Spotlight Page #6

ROBBY:

Golfing’s not a verb. And I

couldn’t get a tee time today.

MIKE:

Is that what they call it? A tee

time?

ROBBY:

They also call it a leisure

activity. You should try it, Mike.

MIKE:

I run.

ROBBY:

You run to work.

Mike shrugs, true. He eyes the clips on Robby’s desk.

MIKE:

So what are you doing here today?

ROBBY:

Looking at clips. On Saviano.

MIKE:

Ben and Steve think he’s a dead end.

They gave me a bunch of crap about

it at the game.

ROBBY:

Yeah, Ben emailed me.

MIKE:

He did?

ROBBY:

Yeah. He said we should let it go.

MIKE:

What do you wanna do?

ROBBY:

Bring Saviano in.

MIKE:

So just ignore those guys?

11/26/14 35.

ROBBY:

I think we have to start ignoring

everybody on this one.

MIKE:

I’m good with that.

(then)

You think Baron has any idea what’s

coming down the Pike?

ROBBY:

No. I don’t think he cares either.

MIKE:

That’s refreshing.

ROBBY:

Yeah. Unless he’s wrong.

Mike registers this.

47 EXT. LAKE STREET, CARDINAL’S RESIDENCE - DAY 47

An Audi A4 pulls up in a large parking lot. Marty gets out,

looks up at the Cardinal’s MASSIVE LAKE STREET MANSION.

CARDINAL LAW (PRELAP)

I’ve always been fascinated with the

newspaper business.

48 INT. LAKE STREET, CARDINAL LAW’S PRIVATE STUDY - DAY 48

Mahogany bookshelves, leather furniture. CARDINAL LAW,

large, 50s, wears a collar and sits across from Marty.

CARDINAL LAW:

I used to sit in on lectures with

the Nieman fellows when I was at

Harvard.

MARTY:

I, uh, read you were an editor once.

Law chuckles.

CARDINAL LAW:

Yes. A very long time ago. The

Mississippi Register. Small,

diocesan newspaper, but for a 30-

year-old pastor it was a big

responsibility. Too much at times.

MARTY:

How so?

11/26/14 36.

CARDINAL LAW:

I was close with the Evers brothers,

we took a stand on civil rights.

Our readership was not pleased.

They saw me as a meddling outsider.

MARTY:

I can imagine.

CARDINAL LAW:

Tough seat to sit in, especially in

a small town. I think you’ll find

Boston’s a small town too, Marty, in

many ways. But if I can be of any

help, don’t hesitate to ask. I find

that this city flourishes when its

great institutions work together.

MARTY:

Uh, thank you. Personally I’m of

the opinion that for the paper to

best perform its function it needs

to, uh, stand alone.

Law reacts, surprised -- the rebuff almost feels unwarranted.

CARDINAL LAW:

Of course, but my offer stands.

A KNOCK on the door.

CARDINAL LAW (CONT’D)

Come in.

A SECRETARY slips in with a WRAPPED GIFT.

CARDINAL LAW (CONT’D)

Oh. Thank you, Maureen. A little

gift, Marty. Think of it as A

Cardinal’s guide to Boston.

Law hands the gift to Marty. Who looks at it. Bemused.

49 INT. MARTY’S CAR (PARKED), LAKE STREET - LATER 49

Marty gets into to his car. He sits, unwraps the gift. A

thick book, THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. Off Marty--

49A INT. GLOBE, LOBBY - DAY 49A

A MAN (SAVIANO) carrying a LARGE BOX walks up to reception.

SAVIANO:

I’m here to see Sacha Pfeiffer?

11/26/14 37.

GUARD:

Name?

SAVIANO:

Phil Saviano.

GUARD:

Okay, just a minute.

The guard picks up the phone, calls upstairs.

50 INT. GLOBE, ROBBY’S OFFICE - DAY 50

The entire team sits in Robby’s small sitting area facing

PHIL SAVIANO. Phil is mid-40s, thin and twitchy. He’s got a

medium sized BOX in front if him. He rifles through some

papers on his lap.

SAVIANO:

So am I the first survivor you’ve

talked to?

ROBBY:

Yes, Phil. You are.

SAVIANO:

Okay, well, first of all, let me say

thank you for having me in today. I

want you to know that you have the

full cooperation of my organization,

SNAP.

SACHA:

How many members are there in your

organization, Phil?

SAVIANO:

We had eleven at our last chapter

meeting. No ten. Karen just moved.

ROBBY:

There was a woman in your group?

SAVIANO:

Of course there was a woman. They

don’t discriminate, not when it

comes to abuse. And this has

nothing to do with being gay. What

this is, is priests using the collar

to rape kids. Kids. Boys and girls.

He reaches into a file, pulls a PHOTO of himself as a kid.

11/26/14 38.

SAVIANO (CONT’D)

I was eleven. I was preyed upon by

Father David Holley in Worcester.

And I don’t mean prayed for. I mean

preyed upon. Are any of you

Catholic?

The whole team looks at each other. Good question.

MATT:

I was raised Catholic but now I go

to my wife’s Presbyterian church.

SACHA:

I’m lapsed but I go to church with

my grandmother sometimes.

ROBBY:

It’s safe to say we were all raised

Catholic but now...

MIKE:

Not so much.

SAVIANO:

Okay. Well, let me tell you, when

you’re a poor kid from a poor

family, religion counts for a lot.

And when a priest pays attention to

you it’s a big deal. He asks you to

collect the hymnals or take out the

trash, you feel special. It’s like

God asking for help. And maybe it’s

a little weird when he tells you a

dirty joke but now you got a secret

together so you go along. Then he

shows you a porno mag, and you go

along. And you go along, and you go

along, until one day he asks you to

jerk him off or give him a blow job.

And so you go along with that too.

Because you feel trapped. Because

he has groomed you. How do you say

no to God, right?

This lands.

SAVIANO (CONT’D)

See, it’s important to understand

that this is not just physical

abuse, it’s spiritual abuse too.

When priest does this to you, he

robs you of your faith.

11/26/14 39.

(MORE)

So you reach for the bottle or the

needle or if those don’t work, you

jump off a bridge. That’s why we

call ourselves survivors.

The team stares, gobsmacked. Phil pulls a book from the box.

SAVIANO (CONT’D)

Have you read Jason Berry’s book?

He wrote about the Gauthe case in

Louisiana?

ROBBY:

We’re not familiar.

SACHA:

That’s G-U...

SAVIANO (CONT’D)

G-A-U-T-H-E. And talk to Richard

Sipe. He worked in one of the

Church’s ‘treatment’ centers, he’s

an ex-priest, married a nun.

(pulling out a file)

Here, this is his testimony from the

Kos case.

SACHA:

Phil, what’s a treatment center?

SAVIANO:

It’s where they send priests when

they get caught. This is all right

here in the box, I sent it all to

you guys five years ago.

ROBBY:

To the Globe? Who’d you send it to?

SAVIANO:

I don’t wanna say who, but they said

they weren’t interested.

MATT:

But Phil, we did run a couple of

stories on you. I saw them in the

clips.

SAVIANO:

Yeah but to be completely frank, it

wasn’t enough!

Robby and Mike trade a look as Phil takes a PACKET out of the

box overflowing with tattered clips, articles and data CDs.

11/26/14 40.

SAVIANO (CONT’D)

SAVIANO (CONT’D)

You guys gotta understand, this is

big. It’s not just Boston, it’s the

whole country, the whole world. And

Rate this script:5.0 / 2 votes