Drop Dead Gorgeous Page #4

It's smokey as hell. THREE "FRY" GIRLS and a PREGNANT

"FRY" GIRL - all with "shelf bangs" - smoke and drink.

FRY GIRL #1

...Oh, yeah-right. I ain't gonna be

in no goddamn pageant! Look what

happened to that dork-ass farm girl.

PREGNANT FRY GIRL (O.C.)

Tammy Curry?

FRY GIRL #1

Yah-yah. Everyone says this is a big

accident? She got iced because she

wins everything, and this time someone

didn't want her to win.

PREGNANT FRY GIRL

This pageant's like a roach motel.

FRY GIRL #1

Girls check in, but they don't check

out.

PREGNANT FRY GIRL

Yeah. And they say smokin' is bad for

your health.

FRY GIRL #1

(raising cigarette into

frame)

Yeah.

EXT. OLD TWO STORY HOUSE - ESTABLISHING - DAY

SIGN painted on GARAGE DOOR: "Dance Studio, Downstairs

past the Laundry Room."

CAMERA moves DOWNSTAIRS to converted basement. LISA

SWENSON and two other large "ballerinas" practice at a

2x4/ballet barre. MOZART plays in the b.g. CHLORIS

KLINGHAGEN watches and smokes. (Picture Betty Davis in

her final days.)

CHLORIS:

And tendu. Close. Tendu. Close.

Tendu. Close. Plie. And repeat.

Suck in the belly, girls, and tuck in

the tushes!

SUPER:
CHLORIS KLINGHAGEN, CHOREOGRAPHER

CHLORIS (cont'd)

Close those legs! You look like a

bunch of bowlegged cows! Other side.

And...tendu. Close. Tendu. Close.

Tendu. Close. Plie.

CUT TO:

Chloris smokes and talks to camera. "Ballerinas"

practice.

CHLORIS (cont'd)

Yeah, you boys sure picked a good

year. If I was a betting woman, and

there was a line on this in Vegas, I'd

lay down ten-to-one that it all comes

down to Amber Atkins and Becky Leeman.

Oh, sweet Jesus, what a showdown this

could be if Cain and Abel...

The SOUND RECORDIST enters and Lisa spins out of control,

taking him out. She leans over and comforts him.

LISA:

Ow! Oh, God. It's so em-so

embarrassing.

EST. SHOT - "DAKOTA COUNTY EATING DISORDERS CLINIC" - DAY

MARY (V.O.)

(labored breaths)

My winning...the Mount Rose...

INT. PATIENT'S ROOM - DAY

SMILING ANOREXIC GIRL sits in bed - a TIARA in what's

left of her hair and a SASH over her hospital gown.

MARY:

...American Teen Princess Pageant...

SUPER:
MARY JOHANSON, REIGNING MOUNT ROSE AMERICAN TEEN

PRINCESS:

MARY (cont'd)

...really changed my life.

The TIARA SLIPS OFF her BALDING HEAD and rolls to the

floor.

INT. DAKOTA COUNTY EATING DISORDERS CLINIC - MARY'S ROOM

Amber fixes Mary's hair, carefully brushing her balding

head. Mary smiles, oblivious.

MARY:

(labored breaths)

...Amber does my hair...once a week.

AMBER:

(flattered and embarrassed)

Well...it's the least I can do for the

reigning Mount Rose Junior Miss Amer--

Amber pulls the brush away with a clump of Mary's hair

dangling from it.

AMBER (cont'd)

Oh God...

MARY:

What?

AMBER:

Huh? Oh...Uh, just a little snarl...

Amber mouths, "Shhh! Don't tell!" to camera as she tries

to pull the clump of hair from the brush.

JUMP CUT TO:

INT. DAKOTA COUNTY EATING DISORDERS CLINIC - MARY'S ROOM

Amber ties the tiara and missing clump of hair to Mary's

head with a ribbon.

AMBER:

There we go.

She holds the mirror for Mary.

MARY:

(delusional)

Beautiful... Maybe next week... a

perm.

AMBER:

Yah... sure...

Amber gives a kind but worried smile to camera.

Suddenly, Becky Leeman enters with a large box of

chocolates. She's fully aware of the cameras from the

moment she enters.

