The Insider Page #26

LOWELL:

That's not the point.

WIGAND:

What does this have to do with my

testimony?! I told the truth! It's

valid and true and provable!

LOWELL:

That's not the f***ing point, whether you

told the truth or not! Hello...?

WIGAND:

I told the truth... I told the truth.

And Wigand's quiet, a deep, dark depression. The school bell

RING snaps him out of it...

WIGAND:

(after a beat)

I've got to teach class. I've got to go.

I've got to teach class.

LOWELL:

(undaunted)

And I've got to refute every f***ing

accusation made in this report before The

Wall Street Journal runs.

(a beat)

I am trying to protect you, man!

Wigand's quiet.

WIGAND:

(after a beat, the killer)

Well, I hope you improve your batting

average.

And he SLAMS the phone down. And as he stands in the phone

booth, like a man in a glass booth, all alone...

EXT. CBS BUILDING, ROOFTOP - DAY

ON the door to the roof. It SLAMS open. An enraged Lowell

enters and walks out into the cold rain. Like a prize-

fighter, shoulders hunched against the cold, he buries his

hands in his jacket pockets. He crosses to the edge of the

roof high above the city. He's pissed off. He takes out his

cell phone. He dials... Lowell hears background NOISE...

INT. WALL STREET JOURNAL - NEWS MEETING - DAY

Twenty sub-editors and section heads sit and stand in a clear

area... One of them, a large man, is CHARLIE PHILLIPS on a

cell phone.

CHARLIE PHILLIPS

Hello?

LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER)

(cautious)

It's Lowell. Are you guys planning to do

a piece on a former top executive in Big

Tobacco?

CHARLIE PHILLIPS

You caught me in a news meeting.

LOWELL:

Well, are you or are you not, Charlie?

CHARLIE PHILLIPS

You bet we are. And I can't talk to you

now.

LOWELL:

We gotta hook up.

CHARLIE PHILLIPS

Sure. Where?

LOWELL:

P.J.'s.

CHARLIE PHILLIPS

I'll be there.

INT. A PHONE BOOTH, NEW YORK - NIGHT

A busy New York street. Light mist. And we see Lowell is on

the phone in a phone booth...

LOWELL:

Yeah, I got it. 500 pages of it. They

looked in every corner of this guy's

life...from a spousal abuse charge, to

shoplifting, to a traffic ticket he got

once for running a red light. It's Terry

Lenzner's outfit, IGI. Jack, listen to

me. Their strategy: discredit this guy,

ruin his reputation in The Wall Street

Journal, and then nobody will ever listen

to what he's got to say about tobacco.

He's dead. Unless I can get this thing

knocked down.

INT. A HOUSE IN SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT

A townhouse with a commanding view of the Bay. And we see a

broad-shouldered man in his late forties sitting at a desk on

the phone. JACK PALLADINO. His wife, SANDRA SUTHERLAND,

sitting across from him on another phone. They're Private

Investigators...

LOWELL:

To make it even a little more attractive,

I don't know if you're ever gonna get

paid.

SANDRA SUTHERLAND

Is there any truth to any of it?

LOWELL:

That's a good question. "Is there any

truth to any of it?" I doubt it.

PALLADINO:

What's their deadline?

LOWELL:

Soon.

Palladinos exchange looks; she nods.

PALLADINO:

Fax me the summary.

LOWELL:

That's great, Jack.

Lowell hangs up and walks towards us to enter...

INT. BAR - NIGHT

CLOSE on Lowell entering, moving through the crowd of sports

writers, feature writers, sub-editors, etc. He comes upon a

rugged-featured man, JIM COOPER from The New York Times,

sitting next to Charlie.

JIM COOPER:

Hey, Lowell.

LOWELL:

How are you, Jim?

JIM COOPER:

Hey, listen, I hear you guys are sitting

on something sensational over there.

Lowell looks at Cooper quizzically.

LOWELL:

Really? Hi, Joan.

Just then Jim's wife enters. They exchange greetings.

JIM COOPER:

Hi, baby.

LOWELL:

Catch you later.

Cooper and his wife leave. Charlie and Lowell are alone in

the crowded bar.

LOWELL (CONT'D)

When's your deadline?

CHARLIE PHILLIPS

Monday.

LOWELL:

Push it.

CHARLIE PHILLIPS

What? Forget it.

LOWELL:

It's a smear campaign, Charlie.

CHARLIE PHILLIPS

It's drawn from a selectively

circulated...

LOWELL:

(cuts in)

Oh, it's real selective...about as hard

to get a hold of as the Manhattan phone

book.

CHARLIE PHILLIPS

Well, it's authoritative and is

overwhelmingly documented.

LOWELL:

And it's bullshit. And if I'm right, are

you going to put the Journal's reputation

behind a story that's going to blow up in

your face?

CHARLIE PHILLIPS

I'll take a look at what you got. But I'm

not moving any deadlines 'cause you say

so.

That's the way it lays. In a different, personal tone...

CHARLIE PHILLIPS (cont'd)

Are you all right?

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