When I was a kid, I used to love those “choose your own adventure” books. It was so much fun to see how one decision could affect the entire story. Even now, I wonder what would have happened if any one little seemingly minute detail had changed. Or what would have happened had I done something differently.
That’s probably why I find this story so fascinating. It’s an a awesome chain of events that starts with what seemed to be horrible news.
Bob Gray, a Cleveland native who worked as a director and assistant director for Cavaliers broadcasts, sat there like everyone else last July when LeBron James made his “taking my talents” declaration. And when that was followed by the words “South Beach” the first domino of this story fell. Gray lost his job.
So he and his girlfriend packed up and moved to Los Angeles. After settling in, he walked into a Sprint store, got a new cell phone, and his life changed.
Little did he expect to be inheriting the recently retired number of a reasonably famous and very well connected actor-comedian.
“The next day I get a text message,” says Gray, who resembles a blend of Ethan Suplee and a fleshier-faced Billy Bob Thornton. “ ’Hey man, I just saw your sh*t on TMZ.’ ” He wrote back, “Whose number do I have?”
Turns out, the number belonged to a famous-enough actor whose identity Gray won’t reveal. He will, however, reveal the stories that keep on coming.
One night Gray and his girlfriend, who live in the very un-Hollywood Huntington Beach, were out to dinner when a text appeared: “Hey, babe. I’m having my birthday party tonight at a house in the hills. Let me know if you can make it. Love and kisses.”
Gray wrote back: “Awesome, hon. What’s the address?”
… There they were, at Paris Hilton’s 30th-birthday party, with fire and waterfalls and girls dancing behind smoked-glass windows, with amazing cocktails and food, all of it tied to a Moulin Rouge theme.
“We went up there and hugged her and thanked her for inviting us,” he says. “She was real nice. It was great.”
But this isn’t just a story of a guy who got a cool number. He’s actually getting work because of it. A couple of connections he made through that phone number, actor/comedian Kevin Nealon and talent manager David Rath, have encouraged Gray to write a screenplay about it. Which is a fantastic idea.
Of course, it will need some tweaking. Because even Hollywood couldn’t write a story like this. And it’s all because LeBron James decided to go play for the Miami Heat.
Guess “The Decision” wasn’t all bad after all.
Via Off The Bench
Photo: eobic.net
