06x12 - I'm Ready For My Close-Up, Mr. Markowitz

[bunniefuu]

Previously on "L.A. Law"...

I have a confession, Stuart.

Now?

You were right about Ned.

He's wonderful with Matthew.

I was being a chauvinist.

I had a knee jerk reaction to a male nanny.

Oh, and if you read him My Little Pony,

he goes right to sleep.

But he won't go in the bathtub without Kermit.

You've got all the emergency numbers by the phone,

both after ours and the car.

See you tonight!

Pa
-pa.

Need some help?

No, I got it.

It's beautiful.

I'm glad you like it.

Merry Christmas, Anne.

I did not k*ll her.

I think you did.

I think you went into a murderous rage

that didn't end until she lay dead on that floor.

I'm not capable of doing something like that.

I think you are.

You saw this pretty young girl with a will of her own.

You couldn't break her down, so you b*at her to death.

Your Honor, I ask that the prosecutor be instructed

to stop badgering this man.

I am a professor of Russian literature.

That doesn't mean you're not a savage k*ller.

Stuart, I've just realized I've got

this deposition until : tomorrow.

I'm going to have to come right home


-from there and change.
-Change for what?

The AIDS benefit in Santa Monica?

That's tomorrow night?

Honey, of course it is.

Anne, I have my meeting with Lilah Vandenberg tomorrow night.

Lilah Vandenberg, the actress?

Yeah.

I thought that was in the afternoon.

No, she only takes evening meetings.

She finds them much more civilized.

She a client of yours?

She's represented by Susan Bloom,

but they've asked me to take a look at her finances.

So I go to the dinner alone?

No, why don't you call somebody from the firm?

Maybe Douglas would want to go.

I could take you.

Very sweet of you.

Now, wait a minute, that's a great idea.

Who's going to take care of Matthew?

Matthew can stay with the whatchacallits next door.


-The Haleys.
-The Haleys.

He's crazy about little, uh...


-Chelsey.
-Little Chelsey.

He won't even know we're gone.

It's black tie, Stuart.

Oh, that's no problem, my roommate used to be

a maîtres' d. Actually, he owns a tuxedo.

Great, no problem. You see? No problem.

It's not problem at all, is it Matthew?

No problem.

♪♪

♪♪

Next up: Campos et al vs. Halifax Chemical.

We're going to trial.

This is the class
-action suit brought by the Hondurans?

Mm
-hmm.

I'm co
-chair with Alex DePalma,

the attorney who brought it to us.

Farm workers down there used a real nasty pesticide

called Z
-Chlor, also known as Wallop.

Made of them sterile.

Wallop indeed.

Z
-Chlor was suspended by the EPA

but Halifax kept shipping tons of the stuff to Honduras.

I thought this case was dismissed

on jurisdictional grounds.

We appealed, and the court ruled that since Halifax is based

in California, we can try it here.

Foreign workers suing in our courts. Good luck.

It's worse thank you think.

DePalma is a solo practitioner from East L.A.,

Halifax is represented by Breech and Spitzer.

Oof, those guys are pit bulls.

Kiss this one goodbye.

Look, we know it's a longshot,

but what that company did to these people was a crime.

But you can't right every wrong in the world,

and this is eating up billable hours.

This is about conscience, Douglas.

Come on, folks, we have to have me fiscal responsibility.

But how far are we expected to go?

Before this goes any further, I want to talk to Mr. DePalma

and the class rep. Anything else, Douglas?

No, we're adjourned.

Gentlemen, when we took this on,

you both agreed we should settle.

We asked for four million, they sh*t it down.

So, try again.

Mr. McKenzie, we are ready for trial.

We've got a solid case on the facts.

Mr. Campos has spent six years gathering data

and overseeing medical tests down in Honduras.

These people are counting on us.

% of the workers at my plantation are like me:

we can never have children.

But you still have to prove a link to the pesticide.

We all know how hard that is.

The firm is in no position to carry this through a trial

and appeals that could take years.

I didn't come here so you could broker a settlement

and walk away with a big fee.

I needed Tommy Mullaney to win.

You needed an experienced firm to back you.

And we're telling you to settle.

Halifax isn't interested in settling.

