PRELUDE TO A KISS

PETER: And there was a toast to us and to love and to Jamaica and to our plane flight and to airline safety and to the old drunk whoever he was. Whoever he was. I was completely trashed by the time the limo pulled up to take us to the airport. Dr. Boyle told us to sign whatever we wanted onto the hotel bill, his treat, and we went off…The whole way down on the plane and straight through that first night in the hotel, Rita slept like a baby. I couldn’t. For some reason. I kept hearing that poor old guy calling me, “Honey.” “Honey, it’s me.” Who’s “me”? And I’d wanted to protect him.

RITA (as Old Man): I wanted it, that’s all. That’s all I know. I’m not hiding anything from you; I don’t know any more than that. I started out to take a walk. To just try and get as far away from me as I possibly could, I didn’t care. I took the first bus I saw at Port Authority: “Englewood Cliffs.” It sounded romantic enough. I got off the first street corner; dogs came up to play. And what’s this? A wedding? Young people starting a life. I had some champagne, no one bothered me. What did it matter what I did? I wished to God I was the young bridegroom starting out. Or the bride for that matter, look at the shine in those eyes. I thought to myself, if I could shine like the light of that girl over there, I’d never take another drink.

OLD MAN (as Rita): If you live long enough you finally get to watch everybody die: all your loved ones, your wife, your husband and your kids, maybe, and you’re totally alone. And as a final reward for all this…you disappear. (pause) No one knows where. (pause) I don’t want to die either. But I’m going to. So are you. Hopefully later than sooner. But we got have this. I mean, what a trip! Meeting you and being in love! Falling. It was bitchin’ for a while.

THE LEGEND of ROBIN HOOD

 MERRY MAN: We’ll get them back or we’ll die trying. That’s not true, I don’t want to die. I don’t know how things got so carried away. We never got into any real trouble before. There was a scare or two, but nobody ever got killed that’s for certain. Sorry. Excepting your father. I tell you that I knew him? Terrible thing what happened. I’d been pulling grain for him for about a year beforehand. He was nice, but he had a strong head about the King-this, and the government-that. Said they took his boy away. If I were him, I would have just paid the taxes! Well, he believed in something, and he got dead. Will Scarlet, I suppose he believes in something, and he’s about to get dead. Elena too, Little John, they’re all fighting for their land or for the people or something. You know why I’m here? It’s fun. Stealing and fighting and – you know how exciting pulling grain is? There’s no fun in it, and there’s no coin in it. This, this is fun. At least it was until people started dying.

ROBIN HOOD: A hero. It sounds as if my father only made things worse. The people he was helping have been routed out of their villages and chased into the forest. Are they better off now, stealing what they can to survive, than they were paying higher taxes?

      He died hiding in a stable, throwing horseshoes at tax collectors. This is a great hero? What was he fighting for? This is the sort of situation that will slowly go away. If there are any more conflicts, the two sides will push themselves even farther away from each other. But if they just move back to their villages, and stop stealing from the Sheriff, then he won’t persecute them and everything will be fine. The only solution is to do nothing. I’m good at fighting. I’m not very good at doing nothing. I’ll be of no help here.

MARIAN/ARABLE: It’s true, isn’t it? I heard about it in the kitchen, and I laughed. It was so ridiculous an idea, that I laughed out loud. I came here to tell you about it, so you could laugh too. But it’s not a joke is it? You’re getting married. I’m sorry my family isn’t wealthy, I didn’t realize that was all you cared about! But you’re the Sheriff now, and you’re interested in protecting that. But what about me? Have you thought of that William? If you’re getting married, you won’t be able to protect me from him anymore! In fact you’ve put me in greater danger – if he’s mad at you, what’s to stop him from coming after me? You think you can watch him every second? His heart is black. He murdered a child. And you’ve opened the door for him to get me next. You’re worthless. You could marry the King himself and you’d still be worthless.

FROST/NIXON

DAVID FROST: You wouldn't understand --- you were never part of the New York show. But it's indescribable. That feeling. When you're up. Success in America is unlike success anywhere else. And the emptiness, when it's gone ... and the sickening thought that it's left you ... it's gone somewhere else ... to someone else ... and will never come back. There's a restaurant in New York ... called Sardi's. Ordinary mortals can't get a table. John, the place was my canteen -- now my producer is worried the London show will be dropped. I'm in this for everything I've got, financially, and there's still no guarantees that this show will ever be picked up. What have I done? What was I thinking? Why didn't anyone stop me? They should have physically stopped me.

JIM RESTON: I'll be giving up a year of my life -- leaving my family -- to work on a subject matter that means more to me than you can probably image. And the idea of doing that without achieving what I want to personally -- would be unthinkable to me. 

        I'd like to give Richard Nixon the trial he never had. The man lost fifteen thousand Americans and a million Indochinese during his administration. He only escaped jail because of Ford's pardon. He devalued the Presidency and left the country that elected him in trauma. The American people need a conviction. Pure and simple.

        Did you know Mike Wallace is doing a whole piece on this, saying that you can't raise the money, that it'll never happen? And that in the bars around Capitol Hill and Georgetown, this project is a joke?

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