our group about the concept for Alessandra’s music video:
The setting is a packed coffeehouse in Brooklyn. Alessandra is the performer on a small stage, her audience filled with famous faces. Fish is the shaggy barista behind the counter—Alessandra’s “secret admirer” who covertly writes her love letters on distinctive pink stationery. Although, sadly, Fish never musters the courage to give Alessandra any of his pink love letters, but, instead, throws them, one after another, into a nearby trashcan.
Meanwhile, Keane is a hot douche-canoe customer who’s been shamelessly two-timing both waitresses at the coffee house, Laila and me... by giving us both the distinctive pink love letters he finds in the trash. Throughout the video, we see Laila and me, pink letters in hand, separately following Keane into his beat-up love mobile, presumably for some hanky-panky.
Midway through the video, the love triangle explodes, and Laila and I confront Keane together, both of us standing shoulder-to-shoulder as we angrily hold up those distinctive pink love letters and let him have it. After soundly chewing him out—and looking hot as we do it—because, you know, angry women are hot—Laila and I drop our notes to the floor, and march outside the coffeehouse with purpose, as Keane trails behind us, pleading his case.
As the love triangle exits, Alessandra’s gaze drifts to the pink love notes on the floor... and then to Fish across the room... who, at that very moment, is tossing yet another “secret admirer” love note into the bin. On that same pink, distinctive paper.
Alessandra connects the dots, and realizes Fish is the true author of those love notes on the floor. She also realizes, thanks to the many smitten looks Fish has sent her throughout the video, those notes on the floor must have been written to her.
Fish sees Alessandra’s gaze migrating from the notes to him. He sees her putting two and two together. With a deep breath, he grabs his latest pink love letter from the trash, smooths it out, and marches toward Alessandra on the stage... who, as he’s been doing that, has turned to grab something out of her guitar case. And that’s when the audience sees a splayed stack of blue papers in Alessandra’s case. A whole bunch of love songs she’s secretly written about Fish. We see a shot of the handwritten lyrics, with titles like, “I’m Secretly in Love with a Barista” and “He Makes Coffee and Owns My Heart”—and we know Alessandra has always been every bit as in love with Fish, as he’s been with her.
With their love notes in hand, Alessandra and Fish meet in the middle of the coffee house. They exchange their colorful declarations of love, smile like smitten kittens at each other, and then march, hand in hand, out of the coffee house... where they walk past Georgina and Laila furiously beating the crap out of Keane’s love mobile with baseball bats, much to his chagrin.
“The End,” Maddy says. And her enraptured audience instantly explodes with excitement.
“Can I ask a question?” Alessandra says. “I’m not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth here. I can’t believe how lucky I am. But why are all these famous artists willing to make cameos in some nobody’s video?”
“Every last one of them owes me a favor,” Reed says. “But also, and this is the truth, Alessandra, none of them would do this if they didn’t genuinely like you and believe in your song.”
Alessandra couldn’t be more effusive and adorable in this moment. She thanks Reed profusely and says she’s going to hop up and thank each artist around the table, individually.
“No, no,” Reed says, laughing. “Thank them tomorrow if they actually show up. Also, there’s no need to thank me. I wouldn’t be doing any of this if I didn’t think I’d make my money back, and then some.”
I smile at Reed. Liar. I love him for it, don’t get me wrong. But I’ve come to realize Reed isn’t trying to make Alessandra a star for money. He’s doing it for himself. As a game. Just to see if he can. And, of course, he’s doing it for me. The same way I wrote a sappy love letter about him for Rock n’ Roll, rather than a hard-hitting, revealing piece for Dig a Little Deeper.
A waiter comes to refill water glasses and Reed gestures to him. “Open a case of your finest champagne. We’re celebrating an amazing charity concert and the imminent birth of a superstar.” He indicates sweet little