- You produced a p*rn movie?
- Yes.
- When?
- You were sh**ting when?
- February.
- The middle of February.
Holly both directed and starred in it.
- Really? - Yes.
It's something I've wanted to do for quite a long time.
- Holly and I are engaged.
- Oh.
Congratulations.
- Thank you.
- This couldn't have come at a worse time.
- How did the DA find out about this movie?
- Someone from the lab that processed the film told them.
- Is there anything in there that's particularly
shocking or illegal?
- Absolutely not.
- No children, nobody dies?
- No, Mr. Becker, there are no children.
And nobody dies. - Arnie?
- I'm sorry. I have to ask you.
- You know, at the completion of principal photography,
my boom man said to me that if Billy
Wilder ever got into p*rn, this was
the movie that he would make.
- That is so true too.
- What exactly are you being charged with?
- I'm being charged with pandering for the purposes
of prostitution.
For some reason, that woman DA wants to make an example of me.
- You know, I'm not a criminal lawyer, Yale.
- But I know you.
And I trust you.
I don't want to tell my life story to some stranger.
- You never hid your interest in p*rn before.
- Only within the confines of this office.
- Or when he's with me.
- The truth is I'm very guarded about it, otherwise.
I have recurring nightmares in which
I'm standing on line somewhere at a train station, an airport.
My attache case inexplicably comes open.
A p*rn magazine falls out.
Usually, it's the little Danish pocket pals.
Everybody stops what they're doing.
Everybody sees.
Everybody knows.
- Trials are public, Yale.
- Then we can't let it go to trial.
My parents cannot know that I have done this.
They can never know about my interest in p*rn.
- Do they know that you're engaged?
- Of course, they do.
- Well, what do they think Holly does for a living?
- They think that she's a buyer for Bonwit Teller's.
And there's no reason why they can't go on thinking that.
- [sighs] OK.
I'll see what I can do.
- We also want the film back.
- Oh, yes.
- You don't have a copy?
- No.
The DA has the only copy.
It was confiscated from the lab, and neither Yale
nor I have ever seen the film.
And we want to.
- Yes, we do.
We want to see it very badly.
[theme music]
- Hey, Stuart, you got a minute?
- Hi, Julius.
- Now, do you have a minute?
- Sure.
No, come in.
- I was wondering if one of your partners
had changed their mind about representing me.
- No.
- Mhm, is it strictly a matter of money?
- No, not at all.
- What is it then?
- Well, we're-- we're a small firm
and our resources are limited.
Our litigators are surfeited with work.
- You know the case.
Why don't you represent me?
- I do your taxes, Julius.
I'm not a trial lawyer.
- Um, yeah, trial starts this afternoon.
- Yeah, I know.
- Well, wish me luck.
- Good luck.
- OK, people let's get started, Hardy versus Hardy.
- That's mine.
We're representing the wife.
Depositions are getting started today.
- What are you doing handling a divorce?
- I asked her to handle it.
I'm underwater.
- Matrimonial law is not Ann's field.
- Actually, Leland, my first job was with a firm that did
exclusively matrimonial law.
I have a fair amount of experience in it.
- That notwithstanding, in the future,
I want all realignment or reallocation of firm resources
to be done with the knowledge and consent
of either Douglas or myself.
- OK.
- Pierce versus Watson?
Pierce versus Watson, whose is it?
- Technically, it's not anybody's.
I'd just like to discuss it.
- Is this the guy with the newsletter?
- Yes, it is.
He's being sued for libel by an esteemed nuclear physicist.
I think he has a case.
- Stuart? - What?
- He's not a paying client, Stuart.
- We have taken pro bono cases before.
- All the more reason not to take on this one.
- From everything you've told me, this guy wants to go
to trial just to prove a point.
- Assume that he does.
Does that rule out our representing him?
- We have a finite number of trial lawyers
at this firm, Stuart.
Currently, none of them are available.
- I may be available towards the end of the week.
- I'm available now.
Maybe I can second chair.
- If the decision has been made not
to represent this gentleman, I'd just assume we left it at that.
- People versus Tobias?
- Yale Tobias produced a p*rn movie.
He finds himself being prosecuted for pandering.
- I thought the courts ruled that prostitution
laws couldn't be used to prosecute p*rn.
- Yeah.
They're distinguishing this case based on the theory that Yale
Tobias made the movie for his own sexual gratification,
that he was in fact, the customer
rather than the producer.
- That's a bit of a stretch, no?
- It's a huge stretch.
On the other hand, Yale is an, otherwise,
reputable businessman who lets his obsession with all things
p*rn get him involved in less
than respectable enterprises.
