The coming week was busy as hell. I was in meetings and auditions for Click, Click, Boom. I loved being a director. I had strong opinions, and I actually got to be the one with the final say. I was getting more and more excited about shooting. I had a really great team together.
As the media sometimes did, they caught wind of what I was up to. I'd posted all about it on Twitter, of course, so it's not like it was a secret. I wasn't Brad Pitt famous or anything, so I didn't often get hounded by people or the paparazzi, but for whatever reason they were super interested in what I was doing in California.
I'd never talked with the media much about Nora. Again, I posted pictures of her on Twitter, without her face visible, but I never got into where she'd been the first thirteen years of her life. I was working on set, making decisions with our set designer, when Nora came in looking upset. She looked like she'd been crying.
"Hey, will you give me a minute?" I asked the set designer, glancing at my daughter.
"Sure," she said, and wandered off to look at some props.
I opened my arm and walked Nora over to a private corner. "Hey, what's up?"
"I was trying to just chill at the beach and these damn paparazzi were all over me," she reported, and I noticed she was shaking a little bit. "They kept asking me questions and they were taking pictures."
I sighed and brought her in for a hug. "I'm sorry, sweetheart," I told her, resting my chin on her head. "That's a total invasion of privacy. Did you happen to see where they were from?"
"No," she sobbed into my shirt. "I just wanted to get out of there."
I pulled back and held her head in my hands, wishing this didn't have to happen to her. It was all because of me. I hated that she was upset and feeling violated because of me.
"Hey, let me try to finish up here early and we can order pizza in and binge-watch Netflix," I suggested. She smiled a little bit and nodded, wiping at her eyes.
"Good," I said, kissing her forehead. I pulled her in for another hug. "Why don't you hang out in my office and I'll come get you as soon as I'm done."
I rearranged a few meetings and was able to finish up in the next half hour. Nora was looking comfortable, laying down on my couch, watching TV when I came in. "You ready?"
She grabbed her backpack and purse and we were out. The studio had hired me a driver so we both got in and they took us back to the hotel. Nora still seemed a bit upset at first, but once the pizza came and I started cracking jokes at the movie we were watching, she started to relax. She thinks I'm hilarious. And I am.
We went to bed around eleven and I was up first in the morning. I hopped in the shower, then grabbed my phone. There were tons of notifications on my home screen. As I scrolled through, I began to see a pattern. There was some article about me today. I finally opened it up and my jaw dropped. It was all about my relationship with Nora.
"Shit," I muttered, as I began reading the article. Someone had given an interview about our relationship. Someone "close to the family" that wished to remain anonymous. It talked all about how I'd had a month-long fling with Nora's mother back in 2005, where Nora went to school, and what she was like. I was furious. Without confirmation, I was sure of who had given the interview.
I pulled up my contacts and stepped into the hallway, taking my room key with me. I wandered down to a lobby area of the floor and waited for Shannon to pick up.
"Hello?" she answered.
"How could you?" I demanded immediately. She sighed on the other end.
"What?" she asked.
"It was you, wasn't it?" I raised my voice. "You gave the interview about Nora?"
"Why would you think it was me?"
"Who else would it be?!" I yelled.
"Lin-
"Tell me right now and don't lie to me," I told her tersely. "Was it you?"
"Lin-"
I scoffed loudly, pacing the floor with a hand on my hip. Nora idolized her aunt and she'd just gone behind our backs and invaded my child's privacy.
"I cannot believe you, Shannon," I growled. "I have worked for two years to keep Nora's life private and you just threw it all out the window. You told them where she goes to school?"
"You post about her on Twitter all the time," she pointed out.
"Not private stuff, Shannon," I told her. "And I've never posted a picture of her face. Now her face is all over the internet."
"She has her own Twitter account, Lin," she reminded me. "She's posted pictures of herself with you on there."
"So that gives you the right to reveal everything about her? That's sick, Shannon."
"Oh, get off your high horse," she snapped back at me.
"You can forget about having a relationship with her," I decided on the fly. I was so angry. "Don't contact her again."
