Chapter 26 "Show Business"

"Show Business"

The day of the interview arrived. Nina was pale in her dressing room. She was already ready, well dressed, and made up by Elena's production team. Agent Marcus was all over her. He was trying everything to calm her nerves, but what she really wanted was Lyon and Kara to be by her side. The three friends were on the phone, video calling collectively, yet technology had not replaced their presence.

Their interview was in English. Nina knew everything that would be asked and knew everything she was going to answer. Still, she was a nervous wreck, even though Marcus had done everything to keep her from feeling the atmosphere and the weight of this interview. They really treated her well, with great care and attention. David would be eternally grateful, and would certainly have to reciprocate with some exclusive interviews in the future.

Nina was standing backstage, ready to enter a very brightly lit and fortunately, to her luck and well-being, no audience, still due to COVID-19. Her heart was pulsing as if it was pumping all the blood in her body at once. She knew that the show was recorded and that everything could be edited, replayed, and redone, so she turned down alife, but she still couldn't feel her legs and feet touch the ground. Her name was announced, and suddenly she walked to the sofa and sat down next to Elena who was waiting for her.

Elena welcomed her very well, welcoming and accommodating her. She sat down and the interview began. Elena gave a nice summary of what had happened since July 27, 2020, in Nina's life. It complimented her and made her feel less cowed:

- We are here with Nina Dahl, a frontline combatant nurse in the fight against covid-19, an ordinary person, and a good citizen. Brazilian, domiciled and resident in Norway for more than 15 years. A normal, ordinary person who works, travels, dates, meets people, and on one of these trips met one of the most adorable and famous movie stars: David Nichols. So far her story already deserved to be told, because it seemed like a fairy tale, one of those that only happen in books, but it was not exactly a fairy tale that brought her here today on our show.

- Correct me if I say something wrong, Nina. Is that right?

- Yes, I will.

- David was in Italy to rest from stress, fatigue, and physical exhaustion due to his intense recording routine before the coronavirus. The two first met on a dating app where David made a profile without a photo out of sheer curiosity, Nina's friends had made an account for her without her knowing, common pranks of close friends during a vacation trip. Nina deleted the page completely when she found out, even before David had made a formal date with her. The friends had written where they would be at a nightclub, the night of the premiere of David's last released movie in theaters. The two met, got to know each other, and never left each other during the entire pandemic crisis around the world. The two were spotted strolling in Rome, dating on the balcony, and this generated a lot of speculation.

...There were many rumors since then about a possible frame-up on Nina's part with the paparazzi to get her money and fame. The two became ill together, admitted with Covid-19 to the same hospital room. They spent their social isolation together in Italy and went on to Norway, where they were confined for months in Nina's home.

- David returned to work fully recovered from his physical and mental health, while the next day when he arrived back at the recording studios, thousands of compromising photos and videos of the two were posted by unknown authors all over the world's social network. Since then, Nina and David have not spoken to each other. Nina isolated herself from the world, work, friends, and any other means of communication for months. Only now in the last few weeks has she returned to work and decided to take up the fight against these accusations on social media.

- Is this the first time you are going to talk about all this that has happened, Nina? - Elena asked.

- Yes, the first time. - she replied.

- Why talk about it now?

- I'm tired of having my name insulted every day. I kept quiet because I thought that soon the whole world would leave me alone and forget me, but that's not what happened. And now I feel ready to strike back. I needed to recover from this turn of events first. Now I feel that I am much better.

- Better, but not quite right yet.

- No. Needless to say, you can imagine how it feels for a person who overnight has his or her name dragged through the internet, who receives thousands of insults, hate messages, accusations, lies, and slanders from people who have never seen him or her before in their lives.

- No, you don't. So you're hating the haters and you want to get back at them. Do you want to take revenge?

- Absolutely not. Revenge is something that only breeds more attacks, fights, and for sure more negativity. My revenge is to show that I am okay, that despite everything I survived, and that even if people have disrespected my profession as a nurse on the internet, claiming that "if only I were a doctor" it would be more understandable, it is never too late to be what we want to be.

