Page 58 of Comfort Read

Funny indeed. In an unprecedented turn of events for Cedar Falls, the bookstore (and Forrest) drew the attention of Sage Ballard, star of stage and screen. After significant investment from Ballard, and a six-month shutdown for upgrades to be completed, the new and improved Sawyer’s Books reopened last Friday to major fanfare.

“Please don’t thank me. We only wanted to close things down for a few weeks,” Ballard demurred, when asked to speak on his motivations for the generosity. “It’s my fault this town hasn’t had anywhere to buy books for six months. If I’m going to accept anything, it’s blame.”

Forrest was more effusive. “Don’t listen to Sage—he’s allergic to credit. The truth is, I don’t know where I’d be without him.” After a pause, Forrest added, “Sorry. I meant to say the bookstore. I don’t know where the bookstore would be without him.”

We’re happy to say we don’t have to find out. At Friday’s opening day gala, this reporter had the opportunity to rub elbows with an assortment of celebrity guests, as well as to tour the new and improved Sawyer’s Books. Gone are the days of flickering lights, mysterious leaks, and glimpses of unfinished wings. Though the place retains all of its old charm (fire pole included), it’s been beautifully renovated, and added several new features to boot. From polished hardwood floors, a rooftop gathering space, a state-of-the-art media system, and an area outfitted to be opened as a coffee shop and cafe, we expect Sawyer’s Books to stun visitors for years to come.

The Cedar Current also got the chance to tour one more addition to Sawyer’s: A private wing of the building has been converted into a spacious one-bedroom apartment, meant to allow the proprietor to live where he works. When asked whether he’d be staying there alone, Forrest refused to answer. In spite of their highly publicized initial coupling, he and Ballard are famously private about their personal lives these days, so we don’t expect to get anything on the record.

Still, it’s this reporter’s opinion that the citizens of Cedar Falls shouldn’t expect to see a drop-off in local celebrity sightings any time soon…

WOMEN TO WATCH: FRANKIE MALLORY ON LIFE, LOVE, AND LEVELING UP

Frankie Mallory never expected to find herself here.

“Fifteen years ago I wasn’t sure how I’d cover my water bill,” she admitted over a glass of wine at Tinamous. A table there is currently one of Los Angeles’s most difficult reservations, but she knows a guy. “Sometimes I still have to wake up and ask myself, is this really my life?”

No one else seems very surprised. At forty-five, Mallory has built a small empire out of Mallory Communications Group, her public relations firm, which just celebrated its fifth birthday. In spite of its youth, MCG boasts a dazzling roster of celebrity clients, all of whom trust Mallory to manage their reputations. Some of those clients she’s poached from bigger, better-known agencies. Others she’s found herself, earning her a reputation for exceptional skill in spotting talent.

Her most famous client, however, found her: To hear Mallory tell it, Sage Ballard plucked her out of a temp job with no experience to speak of, days before she would have bounced a check for her rent. “I wouldn’t be here without him,” she told me, adding, “but that’s all you’ll hear out of me on that topic. For most of my clients, the job’s about getting them in the papers. For Sage, the job is keeping him out of them.”

There’s no need to dwell on Ballard these days anyway. Mallory’s is the name on everyone’s tongues. In addition to her PR work, she’s got a regular commentating gig on Late Night Live with Brian O’Malley, a weekly column in Out and Proud magazine, and a thriving social media presence reviewing on-screen weaponry and historical costume design with her partner, topic expert Allison Baxter. The pair recently celebrated a couple of big milestones: three years together, and five million followers.

When asked when she sleeps, Mallory flashed her trademark smirk. “Oh, I don’t. Just ask my girlfriend…”

Sage Finds His Place

The media-shy, multi-hyphenate star welcomes us to his upstate New York home to discuss his past, his future, and his recent marriage.

Sage Ballard would be the first to tell you he’s a man who’s worn many hats. From child stardom to international sex symbol to award-winning director, he’s not one to shy away from a challenge, or to hesitate before he pivots his whole life on a dime.

His latest role? Husband. He and partner Kit Forrest tied the knot last month in a secret ceremony with an intimate guest list. While news of the nuptials was eventually shared with the press, that information was limited, vague, and after-the-fact. This reticence to share details of their private life has become characteristic of the couple, in spite of their unusual and heavily publicized initial connection. As their publicist, Frankie Mallory, quipped upon releasing a photo from the wedding on her social media channels: Don’t ask me to share anything else from the big day! I had to pry this shot from their cold, dead hands.

