The Insider Page #33

EXT. STREET, NEW YORK - MORNING

As Lowell hails a cab in a WIDE ANGLE and runs towards us,

jumping into the cab...

INT. DON HEWITT'S OFFICE - DAY

DON HEWITT:

The news division has been vilified in

The New York Times, in print, on

television, for caving to corporate

interests!

We PULL BACK and we see that Lowell's with Hewitt in Hewitt's

office...

DON HEWITT (CONT'D)

The New York Times ran a blow by blow of

what we talked about behind closed doors!

You f***ed us!

LOWELL:

(shouting)

No, you f***ed you! Don't invert stuff!

Big Tobacco tried to smear Wigand; you

bought it. The Wall Street Journal,

here, not exactly a bastion of anti-

capitalist sentiment, refutes Big

Tobacco's smear campaign as the lowest

form of character assassination! And

now, even now, when every word of what

Wigand has said on our show is printed,

the entire deposition of his testimony in

a court of law in the State of

Mississippi, the cat totally out of the

bag, you're still standing here debating!

Don, what the hell else...do you need?

And Hewitt, looking around.

DON HEWITT:

Mike, you tell him...

MIKE WALLACE:

(simply)

You f***ed up, Don.

And Don's taken off stride...

DON HEWITT:

(recovers fast)

Hey, it's old news! Stick with me. Like

always, we'll be okay. These things have

a half-life of fifteen minutes...

MIKE WALLACE:

No, that's fame. Fame has a fifteen-

minute half-life...

(droll)

Infamy...lasts a little longer.

Lowell looks at Wallace.

MIKE WALLACE (CONT'D)

We caved. It's foolish. It's simply

dead wrong.

(in his face, so there's no

doubt)

Now, this is what we're going to do.

We're going over to Black Rock...

INT. A HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE CLASS, LOUISVILLE - AFTERNOON

Jeff is in front of his class, teaching...

WIGAND:

Okay, so let's get back to it. Alright,

now, what we saw there was...

INT. LAX - ECU:
LOWELL - NIGHT

Tired, his suitcase at his feet. We don't know if he's

coming or going. He's at a pay phone in the more-deserted-

than-not airport.

LOWELL:

(into phone)

They cancelled the six o'clock.

(beat)

I don't know why. I'm on the 8:10. I

should be home...9:30. I'll see you

then. Love ya'. Bye...

He hangs up and ambles over to a lounge with a few travellers

sitting in it.

MIKE WALLACE:

"CBS Management wouldn't let us broadcast

our original story and our interview with

Wigand because they were worried about

the possibility of a multi-billion dollar

lawsuit against us for tortious

interference... But now things have

changed."

INT. JEFFREY WIGAND'S APARTMENT, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT

A small apartment. Jeffrey dishes out second helpings of

pasta primavera into two pasta plates and brings them into

the kitchenette to his girls, Deborah and Barbara. And now

we SEE AND HEAR the small television on the table playing "60

Minutes" and...

MICHAEL MOORE:

(on television)

"...in my opinion, is an industry that

has perpetrated the biggest fraud on the

American public in history."

Deborah looks proudly at her father.

Wigand's gotten up and gone out of the kitchenette. He has

stopped for a moment around the corner in the hallway. His

kids can't see him. We can. And he watches them and his

eyes get shiny and start to tear. And as he stands there,

watching his girls at the kitchen table witnessing their

father's hard-earned "truth" on television, we realize that

of all the audiences, his girls are the one he cares about

most...

INT. AIRPORT LOUNGE

And Lowell in his moment of victory is watching his "60

Minutes" double segment on a departure lounge television with

his feet resting on his suitcase, next to a Chicano woman

with two kids and her mother and an older man with a beard

and cane. An airport cleaner stops to watch, too. Lowell

glances at him...

Unbeknownst to these viewers, arrested by the content on the

television screen, is that the man who made it sits casually

among them, watching his work.

INT. LOWELL'S HOUSE, KITCHEN, BERKELEY - NIGHT

Sharon sits at the kitchen table. She watches in a far

corner a small countertop television. It's "60 Minutes," the

full show entitled "Jeffrey Wigand, Ph.D." and on the top

right, "PRODUCED BY LOWELL BERGMAN." As Sharon continues

watching the television playing on the counter, the emotional

currents within her remaining unrevealed...

INT. MIKE WALLACE'S STUDY - ON MIKE WALLACE - NIGHT

watching the show. He sees himself...

MIKE WALLACE:

(to Wigand)

"You wish you hadn't blown the whistle?"

WIGAND:

(on television, hesitating)

"There are times...I wish I hadn't done

it. But there are times that I feel

compelled to do it..."

"I've - if you asked me if I would do it

again or if it's - do I think it's worth

it. Yeah. I think it's worth it."

Wallace, satisfied, rises to refill his glass, as...

INT. AIRPORT LOUNGE

Lowell watching show in airport.

INT. A SURVEILLANCE VAN, LINCOLN, MONTANA - NIGHT

And we see the FBI Agent, BILL ROBERTSON on the phone.

BILL ROBERTSON:

I promised you a three-hour heads-

up...well, here it is. Have a camera

crew standing by in Helena, Montana on

Tuesday and I'll give you a three-hour

head start. Alright? By the way, that

was a hell of a good show tonight...

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