Spotlight Page #20

157F A SMALL HYDE PARK LIVING ROOM. A man in 40s cries, 157F

talking to Sacha. A Christmas tree in the background.

157J MIKE’S COMPUTER. 8 days until deadline. More edits on 157J

the story. FIND Mike in his APARTMENT. Editing. A beer

by the computer...

157Ja An E-MAIL to Robby from Ben: ‘Where are we on your 157Ja

source? It’s time.’ Find Robby IN HIS OFFICE, staring

at the computer.

157M A night mass at an EAST BOSTON CHURCH. 157M

As the children’s choir finishes Silent Night, we FIND

Mike, in the doorway, standing there. Watching. Cut to --

161 EXT. SULLIVAN HOUSE, BROOKLINE - NIGHT 161

The door of a pretty colonial, a wreath still up. A hand

knocks. The door opens. A pretty woman (JIM’S WIFE) smiles.

JIM’S WIFE

Robby. What a nice surprise.

REVEAL Robby at the door. He walks into --

162 INT. SULLIVAN HOUSE, JIM’S HOME OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER 162

Jim sits at on a leather couch watching golf. Through a

door, we see a Christmas tree. His wife and Robby walk in.

JIM’S WIFE

Look who I found outside.

Jim looks up, less than happy to see Robby standing there.

JIM:

Hon, give us a minute, will you?

Jim’s wife looks surprised.

JIM’S WIFE

Sure.

ROBBY:

Good to see you, Karen.

She leaves. Jim turns off the TV,

JIM:

What’s up?

Robby pulls out a list, hands it to Jim.

11/26/14 124.

ROBBY:

I’m out of time, Jim. We’ve got

cover-up stories on 70 priests, but

the boss isn’t gonna run it unless I

get confirmation from your side.

Jim turns off the TV, looks it over.

JIM:

Are you out of your mind?

ROBBY:

Come on. This is our town, Jimmy.

We all knew something was going on

and no one did a thing. We gotta

put an end to it.

JIM:

Don’t tell me what I gotta do!

Yeah, I helped defend these

scumbags, but that’s my job, Robby.

I was doing my job!

ROBBY:

Yeah. You and everyone else.

Jim stands, hands Robby the list.

JIM:

Get out of my house.

163 EXT. SULLIVAN HOUSE, BROOKLINE - MOMENTS LATER 163

Robby walks out of the house, toward his car.

JIM:

Hey!

Robby turns, finds Sullivan.

JIM (CONT’D)

You come to my home and lay this

sh*t on me!

(then)

You’re right, Robby, we all knew

something was going to on. So where

were you? What took you so long?!

This lands with Robby. No answer.

ROBBY:

I don’t know, Jimmy.

Jim shakes his head, looks like he might slug Robby.

11/26/14 125.

JIM:

Give me the list.

Jim holds out his hand. Robby hands him the list. Jim eyes

the first page, flips to the second. He checks the names...

then flips back. He looks at Robby. Holds out a hand for a

pen. Robby gives him one.

Jim leans on the roof of Robby’s car. Marks up the list,

then hands it back to Robby. Nothing more to say, Jim turns

and walks away. Robby looks down at the list. Reacts.

THE ENTIRE first page is CIRCLED. And the second.

163A EXT. GLOBE - DAY (FORMERLY 171A, ALREADY SHOT) 163A

The Globe Building. Snow falls.

MIKE (INTO PHONE, PRELAP)

Larry, we’re going to press in six

hours.

164 INT. GLOBE, SPOTLIGHT OFFICE - DAY 164

Mike and Matt work the phones.

MATT (INTO PHONE)

Donna Morrisey said she’d call us

with a quote from Law hours ago.

MIKE (INTO PHONE)

That’s what I thought. Okay,

Larry.

MATT (INTO PHONE)

When did you talk to her? *

Yeah. That’s good to know. *

Thanks, Pete.

