America's Sweetheart

Wilde cut again, and ordered Jenny to strip naked right now, in front of the eight participants. She could take as long as she needed, but then she would dress again, and with the film running, she would strip in the required four minutes. Wilde even ordered the cameramen and assistant director off the set, so only he and the eight actors were present.

Jenny couldn't believe what she was being told to do. Still, aware that she had little choice, she began to undress. By the time she had her blouse and slacks off, standing in front of these nine men clad only in bra and panties, Jenny was softly sobbing. She had never been so embarrassed in her entire life. Wilde gave her a stern look, and she proceeded to remove her bra. She tried to cover her breasts, which surprisingly were not nearly as large as everyone had expected. She forced herself to drop her hands to her side when Wilde instructed her to.

Jenny was crying silently, her shoulders shaking with each sob, tears streaking her face. The actors watching her seemed nearly as embarrassed as Jenny herself did, but positive comments soon began to flow. Holding her eyes tightly closed, she couldn't help but listen to the actors' words. Surprisingly, she was finding each comment more flattering than the last. There were a couple of remarks about her breasts being smaller than they had expected, yet still quite attractive. Perky, one of the men said. The candid, complimentary words made her smile to herself.

On Wilde's command, she slowly dropped her panties, exposing her closely trimmed private area. She stood straight, hands at her sides, and on her own she turned a slow circle. Jenny's eyes were still tightly shut, but she drank in every compliment, actually gaining a measure of self-confidence as she stood there, so exposed. She was putting on a brazen show, she realized, and her small audience seemed to love it.

Wilde gently called her name, and she opened her eyes. The reality of the situation suddenly hit her again, and she tried to cover herself as the tears once more began to flow. She'd been seen nude by four men in her adult life, but that number had just tripled. The director told Jenny to get dressed again, and the actors respectfully turned away as she did. Wilde called the makeup artist in to fix her face, and told her he expected her to get the take right this time.

But with the cameras rolling, Jenny again froze up. She couldn't make herself unbutton her blouse, and she was soon crying again. This time, Wilde began to lose his patience. He cleared the room, and ordered Jenny to strip for him that instant. She did, hesitantly, and Wilde told her to step back. When she did, he picked up her clothes and walked off the set with them. He returned a few moments later to find Jenny crouching down, trying to cover herself with her hands, the tears again streaking her makeup.

He ordered Jenny to stand straight, place her hands on top of her head, and not to move. He then gave a signal to someone out of her view, and the eight actors silently returned, each staring cautiously at her lovely, nude body. Jenny started to cover herself, though, when the cameramen and assistant director followed the actors. Following them were five more members of the crew. Wilde ordered Jenny to place her hands back on her head, and she forced herself to do as she was told. She was then instructed to greet every member of the crew by name, making eye contact with each of them for no less than ten seconds as she did.

Jenny was now standing, naked as the day she was born, in front of twenty men she'd never met until she signed for this film. Choking back her tears, she willed herself to do as she was told. She said hello to Manny, to George, to Zack, and to each of the rest in turn. Surprisingly, her greetings were met with kind, even sympathetic eyes, not with the leering gazes she'd really expected. Several of the men answered her politely, looking her directly in the face, respectfully addressing her as "Ms. Brite." By the time she reached the last crewmember, Jenny had almost grown accustomed to her situation. Almost.

***

While the others were leaving, averting their eyes from the actress's still exposed form, Wilde brought back her clothes. Jenny dressed, and managed to compose herself a little while her hair and makeup were being touched up. She told the director that she was ready to shoot the scene now, and filming proceeded. This time, she went from fully clothed to nude in four minutes flat.

The gang-rape scene was entirely simulated, with the fully clothed actors taking turns climbing on top of her, although thankfully there were no close-ups of her spread legs. There were two instances of simulated oral sex, culminating with the final indignity her character had to suffer, anal rape. Through it all, Detective Kim Callaghan, as portrayed by Jenny, never uttered a single scream of protest; she'd stubbornly refused to give them the satisfaction.