They want a verdict to discourage other foreign suits.

The whole chemical industry is behind them.

Great, now we're taking on the chemical lobby.

Look, why not make another offer?

Try asking for two million.

That's a joke.

After fees, that's barely per man.

You'd be lucky to get that for third world workers.

Third world? Does that mean our lives have less value than yours?

I wasn't saying that.

Well, then what were you saying?

He's talking about the average wage earn
-
-

Guys, uh, let me have a few minutes here. Okay?

I'll meet you back in my office.

Thanks.

I'm sorry I let you talk us into this.

Listen, Leland, we're talking about million in damages, here.

With possible punitives beyond that.

Our split would be at least . million.

If you win and if it holds up on appeal.

We get a verdict in our favor,

they'll settle big before they appeal.

I'm telling you, guys, we can pull this off.

Mr. Campos, when did you find out that you were sterile?

Seven years ago.

My wife and I had been married three years,

and still no children.

The doctor said I had no sperm.

Did the doctor offer any hope that you could ever have children?

No.

He said this part of me was dead.

I was years old.

Can you tell us what this is, sir?

It's the tool we use to push Z
-chlor into the ground.

You inject the pesticide into the roots of the plant like this?

Yes.

Sometimes, you hit a stone

and it comes back in your face and eye.

On your legs.

It's like fire on the skin.

It makes you so sick, you vomit.

Did anyone ever warn you or the other workers

that Z
-chlor could make you sterile,

or was in any way harmful to your health?

No. Never.

Mr. Campos, what does it mean to a Honduran man

to know he can never father a child?

There is nothing worse.

This is not losing a hand or an eye.

If you cannot make children, you are not a man.

Thank you, sir. Nothing further.

Mr. Campos, did you ever have gonorrhea?

Objection, relevance?

I'm exploring other potential causes

of Mr. Campos' sterility, Your Honor.

Overruled, the witness will answer.

Yes, I was
-years
-old.

But the doctor said I was completely cured.

And there were no long term effects.

And I am not the only one who is sterile.

There are others.

Isn't it common for men in your culture

to visit prostitutes?

Objection, irrelevant and r*cist!

Sustained. Watch it, Mr. Spitzer.

I'm sorry, Your Honor.

Mr. Campos,

alcohol abuse can make men infertile.

How many cantinas are there in your village?

I don't know.

, by my information.

That's one bar for every men in town.

Sounds like a pretty happy place.

Objection.

Mr. Spitzer.

I'll move on, Your Honor.

Mr. Campos, you said you were never warned

about potential health risks from using Z
-chlor.

This is a label from a drum, Z
-chlor.

As you can see, it's in Spanish.

Could you please translate for the jury?

Do not swallow, inhale vapors,

or make contact with skin and eyes.

So you were warned.

But you ignored the warning,

and used the pesticide carelessly.

We did nothing careless.

And many men cannot read.

But you can, Mr. Campos.

And as a crew leader, weren't you obligated to make sure

that everyone wore protective clothing

and face masks when applying this pesticide?

I asked the fruit company for these things.

And I was told to use my bandana across my face.

And I was also told if I ask more questions,

I could lose my job.

It sounds to me like your complaint

is with the foreign company.

But I guess a Honduran fruit company doesn't have

the deep pocket dinero of an American chemical giant.

Objection.


-Sustained.
-Withdrawn. Nothing further.


-This is not about money.
-Move to strike.


-This is about the k*lling of families.
-Mr. Campos...

About the sons and daughters they will never have!


-Mr. Campos, please step down!
-This is about justice!

Leonard Meyet gets a
-year
-old girl stoned

and then beats the hell out of her

and you want to offer him a deal.

The witnesses say she was high as a kite

before he even got there.

They heard her thr*aten to s*ab him.

Oh, so she deserved to have her teeth knocked out?

That is not what I said.

Why don't we just get him a medal and a parade

and skip the plea bargain altogether?

I don't believe this, Margaret.

Even if we plead it out, Meyet still does jailtime.

Look, I just don't want to see this scum

get a slap on the wrist

because we're too busy or lazy to prosecute.

You think that's why I want to plead it,

because I'm too busy or too lazy?

