Wag the Dog Read Online Free PDF Page A

the picture I’m scheduled to be shooting now. Right now.
    â€œThen the project was canceled.”
    â€œBut that happens a lot,” I say.
    â€œYes, it does. But this time it shouldn’t have. Everything was in place. The package was intact, the studio was on board, a producer had been selected. The money was in place. Suddenly, it gets shut down.
    â€œOfficially, the story is that Beagle is sick. I don’t believe it In fact, I’m certain I saw him once or twice up near his place in the Napa Valley. He owns a vineyard there. So do I. Also, there was a period between when the deal was made and the cancellation when I saw him mentally go away from the project. One meeting he was all there. This picture was the thing he most wanted in the world. And he was intently *** in me.”
    â€œ*** he name of it?”
    â€œPirandello.”
    â€œUh-huh.”
    â€œYou know who he is? He’s a playwright. Italian. But it’s not about him. That was a working title. Not a finished title. The next meeting, he was off. There was something else he cared about more. There is nothing in Hollywood a director cares about more than his next picture.”
    â€œHe’s supposed to be sick,” I say. “Does that mean AIDS? A guy who’s going to die, he might care about something besides his next picture.” Young guys who are about to die, and know it, care about its not being fair. Or they care about convincing themselves it’s not quite going to happen.Maybe that’s good, to go not believing that you’re going. I don’t know so much about what old people think when they’re ready to die. I haven’t seen that many old people die.
    â€œA director who’s about to die cares even more,” she says. “Good God, it’s not only his next film, it’s his last.”
    â€œWhere is he now?”
    â€œHe’s missing.”
    â€œI read somewhere,” I say, “that he’s working with the Japanese on high-definition TV.”
    â€œI’ve heard that story too. But you would think he would take my calls.”
    â€œOh,” I say, “it’s that way, is it?”
    She takes my arm. We walk a couple steps before she says the next thing, which is “When someone’s lying to you, you know it.”
    â€œDo I?”
    â€œOh, Joe,” she sighs and kind of leans into me. I’m a sucker for this, I admit it. “I’m a woman. Men are supposed to lie to me. I’m a beautiful woman, I’m supposed to enjoy it. I live in Hollywood where truth is a speech defect. You’d think I wouldn’t care anymore.
    â€œI wanted that movie. Someone took it away from me. They’re lying to me about why. On one level it’s about money. If they cancel because Beagle got sick, that comes under the act-of-God clause. It doesn’t in all contracts, but in this one it does. If they cancel because Beagle changed his mind, or got another picture, or almost anything except tidal wave, earthquake, typhoon, or war, they have to pay me a serious cancellation fee.”
    â€œHow much?” I ask her.
    â€œBottom line, it cost me close to seven hundred fifty thousand dollars.”
    â€œOK,” I say, “that’s worth going after.”
    â€œJoe, there’s something else going on. I got pissed off. I wanted to know what was going on. What the game was. My own agent, Bennie Hoffrau, he bullshitted me. This means you have to do a little reality check. You have to find out what it is that’s more important to him than you are. I went to Hartman—”
    â€œHartman?”
    â€œDavid Hartman is the head of RepCo. Which makes him one of the ten or five or three most powerful people in this business. We had lunch. We talked about everything except what we’re there to talk about. Which is, sometimes, how it’s done. After the entree and before the coffee he says ‘Isn’t it a