- Tell us more about your professional life.

- I was finishing a three-year study to become a midwife when I met David, while at the same time I had been working for a decade in a renowned hospital in Bergen, Norway, as head nurse of my sector. In my spare time, I worked in a well-known beauty clinic, applying bucolic toxin, hyaluronic acid, and many other modern beauty treatments. They were fantastic places, where I received all the support I could from my co-workers. And this was enough for me, it made me happy and proud... until first came the pandemic, then this whole storm in my life.

...In the middle of a worldwide pandemic instead of generating more conflicts around the world, I went to dedicate myself to books and studies. My revenge is to fight against digital crime, invasion of privacy, and bullying in social networks. I am using a voice that the haters themselves have given me. Because of so many attacks and crimes they all commit against me every day, I have obtained visibility. Something I never wanted, but since I now have it, I will use it properly. Since seeing me silent and cornered, they only increased their insults, each time more daring and daring, I decided to turn the spell against the sorcerer...

...I am using all possible types of messages and videos that I find on the internet against me and publishing them on my page as an example of a crime against human rights. I am exposing the profiles of the oppressors. And all monitored by the federal police who specialize in these types of crimes. I am giving examples that virtual oppression, social network persecution, is also crime, no matter how old you are, if you have the power to use a phone like a thug uses a gun to diminish, frighten, humiliate and curse someone, attack someone cowardly, then you are old enough to bear the consequences.

- People have to start paying for these acts. Not only in social networks but also in everyday life. In Norway, this policy works very well. The laws against crimes of libel and slander are strict, they really work. High fines are imposed on those who break the law. And I particularly think that the world population will only pay due attention to this issue when their pockets are being touched. Then there will be protests, campaigns, and mass re-education against digital and verbal crime. Everyone knows about the issue, it is current, but in practice, it is as if everyone ignored it.

- I am sorry that I have to ask you this question that I am going to ask you now. But it is what everyone wants to know, I think.

- Did you set up a group of paparazzi to take pictures of you and David? Did you pay them?

- Never. I would never do that. I'm not the only one, but I'm certainly one of the most upstanding people left in the world. So this whole story had a lot more weight for me. For my values, for my integrity. Everything they did to me without reasons, without warning... for what? I am not naive, even though I don't know the traps that people are capable of doing in this so-called business world of the famous, in the hunt for fame and fortune. I do know that there are thousands of people who would easily sell their souls to sell a story like this, I do. It involves his name, which is enough to attract attention.

- Where did these paparazzi who claimed to have received payments from you come from?

- On this subject, the federal police are also well engaged in trying to find out who they are. If they even exist. If these paparazzi that made a deal with me exist, where are they? I have only read sensationalist articles insinuating the existence of these people, but nothing concrete. No names... no proof... are they ghosts? Where are they? I challenge them to speak publicly, to show their faces. If they have nothing to fear, I will be the one accused by the police, otherwise, they will pay for slander and several other crimes against my modesty...

...Everything that has been published on the internet is a lie, except for the photos. The photos were true, yes, it is me and him in the photos, in several common day-to-day situations, but they were manipulated. Yes, we were together 24 hours a day, for months, and the photos that were published are clearly dedicated to compromising me. It looks like I am always fighting, pointing fingers, bored, with my hands on my head or my waist, always looking ugly. There is something wrong with these pictures. We were always doing well, playing games, cooking together, playing cards, we even remodeled the house... We never really fought. Did we swim naked in rivers and fjords up in the mountains, where are our pictures of us having fun? And they made sure to take angles and situations where I could look like a witch? There is something wrong that is not right...

...I am not implying that they should have exposed nude photos, but think with me: we were being watched night and day, we did a lot of mischief in this quarantine, we went picnicking, hiking, camping, we made love everywhere, in the outdoor jacuzzi, and what kind of paparazzi would stop using these photos to make money? They only posted what they wanted, selected photos, nothing that didn't compromise only me...

- Do you think there is someone behind all this? Like a conspiracy? A millionaire ex-girlfriend of his who set all this up to end your romance?