[sighs]

No, no. I'm... I'm sorry.

I, um...

I didn't get enough sleep last night.

Yeah, well, what about last week or the week before?

You're right about Meyet.

Let's plead it out.

Wait, wait, wait, Margaret.

This is exactly what I'm talking about.

Two minutes ago you want to crucify the guy,

and now you want to plead it out.

What is going on?

It's personal.

I've been seeing a therapist.

This is a stressful job, and
-
-

It has nothing to do with the job.

I've been remembering things about my sister, Coleen.

I didn't know you had a sister.

I don't.

She d*ed when I was eight. She was only .

Oh, God.

I'm sorry.

My... parents said she choked to death

on a piece of candy in her sleep, but...

I could never really remember it.

And we slept in the same room.

Oh, I should've saved her.

You were just a child.

About a month ago, these...

Images started popping in my head.

You know, taking a shower, eating dinner.

Talking to a witness.

I just... I couldn't make them stop.

He was standing over her holding her pillow and he, uh...

Who was?

I thought he was going to kiss her goodnight

but he...

he didn't, he...

put the pillow over her face and he, um...

I've decided to prosecute him.

Who?

Who are you talking about?

My father.

I watched my father m*rder my sister.

You know, I remember the first movie I ever saw her in

was "Venus Rising".

I was years old and I stumble into the movie theater by mistake.

I think I thought I was seeing a film about astronomy.

What do you think of this one?

Oh, I like that one, too, hon. Yeah, I like them all.

I think she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

I fell hopelessly in love with her.

Must've lasted a good three or four weeks.

You don't think this is too frivolous,

maybe something more sedate?

No, no, I think it's fine. I think you'll look gorgeous.

You look pretty good yourself.

I thought you got over Lilah Vandenberg when you were .

Honey, this meeting is strictly business.

You got nothing to worry about.

Mm
-hmm.

Dr. Maitland, in a university study,

you exposed lab rats to Z
-chlor.

What happened to these rats?

At high doses % of the rats

had a sperm count of zero.

And how did the environmental protection agency

respond to your study?

The immediately suspended Z
-chlor's registration pending further studies.

And what did these studies find?

They were never done.

Halifax withdrew Z
-chlor

from the U.S. market so no more tests were required.

But Halifax was free to sell Z
-chlor overseas?

Yes. There are almost no restrictions on exported pesticides.

And before its suspension in the U.S.,

were there restrictions on Z
-chlor?

Yes. Z
-chlor is a known animal carcinogen.

Objection, irrelevant. The issue here is sterility.

Sustained.

Could these Honduran workers

have received such high doses?

If it was splashing on their skin day after day,

they could've absorbed hundreds, even thousands of milligrams.

Doctor, in your opinion,

if a person were exposed to those levels of Z
-chlor,

would they become sterile?

Yes. What happened to my rats would happen to those men.

Nothing further.

In this study of yours,

what happened to rats receiving low doses of Z
-chlor?

There were no observable effects.

Exactly what level were the farm workers exposed to?

No field tests were done at the time.

So you don't know.

Tell me, Doctor, have there been any studies

showing Z
-chlor causes sterility in people?

Of course not.

We don't experiment on people.

But isn't it true that before concluding

a chemical has a probable effect on humans,

the effect must be shown in two different animal species?

That is generally accepted.

Has Z
-chlor been shown to cause sterility in animals

other than rats?

I don't know of any such tests.

So you can't conclude that Z
-chlor made these men sterile, can you?

When men in the same village suddenly become sterile,

there's a reason.

The common factor is obviously their exposure to Z
-chlor.

Is it?

Plantation records show that along with Z
-chlor,

the workers used a fungicide called Lysine.

Not made by Halifax.

Are you aware Lysine has been shown

to cause sterility in rats, also?

Only at extremely high doses.

Mm
-hmm.

Exactly what level of lysine

were these workers exposed to?

As I said, no field tests were done.

There's no way to know.

Doctor, if you don't know how much of either pesticide

these workers were exposed to,

how can you say which one made them sterile?

In all probability...

I'm not asking probabilities, Doctor.

Can you say for sure which one made them sterile?

No.

Thank you. Nothing further.

Flanagan made that statement to the attorney general.