It's my guess that this caught the attention of some hell bent
for leather feminist in the DA's office.
- I assume this raises serious free speech
issues in your mind, Arnie.
- Yes, it does, Jane.
- Point of information, why doesn't the same concern
extend to my client?
- Because your client has no money, Stuart.
- Ah.
- Asked and answered.
- [SINGING] Fortune comes a-crawling, Calliope woman.
Spinning that curious sense of your own.
Can you answer?
Yes, I can.
But what would be the answer to the answer man?
- Gentlemen, sorry for the delay.
- It's cool.
- You'll be deposing Mrs. Hardy today, right?
- Right.
- I think we should get started.
- Take it slow.
Let it grow.
- Mm-mm.
- Whoo.
- Would you state your name for the record?
- Carolyn Hardy.
- And you are currently married to Dale Hardy?
- Yes, I am.
- And how long have you been so married?
- years.
- And over the course of those years, you and your husband
have accumulated a great many things.
- One of us worked.
- There's a house, two vehicles, several bank accounts.
In whose name were all of these things?
- They're in both of our names.
- Yet you saw fit to lock your husband
out of the house, did you not?
- He was using our house as a crash pad for other Grateful
Dead fanatics.
I asked him to stop on numerous occasions.
He refused.
I changed the locks.
- And you're asking that most of these personal possessions
that you've accumulated, including
the Grateful Dead memorabilia collection, be sold?
- Right, again.
- This, despite the fact that your husband
remains attached to it?
- My husband needs to unattach himself.
- Never.
- Or in the alternative, find a way to support himself.
- One man gathers what another man spills.
- Dale, did it ever occur to you that not
everything that Jerry Garcia ever said
was necessarily profound--
- Carolyn?
- --and that not every situation in life can be summed
up by Grateful Dead lyrics?
- Can I ask why the animus toward the dead?
- Not relevant.
- Could it be that you were once a deadhead yourself?
- Not relevant.
She is not being analyzed here, Mr. Witzig.
- She's the one who turned me on to the dead.
She was into the dead before I was.
- Yes.
And I was years old when I did that.
I'm years old now.
Our kids are grown up and out of the house.
And at this point in my life, the most important thing to me
is not the Grateful Dead.
I do not want their posters on my walls.
I do not want their bumper stickers on my car.
What I want is to start over and do my best
to try and forget how much of my life
I spent being married to you.
- Dr. Pierce, would you tell the court your occupation?
- I teach physics at Caltech.
- Would you tell the court what you did prior to that?
- I taught at Princeton for some years.
Before that, I worked for the government.
- And what did you do for the government, sir?
- I was a nuclear physicist.
I did research pertaining to nuclear physics.
- Were you involved in a particular project in which
nuclear devices were detonated and pilots
were engaged to fly through the mushroom cloud
at the test site?
- Yes, I was.
- Would you tell us the purpose of this?
- We were studying the effects of radiation on human beings.
- Were you aware that these pilots were
placing themselves at risk?
- Yes, I was.
And we acted accordingly.
They wore leaded glass hoods.
They breathed pure oxygen from self-contained systems.
To the best of our ability, we tried to protect those men.
That some of them got sick is a tragedy
for which I am deeply sorry.
- Would you tell us the circumstances, Doctor,
under which you first became aware of what Julius
Watson had written about you?
- One of my students is a young man from South Korea,
very bright, very new to this country.
He came to me one day after class.
He showed me the article.
And he asked me if it could be true.
He was the only one of my students to ask.
- What effect, if any, did the publication of this article
have on you?
- The student newspaper reprinted the article.
It was widely circulated among both
the students and the faculty.
The result is that I've become something of a pariah.
Because I have tenure, I can't be fired.
It's clear to me, however, that everyone
wishes that I would go away.
- I have nothing further.
[walking footsteps]
- Mr. Watson?
[walking footsteps]
Do you ever conduct tests into how
to poison a city's food supply?
- No, I did not.
- You never experimented with poisoning a food supply
using radioactive strontium?
- Objection, asked and answered.
- Sustained.
- OK.
I'd like to refer to an interview
with an attending physician to a Major Ravel.
- Objection, hearsay.
- Sustained.
- Well, I can't refer to an interview?
- No, you may not, Mr. Watson.
- OK.
OK.
Isn't it a fact--
I know that's how you're supposed to start the question.
Um, isn't it a fact that you were
told by a number of m*llitary personnel
that the pilots felt as though they were being lied to?
- Objection, hearsay.
- Sustained.
- What do I have to do to get a point across here, Judge?
