#((Farrow has been blackmailed!)) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

flamingpossums · 5 years ago

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“I know you’re awake, Twells.”

Writing One Electric Boogaloo: The Part Where He Blackmails Him under the cut babey! (Writing one out of one most likely b/c this is just a dumby ask blog and I don’t see myself making more writings on here unless i decide it deserves a writing lolol)

Gene grabbed his hat from on top of the arsonist’s head, holding it to his lap as he crept forwards. His footsteps were distinct amongst the silence of the house.

“Hng...tired… Gimme five more minutes,” Farrow slurred, eyes slowly squinting open. They were immediately squeezed back shut as Gene clicked on a flashlight, shining it directly in his face. “Fuck, man, is that necessary?”

“Absolutely not. Wake up, Farrow. You and I? We’re gonna have a talk.” Gene spoke precisely.

“I’m not talking to mafia scum like you.” An eye squinted open, and Farrow spat on Gene’s shoes. He was in his living room, some of the furniture moved aside out of his reach. The lights were off and the curtains were drawn.

“...Hm. Already defiant, aren’t we? You do understand that the more you disobey, the heavier your punishment’ll be, right?”

“...Punishment?”

“I’m not here to have a pleasant evening chat over tea, Farrow. I have business to settle here. Now listen-- I’ve found that you’re not really the Bodyguard you claim to be, is that right?” Gene’s hand flicked downwards, veering the flashlight below with it. It illuminated the lower half of Farrow’s face.

“Don’t think you need to know, Trenchcoat.” Farrow’s lips curled up into a scowl as he spoke. Amused chuckling followed from Gene.

“No need to keep acting tough, Mr. Twells. Or should I say, Mr. Farrow? Perhaps even the long forgotten Mr. Retner? Whichever one of your identities you’d rather go under today. Go ahead, choose.” From his coat came a briefcase, and from that slim black briefcase he took out a small stack of loose papers-- he held them out to Farrow like a deck of cards. Miscellaneous papers, the lot of them, but all of them shared one common trait: his alibis were written all over them. Farrow’s scowl was wiped off his face.

“Where’d you get these?” He blurted. “I… I don’t even remember half of these?”

“They’re all yours, bud. I don’t tell anyone my sources.” Farrow reached out to snatch them back, but his arms were restrained at the sides. He writhed around and grit his teeth, Gene watching his pitiful attempts and smirking. “I know many things about you, Mr. Farrow. You’re a rather interesting character. More interesting than the pathetic crooks I deal with every other day. So, thanks! Thanks for making my work a little more tolerable.” His eyes squinted up, hinting to a sly smile below his mask.

“What the hell do you want from me?” Farrow growled. “Sure, you’ve found me out. What are you gonna do, reveal me to death? I don’t care. Do it. Have fun with it. By the time they hang me I’ll be back.”

“Ah, yes, your revival. Funny you mention that, actually. Delving into your peculiar mystery of a past I found death records. The first, I was sure it was faked, but the second one? My my, how weird is it that a man found dead would be up and talking to me personally three or so years later? Lucky me.” Gene giggled. “Mendel Slovak-- really interesting character as well. I didn’t look too much into him-- for once that’s not my business--but he did a good favor getting you out of that graveyard, huh? Or, well, dumpster.” Another one of his irritating chuckles. Farrow glared and grit his teeth more forcefully, both out of anger and the anxiety that undeniably started boiling inside him.

“Seeing that if you die you’ll just be revived again,” Gene continued, “my mafia has so kindly arranged a special death for you, if you go against my demands. One you won’t cheat.” He shoved his face closer to Farrow’s, flashlight casting a shadow over it. Farrow pressed his back to the chair, eyes widening. “As I like to put it...they won’t find your body.”

“...Personal space exists, fuckhead.” Gene backed right back up into his former position. “And what are you asking for? Money? A town? Multiple towns? I’ve got a few up my sleeve I don’t care about anymore, take them. I really don’t care.” Farrow’s eyes went back to being narrowed in a weary glare.

“Not exactly, although that does sound nice. What I need for you is something different. Something more...helpful.” Gene wrung his hands together as he gathered his thoughts.

“Just tell me what you need and I’ll get it for you, if it means you’ll fuck off.”

“Alright, so, I had a simple request for you, but seeing as you’ve had a...rather rocky past with the mafia, I suppose I should give you a choice in the matter rather than trying to get you to do something you’ll probably obnoxiously refuse to do. See? I’m nice. Usually, I wouldn’t give you a choice, right? But I’m nice.” Another invisible grin crept on Gene’s face as he turned around, back faced to Farrow. “Here’s your choices, Mr. Farrow. Either you can join the Mafia--”

“You’re fucking stupid if you think I’ll ever associate myself with you.”

“Easy, now, I wasn’t done,” