MAX

Where have you been?



JOE

Out. I assume I can go out when I feel like it.



MAX

Madame is quite agitated.

Earlier this evening, she wanted you for something and you could not be found.



JOE

Well, that's tough.



MAX

I don't think you understand, Mr. Gillis. Madame is extremely fragile.

She has moments of melancholy. There have been suicide attempts.



JOE

Why? Because of her career? She's done well enough.

Look at all the fan mail she gets every day.



MAX

I wouldn't look too closely at the postmarks if I were you.



JOE

You mean you write them?



MAX

Will you be requiring some supper this evening, sir?



JOE

No. And Max?



MAX

Yes, sir?



JOE

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

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

What's that?



JOE

I thought we might cut away from the slave market...



NORMA

Cut away from me?



JOE

Norma, they don't want you in every scene



NORMA

Or 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