[beckons]
[walking footsteps]
- What you have to do, Mr. Watson
is adhere to the rules of evidence.
- You'll have to forgive me.
I'm not altogether conversant with the rules of evidence.
- Then maybe you shouldn't be representing yourself.
- I'm sorry, Your Honor, I used to have money for lawyers.
I don't anymore.
- I can't help that, sir. - Your Honor, excuse me.
- Yes? What?
- My name is Stuart Markowitz.
I'm with the firm of McKenzie, Brackman.
May I approach the bench?
- Yes, you may, sir.
[door opens]
[walking footsteps]
- I, uh, represent Mr. Watson in other matters.
With his consent, I'd like to ask you for a day's continuance
so that I can represent him in this matter.
- Mr. Watson?
- Absolutely, I consent.
- This court's adjourned.
We'll reconvene tomorrow morning at : AM.
- Come on.
- [sighs]
- My father was a fighter pilot in World w*r II in Korea.
He retired in as a major.
- After the Korean w*r, what was his assignment?
- He was a test pilot.
- And what was he testing between the years
and ?
- Well, I was a little girl at the time.
So no one actually told me.
But I knew that whatever he was doing was important.
And I knew that it was secret.
Men would come to the house and take
blood samples and specimens.
And my dad would make us go outside.
- When you got older, did he tell you what he
was doing during this period?
- Objection, hearsay.
- Your honor, I think she should be able to tell
us what her father was doing.
- The objection is overruled.
I'll allow it.
- Whenever they tested bombs, he was one of the pilots
that flew through the clouds.
- How would you describe his health after he retired?
- There was strange things at first.
His ears swelled for no apparent reason.
Then he couldn't move his legs.
Then his thyroid had to be removed.
And then his colon.
He suffered in pain for five or six years.
And then he d*ed.
[walking footsteps]
- Have you ever seen Dr. Pierce before today?
[walking footsteps]
- I saw him the day my father was buried.
- And what, if anything, did he say to you on that day?
- Objection, hearsay.
- I'll allow it.
- He said he was sorry.
He said that there were certain things that my father
couldn't be told.
- Objection, hearsay.
- Sustained and stricken.
- I have nothing further.
[walking footsteps]
- Did you ever hear your father blame Dr. Pierce
for what happened to him? - No.
- Did you ever hear him blame anyone?
- My father was a patriotic man, Mr. Sumner.
He believed that what he was doing was his patriotic duty.
He would never have blamed anyone
for what happened to him.
- Your father was also a soldier, was he not, ma'am?
- Yes, he was.
- A very brave, highly decorated soldier.
Is it possible that he accepted the risks attendant
to the radiation tests in the same way
that he accepted the risks attendant to the many bombing
missions he flew?
- He was never told what the risks were.
- Do you think he needed to be told?
- Objection, speculative.
- Sustained.
- No further questions.
- No.
But my father wasn't supposed to be a Guinea pig.
He wasn't supposed to be sent up into those clouds
so that this man could study him while-- while he wasted away.
His country owed him better than that.
- What do you do for a living, Mr. Hardy?
- I do a variety of things.
- Like what?
- Merchandising, for the most part.
- What do you merchandise?
- I run a clearing house for Grateful Dead concert tapes.
I also go to the concerts where I sell frisbees,
and beach balls, dog bandannas.
It's what I do.
- How much does what you do produce an income?
- Altogether or annually?
- Annually.
- About $,.
Plus this year, I traded some concert tapes
for a Volvo station wagon.
- Mr. Hardy, you made a practice,
have you not, of following the Grateful Dead from city
to city in order to attend their concerts?
- Yes.
I have made it a practice.
- You traveled to Egypt for a Grateful Dead concert.
- Yes, I did.
- I still can't get over that you went, and I didn't.
- Oh, man, "Dark Star" in front of the pyramids--
- Unbelievable.
- Oh, man, all other versions just paled in comparison.
- Including the Fillmore West concert.
- Including everything. - Oh, man.
- Could we keep going with this, please?
Would you acknowledge, sir that it
was your wife who provided the funds
for the purchase of your home?
- What difference does it make who provided the funds?
If it was acquired in the course of the marriage,
it's marital property.
- It's relevant to the disposition of assets.
- It's in no way relevant to the disposition of assets.
I'm instructing my client not to answer.
- Would you acknowledge that it was your wife who provided
the funds for you to go to Egypt as well as for a six-week
stopover in Kathmandu?
- I'm going to object to that, too.
- I thought it wasn't supposed to matter who paid for what.
- Please talk to me, Mr. Hardy.
- You just answer me, yes or no.
Was I a good father to our kid?
- That is not the issue, Mr. Hardy.