Did you know about it?

I told her to talk to you first.

Well, she didn't.

She went straight to the AG.

Then he called me and asked what the hell is going on.

Well, we can't prosecute, it's a conflict of interests.

She's asking the state to charge her father

with a year old m*rder that may never have happened.

The AG wanted to know if she was a burnout case.

Look, I know it's bizarre, but she really believed it.

She believed Earl Williams was a m*rder*r, too.

She was so convinced, she misused evidence.

Have you talked to Margaret?

I tried.

You know what she said?

She wants a police investigation but

she won't let it interfere with her work, unquote.

She's trying to cope, Ruby.

I could see that.

She was calm, she was rational.

And I had the distinct impression

she was going off the edge.

So you're going to put her on leave?

What do you suggest I do?

Well... I think I can talk her out of

going to the police right away.

I'll pull the sister's death certificate myself.

And if there's no evidence of a m*rder?

What then?

Dr. Benson, I sympathize.

You got labeled a whistleblower, and it hurt your career.

But I'm asking you to look at the bigger picture.

We need you.

Look, don't jump to conclusions.

Doctor, you're not listening.

No, please, don't.

[dial tone]

Guy who used to work for Halifax?

At least you found him.

Yeah, great, except he won't testify.

Maybe we can leverage him.

Maybe he smoked pot in college or he cheats on his wife.

Tommy, the case is headed south.

They impeached our expert.

We have to have Benson.

Okay, so you leverage him.

You put him up there, you got a hostile witness.

He's going to lie or he's going to waffle.

Either way, you're in worse shape with the jury than you were before.

And come on, Alex, you know better.

Tactics like that never work.

What about Halifax? What about their tactics?

First they stonewall, and then they bury us in paper,

and when we b*at jurisdiction

and it looks like we have a sh*t,

what do they do?

They offer me a job.

All I have to do is dump Campos and his farmworkers.

Okay, they're sleaze.

But you play the game their way, all you get is more like them.

So, what do we do, roll over and lose?

No, we got more choices than that.

Like what?

I could call Benson.

I can be a very charming guy.

Hope we're not late.

Excuse me, we're looking for the AIDS benefit.

It was very nice.

It was also last night.

Oh, no. Are you sure?

No, Elizabeth Taylor and Magic Johnson

drop by every night.

Now if you'll excuse me...

[chuckles]

[laughs]

Lilah is donating some of her memorabilia to USC.

She's been going through this stuff for weeks.

It's a nice little place.

It was once owned by Errol Flynn.

He used to swing stark naked from the ballroom chandelier.

[chuckles]

Susan tells me you're one of the best tax attorneys

in the state.

Oh, dear.

Well, uh, I'm pretty sure

I can straighten things out for you.

I never had a good head for business.

My third husband embezzled from me for five years.

I never found out about it until the two
-faced bastard was dead.

I wanted to dig him up and bring him to trial,

but they said it wasn't practical.

[laughs]

I'd love to stay, but I'm meeting Diller at nine.

Oh...

I can find my own way out.

Stuart, you take good care of her.

Hasta la pasta.


-Bye
-bye.
-Bye.

So, uh...

Susan gave me your corporate spreadsheets,

but she said you had your personal statements here at home.

So I do. Come along.

I took them back when I fired my last business manager.

I think they're over here.

Oh, wow.

Is this the dress you wore in "Summer Serenade"?

Mmm.

Back when I had cleavage.

Good heavens.

I haven't seen this in years.

What is it?

It's the fork I used to fend off Howard Hughes.

He'd lunged at me once over dinner.

Great...

Which movie did you wear this one in?

I bought that for my wedding.

To Ken Taylor.

Oh, I didn't know you were married to Ken Taylor.

Oh, I wasn't.

He was going to leave his wife and we planned to elope.

He got as far as filing the divorce papers...

before he backed out.

Are you married, Mr. Markowitz?

Yes, I am.

Is she the only person you ever really loved?

Yeah.

I envy you.

Mmm.

Pesto smells delicious. How did you learn to cook?

Sophomore year in college.

After a year of dorm food,

I decided the only way to make it out alive

was get an apartment with a stove.

That's when you learned to cook, not how.

