Feud (2017) s02e07 Episode Script
Beautiful Babe
1
How are you feeling
this morning, Mrs. P.?
[GROANS SOFTLY]
Would you mind baking some
of that banana bread for me?
It's the only thing I feel like.
Of course.
[SIGHS] Thank you, dear.
[MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY ON TV]
[SNIFFS]
♪
[WHIMPERS]
You said this kind of chemo
wouldn't cause my hair to fall out.
[SIGHS]
[INHALES SHARPLY] You've done well,
keeping me going for a long time.
But would you
[SIGHS] Would you keep fighting
this room-to-room combat
if it were you?
For everyone it's different.
You have fought long and hard.
[SHUDDERS]
How long until it's over?
[BILL] He said six months?
He used that phrase?
"You have six months to live"?
I asked him if I'd
make it to Thanksgiving,
and he just
looked down and shook his head.
Why is it, with these doctors,
they can't just say it straight?
My father surgeon
he gave it with both barrels
and everyone respected him for it.
Of course, it was
Boston and stoic.
Look, there's a new
drug. Here's what we do.
I've done some research.
Tamoxifen.
It's just about to get FDA approval.
- I know who to call
- Yes, yes, you know everyone, Bill.
Yes, we know that.
You know everything.
It's enough.
You keep giving me
orders, like I'm the
vice president of programming.
Which I'm not.
Jesus, please don't smoke.
What can I do to make you stop smoking?
What can you do to make me stop?
[CHUCKLES]
How about
you don't do a fucking thing?
No more jewelry.
No more
paintings.
No more Lucian Freud or Picabia.
No more purchasing my
forgiveness or my affection.
You would forgive Truman before me.
The fucking smoking!
Even after they told
you you had to stop.
Did you want to die?
Was it so bad with me that
you wanted to kill yourself?!
Well, Bill, yes. [CHUCKLES]
[LIGHTS CIGARETTE, INHALES]
Could have been worse.
Could have been Librium.
But, no, it was ciggies
and high-end booze.
At least I was a coherent hostess.
[INHALES] It's how I
medicated myself.
Medicated yourself from what?
- You.
- [CHUCKLES]
[CHUCKLES]
The smoking and the
Scotch soda that started
the very first hint of dusk or sooner.
How else could it work?
You know what I want?
Some quiet.
And solitude.
And I want to speak to my
my children.
I don't know why she won't speak to me.
Because you're cold.
You are.
You are a cold person.
And your daughter feels that
she was a minor consideration
in your life
and that she came after
all the myriad ways you had
of showing the world your
beauty and your perfection.
Shut up, Paley! For God's
sake, won't you shut up?!
Were you a model parent,
with your barely disguised contempt
for your son, whatever he did?
No, she won't speak to me because
because I chose you
instead of her.
No, actually, we both chose each other.
"Paley."
You've been calling me
that for a while now.
At first I thought it
was some sort of tough,
affectionate affectation.
But then I realized there
was ice all around it.
I think people earn how
they're addressed, don't you?
You know, it takes a certain skill
to provoke anger in someone
you've just broken the
news to that you're dying.
I commend that.
This must be the anger stage.
[SIGHS]
I'll do my best to get
Kate to return to you.
She listens to me sometimes.
♪
♪
♪
♪
[LEE] Well, I think we could
make it work but the thing is,
he keeps saying that
he wants to do a prenup,
like he doesn't trust me.
Well, I can understand that.
I mean, he's very successful.
Even Bill likes him.
[C.Z.] Those San Francisco
society folk are very, very canny.
[SLIM] Yep. Known them all my life,
and they're very square.
- [LAUGHTER]
- I like San Francisco.
It's rather like Boston.
The question is, do I
keep the engagement ring?
[LAUGHTER]
[SLIM] I think a prenup is irrelevant.
Let's just live for today.
- Ah.
- Yes.
I like that philosophy a great deal.
Just enjoy your life every day.
Joy. Live in a city of joy.
Mmm.
Speaking of which, C.Z
how's Truman?
- Um
- He's been on my mind.
Well, he's not having the
best year, I would say.
I'm glad to hear you mention him.
I'm sure he'd love to hear from you.
I miss that laugh.
I'd hold the friendship
in a different
Well, it wouldn't be the
same as it was, of course.
Babe, you know, sometimes
I think you don't reach out
because of some rage
you have at yourself.
Rage? Hmm.
I wonder. Maybe. Maybe you're right.
[C.Z.] Yes, you think
Lee, Slim and your husband
wouldn't abide it.
[BABE] Yes, perhaps I'm angry at myself
that I can't get past worrying
about the propriety of it.
How it would be seen in this crowd,
ending this epic falling out.
Because there are so many
people invested in it.
I mean, people write about it.
It's become an absurd play.
What would we do without it?
- Babe, that's fucking harsh.
- Is it? Really?
I mean, Lee, you think. Just admit it,
to be seen with him again,
to even speak with him again
would turn you into a laughingstock
because you've entrenched
yourself in this position.
[SLIM] No, this isn't about
whose appearances, it's
about the morality of
Of what?
[SCOFFS] We've all
done some awful things,
and some not so awful, and
sometimes to each other.
And we've been capable
of moving beyond them,
but when it comes to
Truman, no, and why?
Sometimes I just wish I'd
laughed it off when it came out,
and he'd be sitting
here right now with us.
And wouldn't that be nice?
Instead of rotting away like
the prisoner of U.N. Plaza.
What are you saying, Babe?
That we are not truly
affronted and hurt?
I mean, doesn't that matter?
Well, does it?
What if we accepted how
little it matters in the end?
Which we will have to, by the way.
But no, to accept his
apology would be to surrender.
Maybe we should change the topic.
Yes, I think that's a great idea, C.Z.
Now, I think we need a great party.
It's been a long while since
we've had a great party.
[CHUCKLES]
And I know just how to do it perfectly.
A bright, sunny day at Kiluna.
Black irises in one room,
ranunculus in the next.
There'll be those
wonderful black cherries
from Michigan we get,
but in Limoges bowls on every table.
And the buffet will
have great big platters
of poulet à l'estragon
and salmon en croûte.
And the napkins will be perfectly folded
like perfect, perfect
flowers, with the flatware
just nestled secretly inside them.
And in addition to
you ladies, I will make
a very, very special guest list.
Walter Cronkite, Katharine Graham,
George Plimpton, Gloria Vanderbilt,
Nancy Kissinger, Jo
No, maybe not Joanne Carson.
She's been a little
nutty since the divorce.
This is sounding very delicious.
When would this party take place?
Summer, when I die.
You see, this is what I want
for the memorial service
after the funeral.
Babe, after the funeral? No.