And you are not the one asking the questions.
- Answer me, was I or wasn't I?
You don't need to consult with your attorney for an answer
to that, do you?
- Yes, you were a good father.
- Well, and what the hell are we sitting
here arguing about money for?
- Because we find your demands regarding
money to be unreasonable.
- I'm not a burnout, Carolyn.
I'm not some kind of hustler either.
- Mr. Hardy, I am not done with the deposition.
- Well, I am.
I'm done with it.
I'm not going to sit here like some kind of a criminal.
I didn't do anything wrong.
I like the Grateful Dead.
I like their music.
People all over the world like their music.
There was Grateful Dead lyrics spray painted
on the Berlin Wall, man.
- So what?
- So what?
So maybe they're not just another rock and roll band.
Maybe they are on to something.
Maybe there's more to being a deadhead than just the music.
Maybe it's a little heavier than that.
As you know, I'm involved in a community outreach
program that helps homeless and developmentally
disabled deadheads.
We offer food and-- and emergency counseling.
And we go and check on them, see if they're still alive.
- Oh, please.
- Mr. Witzig, if your client refuses
to finish this deposition, I will go into court.
And I will ask for sanction.
- Well, the last time I looked, I was still
a free United States citizen.
And that means that right now, I'm walking out that door.
Alan.
- Far out.
[chatter]
[walking footsteps]
- You wrote the article in which Dr. Pierce is characterized
as Dr. Death, is that right?
- Right.
- What was the basis for that?
- Well, the basis was radiation experiments
the good doctor conducted on unwitting human beings,
said experiments resulting in their death.
- What evidence do you have that said experiments
did anything of the kind?
- United States government mortality and morbidity
reports, counselor, significantly
elevated incidence of cancer in subjects
of the Doctor's experiments.
- Are you trained as a scientist, Mr. Watson?
- No, I'm not.
- Did you consult anyone who was prior to writing this article?
- Yes, I did.
- Can you provide me with their names and credentials?
- No, I cannot.
- Why can you not?
- Because they requested that their names not be used.
- Do you employ a fact checker at your magazine, sir?
- Yeah, me.
- An editor?
- Also me.
- Is it fair to say then that you can write and publish
pretty much whatever you want?
- It's the only true compensation
for being an ongoing source of disappointment to my parents.
- I'll take that as a yes.
Have you ever been sued for libel before, sir?
- Objection, irrelevant and prejudicial.
- Goes to pattern, your honor.
- I'll allow it.
- Mr. Watson?
- I've been sued for libel before.
- How many times.
- Actually sued three times, of those, two I won,
settled out of court on one.
- Isn't it a fact that each and every time you were sued,
it resulted in more publicity for both
you and your publication than you otherwise ever received?
- I wrote what I wrote because this man, acting
with the government's blessing and support,
victimized and ultimately m*rder*d innocent people.
When reports of his tests came out in the mainstream press,
it was a one-day news story.
I picked up the ball.
I ran with it.
- Did the mainstream press attribute
to the experiments of Dr. Aaron Pierce either the victimization
or m*rder of a single person? - No, they didn't.
- Did they ever refer to him as Dr. Death?
- Of course, not the mainstream press, their respectable,
and polite, and mainstream.
I'm none of those things.
See, I'm the guy who sits in the back of the class
sh**ting spitballs.
I also happen to be the guy who's telling the truth.
- So you say.
- Your honor.
- I have no further questions, your honor.
[walking footsteps]
[door knock]
- Belinda Fox?
- That's me.
- Hi.
I'd like to talk to you about the Tobias case.
- Who are you?
- Arnold Becker.
I'm Yale Tobias's attorney.
- Sit down.
- As a rule, I don't get involved in criminal cases.
So you'll have to forgive me if I'm not up to date.
However, from my readings of past appellate court decisions,
you don't have a case.
- You'll understand, Mr. Becker, if I don't send
my ships to w*r based on your reading of past appellate
court decisions.
I'm given a certain amount of discretion here.
Sometimes that allows me to get creative.
- And who do you think this guy is that you're going after?
- I think he's a rich businessman
who decided to get into p*rn.
I want to demonstrate to him that there
might be unforeseen consequences in that.
I want to demonstrate it not just to him.
- Why go after someone this small?
This guy is nothing.
- I've seen his tax returns, dearest.
He's not nothing.
- You've looked at his tax returns.
- Are you aghast?
- Have you ever met this guy?
- No, I haven't.
- Would you permit me to bring him in here
so that you could meet him?
- Sure.
- Thank you.
I'll schedule an appointment.
How do you want it?
- Excuse me?
