get away with wearing that Parvati knew she couldn't.
It wasn't that the chef turned TV host was unattractive; she had a winning smile and was well proportioned, but she was pushing towards 40. Her own breasts had started succumbing to gravity, and she dreaded the slow but steady onset of crows feet around her eyes that she covered with concealer before every shoot. She wasn't usually so unsure of her own appearance, but standing in a room with three of the biggest young female stars was getting to her a bit.
"Ugh, this is soooo boring," one of the other members of that particular trio, Lilliana Venti, complained from the other side of the room. The pop princess was wearing an oversized pink sweatshirt that both hung off one of her bare tan shoulders and hid whatever tiny short shorts she was wearing, along with a pair of knee high suede heeled boots, and currently curled up in one of the chairs. "Scarle, go see if they'll give us our phones back."
The tall biracial model, who had been the least outwardly grumpy of the other three women, rolled her eyes and shot back, "Ask them yourselves, Lilli." Parvati raised an eyebrow but said nothing. She was starting to get the idea Scarle and Lilliana weren't actually as close as the press would have everyone believe, but that was hardly new in their business. The super model wore a black top with a plunging neckline (there were buttons along the collar but she literally wasn't using any of them), and a patterned black and silver skirt, cinched by a thin elegant black belt; Parvati had no doubt the entire ensemble was designer. Scarle half turned towards her 'friend', "I'm actually surprised to see you here. Why are you doing this?"
Parvati leaned forward with interest, as that was a question she'd been pondering herself about everyone else there. While she tried to avoid shlock and lowest common denominator stuff, Parvati had built a career working in reality programming, while the rest of them were, frankly, a lot more famous and successful than her. Liliana pouted and crossed her arms, "because that producer guy acted like I couldn't handle being a normal person for a couple of weeks and I'm gonna prove him wrong!"
"Seriously?" Scarle asked incredulously, an emotion shared by Parvati.
"Yeah, I'm only doing this because of some dumb fine print in my streaming deal," Madison chimed in. That made a bit of sense, since it was well known Ms. LeShea had been working to transition into film work, leveraging her preexisting fanbase from social media.
"Why are you doing it?" Parvati ventured to ask Scarle.
The model causally shrugged, "the production company agreed to help fund the launch of my own fashion line if I took part; it seemed like a good deal for, what, two weeks of playing house for the cameras?" They'd only been asked to clear two weeks of their schedule for the shoot, which made a certain amount of sense now that Parvati knew how big, and thus how busy, the other stars involved were, but it was still not going to be a long time to film. For all the producer's talk about conducting a social experiment of celebrities living like normal people, Parvati figured the actual product was going to be little more than a suped up version of something like Undercover Boss, the six of them going around in over the top disguises and maybe some obvious facial prosthetics.
"It doesn't matter why we're here, all that matters is that we give a great performance," Don, clad in a fitted white tee and jeans, announced as he returned to their waiting area from his trip to the bathroom. Parvati had to resist rolling her eyes at the actor, who'd been going on all morning about how exciting this whole thing was going to be as an 'acting challenge'. On the one hand there was a theoretical appeal of being 'married' to the still handsome leading man, (Parvati was assuming they'd be playing 'mom and dad' base on their relative age), but on the other, she was finding the guy a good deal less charming in person than on film. Also she was relatively happily married, and Donatello was notorious for only dating much younger women these days; honestly the production staff should be worried about him trying to make time with Madi during the shoot more than anything.
Mrs. Rishki let out a long breath, "it's no use complaining. We can't start until whoever the last person actually arrives so let's try to keep calm and-"
"WHAT'S UP, BITCHES!?" Roxie Thrasher yelled as she made her entrance. The rocker was wearing beat up jeans and a black tank top that bared the myriad of tattoos that decorated her arms and upper body. While any punk rockstar was going to have a grimier aesthetic than, say Lilliana, Roxie genuinely looked like she might have just rolled out of bed, up to and including her obviously unwashed hair being horribly tangled. Actually, considering how late she is, she might have actually come straight from wherever she passed out last night, Parvati thought while wrinkling her nose. The smell of cigarettes had followed Roxie into the room and stayed there.
"Finally," Lilli exclaimed, "I can't believe we were stuck waiting for some has-been goth." It was a harsh assessment, but frankly true. Even at her height Roxie had never been as big as Lilliana was now, given her much more niche genre, and she was only getting further from the mainstream day by day.
"What'd you say, bubblegum girl!?" Roxie asked angrily, stomping in her combat boots towards Lilli only for the production staff to finally come into the room, distracting them for the moment.
"Hiya, I'm so sorry we're running behind," the petite redhaired woman who'd been introduced as Ms. Plum simpered. "If the six of you could follow me, we'll get ready to complete the last preliminary before the show can start for real."
The six impatient celebs found themselves following the woman down the hall, to a large room with twelve big pods, arrayed in six pairs of two, sitting in the center. It looked like something off of a bad sci-fi set, right down to the team of nameless technicians in glasses and labcoats working on connected displays full of dials and flashing lights. The only thing Parvati could fault them for was that it looked like they'd cast a bunch of young wanabe starlets to play the technicians, instead of the more traditional older nerd types.
"This here is where the magic happens," Ms. Plum proudly announced, gesturing to the big set piece, "the six of you will each step into one of the pods stars, only to step out members of a normal lower-middle class family, ready to be shipped back to suburbia!"
The six of them did their best not to give away how hokey the whole set up seemed to them. Okay, five of them did their best, but Liliana quite openly rolled her eyes at the set in front of them. Parvati got it, this little 'transformation' was all part of the show, but it seemed really cheesy. Still, they all let themselves be led to one of the pod pairs, and she found herself being guided back into the, frankly amazingly detailed device. Actually, now that she was sitting in it, the thing didn't seem to be made of the painted balsa wood and polystyrene she'd expected, and instead was cool metal and complex looking circuitry. She was about to say something when the pod's door slid shut, she felt a prick at the back of her neck, and everything went dark.