An old girlfriend.

We were poor so we ate in a lot.

Mmm.

What do you think?

Perfect.

You're being such a good sport about this.

I drag you out on your one night off,

and I get the day wrong.

I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing.

Anne, I really care for you.

I'm married, Ned.

Happily married, last time I looked.

Yeah, I know.

I don't know what to do with everything I feel for you.

Not this.

I think you better, uh...

go home.

♪♪

Stuart, I think we may have a problem with Ned.

What, is he sick?

No, he's...

Um... he's got sort of a crush on me.

Well, of course he does. Who wouldn't?

I'm serious.

I think he's in love with me.

Anne, he's
-years
-old.

You're old enough to be his...

Sister.

Yeah, his younger sister.

Stuart, last night he...

He acted like I was his date.

You were.

You know what I mean.

Think I should challenge him to a duel?

You're not taking this very seriously.

All right, you want me to fire him?

No.

Of course not.

Never find anybody better with Matthew.

No, we wouldn't.

And if he's got this crush on you,

I think we should ignore it.

It's going to go away.

Okay?

Mr. Bremmer, as CEO of Halifax chemical,

how did you respond to this rat study we heard about?

I was very concerned.

Until I saw the data.

But the levels that those rats were exposed to were so high,

it was just... completely unrealistic.

There was no way a worker could get that kind of dose.

Objection, Your Honor.

Mr. Bremmer isn't a scientist.

Overruled.

What about the tests on Z
-chlor done in your own laboratories?

They showed that at reasonable doses,

there was no evidence that Z
-chlor caused sterility.

And if you believed Z
-chlor was safe,

why did you withdraw it from the U.S. market?

We were planning to replace it.

Our research team had developed a new pesticide that was cheaper.

And more effective.

So the decision to stop marketing Z
-chlor here

was purely economic?

Purely economical.

And when you sold the remaining stock of Z
-chlor overseas,

you felt it was safe?

When used responsibly, yes.

You know...

Chemical companies are always the bad guy.

You never hear anybody talk about how

a pesticide like Z
-chlor can benefit agriculture

in a developing nation.

I mean, at the plantation where these men worked,

the banana yield tripled after the first year

that Z
-chlor had been introduced,

so of course that meant more food and more jobs

for the whole area.

Thank you. Nothing further.

When the EPA suspended Z
-chlor,

how much of it did you have in stock?

I don't know.

Maybe , barrels.

What kind of an investment did that represent?

Roughly million.

million. That's a lot of money.

And the only place you could sell the stuff

was to countries with little or no

pesticide regulation, correct?

No, we sold it to countries who needed it.

And wanted it.

Did you tell your foreign buyers

that Z
-chlor made rats sterile?

I don't recall.

Did you inform foreign regulatory agencies

that in the U.S., applicators

needed protective clothes and respirators?

Who are we to tell a foreign government

how to regulate use in their own country?

Real considerate, aren't you?

The fact is, you knew Z
-chlor would never

pass the next round of EPA tests, didn't you?

Wasn't that the real reason you withdrew it

from the U.S. Market?

No.

Didn't you stop production because you were afraid

it would make your own workers sterile?

Absolutely not.

Didn't you ship , barrels of this

poison overseas knowing it could sterilize foreign workers?

Objection, he's badgering.

Sustained.

The answer to that is no.

Nothing further at this time.

The witness is excused.

Your Honor, the defense rests.

Your Honor, we'd like to call a rebuttal witness.

Dr. Harold Benson.

I don't want him up there.

Uh, we object.

I'm going to allow it.

We'll hear from Dr. Benson this afternoon.

Stuart, what's the word?

Well, I've been, uh...

going over Lilah Vandenberg's finances,

and they make the Wreck of the Hesperus look like a fender bender.

What are her assets?

Well, that's the problem. She doesn't have any.

Her house is paid off,

and it's worth million dollars.

But she's been borrowing against it.

She liquidated most of her stocks years ago.

She has two or three thousands dollars in a savings account,

little more in her checking account, but...

in terms of liquid assets, nothing.

What are her liabilities?

Those, she's got.

She's overextended on her credit cards $,.

So the interest alone on that is grand a year.