- The door, open or closed.
- Open.
- Oh, good, OK.
I'm almost--
- I got it.
- What?
- The Department of Energy file I requested under the Freedom
of Information Act.
- I didn't know you were down there.
- Oh.
I file an average of two requests a month, Stuart.
- What for?
- Anything and everything, FBI surveillance records,
uh, Air Force data on extraterrestrials,
CIA logs regarding various assassinations.
I ask for it all.
Once in a while, I actually get lucky.
- Mongolian beef?
- No, thanks.
- Let's get to work.
- Your honor, I believe I'm entitled to recall Dr.
Pierce to the stand for purposes of cross-examination.
- Dr. Pierce has already been cross-examined.
- Such cross-examination as occurred was conducted
by my client appearing pro se.
- That was his decision, Mr. Markowitz.
You don't get a second bite at the apple
because you hire a lawyer.
- Additionally, your honor, we have
only recently come into the possession
of certain new evidence.
- Proceed, Mr. Markowitz.
- Thank you.
[walking footsteps]
On March , , a -megaton nuclear device
was tested on the Bikini Atoll.
Are you familiar with that test, Doctor?
- Yes, I am.
- And are you aware of the fact that radioactive fallout
blew over to the islands of Rongelap and Utirik?
- That was unforeseen.
- And are you aware of the fact that Rongelap
and Utirik are inhabited?
- As I said, that was unforeseen.
- Did you get the consent of the people
who inhabited those islands?
- Your honor, counsel is goading this witness.
Dr. Pierce has stated twice that the result was unforeseen.
Clearly, no consent would have been obtained.
- Move on, Mr. Markowitz.
- Are you familiar with the Tenzer School For Boys, Doctor?
- No, I'm not.
- Are you aware of a study that administered
radioactive isotopes of antimony to the students of this school?
- Well, there were great many such tests, Mr. Markowitz.
That particular one doesn't ring a bell.
- Is it your contention that consent
was obtained from all the participants
in all these studies?
- Oh, yes.
- Informed consent?
- Yes, Mr. Markowitz, informed consent.
- Would it surprise you to learn that the students
at the Tenzer School For Boys were mentally Ret*rded?
- Your honor, I object to this whole line of questioning.
- Overruled.
- Would it shock you to learn that the participants in this
experiment were told that they were joining a science club
to segregate them from the rest of the school and that
the radioactive isotopes were introduced into their milk
during mid-morning snack?
- First of all, I didn't do that.
Second of all, we didn't have any idea what the effects
of radiation were at that time.
- I ask that this Department of Energy study
be introduced into evidence, Your Honor,
as defense exhibit A.
- So ordered.
- Doctor--
[walking footsteps]
Is this your name?
- This is totally misleading.
- Is this your name, Doctor?
- Yes.
- According to this study, you and a panel of scientists
analyzed the data from the Tenzer School.
So I'm going to ask you one more time, Doctor.
Did you or did you not know that human subjects
were being used who were incapable of giving
informed consent?
- You and your client are so sure of your moral superiority.
You take your freedom and your comfort for granted.
The world was at w*r when this was going on.
We were locked in mortal combat, first
against Germany and Japan, then against the Soviet Union.
We feared being dominated by them.
Now, the fact that we no longer fear them isn't an accident.
It didn't just happen.
Myself and men like me spent our lives developing
the m*llitary strength that would prevent
our enemies from defeating and dominating us.
We tested potential m*llitary use of nerve gas.
We tested the potential m*llitary use of LSD.
We also tested the potential m*llitary use
of radiological poison.
See, we didn't have the luxury of forswearing
the use of any w*apon, particularly those
that our enemies were developing to use against us.
Your freedom and your comfort were provided
to you by us, by what we did.
- You still haven't given me an answer, Doctor.
- I knew everything.
- I have no further questions.
[sombre melody]
[tapping]
- [SINGING] Cha cha cha cha cha cha cha cha
cha cha cha cha cha cha cha--
- Excuse me.
In the interest of bringing this to a close,
my client is prepared to make certain concessions.
- Mhm, like what?
- We agree to let Dale have the house,
one car, and % of all monies held in their joint accounts.
- Scary movies, man, we may be able to settle this.
- I don't want the house.
- What do you mean?
- I mean, I don't want the house.
- She paid for it.
It's hers.
- Dale, I'm willing to let you have it.
What's the problem?
- I don't want to be the object of charity, man.
- Correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Hardy.
But up until today, weren't you in here asking for the house?
- I changed my mind.
- Why?
- Because I don't want to give you the satisfaction of being
able to say to all your friends with
their suits and ties that your deadhead
ex-husband got the house.