I have a few months left, and so this
this is what's been on my mind.
What to do when you're at the end.
Well, Babe, I thought we had more time.
No, C.Z., no tears.
No regrets.
I've done it.
I've had a life, a little
too public in retrospect,
but a life.
Now, let's have some
of that lemon sorbet.
Yes, some lemon sorbet and shortbread.
Thank you.
And some Dom Perignon. [CHUCKLES]
[BILL] Kate, please.
Kate, she really wants
to see you, I mean
I know, I know, but now
is the time to put away
all of that anger and resentment.
Kate, listen to me, honey.
[KATE] All the times I needed her,
and the total, utter lack of interest
for me and my life.
You can't expect me to come running
when she finally beckons me
as if I were one of the dogs.
No, I won't do it.
I'm not sentimental about it.
[BILL] But now's not the
time to hold onto that.
It's the time to let it
go. You have to understand
how she was raised.
She wasn't built to be a mother.
[KATE] No! I'm sorry.
The Sphinx doesn't
need anything from me.
Maybe when you can
hear her death rattle.
Only then.
- [BILL] Kate, ple
- [HANGS UP]
[DIAL TONE]
Thank you, dear.
[SIGHS]
[JEROME] Mrs. Paley, welcome home.
Hello, Jerome.
Will Mr. Paley be
joining us this weekend?
It's only me this weekend.
We've made it very cozy.
Let's get you inside.
Oh, not just yet.
I-I want to see everything.
I saw a moth yesterday.
It was trapped inside of a lampshade.
It was throwing itself at the light,
desperate to get free
unaware that the
way out was right there,
and all it had to do was look down.
These pages are a chronicle
of everything I've done wrong.
Perfection was, for
me, a kind of eternity
I thought I could own.
If every detail was in its place,
I thought the world
might just come to a stop
and stay that way forever.
But you cannot have eternity,
nor can you own perfection.
You merely borrow it with interest.
I'm packing now for a trip.
Laid out on the bed are all these items
that make up my life.
I can see how useless many of them are.
Status, gloves, scarves, cashmere.
Perfection all piled up.
But what I do have
more than anything else
is beauty.
Not beauty for the sake of
prestige or for stature,
but beauty for the sake of beauty.
My world is suffused with beauty.
I only wish I'd been able to see
how much of it there was.
Late lessons, part 50:
we cannot possess the light,
but we can touch it.
Steal it in fragments,
small pieces.
A few moments that are almost perfect.
Hardly enough to fill a thimble with.
[TAPPING]
♪
[LAUGHTER ECHOING]
No!
"But isn't a thimbleful
of almost-perfect moments
just a nickel shy of
the price of eternity?"
[FIREWORKS EXPLODING NEARBY]
You found my diary.
I did. And I added that
last bit about the thimble,
but I won't tell.
[BABE SIGHS]
[FIREWORKS CONTINUE]
What's happening?
Fireworks?
Yes, dear. On the East River.
They're for you.
We'll go down there ourselves
and see them up close,
but first, dinner.
Can't be late now.
I got us the best
table at 21. Chop-chop.
[GASPS, LAUGHS]
I'm so glad you're here, Truman.
I'm so relieved that you
had the courage to come
after everything that's happened.
Oh, I've given up on holding grudges.
All is forgiven.
But now
you've got to get dressed.
[CHUCKLES]
[TRUMAN] The diaphanous pink.
You loved this dress.
[BABE] Where did I wear it again?
[TRUMAN] Nowhere. It never
left the house, remember?
Bill got us tickets
to the Oscars in 1968.
It was such an awful snooze,
and we promised ourselves,
next year we would
get just as dressed up
but watch from home.
[BABE] Oh, yes. That was
the year of-of the tie.
[TRUMAN] That's right. Barbra Streisand
and Katharine Hepburn,
they tied for Best Actress.
[GASPS] What a moment to be alive.
And these
[BABE] The pearls you
bought me for Christmas.
[TRUMAN] It was that
year I was flat broke.
They're as fake as a Cartier
watch from Canal Street.
[BABE] Yes, but they looked so real.
I've switched them out with my good ones
just to see.
None of the girls ever caught on.
[BOTH LAUGH]
[FIREWORKS CONTINUE]
Beautiful. [CHUCKLES]
- Can I tell you a secret?
- Mm-hmm.
But you'll have to swear
not to tell the others.
[FIREWORKS CONTINUE]
I'm serious.
I'm famous for my discretion.
[LAUGHS] What?!
Okay, I'll tell you.
[WHISPERING] You're one of my top three.
Your top three?
Well, I don't know what that means,
but I'm honored to have been selected.
Oh, you don't select your top three.
They're the ones
They're the ones you collide with.
You smash each other into bits,
get all mixed up and never come apart.
And these three, are they best friends?
- Great loves?
- Not necessarily.
Sure, you can love them,
but they're also easy to
hate because they're the ones
that most reveal who you are,
which can be horribly
painful, but for that reason
you can never really drop them.
You must always forgive them in the end
because they are the most
precious resource in life.
And does everyone only get three?
Some people only get one.
Some people get none.
That's just my theory, anyway.
And I like things in threes.
- How poetic.
- [CHUCKLES]
Morning, noon, night.
Sun, moon, stars.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner.
The three faces of Eve.
[BOTH LAUGH]
Come.
I'll run you a nice, hot bath.
But I've already gotten dressed.
Oh, that's right.
Well, then, we better
shut off that faucet.
Three Brontë sisters. The Three Stooges.
- Three sheets to the wind.
- [BOTH LAUGH]
Neapolitan ice cream.
Beginning, middle, end.
Am I dead?
[TRUMAN] Almost.
In your final hour, yes.
But don't worry, dear,
we can stay right here
for as long as you like.
I'll wait with you till you're ready.
Ready to see the fireworks.
[FIREWORKS EXPLODING]
What if I'm not? What
if I'm never ready?
If that's the case, then we'll just stay
right here forever.
Let's stay.
[LENGTHY EXHALE]
[TRUMAN CHUCKLES]
[BOTH SIGH]
Oh, but there's so much left to do.
I was too late.
I was too late, Truman, to fix it all.
We all are, that's what it is.
And yet sometimes the
really important ones
do get fixed.
[KATE] Mother.
You're not too late, Mother.
[TRUMAN] Enjoy the fireworks.
[RASPY BREATHING]
And they looked
and they saw
what they had not seen before.
[RASPY BREATHING]
That she was beautiful.
♪
[C.Z.] Truman.
Truman!
Babe is dead.
I tried calling and
calling. You didn't answer.
The doorman let me up.
[SNIFFLES]
I'm sorry, Tru.