BECKY:

Hellooo, Little Mary Sunshine!

(pretending to notice camera)

What?! Oh-oh my God! Lights!

Camera! And me without a stitch of

make-up on. What are you guys doin'

here?

She's in full make-up.

AMBER:

What're you doin' here?

BECKY:

Oh, Amber, like you're the only one

who visits Mary.

MARY:

(to Becky)

Who are you?

BECKY:

(covering)

"Who are you?!" Oh Mary, you kill me.

(to camera)

She always says that. It's a little

game we play. Every week - same dippy

little look on her face. "Who are you

- who are you?" Just like that.

(in Mary's face)

It's me - Becky - and I brought your

favorites.

Becky puts the chocolates on Mary's lap, a few spill.

Throughout the following, Mary slowly reaches for them as

if they're forbidden fruit and she's a very hungry Eve.

AMBER:

How nice, Becky, she's anorexic.

Becky roughly puts her hands over Mary's ears, who's now

gently petting the spilled chocolates in her lap.

BECKY:

(sotto, reprimanding tone)

She's skinny, not deaf, Amber.

EXT. TRAILER - LATE AFTERNOON

MONTAGE - Amber taps around the mobile home community,

HOME FROM SCHOOL - backpack, Walkman, cool music blaring.

INT. TRAILER - AMBER'S BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER

Amber stands in a room the SIZE OF A CLOSET. Posters,

articles and pictures of great tap dancers and Diane

Sawyer cover the walls.

AMBER:

... Dreams? Yah-sure I got kem...

Sometimes I dream of winnin'... I

dream of gettin' outta Mount Rose and

bein' a big time reporter like Diane

Sawyer. I mean, guys get outta Mount

Rose all the time for hockey

scholarships or prison. But the

pageant's kinda my only chance.

INT. TRAILER - AMBER'S BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER

Amber points to LARGE PAGEANT PHOTO OF DIANE SAWYER -

1963

AMBER:

... Yah-1963. Her beauty worked

against her when she started as a

reporter in Louisville, her hometown.

Those were different times.

ANNETTE (O.S.)

(yelling, coughing)

Hey, Amber, y'get my smokes?

AMBER:

(smiling)

That's my mom.

(yelling)

I'll get kem in a sec.

ANNETTE ATKINS, Amber's mom - sexy, but tired - OPENS THE

DOOR.

ANNETTE:

(surprised by cameras)

Oh sh*t!

AMBER:

They're from L.A. They wanted to see

my room and film me for their movie.

ANNETTE:

(mock-touched, to crew)

Oh... How quickly they grow up.

(exiting, smiling)

Hey, if they ask you to take off your

shirt, get the money first.

Annette is gone.

ANNETTE (cont'd) (O.S.)

And go get my smokes!

JUMP CUT TO:

EST. SHOT - LEEMAN FAMILY HOME - DAY

Landscaped grounds surround this lovely two-story.

INT. LEEMAN HOME - VARIOUS ROOMS

Brief "LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH & FAMOUS" montage of Gladys

showing off interiors to the theme from "GONE WITH THE

WIND."

INT. LEEMAN HOME - LIVING ROOM - DAY

It looks like a Levitz showroom. Gladys sits stiffly

between Becky and her husband, LESTER - mid-60's, gruff,

"old school" salesman, drink in hand.

LESTER:

...You betcha. S'posed to be colder-n-

a witches tit tonight...

GLADYS:

(nervous laugh)

Oh, Lester. He loves his weather,

y'know.

LESTER:

(looking to crew, O.S.)

Hey, ya like it? Open it...Yah-the

globe. Pull at the equator there.

GLADYS:

We're not in the showroom, Dear.

Banging and fumbling. A CORKSCREW flies into shot - CREW

GUY quickly ENTERS SHOT and grabs it.

LESTER:

Fits three full-size booze bottles.

The cassette deck pulls outta

Afghanistan, there.

BECKY:

(embarrassed)

Mommm...

GLADYS:

Lester?

LESTER:

Oh, all right

(to camera)

How soon they forget where all this

comes from.

BECKY:

Japan.

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