Broadcast News

As she moves past Tom who is talking on the phone, eventually
catching up with Paul.  In the b.g. Tom has just HEARD the
"BEEP" of an ANSWERING MACHINE.

TOM
Hello, Buddy.  It's 1:35 -- and
this is Tom.  You can reach me
at the office.  It's important.
I can use a little help.

Jane, because of the proximity to Tom is speaking in whispered
intensity.

JANE
Tom isn't ready for the job
you're about to hand him.  Not
near ready.  Not by the longest
shot.  Aaron's spent six weeks
in Tripoli, he's interviewed
Gaddafi -- he reported on the
Eight-one story.  I think he's
essential to do the job we're
capable of and I think it's my
responsibility to tell you that.

PAUL
Okay, that's your opinion.  I
don't agree.

JANE
It's not opinion.

PAUL
You're just absolutely right
and I'm absolutely wrong?

She nods.

PAUL
It must be nice to always believe
you know better.  To think you're
always the smartest person in the
room.

JANE
(from her depths)
No, it's awful.  Oh my, it's awful.

JANE
(turning to leave)
We'd better get moving.

As they move out... Jane goes to Aaron... He moves with her
towards the door.

AARON
What happened?

JANE
I'll tell you later -- where
you going to watch from?

AARON
Watch? --

JANE
I'll come by your place, right
after...drink, take pills...
Love you.

She runs out the door.  Aaron turns mean and mocks Jane's
last words -- screwing up his face in a savage burlesque.

AARON
Yeah, love you, too.

EXT. DRIVEWAY - DAY

As Jane briefly pauses to see which war has room.  Tom opens
the passenger seat of his car -- she gets in.  It moves off.

INT. TOM'S CAR - DAY

As it moves off.

JANE
Nervous?

TOM
Excited.

Jane looks over at him -- there's no question he's just told
the truth.

INT. TOM'S OFFICE - DAY

In the b.g. we SEE the Bureau Newsroom beginning to pulse with
activity.  Tom closes the door.  He sits down behind his desk
and opens a bottom drawer -- a clean whit shirt lies there.
He opens the center drawer -- two ties are inside.  He picks
one.  He reaches for a package of new red suspenders.  He takes
off the shirt and puts on the new one -- all of this the work
of an expert craftsman.  By the time he finishes he looks like
the authority figure we know he's now.

INT. BUREAU NEWSROOM - JANE AND BLAIR

Jane is NOT hyper.  She is purposeful -- organized -- even
calming Blair with a little physical contact -- a touch on
the arm, to still her colleague's hysterical demons.

JANE
Tell George and Jessica to try
and cover everything without
Tom having to ask additional
questions.

BLAIR
And Bobbie says...

JANE
Did you hear what I just said --
do you have that?  Take a breath.

BLAIR
(a breath, then)
Yes.

In the b.g. Tom has exited his office and looks about --
waiting for some indication as to what to do next.

JANE
And the most important thing
make sure his earpiece works,
have back-ups ready.  That's
never been more vital.  He
must be able to hear me at
every second and clearly.

Jane sees him.  She moves across the room -- takes Tom by the
arm.

JANE
We have twenty minutes -- you can
wait in the studio.

Tom coughs nervously into his hand and takes a pen from a
nearby desk, clips it into his inside pocket and walks off.

GRAPHICS ROOM - DAY

Jane is screening and asking corrections in a graphic
representation of an F-14 shooting down a Libyan Air Force
Mirage Fighter.

JANE
Put in the radar plane that spotted
them to begin with.

GRAPHIC ARTIST
We have no pictures on file.

JANE
I can't draw -- but this is a
rough idea.

She uses the stylus from the ELECTRONIC PAINT MACHINE to outline
an American Air Force E-2C Hawkeyes Radar Plane.  Her work is
stunning.