- No, not a girlfriend. - Nina became nervous and, after a few minutes of silence, Elena continued:

- So you suspect someone? - Nina shook her head in agreement.

- I can't do to someone what they did to me. I can't accuse or judge someone without proof, it would be frivolous and immoral. But the police have already obtained the video from the security cameras where I was threatened, searched, and verbally assaulted by some people who were accompanying us in the hospital in Rome. Not to mention that these same people demanded that I hand over my cell phone to them in the hallway of this hospital, outside the room where he was sleeping. It was never returned to me, I had to buy another one in Rome. David's private security guards bought it. Security guards sent by the same people who took my phone, and then thousands of pictures of me appear on Google, explicit pictures to the whole world?

...David gave me another cell phone, so I log into the new phone with my Google password and e-mail address to have access to all my accounts linked to Google, what happens when you synchronize all the accounts and devices? The person who had my old phone had real-time access to everything I did with my new phone. Pictures, calls, location, absolutely everything. Not to mention that they could have infiltrated any program they wanted into this new phone they gave me!....

... I thought that I had unlinked one phone from the other, but no. I was very foolish not to have done so. I was very foolish not to cancel it, I was very naive, yes, not to have this knowledge about telephone privacy, I was stupid not to suspect that this new phone could have spyware installed, but every cloud has a silver lining. All the accesses that were made on my old cell phone were traced one by one, with location, date, time, and minute. There is nothing more to do. The police now know who is behind it. I have proof. They won't be able to deny it. The truth will come out!

- Did David know about this?

- No. I am just revealing everything now. No one knows.

What do you mean, no one knows? You didn't tell him?

- Of course, I didn't. He went into the hospital the day before we found out that we were both infected with the coronavirus. It was the day that the pictures of us in Italy came out. His room was raided by people close to him, and every possible accusation was made against me, loud and clear. David had cumulative emotional stress; he had been suffering from physical exhaustion for years, not stopping for a minute with his work. Then everything came out that day, the pictures in the media, the accusations against me, we ended up in the hospital. These same people accompanied us, and everything went from bad to worse..., but in fact, he was already infected with covid-19. We were. All of us. Security guards, agents, nurses.

David was sedated and when I was left alone, they already had everything in place to get me out of there, to put me on a plane to Norway, so they took my phone, and they even threatened me, lied to me, and articulated everything. David's private security guards saw and watched everything without saying anything. And the hospital security guards too. Nobody did anything. Nowadays I ask myself: who took the pictures that were published in Rome? Someone who was always nearby, and it had to be someone sent to do it because my face was not to be shown at that time

- And you were kicked out of the hospital?

- They said I was going to stay in the streets of Italy, without a hotel, without my things, without my friends, thrown to the moths, without a telephone, without anything. There was a nurse who was taking care of David that night. She understood everything and saved me together with the doctors. She has also already been heard by the police.

- Did David ever suspect anything?

- I did not allow it. He was in no condition to get into this fight at that time. I preferred to opt for his health. He was already ill, he was very shaken, exhausted, and we were both very ill due to the Covid-19 symptoms. I couldn't tell, and I suffered a lot for it. I suffered quietly and alone.

- Do you want to tell us what you were told in the hospital?

- Yes. - And Nina repeated every word she had been told in the hospital.

She couldn't hold back her tears. She told while crying and sobbing. Elena gave her some water. She couldn't stop the program, because Nina wouldn't talk again if she got out of there, the chance was there and now.

- Did you tell David about this later at your house?

- I never did. These people also got sick, we all did, and we were already in Norway, safe and sound, I thought. So I didn't tell. I saw him talking to these people every day, they had a very good relationship, he was so happy. I couldn't. I wasn't strong. These people did this, exposed me, exposed my life from childhood because they knew it was the most effective way to get to me. They knew they were going to finish me off, they knew my weak point. And they wanted David to believe the story that was told to the world. So they forged evidence and made up this whole story about ghost paparazzi, that they made a million-dollar deal with me, and so he would stay away from me. How it happened.

- You never had contact again?