She throws these huge parties.

She shops on Rodeo drive like she's got the Pentagon budget,

she drives three cars: two Jags and a Mercedes.

Great. What are we gonna do?

Well, I see nothing short of liquidating her house

and maybe her art collection.

She'll never agree to that.

Susan, you've got to make her agree to that.

She's playing a pyramid game here

and it's all about to fall apart on her.

Stuart, you don't know her like I do.

She is not going to take this well.

Well, we can't just ignore it. We've got to do something.

Well, damned if I know what.

I did a study on rats in the summer of .

On August th of that year, I turned in the results.

To who?

The then vice president of operations.

Allan Bremmer.

What did your rat study find?

Within three months,

males exposed to moderate to high doses

of Z
-chlor were sterile.

I then did similar tests on rabbits


-and got the same results.
-That's a lie!

Please control your client, Mr. Spitzer.

Did you give Mr. Bremmer the results of your rabbit study?

Yes.

Along with a recommendation that the production and sale

of Z
-chlor be halted.

That's pretty extreme.

Z
-chlor was shown to cause sterility in two animal species.

There was a strong probability it would do the same in humans.

What did Halifax do with your test results, Doctor?

They ignored them.

Three months later, I was fired.

Thank you, Doctor.

Your Honor, if I can have leave

to continue cross after deposition,

I'd like to ask the doctor a few questions now.

Go ahead.

Isn't it a fact, sir, that you were fired

from your position at Halifax because of incompetence?

That's what Halifax claimed,

but it was because I wouldn't falsify my data.

Your results were preliminary, weren't they, doctor?

I checked them very carefully. They were valid.

Isn't it true that your research colleagues at Halifax

didn't concur?

They concurred, they were just too scared to tell Bremmer.

But there's no written record whatsoever

of these experiments of yours, correct?

Well, of course there isn't.

They just got rid of it to cover their asses.

What have you been promised by the plaintiff

or his counsel to deliver this testimony?

Nothing.

Who paid for your airfare?

I did.

Your Honor, I'll...

continue with Dr. Benson after his deposition.

Good idea.

I hope this is a serious offer, Russ,

it's been a long day.

million serious enough?

That's double your last offer.

Assuming you take a one
-third cut,

that leaves nearly million for the workers.

That's roughly $,

or , Honduran lempira per man.

Sounds better in lempira.

Of course, we'll want a standard release

from all injuries and diseases present and future.

We also want the class bound by the settlement terms to be expanded.

You want to include other workers?

We want to include everyone in the province.

I don't understand.

They want all the people in the province to join you in the suit.

That way they settle all claims now

and no one can sue them in the future.

Yeah, but the whole idea of a class

is the members all got something in common.

Now, are we saying the whole population's

been exposed to Z
-chlor?

Unlike most pesticides, Z
-chlor persists

in the environment at low levels.

We've all seen the studies.

There's not enough to cause any damage,

but that won't keep people from suing my client.

Especially after word gets out

we've given million to these farm workers.

I'm willing to resolve this, I just don't want to open

myself up to bogus lawsuits later on.

I'm not saying we're interested,

but if we are you've got to up the ante.

What's the population of your province?

In all, less than ,.

We'll set up a fund, an additional million

to cover any future claims of sterility

from exposure to Z
-chlor.

This would include any workers outside your group

who find out they're sterile in the future.

They can go to the fund for compensation.

Give us a minute.

It's good.

It's not , but it's close.

Yeah, but the expanded class thing.

For million, they get liability released from , people.

Tommy, I've seen the data.

The levels the community's exposed to are well below

the accepted safety standards.

So what are they worried about?

We got 'em on the ropes.

I say turn them down,

go for million and a clean win.

No.

If you reject this, I may go home with nothing.

We accept it and nobody in your province

will ever get another dime from Halifax.

Alex, please, tell him this is too good to reject.

It's more than I ever thought we'd get.

I think we should go for it.

Look, Dr. Benson hurt 'em. The jury's sympathetic.

There's no reason to give up now.

I'm not giving up.

This settlement gives each worker $,.

That may not seem like much to you,

but to us it is almost a lifetime of earnings.

And there will be more money for others in the future.