The rape scene was handled as tastefully as such a scene could be, and when it was over, her character was locked, still nude, in the dark, damp cellar. A single light bulb hung from the ceiling, and the smell of mildew filled the air. She was handcuffed by her left arm to an old pipe on the wall, but once alone, she easily pulled the end of the rusty pipe from the wall, slipping the handcuff over the end. Jenny's character wrapped herself as best she could in a dirty blanket she found in a corner, and began to search for a way out.

Carefully stepping over some broken glass as she explored the cellar, Detective Callaghan soon located a window hidden behind a stack of cardboard boxes. Hardly a window, really, just a transom of fogged glass, barely a foot in height and two feet across, located just below the ceiling at ground level. It wasn't meant for entry or exit, only to allow a bit of sunlight and fresh air into the cellar, as needed. No sunlight was visible now, though. Kim Callaghan had lost track of the time; she only knew it was the middle of the night.

Callaghan found a gallon jug of stale water, and began to wash herself, trying to wipe away the filth those animals had left on, and in, her body. Jenny was nude for this scene, as well, but was working in a secluded corner of the set, with just Wilde and two cameramen present. And it was blessedly dark, allowing little more than her bare breasts to be captured on film. The detective dried herself with the dirty blanket, wrapped it around herself, and sat on a cardboard box filled with pornographic magazines. She tried to decide whether she could escape through the transom.

Her character could hear the men upstairs, most drinking heavily, many bragging about her, their most recent conquest. Raping a police detective was something these men would remember, and brag about, for years to come. She could even hear some of them saying they'd gone much too easy on her. She'd remained silent throughout the rape, and that had irritated her captors. Tomorrow they'd take her again, and this time they'd make her scream.

Detective Kim Callaghan thought she could climb through the narrow window and make a run for it. She wasn't exactly sure where she was, but she believed she was in a secluded spot somewhere a few miles northeast of the city. And she would be barefoot, but at least she'd have the blanket to wrap herself with. Despite the ordeal she'd just endured, the detective was in good physical condition, and she was fairly confident she could get far enough away without being seen. But she thought it best to wait until later, after her tormentors had fallen asleep.

Some time later, the house above her had grown silent, and Callaghan felt it was time to make her escape. Still wrapped in the blanket, she arranged some boxes so that she could reach the transom. It opened fairly easily, and all she would have to do was climb a little higher, and wriggle through the opening. The detective estimated it was about three in the morning, although she had nothing solid to base the guess on. She reached the open transom, when the director called for a cut.

Wilde told Jenny he had come up with an idea that would make the film even better, and she listened carefully. But she raised a protest when he told her that he wanted her to lose the blanket as she crawled through the window. It would get hooked on a nail, and as Jenny pulled herself through the window, the blanket would fall from around her and settle on the cellar floor. When she threatened not to do the scene, Wilde reminded Jenny of the contract she had signed, and of the consequences of refusing to film the movie exactly as the director wanted.

The escape scene was going to be filmed outside, too, in broad daylight, with night simulation lenses. Unlike the controlled environment of a sound stage, Wilde couldn't guarantee that no one would see her other than a skeleton crew. Jenny would climb through the window, and then filming would be moved to an exterior set in another area of the studio. Here she would be seen climbing through a similar cellar transom, only now she would be losing her only protection, the blanket.

Jenny asked to speak to Wilde in private, so he walked her, still wrapped in nothing more than the blanket, into a small conference room. The instant the door closed, she broke down sobbing, unable even to articulate the argument she already knew would never sway him. When she calmed herself enough to speak, she pleaded with the director not to make her film the scene outdoors, in the nude. Wilde listened patiently, and then reminded his star of the contract she'd so eagerly signed. He even offered a not-so-subtle threat that if she didn't do the scene, and do it well, she might find even more difficult challenges as filming continued.

Inside, Wilde was chuckling to himself. He really didn't care about the humiliation Jenny Brite was suffering; in fact, he was actually enjoying it, in a sadistic way. And he knew that the sleazier he could make the film, the more money he would make from it. He had nothing against Jenny, personally. He just saw her as a tool, one who could make him a small fortune, and guarantee his future as a top-rated director of exploitation flicks. This time, it was Jenny who was being exploited, and he knew she'd never work for him again. But there were always beautiful, desperate, out-of-work actresses out there. Still, he doubted he'd ever again get someone of her magnitude to do one of his films.