I have to get to work.
- [RUNS WATER]
- What are you doing, Truman?
What do you have to work on?
Babe's eulogy.
We all knew this moment was coming,
and I've been writing it.
I have the ending in my head.
I just have to get it down.
Why are you doing this, Truman?
Because I knew her better than anyone,
and I'm gonna read it at
her funeral, of course.
No, why are you doing
this to yourself? To me?
Please don't make me bear any
more awful news this morning.
What awful news?
It's not going to happen.
I talked to Bill.
I really made a case for you.
He's not going to allow
you to come to the funeral.
Well, I don't care what
Bill Paley will allow.
I will crash it if I have to.
He doesn't own Babe's memory.
You will do no such thing.
Play the tape to the end.
There will be guards there.
They will stop you
and they will hurt you.
But I have to be there.
It's Babe Paley, for God's sake.
She would have wanted
it, I know she would have.
I know she would have.
I have to read it, C.Z.
I have to get it out.
Read it to me.
Go on.
Hello, everyone.
I refuse to say we have lost Babe
because I see Babe almost everywhere.
The reflection in the window,
behind me on the street,
or in the smell of her
perfume on the corner
of Madison Avenue Bookstore.
Or the light on the windshield of a car.
Because she and I loved car rides,
we loved long drives
with no destination.
I can place her in
every room in my mind.
Babe, more than anything,
she loved the journey
of all of this.
And that is what I wanted to say
to those people who loved her.
The journey never ends.
We know all her words,
her mannerisms, her jokes,
so do what I do, keep talking with her,
and she will, I promise,
talk right back.
We are still on the journey.
We cannot do this, any of this,
without the people we love.
Babe knew that.
And she never stopped
proving that, even though
there might be bumpy nights and dramas,
you cannot get through this life
without simply forgiving
and being forgiven
by your friends since they are
once they are of you,
once they are
in your heart.
I am going to learn how not to mourn
but rather to still see her.
Sometimes when I catch
my own reflection,
I see her instead.
I was at a party.
I was telling a story
about a certain person
I'd seen enter an airplane bathroom
a dead ringer for Mae West
and exit looking like Victor Mature.
[LAUGHTER]
When I finished,
everybody laughed and applauded.
And then I saw that they
were all still looking at me,
eagerly expecting an encore.
I was alone and surrounded by people,
the worst sort of loneliness there is.
And in that desperate moment,
my eyes scanned the room,
and there in the back
again, I saw my reflection.
But it was Babe.
She was me.
She was smiling at me,
and in a look she said,
"Let's get out of here," and so we did.
We rode off into the
night under a full moon,
my reflection and I.
I don't remember where we went,
but I do remember that on the way
we never ran out of stories to tell.
And this is my point:
my reflection showed me
only the best parts of myself.
And in exchange for her friendship,
I gave those parts to her.
I gave her everything
because she deserved it all
and so much more,
et cetera, et cetera.
Well, I can't end the eulogy
with "et cetera, et cetera,"
so you have to leave now because
I need to finish the ending.
[PAPER RUSTLING]
♪
[WRITING]
[DOOR CLOSES]
[BELL CLANGING]
♪
[CORK POPS]
[LEE] This is so her.
Every detail. It's uncanny.
[SLIM] I know. I keep expecting her
to come around the corner
hurrying, fussing over
some errant stray flower petal
out of sync with the others.
[C.Z.] It's ghoulish is what it is.
Well, now what the fuck do we do?
I don't know, but let's face
it, it's not going to be easy.
She was the one who made
this whole thing work.
Wasn't she? She, she made us show up.
We keep marching, like
soldiers in the winter in Russia
during the war.
Well, it's not that bad. We're not,
we're not marching on Stalingrad.
Oh, God, I dreaded this.
And it's much worse than I thought.
I loved her.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[C.Z.] The world
turns, and Bill Paley is
still alive and rich
and single once again.
Good luck to whomever he ends up picking
because that is not a job
for the faint of heart.
Truman would have a deliciously
wicked quip in this moment.
He'd throw it like a lawn
dart and hit a bull's-eye.
[ALL CHUCKLE]
Well, he should have come.
Why not? It's the
curtain call, isn't it?
Let him take his bow.
Truman will have the last word.
He will immortalize us all,
for better or for worse.
He's finishing Answered Prayers?
He said Babe's death
is the final chapter,
and then he can die.
And then he can die.
Christ. How about not dying?
How about thriving?
It's not that hard, you know, to thrive.
[SIGHS]
I always wanted to ask him
did it pay off to publish that?
And it didn't pay off, did it?
It was a waste.
Okay, look, I'm going
to slip out without fuss.
Yes, me, too. Lunch next week?
Yes, we have to. La Cote? How's Monday?
Oh, it doesn't work for me.
I have contractors at Templeton all day.
- Tuesday?
- Oh, a thing in Bedford. Wednesday.
Wait, no, Wednesday
doesn't work. Thursday.
I can't.
Oh, well, we'll just keep in touch.
And maybe we should try
a new place. Lutèce?
Or dare we venture
across to the West Side?
- Café des Artistes?
- Ooh.
- Well, we'll figure something out.
- Okay.
Mm.
[QUIETLY] Bye, darling.
Some serious questions?
[SLURRING] Oh, sure.
Have you been drinking?
You mean very lately?
Here's what I'm saying.
You have a problem with alcoholism.
Millions of people have the same prob
Oh, my God.
I mean, alcohol is the least of it.
[CHUCKLES] I mean, that's the joker
in the-the cards.
[CHUCKLES]
What is the problem?
It began because I
[CLEARS THROAT] My mother
it was all very simple.
It was one of the most simple,
I mean, kind of cases
of anxiety.
Well, you know, it was
My mother was a very beautiful girl,
and she was only 17 years old
Here's a question I'd like to ask you.
It's a serious question,
and that is this.
What is going to happen
unless you lick this problem
of drugs and alcohol?
What is going to happen to Truman?
I'm sure you've thought about it.
Oh, you know, I do,
for months and months
and months and months,
you know, I write.
But the obvious answer
is that eventually,
- I mean, I'll kill myself.
- Yes.
Without meaning to.
[PHONE RINGING]
[JACK] You know where you are?
Don't patronize me.
Hazelden. Minneapolis. You're in detox.
You blacked out on Stanley Siegel's
wretched television show.
Your self-loathing and guilt over Babe,
over losing her without
ever having been forgiven,
is that why you did this to yourself
on national television?
[SIGHS]
I better get myself put
together for her service.
That was two weeks ago.
The rest of Answered
Prayers is a love letter to her.
People will see what
I meant to celebrate.
There is no Answered Prayers, is there?
