Frost\Nixon Page #5

the whole question of

security very seriously.

And from day one, we kept all

our files in a locked safe.

Who was the guy that Mike

interviewed? Was that Haldeman?

Haldeman. Haldeman. And Ehrlichman, too.

I always get the Germans mixed up.

I'm a little confused by that.

What is Haldeman's

official... Hello, darling.

As for the work over the months,

we divided it into three sections.

Birt took Vietnam, Bob took

Foreign and Domestic Policy,

and I got Watergate

and the abuses of power.

And David, we never

really saw much of David.

All right, so what

about the Huston Plan?

You can see the seeds of dirty tricks.

Essentially, it's an attempt

to legalize dirty tricks.

That's why you gotta get David

to put it in the question.

Wiretapping students.

But they've traced the money to him.

Opening people's mail.

What about wiretapping?

How many people has he wiretapped?

This guy wiretapped 17 people.

Seventeen?

Including his own brother.

But you know what? We can't

ask him about his brother,

'cause frankly, if Donald

Nixon was my brother,

I'd wiretap him, too.

But wait, okay, so we

have breaking and entering.

We have wiretapping, conspiracy

to foster prostitution.

And that's Liddy, right?

Delivery courtesy of Nate 'n Al's

finest deli selection.

We're going to need napkins.

We'd better have some napkins.

How do we frame a

question about Cambodia,

about the illicit bombing of Cambodia?

I think you should say,

"How far do you take executive privilege

"before it becomes an

undemocratic event?"

I think you frame the

question to him as a Quaker.

"How do you feel as a Quaker about

annihilating an entire people?"

Come on. Are they really

interested in buying time?

Are they going to give us the money?

How serious are they?

You have to set up that he has

an anti-democratic personality.

There's a reason they

call him Tricky Dick.

Because I had written about

and watched Nixon for years,

I got to play him in our rehearsals.

You know, the fellas

would throw me a question,

and I would try and anticipate

what his response might be.

Okay, the White House taping system.

Ours is not the first

administration to use taping systems.

Lyndon Johnson's White House

used them. So did Kennedy's.

Huston Plan. Wiretapping

and alleged abuses of power.

Let me tell you, other

administrations were up to far worse.

And just for fun, your

close friend Jack Kennedy.

That man, he screwed

anything that moved,

fixed elections and

took us into Vietnam.

And the American people,

they loved him for it!

Whereas I, Richard Milhous Nixon,

worked around the clock in

their service, and they hated me!

Look. Look. Now I'm sweating.

Damn it! Damn it!

And Kennedy's so goddamn

handsome and blue-eyed!

And women all over him!

He screwed anything that

moved, and everything.

Had a go at Checkers once.

The poor little b*tch

was never the same!

Gentlemen, finally a friend

in the American press.

Jack Anderson in The Washington Post,

"When Richard Nixon faces

the television cameras

"for his first interview since

he abandoned the White House,

"he'll be cross-examined as if

he were on the witness stand.

"Frost has hired three

crack investigators

"to help him with the research.

"Clearly the famous TV

interviewer will pull no punches."

"Crack investigators"?

Can I be Crack One?

Can I be Deep Crack?

David, can I talk to you for a sec?

After researching my last book,

I was pretty certain Colson...

You know, Charles Colson?

His darkest henchman?

Colson, right. Colson

had a meeting with Nixon

sometime before June 23,

but I never knew the exact date,

so I couldn't find the transcript.

But if you gave me a week back in

the Federal Courthouse library...

A week? Goodness, Jim, we

can't lose you for that long.

I think this is really good stuff, Dave.

Would there be something

I could help you with?

You know, if we're gonna nail

Nixon in these interviews,

we're gonna have to ambush him.

We're gonna have to

take him by surprise.

Don't worry, Jim. We'll get him anyway.

Hang on a second. David, Jack Brennan.

He sounds a little emotional.

I'll take it in here.

He'll be right with you. Yeah.

Jack. Watergate.

Yes, Jack.

Our lawyers want us to agree

on a definition of the word.

Well, I believe it's a large hotel

and office complex in Washington, Jack.

You know what I'm talking about.

For the interviews.

We want to propose that Watergate

be an umbrella term

for everything negative.

Hold on a minute.

So all the other domestic charges

against him, the Brookings Institute,

the Plumbers Union, the Enemies List,

you're saying all that

goes into Watergate?

Correct.

That is absurd and a clear breach

of the terms of our agreement.

Okay. How would you define Watergate?

Well, that it covers just that.

The Watergate break-in of June 17th

and the subsequent

cover-up and investigation.

Fine. In which case, the deal is off.

Fine. In which case,

you can expect a lawsuit

for something in excess of $20 million

in damages and loss of earnings.

The terms of the

contract clearly stipulate

that Watergate take up no

more than 25% of the time.

Yes, but nowhere does it say

that for the rest of the 75%

he gets to drone on

and sound presidential.

"Drone on"? Jesus Christ.

Where's your respect?

You remember who you're

talking about here.

You know as well as I do that 60%

of what he did in office was right,

and 30% may have been wrong, but

he thought it was right at the time.

Yes, but that still leaves 10%

where he was doing the

wrong thing and knew it.

You goddamn media

people. You are so smug.

Well, I can guarantee you

if you screw us on the 60%,

I will ruin you if it

takes the rest of my life.

Prick.

Look at you. Gorgeous.

Good night, sweet princes.

Cheerio. Bye.

See you in the morning.

Why the monkey suit?

David has a film premiere

he needs to attend.

What? The night before we start taping?

What's the movie?

It's The Slipper and the Rose.

The Cinderella movie?

Yeah. David's the executive producer.

You don't think it might be

an idea for our interviewer

to be rested and focused

on the job in hand?

Don't worry.

David is a performer

of the highest caliber.

He's been in these pressure

situations many times before.

Come the hour, he'll be fine. Okay?

What did he say? Did he say "performer"?

Yeah. That's the word he used?

Yeah, he said "performer."

Not "journalist" or "interviewer"?

No. He said "performer."

Out of curiosity, where are

you at this moment? Psychically?

I am imagining the dust, the darkness,

the agony and the

unimaginable Ioneliness

of the wilderness I am

about to be dispatched to

by my Washington political colleagues.

So any opportunity you get, go right

to foreign policy, go right to Mao,

go right to Khrushchev.

Just go right!

You could do all day

on foreign policy, sir.

I disagree that the Mao

banquet story is stale.

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