New Orleans, 1981.Paul Schrader, screenwriter of Taxi Driver and director of American Gigolo, is in Louisiana to shoot the feline with Nastassja Kinski, when the reception of his hotel transmits to him in his room a call.At the end of the line, a mysterious unknown.A stranger who presents himself under the name of Miranda Grosvenor and who, almost without the filmmaker, manages to keep it online almost twenty minutes by lining up the gossip on all-hollywood and on an areopage of famous men,Who seems to have no secrets for her.
Intrigued but a little in a hurry, Schrader offers Miranda to recall it.What she is going to do, and not only once."She simply called me," he said.She was really charming, adorable.Funny.Sexy.It's incredible.She had very precise information about people.She knew where they were, what they worked on.Once the machine is launched, you get into the game.She knew, let's say, half of the filth that circulated on someone, and you added your 10 %.And these 60 %, she was going to tell them to another ... She turned on me a little, told me how pretty she was, that she would introduce me to her friends, etc ... we chat, we flirt, we network.»»
Several times, he gives an appointment to the enigmatic Miranda, but she will never show himself.Perplexed, he calls one of the names she mentioned during their exchanges: the director Michael Apted (gorillas in the mist, the world is not enough), who confirms to him having spoken with her on the phone, but also ignoresHis true identity.He evokes the name of Richard Gere, who also would have a lot to tell about Miranda.Schrader then contacted Buck Henry, author for Saturday Night Live.The latter tells him that he was captivated by the young woman's calls, who remained for him a simple voice on the phone.Fascinated, the director, however, has neither the energy nor the time to investigate his elusive new friend."It lasted five, six months," he said, "but all these aborted meetings became so frustrating that I dropped the case.I never knew who she was.»»
Robert de Niro, another target of Miranda, never knew it either.Nor Billy Joel, who went so far as to test new songs on his voicemail.Neither Peter Wolf, the singer of J.Geils Band, to whom she put a rabbit in a hotel in Louisiana.Nor the dozens of rich and famous men who fell in love with his voice in the 1980s.All agree, these exchanges did not fall under distance sex, but a kind of flirt, a lot of gossip, and a good dose of mystery. « On se mettait à vivre pour ces coups de téléphones»», se souvient Brian McNally, propriétaire de plusieurs restaurants chic à Manhattan."I can't wait to hear her voice.We felt super well by talking to him.»»
« Des nuits et des nuits durant, elle a été ma seule amie»», confesse Billy Joel.He knows that Miranda also spoke to Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, or Sting."As they say, she knew how to do it on the phone.»»