There's scraps, there's
lines, there's abandoned pages.
Are you judging me?
Careful.
I'm asking for the practical
purpose of, when you die,
it's going to fall to
me to try and produce
a manuscript, and I would
appreciate being spared
that particular Easter egg hunt.
I don't want to die.
[CHUCKLES]
That's a lie, too.
So much contempt.
Did I hurt you that much?
Contempt is not what this is.
This is goodbye.
I got you here, goodbye.
The book is real.
All those scraps, I, I just
have to put them together.
I met someone.
I'm in love.
Or as much as I can be after all this.
You have him to thank,
actually, for my being here.
For your being here.
I was going to leave
you in your own vomit,
sleeping on the living room floor,
but he convinced me
that that would be wrong.
Who?
A kid from that
bookstore in the Village.
He's way too young for me, but
I don't care anymore.
He's kind,
and kindness counts, Truman.
Gloating always was a
good look for you, Jack.
Fits you like a Cartier
watch on a courtesan's wrist.
You fancied yourself a
writer, but whatever you wrote,
it was always a chorus
boy trying to impress.
The only real dancing
I ever did was with you.
Justifying your self-regard,
as if genius excuses
what a miserable person you are.
To lie in print deliberately,
simply to hurt people who
care about you, it's
And where has your
high-wire act gotten you?
A dead-end bed in a dead-end hospital.
Goodbye, Truman.
Don't.
Please, Jack, don't go.
I'm scared.
[JACK SIGHS]
I only have you, outside Joanne.
And she's
Well, you know, she's Joanne.
She buys papered lamps from Pier 1.
Tibetan eclectic, for Christ's sake.
She's not Babe.
She's not you.
Please. I-I'm sorry.
Don't leave.
Jack, I'm so cold.
[EXHALES]
[JOANNE] [ECHOING] You were burning up,
now you're freezing.
Truman, can you hear me?
Can you talk? What's wrong with you?
Are you in pain? Did
you have a heart attack?
Where am I?
You're in California
in your room,
in my house.
It's, it's me, honey.
It's Joanne.
It's Joanne.
Don't you remember?
You wanted to come out
here and-and dry out
and-and sit by the pool
- and-and write.
- [WATER SPLASHES]
I got you all of your yellow notebooks
and, and your pencils
and those good gum erasers.
You remember how you were
gonna finish Answered Prayers?
Truman?
- [RICK] Howdy.
- Howdy yourself.
Water's fine. You coming in?
[CHUCKLES]
[TRUMAN] No, no, I was on the last page.
I was almost done.
I got you. I got you.
[TRUMAN COUGHING]
[GRUNTING]
Oh, God, Truman, what have you done?
Thank God I've been doing
those Richard Simmons classes.
I have the upper body strength
to pull you out of there.
You just keeled over.
Okay, listen, I'm gonna
call a doctor, okay?
You just sit tight.
No, no, I'm going.
I've decided I'm going to go to China,
where there are no phones
and no mail service.
In a Mandarin pagoda pavilion,
watching bamboo shoots sway
Truman, stop. You're scaring me.
You're not making any sense.
I am. No more hospitals.
I'm very tired.
Truman.
If you care about me,
please just let me go.
You're burning up.
Bring me a drink.
No! No more alcohol.
I've been a very bad
friend, enabling you.
No more. I'm-I'm gonna get you
a, a Diet Rite Cola, okay?
- Oh, dear.
- [ICE RATTLES IN GLASS]
[LINE RINGING]
[MAN] 911. What's your emergency?
Hello? This is 911.
What's your emergency?
Hello? Hello?
[BABE] On one hand, this place
desperately needs more light.
On the other, I hate to
call any more attention
to this decor.
Ah, poor Joanne, she
means well, I suppose.
[SIGHS]
Well, how is one to get
better when surrounded by
such an unfortunate color?
What is this color?
- Putty? Ugh.
- [CHUCKLES]
You don't like it? It's
very Spanish mission
meets rancho.
Yes, yes, we get it, Joanne.
California abuts Mexico.
- How very on the nose.
- [CHUCKLES]
Now sit up.
You need something for your stomach.
A blotter.
A blotter? [CHUCKLES]
I love when you say that.
A blotter of Ritz Crackers.
Oh, Babe, how I love that.
Yes. After a night of imbibing,
absorbing all that
alcohol, all that acid?
Yes, a blotter.
First things first, though.
Hair of the dog.
Heavens.
Joanne went to fetch
me a diet root beer,
if you can fathom it.
Root beer. Please.
Are we throwing a pizza party?
[BOTH LAUGH]
[COUGHING]
Okay, bad idea.
Come on, let's put that out.
Did you get a slight sunburn?
No, it's a flush.
Your liver and kidneys. That's it.
They're all shutting down now.
And your heart, how swollen it is.
I can hear it, the pumping.
It's not natural. It's
becoming an effort.
Yes, I fear that may be the case.
- I feel so odd.
- Mm-hmm.
Oh.
Babe, your hand feels so soft and cool.
It's just ecstasy, that feeling.
The cool hand of a mother.
Or an au pair from Gstaad.
Remember that time in Jamaica
when I was so awfully ill,
and you stayed up with me
- till my fever broke?
- Mm-hmm.
And in return I read aloud to you.
[BABE] Your first draft
of Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Of course I remember.
Yes, and-and when I'd
finished, you said,
"It's Carol, isn't it?"
[CHUCKLING] Mm-hmm.
It is about
Carol Matthau.
[BABE LAUGHS]
Nobody else connected the dots.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
[BABE] And you made me a promise then.
[TRUMAN] I said I'd
never write about you.
And I believed you.
People say things. So be it.
Things get said and then forgotten.
That's life.
Most of the time there's
no malice, just life.
Babe
why did you come, really?
I've been calling and calling for years.
Well, I had to, didn't I?
All those awful talk show appearances,
not a word put to paper.
Somebody had to be there for you.
[WHISPERING] I had to be there.
Like I was in Jamaica.
You've always been a
child who needs his mother.
- But my mother left me.
- I know.
And so did I.
I wasn't there enough for
my own children either.
But I'm here now.
Sweet Truman.
♪
I'm not alive, am I?
I'm dead.
You have been for a
very long time, Truman.
Just just close your eyes.
It'll all be over soon.
And believe me,
it's so much better when you let go.
It's so cold.
I'm so cold.
How could this be California?
[PHONE LINE RINGING]
[JACK] [ON PHONE] Hello?
It's over, Jack.
[SNIFFLES]
- What was it like?
- Hard.
You know, it was, it was just us.
It was you and me for a long time,
and then it was just me.
Did he say anything?
He said he was cold.
"Mother." "Mama."
