Maddy Goes to Hollywood (1999)

Maureen Martella's novel, first published by William Heinemann in 1999 and issued the same year by Arrow, is narrated by Maddy, who has come from rural Ireland to the Los Angeles mansion of her sister Gloria, a Hollywood scriptwriter, and who records the story on tape in Gloria's study for the film star Carlos Garcia before she leaves. The cover calls it a gloriously escapist romantic comedy; the author's note says Martella, born in County Dublin, once worked in Bel Air as assistant to a mortician. (Open Library)

Watches

Cartier (unidentified model): For Carlos's birthday Gloria orders an obscenely expensive Cartier watch by telephone from Van Cleef and Arpels on Rodeo Drive, a house Maddy knows handles nothing below five figures, while Maddy's own present is a five-dollar nickel cup from a bric-a-brac stall whose tiny inscription on the base declares its owner the world's best short-sighted father. At the Blue Pacific restaurant Carlos feigns enormous surprise at the Cartier, Gloria strips his Rolex off to fit it, and the new watch flashes like fire against his bronzed wrist as he turns the little cup over looking for a hidden jewel. Maddy reflects afterwards that not many cowboys wear Cartier watches. The maker is named; the model is not, though the text puts its price upwards of twenty thousand dollars.

Source text: I wanted to shout stop, because the more he turned it, the cheaper and tackier it was looking. The Cartier watch didn't help. It continued to flash like fire against his bronzed wrist. (Maureen Martella, Maddy Goes to Hollywood, scan cataloged as Arrow, 1999, p. 252, dropping a stray OCR mark after "stop"; the purchase is on p. 244, the gift on p. 250, the price on p. 251 and the cowboy remark on p. 254; his surname is used throughout the novel; Internet Archive scan OCR)

Rolex (unidentified model): The watch Carlos wears to his birthday dinner is an expensive Rolex, which Gloria grabs his wrist to remove the moment he has unwrapped her Cartier, and then slaps Maddy's arm with while demanding to see her present. The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: She grabbed his wrist and began to remove his expensive Rolex. I had to turn away and look out at the ocean. I couldn't bear to witness even such a small act of intimacy between them. (Maureen Martella, Maddy Goes to Hollywood, scan cataloged as Arrow, 1999, p. 250; Gloria slaps Maddy's arm with the Rolex on the same page; Internet Archive scan OCR)