INT. AARON'S APARTMENT - DAY

He has a glass in hand -- some chips on the table with a
bottle of wine as he selects a Cassette Desk to play.  He picks
a French song -- looks at some of his books.  He might even
read.  He is feigning disinterest for an audience of no one.
He SINGS ALONG with the RECORD in perfect French.

INT. STUDIO HALLWAY - DAY

Tom checking copy in the long hallway leading to the studio --
there is the merest of hubbubs causing him to look up.  Buddy
is being stopped at the other end of the hallway.

ON BUDDY AND SECURITY GUARD

GUARD
I have to check first.

BUDDY
(a bit frantic)
Well, then check -- but hurry --
There he is!!!

Buddy runs the length of the hallway to Tom's aide despite Tom's
gestures to slow down.

BUDDY
Is everything all right?

TOM
Yes.  You didn't have to come here.
It's just that I'm going to anchor
this special report on this Libyan
thing...

BUDDY
(delighted)
Anchor?

TOM
(amused despite
situation)
Yes, stop!  I wondered if you could
find out anything about what's
happening.
(on Buddy's reaction)
What's wrong?

BUDDY
I broke up with my roommate --
He was really the magnet for
everyone who knew anything.

TOM
Oh.

BUDDY
Look, I can start up with him again
if you really...

TOM
No.  I'm doing fine...Look.

Tom stands there -- a man at home in this media castle.

BUDDY
Good.  He's on the world's longest
ego trip, let him take it alone.

TOM
Hey, okay.  Look Buddy -- I've
got to go to work.

BUDDY
(to Tom)
...good-bye then.

TOM
I'll speak to you.

BUDDY
Well, who knows.  Just let m tell
you what my favorite teacher ever,
told me -- 'Don't be afraid to be
wonderful.'

He leans forward, gives Tom a quick embrace, a small kiss on
the cheek.  Tom turns and walks off down the hallway to meet
his immediate destiny as Buddy looks on.

INT. CONTROL ROOM - DAY

Jane mounts some steps in the control room -- she moves past
the DIRECTOR and TECHNICAL CREW up to the next level where the
two news execs, Ernie and Paul stand with their backs to the
wall, and then up one more step slightly above the desk and
table occupied by Blair.  Now she slips into the large well
paddled throne-like seat -- as WE BEGIN MUSIC CUE.

Literally at her fingertips is the row of buttons which provide
immediate access to the field reporters at the Pentagon, State
and the White House.  In front of her the bank of monitors, the
Technical Team and past them the studio where Tom is seated at
Anchor, a FLOOR PRODUCER and WRITER feeding him copy.

ANGLE FAVORING BLAIR

As she looks at Jane, poised to control the complicated apparatus
of minds and machines comprising the big time network news.
And Jane Craig is at the helm.  Blair experiences a flash of
emotion which transcends envy and verbalizes it.

BLAIR
(sotto to Jane)
Executive Producer -- wow.

Jane looks at her and, in a moment of atypical merriment, does
a choking gesture at her own throat as the monitors flash a
graphic reading:  SPECIAL REPORT... We HEAR an ANNOUNCER'S VOICE
say, "This is a Special Report from..."

INSERT:  JANE'S CONTROL PANEL

Each of four buttons labeled so that the microphone can connect
her to Tom and the Field Reporters.  She presses the button
marked "Tom."

JANE
You hear me, Tom?  Tom?  Tom?
Damn it...He can't hear me...
(to Blair)
I told you if there was one thing...

Tom's VOICE on speakers.

TOM
(voice over; relaxed)
I can hear you.  I was just teasing.

Gulping the air in relief, she slumps nonetheless impressed by
the macho cool as:

Tom smiles towards her then -- poises himself just as the
Announcer's last words clear.

ANNOUNCER'S VOICE
(voice over)
...in Washington, Tom Grunick.

He begins his report.  He seems authoritative, compelling, even
in a low key way.  We trust him.

TOM
Good afternoon.  A Libyan fighter
plane attacked a United States
Military Installation early this
morning and was, itself, shot down
by American F-14 Interceptors.

