Spotlight Page #12

on ‘sick leave’ or ‘unnassigned’ --

MIKE:

Or for priests who moved around a

lot...

ROBBY:

Yeah.

11/26/14 74.

MIKE:

That’s gonna take a load of time.

ROBBY:

Not if we’re all on it.

MIKE:

You too?

ROBBY:

Generally, that’s what all means.

MIKE:

Yeah, generally.

That’s the plan. Robby looks set. Off Mike, we --

82 INT. GLOBE, SPOTLIGHT - LATER 82

CLOSE ON a ruler moving down a directory. It stops at a

designation:
Sick Leave. PAN TO the name of a priest.

MAHAN. A pen circles it and we --

CUT TO another ruler scanning a directory. It stops.

Unassigned. PAN TO the name of another priest. KEANE. The

name is circled and we --

CUT TO another ruler scanning. Sick Leave. PAQUIN.

REVEAL Sacha, moving a ruler down a directory. CUT TO --

ABOVE Mike, scanning a directory with a ruler. CUT TO --

CLOSE ON Robby. Squinting at a directory. CUT TO --

Matt, hunched over a computer, entering data. CUT TO --

CLOSE ON an excel spreadsheet. A date, a priest’s name, then

the designation are typed into a column. CUT TO --

More names and designations, logged year by year, into the

spreadsheet. CUT TO --

82A INT. SACHA’S HOUSE - NIGHT 82A

Sacha at her desk at home, scanning a directory. It’s late.

84 INT. SANTARPIO’S, EAST BOSTON - NIGHT 84

Mike sits in the pizza joint, marking up a directory, two

others beside him. A waiter delivers a pizza and a beer.

Without looking up, Mike reaches for the beer, keeps working.

11/26/14 75.

84A EXT. PORTER SQUARE T-STOP, CAMBRIDGE, MA - MORNING 84A

Sacha waits for the T, working on a directory.

84B INT. GLOBE, LIBRARY - DAY 84B

From the crow’s nest above, we see Mike and Matt at the table

in the library, stacks of directories between them.

84BB INT. GLOBE, CAFETERIA - DAY 84BB

Robby sits alone in cafeteria, working on a directory.

84C EXT. BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY, DOWNTOWN BOSTON - DAY 84C

Sacha walks up the grand steps, enters the massive library.

84D INT. GLOBE, SPOTLIGHT - DAY 84D

CLOSE ON the spreadsheet. More names are entered. We scan

down the growing list of priests...

84F INT. GLOBE, LIBRARY - NIGHT 84F

Mike in a back aisle, works on the directories.

85A INT. BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY, READING ROOM - EARLY EVENING 85A

A beautiful, mostly empty reading room, green banker’s lamps

everywhere. Sacha works late, directories all around her.

86 INT. MATT CARROLL’S HOUSE, WEST ROXBURY - NIGHT 86

Matt sits at a desk at home, hunched over a directory,

scanning it with a ruler. He pauses... leans in further.

CLOSE ON a directory entry. O’Sullivan. Treatment Center,

276 Pelton Street, West Roxbury.

MATT:

Holy sh*t.

Matt PALES, then takes off his glasses and leaves the house.

87 EXT. MATT CARROLL’S HOUSE, WEST ROXBURY - CONTINUOUS 87

Matt heads across the lawn, down the sidewalk. He crosses

the street, rounds the corner, turning onto Pelton Street.

He picks up his pace, checking house numbers. Finally, he

stops at A CLASSIC, TWO STORY VICTORIAN HOUSE. Number 276.

MATT:

No freakin’ way.

11/26/14 76.

88 INT. MATT CARROLL’S HOUSE, KITCHEN - LATER 88

Matt sits on the kitchen floor in front of the refrigerator,

taping a note to the door. We push in over his shoulder...

“Kids. Stay away from this house at 276 Pelton Street. And

stay away from the men who live inside it.”

Beside the note is a B&W photo of the house down the street.

90 INT. GLOBE, SPOTLIGHT OFFICE - DAY 90

CLOSE ON a COMPUTER SCREEN. We’re scrolling through the

EXCEL SPREADSHEET. Dozens of problematic priests.