- And that's why I'm doing it, right, Dale, to talk about it.
- Carolyn, you don't have to force
him to give you the house. - Yeah.
No, I should just leave it empty and see how long
it takes him to move back in.
- Hey, I don't want to go back there anymore than you do.
I'm never going back. - Oh.
Never say never, Dale.
You may need a dry place to sleep one night.
- You know, I remember being at Watkins Glen.
And the Grateful Dead are up on the stage.
And you and me were right down there in the front.
And Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann going to their dual
drum solos.
And the boys going to "Not Fade Away,"
into "St. Stephen," into "The Eleven," and into
"Turn On Your Love Light."
And I look over at you.
You got on this crochet top and some pink sunglasses.
And I just think to myself, in this whole universe,
everything is right where it should be.
And I look at you now sitting here with your lawyer,
and I wonder how the hell I ever could have felt that way.
Just make sure you get all my tapes back from her.
I'll sign anything you agree to.
- [sighs]
- So you can arrange something with him?
- Yes.
- OK, just let me know what it is.
- A small present before we start negotiating?
- Sure.
[snaps briefcase open]
- Workingman's Dead, Live/Dead, Aoxomoxoa.
- What are these for?
- Consider it a gift.
- Oh.
Well, thanks.
- The only reason that Yale produced
this film is that his fiance got it into her head
that she wanted to direct.
- You're not exactly a stranger to the world of p*rn
though, are you Mr. Tobias?
- As a collector and, solely, as a collector.
I do not as a rule produce films.
The truth is that between magazines and films,
I greatly prefer magazines.
- Is that right?
- Magazines and playing cards.
- She doesn't have to know all that, Yale.
- Ms. Fox, if there is any way at all
that we can avoid this becoming public,
I would do anything you ask.
- I don't know that there is.
- I will plead guilty.
I-- I will pay any amount of money.
I will do community work.
Ms. Fox, I have living parents.
- In the event that that doesn't strike a sympathetic chord,
let me factor into the equation that the prints of this film
were obtained from a lab technician
I believe acted only after being coerced by you
or those acting on your behalf.
I think that constitutes an illegal search and seizure.
- Do you?
- Yes, I do.
- I think you're all wet.
That notwithstanding, it's possible I was
mistaken about you Mr. Tobias.
Now if all this represents as a one-time venture on your part,
I think I'd probably be ill-advised in committing
the resources of this office to a prosecution.
Plead guilty to lewd and lascivious behavior,
pay a fine. And we'll let it go at that.
- Fine. - No way.
- Arnie?
- I'll have the whole thing thrown out of court.
- I don't want to go to court.
- I'll have you brought up on charges.
- Don't thr*aten me. - Arnie.
Arnie.
Arnie.
- Make it disorderly conduct and his records
expunged in six months.
- Deal, please?
[tapping]
[sighs]
- Deal.
- Thank god.
[tapping]
- I'll have the papers drawn up by the end of the day.
- What time should I come by for them?
- I'll be ready to leave work around :.
Why don't you come around then?
- I'll do that.
[chatter]
- Excuse me, Carolyn.
Ann called to say she'd be running a little late.
- OK.
- She said to read over all the papers.
- I read them.
- And to sign all three copies.
- [sighs]
- It's a lousy thing, isn't it?
- Yeah.
- Can I get you anything, tea, coffee, anything?
- No.
I've been with this guy since I was .
- It's a long time.
- Yeah.
I had my mind made up that when the kids were out of the house,
that was it.
When Dylan started his freshman year of college,
I served him the papers.
- Mhm, had you been thinking about it a long time?
- On and off for years.
- So maybe this is good.
I mean, you did it, and now it's done.
- Oh.
I don't want it to be done.
I went through a lot with that idiot.
This is hard.
- I know it's hard.
I had an idiot like that once myself.
- You were with somebody for a long time?
- Yeah, the time I was to the time I was .
We weren't married. but it was like we were married.
It was worse than being married.
- [chuckles] Why did the two of you break up?
- Uh, you know, we went our separate ways.
I mean, to him the idea of going beyond having
Avenue R in th Street was like going to another planet.
- Do you miss him?
- Yeah.
I miss him.
[chuckles]
- Look, do you think that Ann will be mad at me
if I take these overnight to think
about things before I sign?
- You're the client.
You sign when you're ready to sign.
- Dr. Death?
[chuckles]
A man devotes his whole life to science,
works in the service of his government,
conducts tests and experiments that were both approved
by the President of the United States,
and performed as part of a stated policy of the United
States government.
Years later, he finds himself vilified.