Another monitor shows the Graphic running.  In the b.g. two
men approaches Paul.  They look out of place, decidedly
non-business like.

MAN ONE
Mr. Moore, I'm Marvin Usher and this
is my brother, Stuart.

PAUL
Not now!!!
(gesturing)
Look.

TOM
The Libyan Missile destroyed an Army
Warehouse which, just thirty minutes
earlier, had been crowded with
servicemen.  No one was injured.

INT. AARON'S APARTMENT - DAY

Aaron is seated, feet up, drinking, listening to MUSIC -- reading
a book, two remote controls are on the cushion next to him.  He
SINGS OUT LOUD with the record as he reads -- at one point
providing his own lyric line OVER THE MUSIC.

AARON
(SINGING LOUDLY)
And I can read while I sing.

He picks up the television remote-control device an puts the
television on, the SOUND OFF.

ON TV

We SEE the graphic of the Libyan plane's flight route, its
missile firing -- the U.S. planes taking off and the shooting
down of the Mirage jet... At one point Aaron lowering the MUSIC
and raising the TV SOUND hearing Tom.

TOM'S VOICE
(voice over)
The heat seeking missile virtually
disintegrated the  plane on...

Aaron turns down the TV SOUND and turns up the MUSIC.

INT. BOOTH

Jane's hand flicks at the button marked "PENTAGON."

JANE
George, you're ready.

ON PENTAGON MONITOR

We SEE George and HEAR him through Jane's voice box.

GEORGE
(voice over)
Should I cover everything or should
I save something for Tom to ask about?

JANE
Cover everything!

George nods.

JANE
(hitting Tom's button)
We're going to George.  Say 'the
Joint Chiefs are meeting -- we have
George Weln at the Pentagon'.

ON TOM

TOM
George Weln is at the Pentagon where
the attack launched by the lone
Libyan pilot has resulted in a massive
movement of military might.

INT. AARON'S APARTMENT - DAY

Where he still balances STEREO and TV SOUND.

AARON
A lot of alliteration from anxious
anchors placed in powerful posts.

He picks up the phone.

INT. CONTROL ROOM - DAY

As Blair hands it to Jane.

BLAIR
It's Aaron.

JANE
Yes?

AARON
I think the pilot that shot down the
Libyan in 1981 is stationed right
here.  Maybe you could get him --
and maybe Tom should say that our F-14
is one of the hardest planes to fly.
They're nicknamed 'Tomcats'.

JANE
Thanks.
(to Tom)
The F-14 is one of the most difficult
planes to master.
(remembering)
Oh, you call them 'Tomcats' and in
the 70's the first crop had a number
of crashes.

TOM
George, isn't the F-14 Tomcat one of
the most difficult machines for a
pilot to master?

GEORGE
I think you're right -- it's certainly
one of our hottest planes.

INT. AARON'S ROOM - DAY

AARON
I say it here -- it comes out there.

He giggles.

TOM
(voice over)
There was trouble with them in the
early days -- back in the 70's.

Aaron dials again... As we SEE Jennifer standing at the
White House.

AARON
(into phone)
Me again.  Hi.  Listen Gaddafi doesn't
foam at the mouth or anything.  When
you speak to him he's not at all nuts.
He seems like a leader -- very
impressive, self-control...that's
what's so strange.

ON JANE

JANE
Right and we have the '81
pilot on the way in -- Nobody else
will have him.

AARON
(voice over)
You're welcome.  Sow how does it
feel to...I know you gotta go --
Me too.  We're very busy here.

He hangs up -- LONG SHOT... Aaron with his remote controls.
The picture switches back to Tom.  He turns UP the VOLUME.

TOM
(voice over)
...outlaw nation but strangely those
who have interviewed Gaddafi find
him, in a phrase we like to use in
this country, very 'presidential'.

AARON
Nice, Jane.