They hang up. Mike walks to the coffee machine.

MIKE:

Anything?

MATT:

Conley said Donna Morrisey should

have called, he just left Lake

Street.

MIKE:

Yeah. Rasky said the same thing.

MATT:

This is ridiculous. You’d think

they want to get out ahead of this.

11/26/14 126.

MIKE:

They’d be idiots not to. I’d love

to see their faces when they read

this.

Both of them wait.

MATT:

You know, Sunday’s the Feast of the

Epiphany.

MIKE:

Seems appropriate.

The phone rings. Mike grabs it.

MIKE (INTO PHONE) (CONT’D)

Mike Rezendes. Hi Donna. Thanks for

calling. I just had a few questions

if you have a minute....

Mike listens. Matt waits.

MIKE (CONT’D)

What? I just hung up with Larry

Rasky...

He listens, then grabs a pad and starts writing furiously.

165 INT. GLOBE, MARTY’S OFFICE - DAY 165

Marty sits reading copy. He crosses something out. Ben,

Robby and Sacha sit opposite Marty.

BEN:

What?

MARTY:

Another adjective.

Mike and Matt roll in.

ROBBY:

Anything?

MIKE:

Law just turned us down.

BEN:

Jesus Christ.

MIKE:

I just got off the phone with Donna

Morrisey. She said, quote:

11/26/14 127.

(MORE)

(off his pad)

“We don’t even want to know what the

questions are.” End quote.

ROBBY:

She really said that?

MIKE:

(slight smile)

Yeah.

BEN:

(to Marty)

That oughta do it.

MARTY:

(writing)

“The Church had no interest in

knowing what the Globe’s questions

would be.”

(hands it to Mike)

Work it in somewhere before the

jump.

(to the team)

Anything else?

ROBBY:

Matt wants to put the letters online

so readers can see it for

themselves.

MATT:

We can run the URL at the bottom of

the article. It’s pretty

straightforward.

No one really knows what that means.

MARTY:

Okay.

MATT:

We also put the Spotlight tip line

at the end of the story so people

can call in. Goes directly to our

office.

SACHA:

Matt and I will be in in the morning

in case we get any calls.

BEN:

I’m more concerned about the phones

at reception.

11/26/14 128.

MIKE (CONT'D)

(MORE)

After we ran the Porter story, the

message center was tied up for

weeks. It was a real problem.

MATT:

And we had picketers. Lots of them.

MARTY:

I’ll talk to Gilman about security

and the phones.

(to Robby)

How’s it coming on the folo story?

Robby looks to Sacha.

SACHA:

We’ve nailed down multiple stories

on seventy priests.

MARTY:

All seventy?

SACHA:

Yeah. And with the confirmation

from Robby’s source, we’re ready to

go. We can have a draft next week.

MARTY:

Robby, that source of yours, is this

someone we could revisit?

ROBBY:

Might be tough.

BEN:

But he has no problem helping the

church protect dozens of dirty

priests. Guy’s a scumbag.

Matt glances at Robby. Who’s looking at Ben.

MATT:

He’s a lawyer, he’s doing his job.

MIKE:

He a shill for the Church.

BEN:

He knew and did nothing.

MIKE:

He coulda said something about this

years ago. Maybe saved some lives.

11/26/14 129.

BEN (CONT'D)

ROBBY:

What about us?

BEN:

What’s that supposed to mean?

ROBBY:

We had all the pieces. Why didn’t

we get it sooner?

BEN:

We didn’t have all the pieces.

ROBBY:

We had Saviano, we had Barrett, we

had Geoghan. We had the directories

in the basement.

BEN:

You know what? We got it now.

MIKE:

Robby, this story needed Spotlight.

ROBBY:

Spotlight’s been around since 1970.

BEN:

So what? We didn’t know the scope

of this. No one did. This started

with one goddamn priest, Robby.

Robby looks at Sacha. A beat.

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