- No. The last time we saw each other or spoke was the day I dropped him off at Bergen airport. Almost three months ago. But that is not why I am here. I just want the truth to come out. And that after the whole truth is proven, I want people to realize and leave me alone. To have more empathy, to think long and hard before they try to destroy the life of someone they don't even know just because a story appeared in the media.

- You want justice.

- Yes, for me and for all those who suffer bullying in the future. I want people to denounce profiles, not to be conniving, the criminal is not only the one who writes the mean comment but the one who "likes" the comment is encouraging this kind of crime to continue. It is the saying: silence means consent! If you see a crime you can report and you don't, you are an accomplice!

- Would you like David to forgive you?

- No. I don't need anyone's forgiveness. I haven't done anything wrong.

- Would you forgive him?

- No. I have nothing to forgive. He's done absolutely nothing wrong.

- Then why aren't you together?

- Different worlds. Distance. We had broken up before he left Norway. And I don't know what happened to him after the photo scandal, but if he at any time believed the fabricated lies that were played out in the media, he wasn't the only one. Let his fans tell it when they spent three months hounding me, defending him, calling me ugly, fat, and short? And so on... Much to my amazement, he is totally against bullying, against attacks on the internet, and his followers who are so obsessed with him, don't listen to anything he defends or tries to teach. This is why I reinforce! There has to be a fine for everyone!

The second part of the program went back on air and Elena continued where she left off:

- I've separated some pictures here of which have been published. I'll go through them and you can tell me what's wrong with the published article.

- All right.

Elena was going through the pictures of Nina and David together. Nina had an impact when she saw those pictures on the big screen of the program, her lips trembled, her voice was missing, but she swallowed her tears, pressed her lips together, and continued:

- That picture with the hands-on her head, was looking for the car card. I had lost it and after searching so hard I was exhausted, I put my hands on my head outside the cabin seconds before I went inside to tell her that I had lost the key to the tesla.

Nina sketched a smile, along with Elena's jokes, which tried to relax her. Nina then continued the narration:

- Except that when I came in crying, worried, with my hands on my head, and told him I had lost the key, he took the key out of his pocket and gave it to me. And we laughed a lot. He was even kind enough to comfort me.

But the subject of this story was totally the opposite. It said that the two of them spent the quarantine fighting. They even insinuated the reason for the fight. He was sitting on the sofa playing, and she was standing, fighting, pointing fingers, holding his head, his waist. As if Nina couldn't stand to see him playing anymore.

- None of this is true, none of what is written on any website is telling the truth. Only speculations and image distortions. So you see how easy it is, for those who understand the subject, to manipulate information, to manipulate weak and uninformed people through the media. In this second picture we were arguing about who was better at the game, he called me an amateur beginner, joking, of course, but then he said that I was going to get there, he was going to teach me?

...So I was with my hands on my waist, protesting, it was all funny, we spent more time laughing. The beak that I made in this picture was joking with him. These other pictures were the ones that made me sickest, the stories say that I beat him up, but we played fight and he trained me every day, and I taught him how to dance all the songs and rhythms that I knew. - Then Elena moved on to the more racy photos...

- Those pictures with breasts out, yes, totally authentic, in a quarantine, confined with the most beautiful and sweetest man on the whole planet, yes, we were very naked, after all, we were alone, we didn't act against any modesty. It was totally normal...

... What is not normal is to expose these pictures of my intimacy, of my privacy. And what is even less normal is to see that people ignore the fact that I have been watched, harassed, someone has invaded my privacy and exposed me. It is in every possible way one of the worst crimes. And all the bad people have commented on is my body, and a lot of criticism as if I am to blame for having suffered such a violation. To me it is as serious as the comments that people make, saying that a woman who has been raped, was guilty because she was wearing a provocative outfit. It makes me sick to my stomach!

