From the Week 4 email: http://hemlinequarterly.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/redheadedwoman1.jpg GLG Scene #11: Sunrise Avenue INT. PRODUCER’S OFFICE, MT. PARODY PICTURES – DAY Red-haired BETTY, 28, types. She stops, pulls forward the bail and erases a mistake, pops the bail back in place and continues to type. The door bursts open. GILLY, 36, enters, his tie askew, shirt rumpled, hair greasy. He approaches Betty. She ignores him. GILLY: Hi, Betty beautiful. How’s my favorite…? ...Whatever you are. She continues to type. BETTY: Administrative assistant. GILLY: Yeah, yeah. You done with my script yet? BETTY: I finished it this morning before eight. GILLY: Great, great. Is Sheldon in? I’d like to show it to him. BETTY: No, and no. GILLY: He ain’t in? BETTY: (nods) If Mr. Sheldon were in, I’d have given you your script and shoved you out the door. You can’t show him your script, Gilly. GILLY: Why not? BETTY: Mr. Sheldon’s orders. Gilly turns and throws his fists about, grimacing. GILLY: Schmuck! BETTY: Putz. GILLY: (returning) Okay, so where’s my script? Betty pulls a thick script from beneath her desk and puts it beside her typewriter. She stares at it as if it were dreck. Gilly reaches for it, but Betty presses a forefinger down on it and turns to glare at him. He jerks back his hands. BETTY: You owe me for this. GILLY: Yeah, yeah. I’ll pay you for the next draft. BETTY: That’s what you said last time. GILLY: Hey, I took you out for drinks, instead. He reaches for the script again. Her finger remains in place. He stands stock still. BETTY: I don’t know why the hell I typed the first draft, let alone this one. GILLY: It’s my boyish charm. (He mugs.) BETTY: You exhausted your boyish charm last time. I’m going to have to charge you the going rate from now on. GILLY: This isn’t like you. BETTY: Actually, it is. She frowns at him. He puts his hands on his chest. GILLY: What did I do? She stares at him, eyebrows aloft. GILLY: (cont’d) Besides not pay you for the first draft. BETTY: Keep going. GILLY: You don’t mean that misunderstanding about the drinks? BETTY: Bingo. GILLY: Not my fault. The bartender heard me wrong. She opens her desk drawer and pulls out a cocktail napkin from the “Boom-Boom Room.” There’s a solitary drink ring on the napkin and tiny words printed neatly in pencil. She reads: BETTY: “Dear Betty. That jerk you’re with just paid me five bucks to make all your drinks doubles.--Sam the Barman.” She puts the napkin away, then the script. GILLY: I can explain. BETTY: Don’t bother. GILLY: Look, look, I’ll pay you double next time. BETTY: I’d rather get paid double this time. GILLY: I haven’t got the money. Silence. Betty puts a hand to her mouth and tilts her head, looking at the ceiling. A beat, then: BETTY: You know, there’s a gal who might front you the money. GILLY: Great. What’s her name? Has she got a lot of spondoolies? BETTY: Buckets. She’s a former movie star. GILLY: You think she might…? BETTY: Boyish charm! GILLY: (grinning) That’s me! Where do I find this paragon of feminine affluosity? Betty spins her Rolodex, stops it at one card, and peers at it. BETTY: Her name is Norma Silverwood, and she has a big old place out on Sunrise Avenue… GILLY: Great. Maybe she’ll pay my garage bill, too. FADE TO BLACK. VERY BLACK.

FEEDBACK #10 I really enjoyed the back and forth dialogue here, Jeff, especially the way it tipped off the period of time the scene is set in without explaining it. I expected a little more from the ending though, seemed anticlimactic. I'm assuming we're supposed to know who Norma Silverwood is? But overall a great verbal spar.

Thanks, Nicholas. Yes, you're right; the ending is obscure if you don't catch the allusions. A few: MT. PARODY PICTURES = PARAMOUNT PICTURES; GILLY = GILLIS; BETTY = BETTY; SHELDON = SHELDRAKE; etc. Virtually nobody will decrypt "SILVERWOOD" unless they lived in LA for decades. GILLY will be floating face down in NORMA's pool in a few weeks. I'll stop there and let you spot the biggest clue, above.

FEEDBACK #11 Jeff, that was good snappy dialog and a good, easy, entertaining read, though I too, along with Nicholas, missed some of the underlying meaning. With that in mind, it's probably even more entertaining.