REVEAL Mike, Sacha and Matt huddled around the computer.

Sacha reads from a large printout. Matt checks it against a

short list on a computer screen.

SACHA:

Talbot. MATT

Yep.

SACHA:

Tivnan. MATT

Yep.

SACHA:

Toma. MATT

Yep.

SACHA:

Turnbull. MATT

Yep.

SACHA:

Walsh. MATT

Yep.

SACHA:

Welsh. MATT

Yep.

MIKE:

Is that it?

SACHA:

That’s it. MATT

That’s it.

Mike looks at the screen.

MIKE (CONT’D)

Holy Sh*t.

11/26/14 77.

MATT:

Robby?

Robby looks up from his desk. He walks over to join them.

SACHA:

Three off Sipe’s estimate. That’s

incredible.

ROBBY:

How many?

MATT:

Eighty-seven.

MIKE:

Eighty-seven priests. In Boston.

ROBBY:

Call MacLeish. I wanna talk to him.

Robby takes the PRINTOUT, walks into --

91 INT. GLOBE, ROBBY’S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS 91

Robby shuts his door, picks up his phone and dials. It

rings. A secretary picks up.

SECRETARY (OVER THE PHONE)

Jim Sullivan’s office.

ROBBY (INTO PHONE)

Walter Robinson for Jim Sullivan.

Tell him it’s important.

A beat, then we hear --

JIM (OVER THE PHONE)

Hey Robby. Everything okay?

ROBBY (INTO PHONE)

I need you to tell me something,

Jim. Could it be ninety priests?

JIM (OVER THE PHONE)

What?

ROBBY (INTO PHONE)

Could it be as high as ninety?

JIM (OVER THE PHONE)

Jesus, Robby.

11/26/14 78.

ROBBY (INTO PHONE)

I need to know, Jim. I wouldn’t be

asking if it wasn’t important.

Silence.

JIM (OVER THE PHONE)

You gotta stop this, Robby.

Click. Robby darkens. Then sees Sacha in the doorway.

SACHA:

MacLeish’s assistant said he’s all

booked up, he can’t see us.

ROBBY:

The hell he can’t.

Robby exits. Sacha quickly follows. Off Mike and Matt --

92 INT. ONE INTERNATIONAL PLACE, LOBBY - EARLY EVENING 92

Eric MacLeish and a colleague get off an elevator, head out.

MacLeish sees Robby and Sacha sitting in the lobby, waiting

for him. As they stand, MacLeish turns to his colleague.

MACLEISH:

You know what, I’ll catch up with

you, okay?

The colleague heads off.

MACLEISH (CONT’D)

Hey guys, I’m really sorry, I am, I

don’t have any time to talk right

now, but if you call my assistant --

SACHA:

Mr. MacLeish, we have reason to

believe that there have been

allegations against as many as 87

priests in Boston.

ERIC MACLEISH:

I can’t talk about that.

SACHA:

Does that number sound right to you?

ERIC MACLEISH:

You gotta be... I don’t have time

for this crap.

11/26/14 79.

He starts to move but Robby steps in his way, angrier than

Sacha’s ever seen.

ROBBY:

Eric, how many priests did you

settle?

ERIC MACLEISH:

You know I can’t tell you, Robby.

ROBBY:

You’re gonna give me their names.

And the names of their victims.

ERIC MACLEISH:

Are you threatening me?

A beat. Robby controls himself, turns calm. Professional.

ROBBY:

We’ve got two stories here. We’ve

got a story about degenerate clergy

and we’ve got a story about a bunch

of lawyers turning child abuse into

a cottage industry. Now, which

story do you want us to write?

Cause we’re writing one of them.

MacLeish recedes. Robby’s got him.

ERIC MACLEISH:

I already sent you a list of names.

ROBBY:

What are you talking about? To

whom?

ERIC MACLEISH:

The Globe. Years ago. After the

Porter case, I got plenty of calls.

I had 20 priests in Boston but I

couldn’t go after them without

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