Broadcast News

On Tom's reaction.

AARON
You can't talk about feeling
intimidated when you're on top of
the world.  It's unseemly.

TOM
I'm not buying into any of that.  I
have a load to learn.  I'm not going
to act as if...

AARON
(finishing for him)
You have the job you have...

The sudden debate is important to Tom -- but it's moving too
fast for him.

TOM
Shut up a second...

AARON
(amiably)
Okay.  Pretty petty party, isn't
it, pal?

TOM
(picking his words)
I made one rule for myself when this
started and I realized I was going
to take a lot from you people because
of being from sports...

AARON
And the rule was...

TOM
Never to pretend to know more than
I did.

AARON
Can you name all the members of the
Cabinet?

TOM
(flustered)
Okay, let's drop it.  I didn't mean
I'd take a test for you -- I mean if
that came up in conversation I'd...

AARON
We're conversing...Oh my, the names
of the entire Cabinet has slipped my
mind.  What are they?

Tom is getting pissed.

AARON
(compromising)
Don't name them.  Just tell me if
you know.

TOM
Yes, Aaron.  I know the names of
the Cabinet.

AARON
Okay.

A beat.

AARON (cont'd)
All twelve?

TOM
Yes.

AARON
There are only ten.

Aaron's suddenly a good deal happier -- damned if it
isn't a little infectious.

TOM
You're feeling good, aren't you?

AARON
(sincerely)
I'm starting to... We may do
the capitols of the states.

TOM
(dry)
Fifty, right?

Aaron almost smiles.

Tom enters the party leaving the door open.

LONG SHOT

Aaron in the f.g. -- his BACK TO CAMERA... Beyond him
Tom being approached... then joining Jane.

EXT. JANE'S STREET - NIGHT

As Tom's car comes to a stop.

INT. TOM'S CAR - NIGHT

TOM
I'm so exhausted.  Punchy.  Sick
tired.  I can't think and I can't move.
I'm just a dead lump of poured out
flesh.
(then)
Would you like to come up?

Tom thinks -- then:

TOM
Maybe we could just sit here --
talk a little?

JANE
Okay.  You didn't like the party, huh?

TOM
Too many smart people in one room --
it's not healthy...

Jane's confused by this.  She looks at him.

TOM
I'm going to have to do a story
from beginning to end on my own.

JANE
Eventually.  Does it have to be
right now?

TOM
(nodding)
Believe me, I wouldn't be doing this
unless it was absolutely necessary.
I have an idea for something.

JANE
What?

TOM
I just read about it in a magazine
and it affected me.

JANE
Well, what is it?

TOM
If I tell you, can you manage not
to put it down or tell me why it
won't work or is in bad journalistic
taste or anything like that?

JANE
(broadly)
Yes, Tom -- I think I can manage.

He turns towards her -- about to stick his chin out.  Hesitates.

JANE (cont'd)
I promise.

TOM
It's about women who are attacked
by someone they know on a date...
'Date-rape,' that's the piece...
Well?

Jane clamps a hand over her own mouth.

TOM
Okay -- good move.  Keep it there.

She continues to clamp her mouth shut as he exits the car,
opens her door and then begins to half carry, half pull her out.
She keeps her hand clamped over her mouth.  Laughing from
behind her door and runs for it.

ON TOM

His spirits lifted.

ON JANE

Behind the door, trying to hide the glow in her eyes.

INT. JANE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

The phone rings... Jane's hand bounces off her nightstand to
turn on the light knocking over and breaking the clock radio
instead.  Three alarm clocks stand next to the clock radio...
Finally the light comes on.  Jane's voice is so thick with
sleep the words she utters are just barely distinguishable.

JANE
Hello.

TO
(uncertain)
Hello?

JANE
Hello...Who is it?

INTERCUT:

INT. TOM'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

TOM
I'm not sure I dialed right --
Jane?

JANE
Jane, yes.  Tom?  Tom, is that you?
Is this Tom?

TOM
Yes.

JANE
I had to sleep fast so I took two
allergy pills to help me...I'm
sorry...Hey, you called me.

TOM
It's not important.

JANE
Says who?  Not important -- ha-ha-ha.
I was dreaming -- Oh, no -- can't
tell -- how embarrassing for me.
Gosh.

TOM
What pills did you take?  You
sound more like someone on a general
anesthetic.  Maybe I'd better speak
to you tomorrow.

JANE
Nooo.  Is it your story?

TOM
No.  Are you going to the
Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday?

JANE
Why, you need me for the story?

TOM
No.  Were you going to you?

JANE
Uh-huh.

TOM
Maybe I'll get off work.  I'd like
to go.

JANE
Oh, good.

TOM
We can go together.

JANE
So you like me, huh?

TOM
I like you as much as I can like
anyone who thinks I'm an asshole.

INT. JANE'S EDITING ROOM - DAY

Tom editing a piece with Bobby -- He also has a little typewriter
table set up.  He is reading from the page in the typewriter as
he looks at the piece he has written.

TOM
(reading)
But cops on the street continue to
view it as...
Shit -- too long.  But street cops
say...that fits.  That last cut work
for you, Bobbie?

BOBBIE
Yes, and thanks for asking.

