Berry Berenson, photographer, journalist and model from a noble family, sister of the more famous Marisa, personally knows the man she has been in love with since she was a girl: Anthony Perkins, a successful actor starring in Hitchcock's Psycho, handsome and damned in the Hollywood star system especially for his well-known homosexuality.
The meeting takes place at the party for the end of filming of "Play It As It Plays", in which Perkins is the protagonist. He reluctantly agreed to participate, he can't wait to escape. Then he sees her and changes his mind. Why? A few days earlier, Dr. Newman, who is treating him to cure him of depression and homosexuality (!), during a session asked him what type of woman had a minimum of attraction for him. The actor had pointed to a photo in the Vogue magazine that he was leafing through shortly before. Yes, it was her: Berry.
Now at the party he sees her, recognizes her and asks her to dance. She can't believe her eyes, it's a dream come true. Dancing and dancing, she finds the courage to ask him for an interview. He accepts. A few days later, between one question and another, she confesses that she has been in love with him since she was 14. Anthony smiles, “one of the many teenagers with a crush on the star,” she thinks. It’s not like that, Berry still looks for him, when the interview comes out she fears she will never see him again, she bursts into tears. With her sweetness she conquers him, and the two end up in bed.
A few months later they get married, to the delight of gossip-mongering Hollywood. The ceremony is minimal: in the garden of the Perkins house he puts a silver ring with a turquoise stone on her finger. For everyone it is a cover marriage destined to last the space of a morning. It is not like that: Anthony and Berry truly love each other, and find a balance that is certainly not conventional, but concrete: she knows that Anthony has sex with other men but she doesn’t care, he loves her and shows it in a thousand other ways. Oz and Elvis, the two children, are also born. A peaceful life.
But fate has terrible cards in store for the couple. Anthony takes some tests, and the lab technician on his own initiative also gives him an HIV test: positive. And the worst part is that he doesn't say anything and sells the news to the press. Perkins learns that he has contracted AIDS by leafing through the newspapers. The actor falls back into depression, and at first he is also tormented by guilt towards his wife and children, who fortunately all test negative. Difficult months follow, during which Berry spends every single moment close to her husband who is living a slow ordeal.
Anthony Perkins dies on September 12, 1992, with his wife and children at his side. However, on the invitation to the commemoration, by mistake, "September 11" is written. And nine years later, on September 11, 2001, Berry embarks from Boston to Los Angeles to celebrate the following day, the anniversary of his death. She will never get there: the plane she boarded is American Airlines 11, hijacked by terrorists and will crash into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Her sister Marisa in a photo published in the newspapers will recognize the turquoise ring that Anthony had given to Berry.
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