Again, Jenny knew she had no choice. They filmed the escape-from-the-cellar scene, with Kim Callaghan crawling through the open transom. Wilde had a rusty nail driven into a wooden box the detective was to climb on for her escape, and he ensured the blanket snagged on the nail. As Callaghan squeezed through the window, the blanket slipped from her breasts, but she expected to recover it once she was outside. The exterior scene would be filmed later that day, but from inside the cellar, she could be seen completing her window-crawl, naked but still clutching the precious blanket.

As the detective attempted to pull the blanket out after her, however, she realized it was caught on something. After several tries, she finally gave the blanket a jerk. This proved to be a mistake, as the wooden box fell over, nearly pulling the blanket from her clutching hands. A soft tearing sound could be heard, as most of the blanket fell to the cellar floor, leaving Kim Callaghan holding a ragged strip about six inches wide and four feet long. She thought about crawling back in to regain her only bit of protection, but thought better of it. They might have heard the box fall, and if they found her inside, she'd certainly suffer a fate even worse than what had already been discussed.

***

The scene was recreated a little later, now on the exterior lot. Jenny had to make the same crawl, creating the illusion that the building she was now standing outside of was the same one she'd been held captive in. Holding the torn strip of blanket in one hand, the handcuff still fastened to her left wrist, Detective Kim Callaghan rose to her feet, naked as she could be, and assessed her situation. After considering whether to try to recover the lost blanket, she stood up and looked around, trying to figure out where she would go.

Following Wilde's direction, and it now seemed to her that he was winging it, Jenny took off at a dead run towards a cluster of trees about a hundred yards away. Callaghan clutched the shredded piece of blanket as she started off towards the trees at top speed, glancing over her shoulder only once to determine whether her escape had been discovered. Jenny tried to stay in character, but her mind was racing with the reality of what she was doing. She was running across an exterior movie set, stark naked, in broad daylight.

This area was not as secure as a closed soundstage, and anyone on one of the nearby hills with a telephoto lens could be snapping photos of her as she ran. With modern, high resolution cameras, her face would be just as clear as her bare breasts and closely trimmed pubic hair. But with the other nude scenes already in the can, everybody was going to see what she looked like naked, anyway. She thought about her parents, her grandmother, her cousins, her neighbors, everyone she knew was going to get an eyeful now.

Once she reached the thin cover of the trees, Detective Callaghan tore the remaining strip of blanket into two pieces, wrapping one around each foot. At least the bottoms of her feet would be somewhat protected as she ran the next leg of her journey, wherever that might be. It occurred to her that she'd been running away from the main road, but she wasn't about to go back towards the house. In the dark, it looked like a hill ahead of her, and she figured the farther she got from the house, the better. She studied the house, checking for any sign of activity. There was none.

So Jenny Brite, wearing only the two scraps of blanket around her feet, was soon running up the hill, keeping the trees between herself and the house. By having her run up the same hill from different directions, Wilde was effectively simulating the detective crossing a series of hills. Fortunately, the skies had been cloudy enough all day to prevent the sun casting any shadows, which can detract from the overall effect of the night simulation lenses. Big budget productions would use computers to eliminate unwanted shadows, but Wilde couldn't afford such luxuries, so he said a silent thanks for the cloud cover.

This ended production for the day, but filming was to resume at daybreak tomorrow. Jenny was exhausted, and cried herself into a restless sleep that night. But she was ready to continue the next morning, although she still dreaded having to strip naked in front of everybody again. She doubted she'd ever get used to that.

The following morning, an exhausted Detective Kim Callaghan arrived at a paved road just as the sun was coming up. She flagged down the first car she saw, a red BMW 328 convertible, driven by an attractive young woman dressed in black. The woman stopped and picked up the worn out detective, who briefly explained what had happened, asking her for something to cover up with. The woman produced a blanket, a clean one, from her trunk, and Callaghan was soon snoring softly as her benefactor drove her to safety.

