Back at the House on Sunset

[MAX, spoken]
Where have you been?

[JOE, spoken]
Out. I assume I can go out when I feel like it

[MAX, spoken]
Madame is quite agitated. Earlier this evening, she wanted you for something and you could not be found

[JOE, spoken]
Well, that's tough

[MAX, spoken]
I don't think you understand, Mr. Gillis. Madame is extremely fragile. She has moments of melancholy. There have been suicide attempts

[JOE, spoken]
Why? Because of her career? She's done well enough
Look at all the fan mail she gets every day

[MAX, spoken]
I wouldn't look too closely at the postmarks if I were you

[JOE, spoken]
You mean you write them?

[MAX, spoken]
Will you be requiring some supper this evening, sir?

[JOE, spoken]
No. And Max?

[MAX, spoken]
Yes, sir?

[JOE, spoken]
Who the hell do you think you are, bringing my stuff up from my apartment without consulting me? I have a life of my own - now you're telling me I'm supposed to be a prisoner here

[MAX, spoken]
I think, perhaps, sir, you will have to make up your mind to abide by the rules of this house. That is, if you want the job

[JOE]
I started work on the script
I hacked my way through the thicket
A maze of fragmented ramblings
By a soul in limbo
She hovered there like a hawk
Afraid I'd damage her baby

[NORMA, spoken]
What's that?

[JOE, spoken]
I thought we might cut away from the slave market...

[NORMA, spoken]
Cut away from me?

[JOE, spoken]
Norma, they don't want you in every scene

[NORMA, spoken]
Of course they do. What else would they have come for? Put it back

[JOE]
I'd made my first big mistake
I'd put my foot in the quicksand
It wouldn't be a few days
Paste and scissors
This would take weeks

The house was always so quiet
Just me and Max and that organ
No one phoned and nobody ever came
And there was only one kind
Of entertainment on hand

Max, what's on this evening?
I hope it's not one of her weepy melodramas

[MAX]
We'll be showing
One of Madam's enduring classics
The Ordeal of Joan of Arc

[JOE]
Oh, God
We saw that last week

[MAX]
A masterpiece can never pall
She is the greatest star of all