Two Tauranga locals return home this month with a stage show about an off-the-rails starlet contemplating her tumultuous career.
It's not about Britney Spears. Nor is it about Lindsay Lohan. Rather, the production delves into the past, focusing on the original rollercoaster career of 1940s starlet Veronica Lake.
Playwright Phil Ormsby said the story was like a foreshadow of the celebrity misfits who filled today's gossip magazines.
But beyond "the Charlie Sheen surface", he said, were complexities within Veronica's story.
"It's not what people expect. There's a lot more to it than just a Hollywood starlet," he said.
Miss Lake had a mysterious life. Little is known about her that is categorically true, and that's because she used to make up stories and stretch her history.
"The story in the end - all the content of the play - is stuff that's been reported. But you just don't know what's true.
"There were all the different stories and rumours. You'd think there were all these hard facts, but there's not. They don't even know her height," he said.
Alex Ellis, who plays Veronica Lake, said the woman she depicted was a fascinating subject, and a joy to recreate.
"Veronica Lake got put in the box that she was a sex siren, but she didn't want that.
"She kind of just got bored. She started making up stories to the media, that she was going to medical school and was going to be a doctor.
"It was one of those really good Hollywood stories," she said.
In the early 1940s the teenage Miss Lake was catapulted into the limelight. She was contracted to Paramount Films and made a series of films that elevated her to the height of Hollywood fame.
In less than a decade, however, she had fallen into obscurity. She had divorced her first husband, lost her lucrative film contact with Paramount and was being sued by her mother.
The show is set "between purgatory and Paramount", as Miss Lake battles with recollections of her life, career and spectacular decline.
"The premise is that she's kind of trapped in the trappings of Hollywood," Ms Ellis said.
And it was Miss Lake's controversial life that appealed to the show's solo actress.
"She was pretty unprepared [for stardom]. To cut a long story short, her marriage ended in a blaze of glory at the height of her fame, and she picked herself back up.
"She was a pretty amazing woman. I think she was a really intelligent woman, which is really great to play," she said.
The actress and writer, both from Tauranga, said it was great to be able to bring something they had created back to their home town.
Mr Ormsby, a former Otumoetai student who lived and worked in Tauranga until about five years ago, said it was great to be back where his career began.
"I did all my first theatre stuff on 16th Ave," he said.
Ms Ellis, who attended Tauranga Primary School and Bethlehem College, agreed. She said it was nice to come back and perform in front of family and friends.
"It really is amazing. It's a dream really.
"It's a thrill to be able to come down with the Tauranga Arts Festival and it's great to be performing at 16th Ave," she said.
Drowning in Veronica Lake will be performed at the 16th Ave Theatre on October 22 and 23.
It will be the first time the show has been seen in Tauranga, following bookings at fringe festivals in Wellington, Auckland and Dunedin.