Two million is not much for , people.

They may never be hurt by this.

We've been hurt, Mr. Mullaney.

Our families end with us.

Without this money, our village will die.

I want to take their offer.

♪♪

Come in.

Oh.

Look, um, I think that we can nail Meyet after all.

I spent last night going over these witness statements.

And, uh, I think we missed something.

Margaret...

Let's talk about that later.

You go the death certificate?

It's not what you want to hear.

Your sister wasn't m*rder*d.

Then the death certificate's wrong,

because it wasn't an accident.

Margaret, Coleen overdosed

on alcohol and a tranquilizer called Miltown.

It was su1c1de.

That's ridiculous.

Maybe your parents thought that the choking story

would be easier for you and your brother to accept.

I...

I'm so sorry.

It's not true.

Colleen always looked out for me.

My parents didn't care, but she did.

She would just never have left me.

There was an autopsy and a police report.

Then my father made it look like su1c1de.

Your father wasn't even in town on the night she d*ed.

He'd gone on a business trip.

I saw him! I saw the pillow!

It was still warm from where she was laying on it.

It...

smells like shampoo.

He's pushing on the pillow with all his weight and
-
-

I'm trying to take these little breathes

because I'm afraid the feathers

are going to go up my nose and into my brain.

You said it was your sister.

He tells me not to tell anybody.

He puts the pillow over my face

to show me what will happen if I do.

He's getting into bed with me.

Oh, he's pushing my nightgown up around my waist.

He tells me to be quiet.

He's going to hurt me.

He's going to hurt me,

he's going to do those things that he does to Colleen

when she cries and begs him not to.

Oh God!

[sobbing]

Oh, he did those things to me, too!

God!

He did those things to me, too!

Shh...

Oh, God!

Oh, good, you're here.

I got the rough on the papers here someplace.

Great.

Leland and Doug were ecstatic, they did cartwheels

when they heard about the settlement.

And they've been asking question about you.

What do you mean, questions?

They had to let a guy go. We got an opening here.

A job, Alex,

if you're interested, I think they want you.

Could be a big step.

You always take good news like this?

Who says its good news?

They probably think I'm some first year flunky

they can get for cheap and work hard.

Hey, they're impressed with you.

Impressed?

Tommy, get off it.

To them, I was some third world charity case.

Hey.

What the hell is the matter with you?

I gotta tell you something.

Uh, Lilah...

look, I apologize.

Susan got hung up this afternoon at Paramount.

Oh, you're all late these days.

We prided ourselves on punctuality.

I'm always on time for a call.

Here, please, sit down.

Oh, thank you.

So... Um...

I've been going over your records an, uh...

Well, to be blunt...

You're in debt.

Deeper than a lot of countries.

I thought you were advising me about my taxes.

Right, uh, I am.

is a problem.

But I think we can reach an accommodation with the IRS.

It'll mean another payout, probably over five years.


-Fine.
-No, Lilah, it's not fine.

You have no income.

You have nothing coming in.

And you're already making massive interest payments.

And the bottom line is you're...

Broke?

Yeah, broke. You know this?

Of course.

Well, then you realize how urgent it is

to reduce your expenses.

Nonsense, I'll just take out another trust deed on the house.

No, you can't get out of debt by getting deeper in.

What you have to do is minimize the bottom line.

And I have a plan.

Stuart, when I started out in this business,

I was told a star did certain things.

Maintained a certain image.

Lived a certain life,

and all of that was just as important to her career

as a career itself.

Lilah...

You don't have a career anymore.

Then all the more reason for keeping up appearances.

I'm not going to live forever.

And I have no family left.

And when I die, my house will be sold,

my belongings auctioned off and my creditors paid.

But it might work another way.

See, I think you're going to live a very long time.

Until then...

I would like to live the rest of my days

in the same manner as the best of my days.

Contact the IRS and work out those accommodations.

And I'll make arrangements to pay them.

And thank you.

For your concern.

You're a very sweet man.

[knocking]

Come in.

Hi.

What's wrong? Is Matthew all right?

Oh, no, he's fine. He's over playing with Chelsey.

I, uh...

I figured we could talk better here.

I want to apologize for the other night.

I was way out of line.