INT. NEWSROOM - NIGHT

As the regulars watch the Evening News, in particular the Date
Rape piece which is now in progress.  Tom anxiously eyeing Jane
out of the corner of his eye as she watches the monitor.  Her
face impossible to read as she studies the screen.

ON MONITOR

UNIFORMED COP
What can you do?  If a woman invites
a man in and he says they uh, had
sex and she says he raped her and
then you find out they've been out
together two, three times...how can
you prove a crime?

NEW SHOT ON MONITOR

Tom and a woman of about thirty -- dignified but fragile -- she
looks like someone who might be cast for a church production
of "Glass Menagerie."

YOUNG WOMAN
It will be a year next month since it
happened...I never thought I'd talk
about it outside of counseling...

ON NEWSROOM

As Aaron enters the scene.

AARON
Hi.

He is shushed by every woman in the room, accepts this and takes
up a position near Tom and Jane to watch them.

ON MONITOR

YOUNG WOMAN
We'd gone out twice and I hadn't
enjoyed myself that much but it gets
to a point -- I don't know if you can
appreciate this but where you don't
want to sit home or be with your
girlfriends and people had always been
telling me that I was 'too picky.'
I'm not.  It's just you want to meet
a nice guy...So anyways, it was that
'give-him-a-chance' thing.  No, it
wasn't.  I was lonely.  So we went
to a movie and when he brought me home
he said could he just come up and have
one beer and then he'd go.  How do you
say 'no', to that?  So first it was
this wrestling match which was awful
enough because it got to be really
a fight...because I'm a modest person...
then he ripped my clothes and he
forced me to...make love.  He stayed in
my apartment and forced me more times
-- he didn't leave until...
(she has started to cry)
I promised myself I wouldn't cry...
It's just hard not to --
(ruefully)
You sure have a sympathetic face.
(she cries a bit more)
...I was so sure I wouldn't do this --
but the whole thing messed me up --
maybe more than it should...

ON MONITOR

As the news piece cut to:  Tom's face -- he turns clearing a tear
from his eyes.

ON NEWSROOM

These watching struck -- perhaps embarrassed but riveted.  Aaron
is aghast.  Aaron approaches the set.

AARON
Can I turn on the news for a second?
...Oh, wait a minute.  Sex -- Tears --
This must be the news.

Tom stares daggers at him as a public official appears on the
monitor.

ON MONITOR

PUBLIC OFFICIAL
I don't think you can overestimate it --
on any given Saturday night tens of
thousands of women are being attacked
and there isn't much they or we can do
about it...

TOM
(on monitor)
The victims often remain too terrified
to talk -- the police powerless and all
the social welfare groups can finally do
is monitor this epidemic of crime without
punishment.  This is Tom Grunick in
Annandale, Virginia.

As his piece concludes.

NEWSROOM

Tom continues to glare at Aaron.

AARON
I'm in a pissy mood.  I'm sorry.

TOM
What's wrong with it?

AARON
Nothing.  I think you really blew
the lid off nookie.

Blair moans with displeasure.  Aaron exits scene.  Others start
to congratulate Tom on the piece -- in the b.g. on the:

MONITOR

We SEE frozen wilderness -- men digging in the ground -- clumps
of people watching them work.

ON JANE

Probing her own ambivalence -- or, to be more accurate, working
towards a positive stance.

JANE
(to Tom)
Nice work...
(checks watch)
I've got to get a crew off the clock.

She starts off -- Tom stopping her.

ON TOM AND JANE

Now off a bit by themselves.

TOM
So what did you think?

JANE
It moved me.  I did relate to it -- I
really did.  It was unusual for you to
cut to yourself when you tear up -- and
that might not have been my choice...but
it's real and it got me...and I think a
lot of the time I'm too conservative about
that kind of stuff.  Okay?

TOM
(enormously pleased)
Yeah.

He walks back towards the area of the monitor.

ON MONITOR

JENNIFER
Tomorrow the jury returns to this
site as each day brings more revelations
of horror, four more bodies now taken
from the frozen earth...This is Jennifer
Mack in Wota Hamlet, Alaska.

INT. NEWSROOM - TWO WEEKS LATER (SPRING) - DAY

BLAIR
Ernie's been looking for you.

As Aaron walks to his office.

INT. AARON'S OFFICE - DAY

As he enters and finds Ernie bent over his desk.

ERNIE
Oh, I was just writing you a note.
What do you say we take a walk?

AARON
(puzzled)
Outside?

ERNIE
Yeah --

EXT. WASHINGTON STREET - DAY

Ernie is silent... He's having difficulty.  Aaron is feeling knots
form.  Finally Ernie breaks his silence.

ERNIE
I don't know if we have any
younger man more respected in our
operation than you.

AARON
Just tell me what's really going
on.  I think we know each other
well enough for me to expect that.

ERNIE
(agitated)
We know each other well enough
for me to care how I put something
to you which could wipe you out.
So I will phrase things the way I
think they should be phrased.  All
right?

AARON
Wipe me out?

Ernie sits on a bench.

ERNIE
Anyway.  I want you to think of this as...

AARON
Just blunt talk, okay?  I'd really
appreciate bluntness.

ERNIE
Upper management thinks you're dull.

Aaron deflates.