He finds his work viewed out of context and utterly distorted.
He's no longer a scientist.
He's a k*ller.
He's Dr. Death.
Julius Watson, he puts out a little newsletter
in which he expresses his views about a variety of things.
He's entitled to his views.
He's entitled to muckrake, to criticize, and to pontificate
to his heart's content.
What he is not entitled to do is drag a man out
of the quiet life that he is living
so that he can lie about him.
Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen,
lie is exactly what Julius Watson did.
When he wrote that this man personally exposed people
without their knowledge and consent
to lethal amounts of radiation, he was lying.
And you don't get to do that.
It's not called freedom of the press.
It's called libel.
Julius Watson is guilty of it.
We ask you to judge him guilty of it.
And we ask that you award Aaron Pierce
the sum of / million dollars.
[walking footsteps]
- There can be no question that there
were radiation tests done in the s
that resulted in people dying.
There can be no question that many of those people
had this done to them without their knowledge
or their approval.
Now, did the plaintiff personally
administer these tests?
It scarcely matters.
He knew about them.
He utilized data drawn from studies of Ret*rded boys
who were tricked into being laboratory animals.
On what possible basis can you contend that the term
Dr. Death was libel?
It's not libel, ladies and gentlemen.
It's the truth.
Julius Watson was telling the truth.
And in our country, we don't punish people for that.
[walking footsteps]
[upbeat music]
- Where have you taken me?
- Somewhere with a view.
- Is this a ritual of yours?
- What?
- Taking women parking in your Bentley
on the top of Mulholland.
- You're the first.
- You're lying.
- I'm not lying.
- Truth is I don't want to be the first.
- No?
- No.
I want to be the last.
[upbeat music]
[kissing]
You know, I've noticed you someplace before.
- Yeah, when was that?
[kissing]
- It might have been in the courthouse, might have been
at some Bar Association dinner for some soon
to be appointed federal judge.
- Hmm.
- Wherever and whenever it was, I know I once noticed you.
- And what did you think when you noticed me?
[laughs]
- I probably thought you were doing
exactly what I'm about to do.
[snaps shirt open]
[upbeat music]
[phone ringing]
[chatter]
- Oh.
Who are those for?
- They're all for me, doll.
- Who sent you roses?
- A very attractive woman sent me roses.
- Oh, really?
- And I say attractive not only exclusively
to her physical beauty either, she's
also attractive because she takes the initiative.
- Is that what you call the initiative?
- She's coming after me.
That's the point.
She's making me the object of desire.
She's sending me $ worth of roses, this off one date.
What does that tell you about me?
- Hmm, that you date very disturbed women.
- OK.
[chatter]
- Has the jury reached a verdict?
- We have, your honor.
We find in favor of the defendant, Julius Watson.
- Jury is dismissed with the thanks of the court.
We stand adjourned.
[chatter]
- What's with the suit?
- Dressed for a funeral.
- Don't let's get morbid, shall we?
- And the mustache?
- You told me about a thousand times to shave it off.
Think of it as a, kind of, a going away present.
- Since you're not moving back, I
went ahead and brought some stuff that I thought
you might want back the most.
- You may want to inventory the contents.
- Why don't we just get the agreement signed first?
- Oh, no, go ahead.
Inventory the contents.
- Um, I don't see anything pre-.
Oh, yeah. No, wait, I got it.
- Those are all the A shelf tapes.
I didn't bring everything.
- Is the Matrix concert there with Paul Butterfield?
- Oh.
- No, Dale, I didn't go through them.
- I just don't see it.
- Well, I'm not holding out on you
if that's what you're thinking.
- Avalon Ballroom , Winterland Strike Benefit
, Clark University .
- Oh, gee.
- Man, I got to get those.
- Why don't you finish the inventory, Mr. Hardy?
- Hey, counselor, man, this is my life in this box.
It might take me a little while to go through it.
- I'll do it.
This is not your life, Dale.
This is a box of stuff.
These are your tapes.
These are your overalls.
This is your lucky hat.
Here's your ticket stub collection.
This is the crochet top I wore that impressed you so much.
These are the pink sunglasses.
- You kept that stuff all this time?
Now you want to get rid of it?
- She's offering you the items, Mr. Hardy.
Do you want them or not?
- I want her to keep what's hers.
- Fine.
I'll keep what's mine.
Excuse me.
I'm going to go to the ladies room.
[walking footsteps]
- Do you have sparkling water of any kind?
- I'll get you one. - No.
It's cool.
I can get it.
- Kitchen's right there.
- Have you listened to those CDs yet?
- No, not yet.
[chatter]
- Is there any sparkling water of any kind?