And then he said
"Beautiful Babe."
How are you feeling
this morning, Mrs. P.?
[GROANS SOFTLY]
Would you mind baking some
of that banana bread for me?
It's the only thing I feel like.
Of course.
[SIGHS] Thank you, dear.
[MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY ON TV]
[SNIFFS]
♪
[WHIMPERS]
You said this kind of chemo
wouldn't cause my hair to fall out.
[SIGHS]
[INHALES SHARPLY] You've done well,
keeping me going for a long time.
But would you
[SIGHS] Would you keep fighting
this room-to-room combat
if it were you?
For everyone it's different.
You have fought long and hard.
[SHUDDERS]
How long until it's over?
[BILL] He said six months?
He used that phrase?
"You have six months to live"?
I asked him if I'd
make it to Thanksgiving,
and he just
looked down and shook his head.
Why is it, with these doctors,
they can't just say it straight?
My father surgeon
he gave it with both barrels
and everyone respected him for it.
Of course, it was
Boston and stoic.
Look, there's a new
drug. Here's what we do.
I've done some research.
Tamoxifen.
It's just about to get FDA approval.
- I know who to call
- Yes, yes, you know everyone, Bill.
Yes, we know that.
You know everything.
It's enough.
You keep giving me
orders, like I'm the
vice president of programming.
Which I'm not.
Jesus, please don't smoke.
What can I do to make you stop smoking?
What can you do to make me stop?
[CHUCKLES]
How about
you don't do a fucking thing?
No more jewelry.
No more
paintings.
No more Lucian Freud or Picabia.
No more purchasing my
forgiveness or my affection.
You would forgive Truman before me.
The fucking smoking!
Even after they told
you you had to stop.
Did you want to die?
Was it so bad with me that
you wanted to kill yourself?!
Well, Bill, yes. [CHUCKLES]
[LIGHTS CIGARETTE, INHALES]
Could have been worse.
Could have been Librium.
But, no, it was ciggies
and high-end booze.
At least I was a coherent hostess.
[INHALES] It's how I
medicated myself.
Medicated yourself from what?
- You.
- [CHUCKLES]
[CHUCKLES]
The smoking and the
Scotch soda that started
the very first hint of dusk or sooner.
How else could it work?
You know what I want?
Some quiet.
And solitude.
And I want to speak to my
my children.
I don't know why she won't speak to me.
Because you're cold.
You are.
You are a cold person.
And your daughter feels that
she was a minor consideration
in your life
and that she came after
all the myriad ways you had
of showing the world your
beauty and your perfection.
Shut up, Paley! For God's
sake, won't you shut up?!
Were you a model parent,
with your barely disguised contempt
for your son, whatever he did?
No, she won't speak to me because
because I chose you
instead of her.
No, actually, we both chose each other.
"Paley."
You've been calling me
that for a while now.
At first I thought it
was some sort of tough,
affectionate affectation.
But then I realized there
was ice all around it.
I think people earn how
they're addressed, don't you?
You know, it takes a certain skill
to provoke anger in someone
you've just broken the
news to that you're dying.
I commend that.
This must be the anger stage.
[SIGHS]
I'll do my best to get
Kate to return to you.
She listens to me sometimes.
♪
♪
♪
♪
[LEE] Well, I think we could
make it work but the thing is,
he keeps saying that
he wants to do a prenup,
like he doesn't trust me.
Well, I can understand that.
I mean, he's very successful.
Even Bill likes him.
[C.Z.] Those San Francisco
society folk are very, very canny.
[SLIM] Yep. Known them all my life,
and they're very square.
- [LAUGHTER]
- I like San Francisco.
It's rather like Boston.
The question is, do I
keep the engagement ring?
[LAUGHTER]
[SLIM] I think a prenup is irrelevant.
Let's just live for today.
- Ah.
- Yes.
I like that philosophy a great deal.
Just enjoy your life every day.
Joy. Live in a city of joy.
Mmm.
Speaking of which, C.Z
how's Truman?
- Um
- He's been on my mind.
Well, he's not having the
best year, I would say.
I'm glad to hear you mention him.
I'm sure he'd love to hear from you.
I miss that laugh.
I'd hold the friendship
in a different
Well, it wouldn't be the
same as it was, of course.
Babe, you know, sometimes
I think you don't reach out
because of some rage
you have at yourself.
Rage? Hmm.
I wonder. Maybe. Maybe you're right.
[C.Z.] Yes, you think
Lee, Slim and your husband
wouldn't abide it.
[BABE] Yes, perhaps I'm angry at myself
that I can't get past worrying
about the propriety of it.
How it would be seen in this crowd,
ending this epic falling out.
Because there are so many
people invested in it.
I mean, people write about it.
It's become an absurd play.
What would we do without it?
- Babe, that's fucking harsh.
- Is it? Really?
I mean, Lee, you think. Just admit it,
to be seen with him again,
to even speak with him again
would turn you into a laughingstock
because you've entrenched
yourself in this position.
[SLIM] No, this isn't about
whose appearances, it's
about the morality of
Of what?
[SCOFFS] We've all
done some awful things,
and some not so awful, and
sometimes to each other.
And we've been capable
of moving beyond them,
but when it comes to
Truman, no, and why?
Sometimes I just wish I'd
laughed it off when it came out,
and he'd be sitting
here right now with us.
And wouldn't that be nice?
Instead of rotting away like
the prisoner of U.N. Plaza.
What are you saying, Babe?
That we are not truly
affronted and hurt?
I mean, doesn't that matter?
Well, does it?
What if we accepted how
little it matters in the end?
Which we will have to, by the way.
But no, to accept his
apology would be to surrender.
Maybe we should change the topic.
Yes, I think that's a great idea, C.Z.
Now, I think we need a great party.
It's been a long while since
we've had a great party.
[CHUCKLES]
And I know just how to do it perfectly.
A bright, sunny day at Kiluna.
Black irises in one room,
ranunculus in the next.
There'll be those
wonderful black cherries
from Michigan we get,
but in Limoges bowls on every table.
And the buffet will
have great big platters
of poulet à l'estragon
and salmon en croûte.
And the napkins will be perfectly folded
like perfect, perfect
flowers, with the flatware
just nestled secretly inside them.
And in addition to
you ladies, I will make
a very, very special guest list.
Walter Cronkite, Katharine Graham,
George Plimpton, Gloria Vanderbilt,
Nancy Kissinger, Jo
No, maybe not Joanne Carson.
She's been a little
nutty since the divorce.
This is sounding very delicious.
When would this party take place?
Summer, when I die.
You see, this is what I want
for the memorial service
after the funeral.
Babe, after the funeral? No.