[sighs] God, I feel like an idiot.


-You don't have to
-
-
-No, I do.

I can't deny that I have feelings for you.

But that's not your problem, it's mine

and I'll deal with it.

Ned, I can't say I'm not flattered.

I am.

And...

if we were two different people, who knows.

But I love my husband.

I know.

Anne, I need this job.

I don't want to lose it,

or your friendship, or Stuart's.

Can we just go on with our lives and pretend

I didn't make such a fool of myself?

Sure.

No harm done.

Thanks.

Gentlemen, first let's talk about revising the figures.

Revising?

We had an agreement.

That was before we knew we were set up.

What the hell is he talking about?

Settlement was rigged. Right, Mr. Bremmer?

Oh, it was a real attractive offer, too, wasn't it?

Money for the workers, money for us.

But whenever I thought about the expanded class,

I got nervous.

So I made a call to Honduras to the toxicologist

who did the environmental study we based the suit on.

Only thing is, there's a section missing from our draft,

a section describing tests of water wells

in Mr. Campos' province.

All show levels of Z
-chlor nearly times EPA safety standards.

This is the complete copy.

Check out the numbers, Russ.

It's in the water table.

That's why you wanted the class expanded.

You knew you had a lot bigger problem than farm workers.

You poisoned the whole damn province.

That's absurd.

And we're not just talking about fertility damages.

, years down the line this place could have cancer rates

times the norm but you'd be insulated from liability

'cause you settled back in .

I categorically deny all these charges.

Tommy, I had no idea.

But you would, wouldn't you?

You brought us the data.

You're the only one who could have pulled out the well tests.

Bremmer made a deal with you to keep us in the dark, hmm?

If he had to settle, you'd agree to expanding the class

and that would get him off the hook for everything.

How much, Alvaro?

How much did he pay you to sell out your people?

He told me I could never win.

Shut up, for God's sake.

No foreigner ever won before. My duty was to my workers.

He said if I take out the water test,

then we'd be paid a million dollars.

Even if we lose, if we help them to settle, we get much more.

The question is, what are we gonna do about this?

Well, let's hear it.

We settle, million for the sterilized workers.

million for the fund to cover future sterility and cancer claims,

and we add another million for cleaning up the contaminated wells.

Bringing the grand total to million.

Now, that puts a dent in Halifax's first quarter earnings.

But I'm sure you'll come up with a creative explanation

for your shareholders.

Do what you have to do.

Let's hammer this out in my office.

I believed in you.

I really thought you were out to do something for your people.

I was.

When they offered me a million dollars guaranteed,

I had to take it.

You used me!

And you sold out , of your neighbors!

I was trying to help men whose lives are ruined today.

Not from some maybe cancers in years.

Oh, I know why you did it.

You wanted a sure thing.

But why couldn't you trust me?

♪♪

I don't have to tell you how hard it is to base

a case on repressed memory.

They changed the law.

A civil suit can be filed when the memory surfaces.

No matter how long after the crime.

Still his word against yours about things

that may or may not have happened years ago.

It'll come down to who the jury believes.

Are you saying that you won't take the case?

What can you win, Margaret?

He won't go to jail.

He probably won't even admit molesting you.

All you can get is money.

My father started raping me when I was eight years old.

He r*ped my sister and drove her to su1c1de.

I want him exposed for what he is.

Have you told this to anyone in your family?

My mother and brother.

They don't believe me.

That's just the beginning.

If you take him to court, they will be angry

and resentful not of him, of you.

I've prosecuted incest cases before.

I know what happens.

His lawyer will say you have a grudge.

He'll paint you as a frustrated, divorced woman

with long standing animosity towards your father.

Your so
-called memories will be fantasies.

The delusions of a sick mind.

They'll harp on the fact that you wanted

to charge your father with m*rder.

You don't get it, do you?

Nothing can happen to me that's worse than what he already did.

I've never been able to trust a man.

I've never had a healthy relationship.

My God, I can't even stand to look at myself in the mirror.

I'm going ahead with this whether you represent me or not.

All right.

I'll take the case.

Good.

Margaret.

Why me?

Because you're ruthless.

And charming and dangerous.

Just like my father.

♪♪ [theme]