Neither Ballard nor Forrest seemed cold or dead when I sat down with them. If anything, they were the opposite: So far, marriage seems to suit them both. Though they’ve been together half a decade, they’re clearly every bit as enamored of one another as they were during the now-infamous interview they gave five years ago, when they explained the strange circumstances of their meeting and initial courtship, their intention to keep seeing one another, and their request to be given the courtesy of privacy. Whether that courtesy was granted or forcibly created through hard work on their part is a topic neither will comment on. Either way, it’s much rarer to see their names in the news these days, and it’s obvious they’re happier for it.

“I really, really don’t miss it,” Ballard says, when asked how it feels to be so off the grid after spending most of his life squarely in its center. “Some people are meant for that kind of thing, I think, but I’m not one of them. If I’d been born into a different family, I’d have been perfectly happy being a garbage man, or a short-order cook, or a teacher. Something less stressful, and more about contributing to the community in front of me.”

“The fact that he thinks being a teacher is a less stressful occupation than ‘movie star’ is how you can tell he never was one.” Forrest, a former second-grade teacher himself, offers this without rancor as he brings glasses of lemonade out to the couple’s covered porch. “Honestly, even teaching the way I do it now isn’t exactly what you’d call relaxing. You should see the emails I get in response to some of those videos.”

Ballard smiles up at him and grabs him by the wrist, pulling Forrest down to sit on his lap. When he says, “It’s not my fault you make it look so easy,” Forrest rolls his eyes but presses a kiss to his cheek, and doesn’t get up.

Compared to the Hollywood Hills mansion Ballard famously called home during his more tumultuous years, their recently renovated upstate New York farmhouse is small, almost quaint. It’s the land it sits on that’s huge: At nearly five acres, the property is home to an animal rescue organization run by Forrest’s brother-in-law, an extensive outdoor ropes course used both by Ballard and a handful of in-the-know locals, and a small studio where Forrest (and his sister, home repair content creator Maggie Rollins) films his videos. The offices for Second Take Films, the production company Ballard runs with his uncle, Wayne Ballard, are also on the grounds, though as far away from the house as possible, and with access only via an entirely separate driveway. “For me, work is work and life is life, and those streams aren’t meant to be crossed,” Ballard says. “I’ve been a lot happier since I worked that one out.”

They’re also in driving distance of Forrest’s bookstore, Sawyer’s Books, which does a thriving trade in the wake of renovations funded by Ballard early in their courtship. Though Forrest doesn’t run day-to-day operations anymore, he likes to pop in when he can. “After all, it is where Corner of Knowledge was born,” he explains, referring to his popular children’s web-show. “Not to mention my marriage, and possibly our cat. There’s no way to be sure on that last one.” The animal in question, a large orange tomcat, yowls an agreement from under the table.

Like marriage itself, the rural setting seems to suit Ballard. In spite of spending the bulk of his life in California, he fits here with a seamlessness he never quite managed against a backdrop of palm trees and sun. “We don’t get to be out here all the time,” he admits, on a wistful sigh. “Work takes us all over, and that’s amazing, of course, and a privilege. But it’s always hard to leave. There’s something about this place that puts things in perspective. Stuff that once would have kept me up half the night doesn’t even faze me anymore.”

“That’s because you’re up half the night worrying about the ducks,” Forrest informs him, his eyes dancing.

“Well,” Ballard admits, with a laugh and a slightly sheepish shrug. “They all have a death wish and I’m pretty sure that they hate me, so I think those worries are justified.”

They take me to meet the ducks—a flock of runner ducks, to be more specific, recently rescued from a hoarding situation elsewhere in the state. The birds do, as promised, seem to loathe Ballard, swarming him and quacking at him aggressively the second he gets close; he doesn’t seem to mind. When I ask him if it reminds him of the paparazzi, he laughs again, shaking his head.

“You know, those guys used to drive me so crazy. But when I was in Los Angeles last year for—well, you know what I was doing there.” (Ballard was referring to last year’s Oscar’s ceremony, where his film Lanterns Lit swept more than a dozen categories, including personal wins for him in Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.) “Anyway, after the ceremony, a whole group of paps swarmed us on our way to the car. A few years ago I would have completely freaked out, but now… it all sounds a lot like these ducks do to me, I guess. Just a bunch of quacking that doesn’t have to mean anything.”

Lowering his voice to a joking whisper, Forrest adds, “He’s playing it cool, but the flock does get to him. He’s out here at night breaking their little duck cameras and everything; we’re keeping it from the media. It’s his greatest fear that the public will find out and think he’s a monster.”

“I want it on the record that I’m kissing him just to shut him up,” Ballard tells me, before following through on this threat. Forrest doesn’t seem to mind his tactics, and when they break apart, Ballard is happy to sit for a photograph. He doesn’t seem concerned about how the public sees him at all.

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