I have a few months left, and so this
this is what's been on my mind.
What to do when you're at the end.
Well, Babe, I thought we had more time.
No, C.Z., no tears.
No regrets.
I've done it.
I've had a life, a little
too public in retrospect,
but a life.
Now, let's have some
of that lemon sorbet.
Yes, some lemon sorbet and shortbread.
Thank you.
And some Dom Perignon. [CHUCKLES]
[BILL] Kate, please.
Kate, she really wants
to see you, I mean
I know, I know, but now
is the time to put away
all of that anger and resentment.
Kate, listen to me, honey.
[KATE] All the times I needed her,
and the total, utter lack of interest
for me and my life.
You can't expect me to come running
when she finally beckons me
as if I were one of the dogs.
No, I won't do it.
I'm not sentimental about it.
[BILL] But now's not the
time to hold onto that.
It's the time to let it
go. You have to understand
how she was raised.
She wasn't built to be a mother.
[KATE] No! I'm sorry.
The Sphinx doesn't
need anything from me.
Maybe when you can
hear her death rattle.
Only then.
- [BILL] Kate, ple
- [HANGS UP]
[DIAL TONE]
Thank you, dear.
[SIGHS]
[JEROME] Mrs. Paley, welcome home.
Hello, Jerome.
Will Mr. Paley be
joining us this weekend?
It's only me this weekend.
We've made it very cozy.
Let's get you inside.
Oh, not just yet.
I-I want to see everything.
I saw a moth yesterday.
It was trapped inside of a lampshade.
It was throwing itself at the light,
desperate to get free
unaware that the
way out was right there,
and all it had to do was look down.
These pages are a chronicle
of everything I've done wrong.
Perfection was, for
me, a kind of eternity
I thought I could own.
If every detail was in its place,
I thought the world
might just come to a stop
and stay that way forever.
But you cannot have eternity,
nor can you own perfection.
You merely borrow it with interest.
I'm packing now for a trip.
Laid out on the bed are all these items
that make up my life.
I can see how useless many of them are.
Status, gloves, scarves, cashmere.
Perfection all piled up.
But what I do have
more than anything else
is beauty.
Not beauty for the sake of
prestige or for stature,
but beauty for the sake of beauty.
My world is suffused with beauty.
I only wish I'd been able to see
how much of it there was.
Late lessons, part 50:
we cannot possess the light,
but we can touch it.
Steal it in fragments,
small pieces.
A few moments that are almost perfect.
Hardly enough to fill a thimble with.
[TAPPING]
♪
[LAUGHTER ECHOING]
No!
"But isn't a thimbleful
of almost-perfect moments
just a nickel shy of
the price of eternity?"
[FIREWORKS EXPLODING NEARBY]
You found my diary.
I did. And I added that
last bit about the thimble,
but I won't tell.
[BABE SIGHS]
[FIREWORKS CONTINUE]
What's happening?
Fireworks?
Yes, dear. On the East River.
They're for you.
We'll go down there ourselves
and see them up close,
but first, dinner.
Can't be late now.
I got us the best
table at 21. Chop-chop.
[GASPS, LAUGHS]
I'm so glad you're here, Truman.
I'm so relieved that you
had the courage to come
after everything that's happened.
Oh, I've given up on holding grudges.
All is forgiven.
But now
you've got to get dressed.
[CHUCKLES]
[TRUMAN] The diaphanous pink.
You loved this dress.
[BABE] Where did I wear it again?
[TRUMAN] Nowhere. It never
left the house, remember?
Bill got us tickets
to the Oscars in 1968.
It was such an awful snooze,
and we promised ourselves,
next year we would
get just as dressed up
but watch from home.
[BABE] Oh, yes. That was
the year of-of the tie.
[TRUMAN] That's right. Barbra Streisand
and Katharine Hepburn,
they tied for Best Actress.
[GASPS] What a moment to be alive.
And these
[BABE] The pearls you
bought me for Christmas.
[TRUMAN] It was that
year I was flat broke.
They're as fake as a Cartier
watch from Canal Street.
[BABE] Yes, but they looked so real.
I've switched them out with my good ones
just to see.
None of the girls ever caught on.
[BOTH LAUGH]
[FIREWORKS CONTINUE]
Beautiful. [CHUCKLES]
- Can I tell you a secret?
- Mm-hmm.
But you'll have to swear
not to tell the others.
[FIREWORKS CONTINUE]
I'm serious.
I'm famous for my discretion.
[LAUGHS] What?!
Okay, I'll tell you.
[WHISPERING] You're one of my top three.
Your top three?
Well, I don't know what that means,
but I'm honored to have been selected.
Oh, you don't select your top three.
They're the ones
They're the ones you collide with.
You smash each other into bits,
get all mixed up and never come apart.
And these three, are they best friends?
- Great loves?
- Not necessarily.
Sure, you can love them,
but they're also easy to
hate because they're the ones
that most reveal who you are,
which can be horribly
painful, but for that reason
you can never really drop them.
You must always forgive them in the end
because they are the most
precious resource in life.
And does everyone only get three?
Some people only get one.
Some people get none.
That's just my theory, anyway.
And I like things in threes.
- How poetic.
- [CHUCKLES]
Morning, noon, night.
Sun, moon, stars.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner.
The three faces of Eve.
[BOTH LAUGH]
Come.
I'll run you a nice, hot bath.
But I've already gotten dressed.
Oh, that's right.
Well, then, we better
shut off that faucet.
Three Brontë sisters. The Three Stooges.
- Three sheets to the wind.
- [BOTH LAUGH]
Neapolitan ice cream.
Beginning, middle, end.
Am I dead?
[TRUMAN] Almost.
In your final hour, yes.
But don't worry, dear,
we can stay right here
for as long as you like.
I'll wait with you till you're ready.
Ready to see the fireworks.
[FIREWORKS EXPLODING]
What if I'm not? What
if I'm never ready?
If that's the case, then we'll just stay
right here forever.
Let's stay.
[LENGTHY EXHALE]
[TRUMAN CHUCKLES]
[BOTH SIGH]
Oh, but there's so much left to do.
I was too late.
I was too late, Truman, to fix it all.
We all are, that's what it is.
And yet sometimes the
really important ones
do get fixed.
[KATE] Mother.
You're not too late, Mother.
[TRUMAN] Enjoy the fireworks.
[RASPY BREATHING]
And they looked
and they saw
what they had not seen before.
[RASPY BREATHING]
That she was beautiful.
♪
[C.Z.] Truman.
Truman!
Babe is dead.
I tried calling and
calling. You didn't answer.
The doorman let me up.
[SNIFFLES]
I'm sorry, Tru.
I have to get to work.
