 | THE NETWORK NEBULA
SCRIPT scenes 47- 59
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| HOME ANGRY PROPHET DEM/REP COALITION NEW HORIZONS THERSITES RULES F.A.Q. ABOUT US WHAT'S NEXT? |
CINDY GROVER
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| Return to Scenes 40-46.47. INT. DIANA'S OFFICE DIANA, sitting alone in her office, watching HOWARD BEALE on her office console -- HOWARD (ON CONSOLE) I don't have any bullshit left. I just ran out of it, you see -- 48. INT. CONTROL ROOM - NETWORK NEWS SHOW -- as FRANK HACKETT and his assistant, TOM CABELL, wrench the door open and stride in -- HACKETT (roaring) Get him off! Are you people nuts?! The TECHNICAL DIRECTOR taps a button, and the SCREEN mercifully goes black. 49. INT. LOBBY - UBS BUILDING . White-haired, patrician EDWARD RUDDY, Chairman of the Board, impeccably groomed, fastidious in a light topcoat, making his way through the absolute CRUSH of NEWSPAPER PEOPLE, WIRE SERVICE PEOPLE, CAMERA CREWS from CBS, NBC, ABC, from the local stations, WPIX, WOR-TV, METROMEDIA, and from Channel 13, the educational channel. A half dozen SECURITY GUARDS protect the elevators, and three more help RUDDY get through the GLARING CAMERA LIGHTS and the horde of REPORTERS thrusting mikes at him -- RUDDY (moving through the crowd) -- I'm sorry, I don't have all the facts yet -- 50. INT. 20TH FLOOR - LOBBY, LOUNGE, CORRIDOR MAX, standing by the deserted reception desk, in the empty, silent lounge. This is the top-management floor, and the decor, which is posh-austere, reflects the eminence of the top executives who have their offices here. It is all silent and empty now, cathedral, hushed, echoing. Way down at the far end of the corridor, the double doors of the corner office open, and NELSON CHANEY leans out and beckons to MAX, who starts down the plush carpeting in response -- 51. INT. MR. RUDDY'S OFFICE Large, regal. Impressionist originals on those walls which are not glass through which the crepuscular grandeur of New York at night can be seen. RUDDY sits behind his desk. JOHN WHEELER, 59, silent, forceful, lounges in one of the several leather chairs. The door opens, and NELSON CHANEY and MAX SCHUMACHER come in. Everybody nods at everybody else. MAX slumps into a leather chair. RUDDY (murmurs to CHANEY) I'll want to see Mr. Beale after this. CHANEY promptly picks up a corner phone and calls down to the Fourteenth Floor. RUDDY (regards MAX briefly, murmurs) The way I hear it, Max, you're primarily responsible for this colossally stupid prank. Is that the fact, Max? MAX That's the fact. RUDDY It was unconscionable. There doesn't seem to be anything more to say. MAX I have something to say, Ed. I'd like to know why that whole debasement of the News Division announced at the stockholders' meeting today was kept secret from me. You and I go back twenty years, Ed. I took this job with your personal assurance that you would back my autonomy against any encroachment. But ever since CCA acquired control of the UBS Systems ten months ago, Hackett's been taking over everything. Who the hell's running this network, you or some conglomerate called CCA? I mean, you're the Chairman of the Systems Group, and Frank Hackett's just CCA's hatchet man. Nelson here -- for Pete's sake, he's the president of the network -- he hasn't got anything to say about anything anymore. Who the hell's running this company, you or CCA? RUDDY (murmurs) I told you at the stockholders' meeting, Max, that we would discuss all that at our regular meeting tomorrow morning. If you had been patient, I would've explained to you that I too thought Frank Hackett precipitate and that the reorgani- zation of the News Division would not be executed until everyone, specifically you, Max, had been consulted and satisfied. Instead, you sulked off like a child and engaged this network in a shocking and disgraceful episode. Your position here is no longer tenable regardless of how management is restructured. I expect you to bring in your resignation at ten o'clock tomorrow morning, and we will coordinate our statements to the least detriment of everyone. (to WHEELER) Bob McDonough will take over the News Division till we sort all this out. (WHEELER nods. RUDDY turns to CHANEY still in the cornerof the room on the phone) I'd like to see Mr. Beale now -- CHANEY (on phone) They're looking for him, Ed. They don't know where he is -- 52. INT. LOBBY - UBS BUILDING HOWARD BEALE, bleached almost white by the GLARE of the CAMERA LIGHTS, and almost totally