- Mhm, right here.
[chatter]
Can I get you a glass?
- Not necessary.
- You're Dale, right?
- Right.
We took a little break.
- Mhm.
- My wife's upset.
- I talked to your wife yesterday.
I know she's upset.
[chatter]
- Why was she upset yesterday?
- Pretty much for the same reason she is today.
[chatter]
- Thanks for the drink.
- Mhm.
[chatter]
- You changed.
[chair squeaks]
- So what does this mean?
- It means I don't feel like signing these papers today.
I may feel like signing them tomorrow.
But I definitely don't feel like signing them today.
- Then you shouldn't.
[lively music]
- Since the first time I stepped onto a p*rn set and all
the films that I was an actress, either as
an ingénue, secretary, schoolteacher, housewife, I
always knew I wanted to direct.
And it took Yale for me to make that happen.
- Hmm, how exactly did you two meet?
- Holly was doing a personal appearance
at an adult video trade show.
I stammered out in appreciation of her work.
And then it was a matter of a weekend,
we were unflinchingly, unreasonably, aarf, in love.
- Mm-hmm.
- Here's to trade shows.
- Here's to you.
- Yeah, really.
- I don't know if you're interested in referrals
or not, Mr. Becker, but there are
lots of people in the p*rn business
that are looking for a good lawyer.
And I'm talking about people who could pay.
- Also we, Holly and I, may have some upcoming ventures
to talk to you about.
- Mhm.
- I mean, between CD-ROM, and software delivery systems,
utilizing telephone lines, there is a whole world of opportunity
in hardcore p*rn.
- How long do you think it'll be before the DA returns the film?
- That may take a while.
Having made a major concession in dropping the pandering
charge, DA's office is probably going to drag their feet
in returning the evidence.
- There are images in this film that I
worked very hard to achieve.
- She really did.
- I mean, this isn't just me getting pawed
tearing my clothes off on my knees,
on my back, money sh*t in and out.
No, this film has wit.
It has irony.
- If I may interrupt, what's really wonderful about it is
that none of it comes at the expense
of an almost overpowering display of-- of sexual carnage.
[sighs] I could go on for days, but I won't.
I'll stop myself.
[music playing]
[chatter]
- Oh.
No, please, you give me so much pleasure over the years.
I couldn't take any money from you.
- Oh. It's very sweet.
Thank you.
[chatter]
Honey, could you hold these for me please?
Thanks.
[car door shuts]
- Goodbye, Arnie.
[engine starts]
- What are you doing here?
- Get in, and I'll tell you.
[car door opens]
Love your car.
[car door shuts]
- Thank you.
What are you doing here?
- I had a date tonight, a date with a man whom I like,
whom I admire, but not in whom at this moment
I'm particularly interested.
The entire time that I was here with him, I had my eyes on you.
I suggest we drive up to my house
and put Holly's film on the VCR.
- Let's go.
[grateful dead "st. stephen"]
[SINGING] St. Stephen with a rose.
In and out of the garden, he goes.
Country garland in the wind and the rain.
Wherever he goes-- - What's that?
[SINGING] --the people all complain.
- Grateful Dead.
[SINGING] Stephen prospered--
- Can you turn it down?
- Sure.
- [sighs] Now you're listening to the Grateful Dead?
- My adversary in the Hardy case gave me some of their albums.
Truth is though, I used to listen to them a lot.
- Oh, I forgot.
You did have your communal years.
- Unlike you.
- Not me.
I make no claims to having participated in anything.
- Congratulations on the trial, by the way.
- Yeah, it was, uh, less than wholly gratifying.
- Why was that?
- Well, we b*at this guy who did all these terrible
things in the 's, right?
Well, if this were the 's, I might think he was right.
- Then you'd both be wrong.
[kissing]
- You were never wrong, were you?
[breathing in]
- Yeah, plenty of times.
- Yeah?
You mean among the macrobiotic diets,
and the doctrinaire Marxism, and the sexual promiscuity,
and the Grateful Dead, you actually
made a mistake somewhere?
- Yes, absolutely.
- Good.
I'm going to go take a bath.
[grateful dead "st. stephen"]
[SINGING] Stephen prospered in his time.
Well, he may and he may decline.
Did it matter?
Does it now?
Stephen would answer is if only knew how.
[instrumental]
Whoo.
[instrumental]
[theme music]
08x18 - Dead Issue
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High-powered law firm of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak handles both criminal and civil cases, but the office politics and romance often distract them from the courtroom.
High-powered law firm of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak handles both criminal and civil cases, but the office politics and romance often distract them from the courtroom.