- [RUNS WATER]
- What are you doing, Truman?
What do you have to work on?
Babe's eulogy.
We all knew this moment was coming,
and I've been writing it.
I have the ending in my head.
I just have to get it down.
Why are you doing this, Truman?
Because I knew her better than anyone,
and I'm gonna read it at
her funeral, of course.
No, why are you doing
this to yourself? To me?
Please don't make me bear any
more awful news this morning.
What awful news?
It's not going to happen.
I talked to Bill.
I really made a case for you.
He's not going to allow
you to come to the funeral.
Well, I don't care what
Bill Paley will allow.
I will crash it if I have to.
He doesn't own Babe's memory.
You will do no such thing.
Play the tape to the end.
There will be guards there.
They will stop you
and they will hurt you.
But I have to be there.
It's Babe Paley, for God's sake.
She would have wanted
it, I know she would have.
I know she would have.
I have to read it, C.Z.
I have to get it out.
Read it to me.
Go on.
Hello, everyone.
I refuse to say we have lost Babe
because I see Babe almost everywhere.
The reflection in the window,
behind me on the street,
or in the smell of her
perfume on the corner
of Madison Avenue Bookstore.
Or the light on the windshield of a car.
Because she and I loved car rides,
we loved long drives
with no destination.
I can place her in
every room in my mind.
Babe, more than anything,
she loved the journey
of all of this.
And that is what I wanted to say
to those people who loved her.
The journey never ends.
We know all her words,
her mannerisms, her jokes,
so do what I do, keep talking with her,
and she will, I promise,
talk right back.
We are still on the journey.
We cannot do this, any of this,
without the people we love.
Babe knew that.
And she never stopped
proving that, even though
there might be bumpy nights and dramas,
you cannot get through this life
without simply forgiving
and being forgiven
by your friends since they are
once they are of you,
once they are
in your heart.
I am going to learn how not to mourn
but rather to still see her.
Sometimes when I catch
my own reflection,
I see her instead.
I was at a party.
I was telling a story
about a certain person
I'd seen enter an airplane bathroom
a dead ringer for Mae West
and exit looking like Victor Mature.
[LAUGHTER]
When I finished,
everybody laughed and applauded.
And then I saw that they
were all still looking at me,
eagerly expecting an encore.
I was alone and surrounded by people,
the worst sort of loneliness there is.
And in that desperate moment,
my eyes scanned the room,
and there in the back
again, I saw my reflection.
But it was Babe.
She was me.
She was smiling at me,
and in a look she said,
"Let's get out of here," and so we did.
We rode off into the
night under a full moon,
my reflection and I.
I don't remember where we went,
but I do remember that on the way
we never ran out of stories to tell.
And this is my point:
my reflection showed me
only the best parts of myself.
And in exchange for her friendship,
I gave those parts to her.
I gave her everything
because she deserved it all
and so much more,
et cetera, et cetera.
Well, I can't end the eulogy
with "et cetera, et cetera,"
so you have to leave now because
I need to finish the ending.
[PAPER RUSTLING]
♪
[WRITING]
[DOOR CLOSES]
[BELL CLANGING]
♪
[CORK POPS]
[LEE] This is so her.
Every detail. It's uncanny.
[SLIM] I know. I keep expecting her
to come around the corner
hurrying, fussing over
some errant stray flower petal
out of sync with the others.
[C.Z.] It's ghoulish is what it is.
Well, now what the fuck do we do?
I don't know, but let's face
it, it's not going to be easy.
She was the one who made
this whole thing work.
Wasn't she? She, she made us show up.
We keep marching, like
soldiers in the winter in Russia
during the war.
Well, it's not that bad. We're not,
we're not marching on Stalingrad.
Oh, God, I dreaded this.
And it's much worse than I thought.
I loved her.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[C.Z.] The world
turns, and Bill Paley is
still alive and rich
and single once again.
Good luck to whomever he ends up picking
because that is not a job
for the faint of heart.
Truman would have a deliciously
wicked quip in this moment.
He'd throw it like a lawn
dart and hit a bull's-eye.
[ALL CHUCKLE]
Well, he should have come.
Why not? It's the
curtain call, isn't it?
Let him take his bow.
Truman will have the last word.
He will immortalize us all,
for better or for worse.
He's finishing Answered Prayers?
He said Babe's death
is the final chapter,
and then he can die.
And then he can die.
Christ. How about not dying?
How about thriving?
It's not that hard, you know, to thrive.
[SIGHS]
I always wanted to ask him
did it pay off to publish that?
And it didn't pay off, did it?
It was a waste.
Okay, look, I'm going
to slip out without fuss.
Yes, me, too. Lunch next week?
Yes, we have to. La Cote? How's Monday?
Oh, it doesn't work for me.
I have contractors at Templeton all day.
- Tuesday?
- Oh, a thing in Bedford. Wednesday.
Wait, no, Wednesday
doesn't work. Thursday.
I can't.
Oh, well, we'll just keep in touch.
And maybe we should try
a new place. Lutèce?
Or dare we venture
across to the West Side?
- Café des Artistes?
- Ooh.
- Well, we'll figure something out.
- Okay.
Mm.
[QUIETLY] Bye, darling.
Some serious questions?
[SLURRING] Oh, sure.
Have you been drinking?
You mean very lately?
Here's what I'm saying.
You have a problem with alcoholism.
Millions of people have the same prob
Oh, my God.
I mean, alcohol is the least of it.
[CHUCKLES] I mean, that's the joker
in the-the cards.
[CHUCKLES]
What is the problem?
It began because I
[CLEARS THROAT] My mother
it was all very simple.
It was one of the most simple,
I mean, kind of cases
of anxiety.
Well, you know, it was
My mother was a very beautiful girl,
and she was only 17 years old
Here's a question I'd like to ask you.
It's a serious question,
and that is this.
What is going to happen
unless you lick this problem
of drugs and alcohol?
What is going to happen to Truman?
I'm sure you've thought about it.
Oh, you know, I do,
for months and months
and months and months,
you know, I write.
But the obvious answer
is that eventually,
- I mean, I'll kill myself.
- Yes.
Without meaning to.
[PHONE RINGING]
[JACK] You know where you are?
Don't patronize me.
Hazelden. Minneapolis. You're in detox.
You blacked out on Stanley Siegel's
wretched television show.
Your self-loathing and guilt over Babe,
over losing her without
ever having been forgiven,
is that why you did this to yourself
on national television?
[SIGHS]
I better get myself put
together for her service.
That was two weeks ago.
The rest of Answered
Prayers is a love letter to her.
People will see what
I meant to celebrate.
There is no Answered Prayers, is there?
There's scraps, there's
lines, there's abandoned pages.