- And people were sharing it all over the world, contributing to the crime, supporting it, making comments about my body, always diminishing me, the comments were always:

"I don't understand how David got with a woman like that? What a soft breast, what a saggy breast, what an ugly breast, what an ugly body, what a dull woman? People, I can't understand. Let's talk about character now. If I see something like that, even from a famous actress on the internet, as it has already happened, I immediately think: "wow, a crime! Nobody has the right to do this to her. Exposing her naked publicly is a crime against modesty, and inadmissible. But people made thousands of memes about it. What kind of world is this? In the middle of a pandemic, thousands of people dying, several countries in economic crisis, and people using their quarantine time for evil?

- I have many pictures of us laughing, walking, eating, playing, videos of us dancing, fighting, training, but this was not in the media, it was not in the interest of those who wanted me to feel like crap and to stay away from him.

- Do you expect the world to forgive you?

- Not at all. I would never ask the world to forgive me for what the world did to me. I can't ask forgiveness for something I didn't do, it's as if I agree that what they did to me was normal, was right, and I was wrong. There is no confusion, in this case, it is very clear! Very clear. But I forgive the world...

...People are vulnerable, they are manipulated, they let themselves be used by Machiavellian people, people are suffering, they are lost with their own identities. They don't know what they are, or who they are... they are just living and being carried along by the crowd, like a shoal of sardines... or worse, like zombies... If you stop to think about how people act with each other, the verbal aggression over the internet is just concrete, physical example of what is going on in people's true selves today. They are all lost! Addicted to gossip on social networks, they need to evolve spiritually and mentally...

...It is necessary for something impactful to happen for people to wake up to life, because not even with a pandemic did people learn. Many even got worse, they put their bad selves out in this confinement.

- We are almost at the end of the program. I think you haven't seen some of the videos that have circulated on the internet. I noticed this when you said that you didn't know if he believed what happened or not. Look!

Elena has posted some clips of David defending her in various interviews, lives, and shows. Nina's tears rolled on and on, falling like a waterfall. David was more beautiful and more gentle than ever! "That face... Ah, that face!" she thought...

He not only denied her participation in anything but defended her honor and integrity. He made appeals for people to stop the comments. Then the part started to play on the screen where he also went on Elena's show, just like Nina, he was interviewed and told details of their involvement. Everything had coincided with what she had said today. It was almost the same question. And they gave almost the same answers. And the same opinions and lessons on the subject of digital crimes.

- Nina is the most honest person I have ever met in my life. She would never, for any reason, agree to make a deal with anyone for money. I can give you my word of honor that she is not interested in being famous, and that she would never approach anyone for interest, not me and not anyone else in the world...

...She is a very correct, truthful, sweet, and even naive person. She is a strong, hard-working, intelligent, funny woman who will have my eternal admiration. Stop offending her. I appreciate my loyal, strong, never felt so loved and protected, but in this case, I don't need protection, Nina does. There is nothing to defend. She has done nothing. All this is lies, slander, we didn't do anything. A couple in a confinement, serving a quarantine. Nobody had to go in there and invade our privacy. That was the mistake! Stop attacking her. Stop believing anything that comes out in the media.

Elena gave Nina a moment to wipe her tears and pull herself together. Then she went on to the next video, the second part of the interview.

- Why didn't you speak to each other anymore, David? - Elena asked in the video that was being shown on the program. - I tried. I called a thousand times, everything was off: cell phone, e-mail, and she has no social networks.

- Why don't you take a plane and go to her door? I'll buy you a ticket! - Elena said jokingly. - I already went. She wasn't home.

- Wasn't there or didn't want to open up?

- She wasn't home. I have the key to the house. We lost each other. And even more with this pandemic, social isolation, nobody can find each other, everybody is quarantined. I have no idea where she is right now. In Brazil with her family, maybe. .... Nina couldn't stop crying.

- Have you seen these videos, Nina?

- No. Never.

- What era are you living in, girl?

- In the age of isolation. That includes media toxicity too, especially after what happened. The last thing in the world I had any interest in was watching social networks or news.

- Look it up on the internet sometimes. There are many other such videos. He defended you every time. And what are you going to do about it?

- I don't know.

- You don't know?

- No. - Nina was uncomfortable with the direction of that interview. She was feeling pressured. Her body language made transparent the degree of her nervousness.

- Would you like to see him? - Nina was silent.