"Lin-"
I didn't want to hear her excuses. I ended the call and stormed back to the room. When I opened the door, I could hear Nora in the bathroom. I sat on my bed, scrolling through my phone, trying to figure out what to do. I wondered if Nora had checked her phone yet. I wasn't sure how she was going to feel about this.
A couple minutes later, she came out, still in her pajamas.
"Morning, sweetheart," I told her, glancing up at her.
"Hi, Dad," she said. I sighed and tossed my phone behind me on the bed. I rubbed my hands over my face. "What's wrong?"
"Have you checked your phone yet?"
"No. Why?"
I patted on the bed next to me. "Come sit down."
She sat and looked at me suspiciously. I turned to her, putting my hand on her knee.
"Your aunt Shannon did something really selfish," I told her. "She gave an interview to the press about you."
"About me?" she asked, confused. "What did she say?"
I sighed. "Unfortunately, lots of personal information. My relationship with your mother. Where you go to school. What you like to do."
"Are you kidding me?!" she asked, exasperated. She reached for her phone and started scrolling through. It looked like she had tons of notifications as well. She had a look of horror on her face. "How could she do this?!"
"I don't know, baby," I told her honestly. "Probably the money. Or the notoriety."
She threw her phone onto her mattress hard and stormed off to the bathroom. I let her be for a while. I couldn't blame her for feeling upset. This was a complete invasion of privacy. I worked in the room for a while, making phone calls and catching up on e-mails. Finally, Nora came out about half an hour later. I set my laptop aside.
"I told Shannon not to contact you," I told her gently as she grabbed some clothes from her suitcase. She just nodded, frowning.
"I should have known she was fucked up like Mom," she commented. I should have seen it.
"Hey," I said gently, coming to sit next to her. "I know you're pissed right now, but I can reach out to my agent and we can make a statement. I can tell them they need to back off and respect your privacy."
She nodded sadly, looking at the floor. "That might be a good idea."
I ran my finger over my mustache, thinking. I wasn't sure how to handle this, but I guess that's why I paid my agent. I called her up as Nora took her shower to ask for advice. She urged me that it would be a good idea to make a public statement asking to respect the privacy of my daughter, who was a minor child. She told me to type something up, and she would release it to the press.
As Nora got ready, I tried to think of the right words. I typed, deleted, rearranged, and edited until I felt I had it right.
My family and I are disappointed to find that my minor daughter's privacy was invaded by an article published today. We ask that you respect Nora's privacy. I am the person who has chosen to live in the public eye, not her. I would like her to have a private, normal upbringing, free from attention from the press. Thank you for respecting our privacy at this time.
- Lin-Manuel Miranda
I pressed send to my agent. She replied with a couple tweaks, which I agreed to. I took Nora out for brunch to take her mind off things. She left her phone at the hotel. I tried to take her mind off things, joking around and being light-hearted. She smiled and joked back a little with me. Usually, a story would get attention for a few days and then blow over. Hopefully that's what would happen here.
We didn't talk much about it over the coming days, and it seemed to be dying down. Nora still seemed a bit quieter than usual, like part of her was gone and she couldn't get it back. One evening, I decided to bring up the subject gently.
"Hey, Nora?" I asked, standing in the door of her little room.
"Uh-huh?"
I came in and sat down.
"I wanted to talk to you about Aunt Shannon," I said, leaning forward on my elbows. "We'll be going back to New York next week. You've been spending a lot of time with her lately. Do you still want contact with her?"
She sighed, biting at her lip. "I don't know."
"That's okay," I told her. "You don't have to decide now. I've told her not to contact you, so it's up to you if you want to talk to her. Don't feel like you have to. She's in the wrong here."
"I know," she said softly.
I squeezed her shoulder and she looked at me. I winked at her and smirked.
"How's school going?" I asked her.
"Fine," she said. "I'm keeping up."
"Good girl," I said, kissing her on the temple. "You wanna go get dinner in a few?"
She nodded so I left her to get ready. I was proud of the way she was handling herself. My kid was growing up before my eyes.