obscured by the tidal CRUSH of cameras, REPORTERS, SECURITY GUARDS around him -- HOWARD -- every day, five days a week, for fifteen years, I've been sitting behind that desk -- the dispassionate pundit -- 53. INT. DIANA'S APARTMENT - BEDROOM DIANA, naked, sitting on the edge of her bed in a dark bedroom, watching HOWARD BEALE's impromptu press conference on television -- HOWARD (on TV screen) -- reporting with seemly detachment the daily parade of lunacies that constitute the news -- and -- Also on the bed is a naked young STUD, who isn't really that interested in the 11:00 News. He is fondling, fingering, noodling and nuzzling DIANA with the clear intention of mounting her -- HOWARD (on TV screen) -- just once I wanted to say what I really felt -- The young STUD is getting around to nibbling at DIANA's breasts -- DIANA (watching the TV set with single-minded intensity) Knock it off, Arthur -- 54. EXT. UBS BUILDING - 9:00 A.M., THURSDAY, SEPT. 25 - DAY Bright morning sunshine. DIANA, in a pants suit and carrying half a dozen scripts, enters the building -- 55. INT. UBS BUILDING - LOBBY DIANA, pausing at the newsstand to pick up the morning papers, which she reads en route to the elevators -- 56. INT. UBS BUILDING - 14TH FLOOR - 9:15 A.M. DIANA briskly enters through the door marked: DEPARTMENT OF PROGRAMMING, and whisks off down the corridor -- 57. INT. PROGRAMMING DEPARTMENT - COMMON ROOM DIANA crosses to her own office. THREE SECRETARIES, including DIANA's, are abuzz in a corner over last night's Howard Beale show. DIANA'S SECRETARY scurries to follow DIANA as, in b.g., BARBARA SCHLESINGER comes out of her office carrying four scripts -- 58. INT. DIANA'S OUTER OFFICE DIANA, rummaging through the papers on top of the SECRETARY's desk as the SECRETARY enters -- DIANA Did the overnight ratings come in yet? SECRETARY They're on your desk. DIANA Have you still got yesterday's overnights around? SECRETARY Shall I bring them in? DIANA Yeah -- She exits into -- 59. INT. DIANA'S OFFICE Morning SUNLIGHT blasting in. DIANA moves to her desk, stands behind it, scanning the front pages of the newspapers piled on her desk, then sits and studies the overnight ratings also on her desk. The SECRETARY enters with yesterday's overnights, a sheet of paper, which she extends to DIANA, who promptly studies them. The SECRETARY exits as BARBARA SCHLESINGER enters, sinks onto a chair with a sigh -- SCHLESINGER These are those four outlines submitted by Universal for an hour series. You needn't bother to read them. I'll tell them to you. The first one is set in a large Eastern law school, pre- sumably Harvard. The series is irresistibly entitled The Young Lawyers. The running characters are a crusty but benign ex-Supreme Court Justice, presumably Oliver Wendell Holmes by way of Dr. Zorba. There is a beautiful girl graduate student and the local district attorney who is brilliant and sometimes cuts corners -- DIANA (studying the overnights) Next one -- SCHLESINGER The second one is called The Amazon Squad -- DIANA (studying the overnights) Lady cops? SCHLESINGER The running characters are a crusty but benign police lieutenant who's always getting heat from the Commissioner, a hard-nosed, hard- drinking detective who thinks women belong in the kitchen, and a brilliant and beautiful young girl cop fighting the feminist battle on the force -- DIANA (now studying the front page of the Daily News) We're up to our ears in lady cop shows. SCHLESINGER The next one is another investigative reporter show. A crusty but benign managing editor who's always getting heat from the publisher -- DIANA The Arabs have decided to jack up the price of oil another twenty per cent, and the C.I.A. has been caught opening Senator Humphrey's mail, there's a civil war in Angola, another one in Beirut, New York City's facing default, they've finally caught up with Patricia Hearst, and -- (she flips the Daily News over so BARBARA can read it) -- the whole front page of the Daily News is Howard Beale. ACROSS BARBARA SCHLESINGER, half-standing so she can read the newspaper and showing the front page of the Daily News -- which consists of a 3/4 page blowup of HOWARD BEALE topped by a 52 point black banner headline:-- BEALE FIRED -- DIANA -- it was also a two-column story on page one of the Times -- (calls to her SECRETARY) Helen, call Mr. Hackett's office, see if he can give me a few minutes this morning -- Continue to Scenes 60-65 partial. |
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