The detective awoke as the car pulled to a stop. She was momentarily confused, until the woman blew the horn. Kim looked up to see the house she had just escaped from the night before, with three of the rapists coming down the driveway towards them. Instinctively she tried to climb out of the BMW and run, but they were on her before she was out the door. The blanket she was covering herself with fell to the ground as she was dragged, naked and screaming, back into the house.

Jenny Brite had thought this was to be her final nude scene, and she was relieved the ordeal would soon be over. Then she was informed by the director of another rewrite. Her character about to face another round of gang rape, but the woman from the car was instructed to pull the naked detective away from the clutches of the vicious animals.

The cameras rolling again, the woman politely introduced herself as Laura, and explained that the leader of the gangsters was her boyfriend, and two others were her brothers. Taking Kim aside, she made her an offer. She said that she would help her get cleaned up, and get her some food. In exchange, the two of them would put on a girl-girl love show for the gang members. If Kim satisfied her, Laura would protect from another violent rape. Then she would "take care" of four of the guys herself, let Kim take care of the other four, and she promised it would all be done gently. Still rape, certainly, but perhaps not so brutal. And she assured the detective that she did have that kind of influence with them.

Of course, Jenny had objected when she read this new rewrite. If there was one thing Jenny Brite wasn't, it was a lesbian. Oh, had nothing against it, and she had gay and lesbian friends, but the thought of "doing it" with another woman was personally repulsive. Wilde seemed empathetic, but he reminded Jenny of her contract. He told her that she was going to do the girl-girl scene, period. The actual sex would be simulated, but there was to be lots of deep French kissing. If Jenny were truly repulsed by it, and if that repulsion came across on film, so much the better.

Preparing herself to give in to the inevitable, Jenny granted Cammy Jenkins, the actress playing Laura, a request to speak privately. She had only met Cammy yesterday, and had never seen any film she'd been in. Cammy had actually appeared in comparable roles in several of Ben Wilde's films, usually playing some sort of bisexual bad girl, with a girl-girl sex scene or two in each of those films. She openly admitted to being both a bisexual, and an exhibitionist.

So Cammy offered Jenny a deal. Glossing over the scheduled kissing scenes, she told Jenny that if she would really go down on her during the "simulated" oral sex scene, and really get her off with everybody watching, that she'd persuade Wilde to go a lot easier on her for the rest of the film. And much as her character had assured Kim Callaghan, Cammy promised that Wilde would listen to her.

Predictably, Jenny was outraged at the suggestion. How could Cammy expect Jenny Brite, a lifelong heterosexual woman, to perform real oral sex on another woman, let alone with cameras rolling and who knows how many people watching? Cammy even offered to get Jenny off first, and again warned her against refusing to follow Wilde's direction. Cammy obviously knew what had been going on these past few days.

When Jenny didn't immediately refuse, Cammy asked her to hold perfectly still for two minutes. Jenny reluctantly agreed, and Cammy was all over her, softly kissing her ear, her neck, her lips. All the while she was gently opening the robe Jenny had managed to don for their little meeting, softly caressing Jenny's breasts and oh-so-lightly touching her most private area. After two minutes, Cammy withdrew, leaving Jenny in an undeniable state of arousal.

Jenny was stunned at her own reaction. True, she hadn't had sex since what seemed like forever, and Cammy's skilled mouth and fingers had awakened in her a desire long suppressed. Jenny couldn't believe she'd been so aroused by a woman's caress, yet neither could she deny it, even to herself. She told Cammy she'd do the kissing scene, but during the supposedly simulated oral sex scene, she'd have to see how she felt. Maybe she, well, she might, but, well, no promises.

***

With the film rolling, Laura helped Kim Callaghan clean up in the shower, and supplied clean, fresh towels to help her dry off. She prepared a cup of instant noodles, the first thing Kim had eaten since lunch yesterday, and the hungry detective consumed it greedily. Then Laura skillfully applied makeup to the detective's freshly scrubbed face. She led Kim back into the living room, and told the gangsters that they were not to lay another hand on their captive without her approval. Laura was confident her boyfriend, the gang leader, would support her on this, and he did.