Are you judging me?
Careful.
I'm asking for the practical
purpose of, when you die,
it's going to fall to
me to try and produce
a manuscript, and I would
appreciate being spared
that particular Easter egg hunt.
I don't want to die.
[CHUCKLES]
That's a lie, too.
So much contempt.
Did I hurt you that much?
Contempt is not what this is.
This is goodbye.
I got you here, goodbye.
The book is real.
All those scraps, I, I just
have to put them together.
I met someone.
I'm in love.
Or as much as I can be after all this.
You have him to thank,
actually, for my being here.
For your being here.
I was going to leave
you in your own vomit,
sleeping on the living room floor,
but he convinced me
that that would be wrong.
Who?
A kid from that
bookstore in the Village.
He's way too young for me, but
I don't care anymore.
He's kind,
and kindness counts, Truman.
Gloating always was a
good look for you, Jack.
Fits you like a Cartier
watch on a courtesan's wrist.
You fancied yourself a
writer, but whatever you wrote,
it was always a chorus
boy trying to impress.
The only real dancing
I ever did was with you.
Justifying your self-regard,
as if genius excuses
what a miserable person you are.
To lie in print deliberately,
simply to hurt people who
care about you, it's
And where has your
high-wire act gotten you?
A dead-end bed in a dead-end hospital.
Goodbye, Truman.
Don't.
Please, Jack, don't go.
I'm scared.
[JACK SIGHS]
I only have you, outside Joanne.
And she's
Well, you know, she's Joanne.
She buys papered lamps from Pier 1.
Tibetan eclectic, for Christ's sake.
She's not Babe.
She's not you.
Please. I-I'm sorry.
Don't leave.
Jack, I'm so cold.
[EXHALES]
[JOANNE] [ECHOING] You were burning up,
now you're freezing.
Truman, can you hear me?
Can you talk? What's wrong with you?
Are you in pain? Did
you have a heart attack?
Where am I?
You're in California
in your room,
in my house.
It's, it's me, honey.
It's Joanne.
It's Joanne.
Don't you remember?
You wanted to come out
here and-and dry out
and-and sit by the pool
- and-and write.
- [WATER SPLASHES]
I got you all of your yellow notebooks
and, and your pencils
and those good gum erasers.
You remember how you were
gonna finish Answered Prayers?
Truman?
- [RICK] Howdy.
- Howdy yourself.
Water's fine. You coming in?
[CHUCKLES]
[TRUMAN] No, no, I was on the last page.
I was almost done.
I got you. I got you.
[TRUMAN COUGHING]
[GRUNTING]
Oh, God, Truman, what have you done?
Thank God I've been doing
those Richard Simmons classes.
I have the upper body strength
to pull you out of there.
You just keeled over.
Okay, listen, I'm gonna
call a doctor, okay?
You just sit tight.
No, no, I'm going.
I've decided I'm going to go to China,
where there are no phones
and no mail service.
In a Mandarin pagoda pavilion,
watching bamboo shoots sway
Truman, stop. You're scaring me.
You're not making any sense.
I am. No more hospitals.
I'm very tired.
Truman.
If you care about me,
please just let me go.
You're burning up.
Bring me a drink.
No! No more alcohol.
I've been a very bad
friend, enabling you.
No more. I'm-I'm gonna get you
a, a Diet Rite Cola, okay?
- Oh, dear.
- [ICE RATTLES IN GLASS]
[LINE RINGING]
[MAN] 911. What's your emergency?
Hello? This is 911.
What's your emergency?
Hello? Hello?
[BABE] On one hand, this place
desperately needs more light.
On the other, I hate to
call any more attention
to this decor.
Ah, poor Joanne, she
means well, I suppose.
[SIGHS]
Well, how is one to get
better when surrounded by
such an unfortunate color?
What is this color?
- Putty? Ugh.
- [CHUCKLES]
You don't like it? It's
very Spanish mission
meets rancho.
Yes, yes, we get it, Joanne.
California abuts Mexico.
- How very on the nose.
- [CHUCKLES]
Now sit up.
You need something for your stomach.
A blotter.
A blotter? [CHUCKLES]
I love when you say that.
A blotter of Ritz Crackers.
Oh, Babe, how I love that.
Yes. After a night of imbibing,
absorbing all that
alcohol, all that acid?
Yes, a blotter.
First things first, though.
Hair of the dog.
Heavens.
Joanne went to fetch
me a diet root beer,
if you can fathom it.
Root beer. Please.
Are we throwing a pizza party?
[BOTH LAUGH]
[COUGHING]
Okay, bad idea.
Come on, let's put that out.
Did you get a slight sunburn?
No, it's a flush.
Your liver and kidneys. That's it.
They're all shutting down now.
And your heart, how swollen it is.
I can hear it, the pumping.
It's not natural. It's
becoming an effort.
Yes, I fear that may be the case.
- I feel so odd.
- Mm-hmm.
Oh.
Babe, your hand feels so soft and cool.
It's just ecstasy, that feeling.
The cool hand of a mother.
Or an au pair from Gstaad.
Remember that time in Jamaica
when I was so awfully ill,
and you stayed up with me
- till my fever broke?
- Mm-hmm.
And in return I read aloud to you.
[BABE] Your first draft
of Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Of course I remember.
Yes, and-and when I'd
finished, you said,
"It's Carol, isn't it?"
[CHUCKLING] Mm-hmm.
It is about
Carol Matthau.
[BABE LAUGHS]
Nobody else connected the dots.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
[BABE] And you made me a promise then.
[TRUMAN] I said I'd
never write about you.
And I believed you.
People say things. So be it.
Things get said and then forgotten.
That's life.
Most of the time there's
no malice, just life.
Babe
why did you come, really?
I've been calling and calling for years.
Well, I had to, didn't I?
All those awful talk show appearances,
not a word put to paper.
Somebody had to be there for you.
[WHISPERING] I had to be there.
Like I was in Jamaica.
You've always been a
child who needs his mother.
- But my mother left me.
- I know.
And so did I.
I wasn't there enough for
my own children either.
But I'm here now.
Sweet Truman.
♪
I'm not alive, am I?
I'm dead.
You have been for a
very long time, Truman.
Just just close your eyes.
It'll all be over soon.
And believe me,
it's so much better when you let go.
It's so cold.
I'm so cold.
How could this be California?
[PHONE LINE RINGING]
[JACK] [ON PHONE] Hello?
It's over, Jack.
[SNIFFLES]
- What was it like?
- Hard.
You know, it was, it was just us.
It was you and me for a long time,
and then it was just me.
Did he say anything?
He said he was cold.
"Mother." "Mama."
And then he said
"Beautiful Babe."