Back At The House On Sunset

[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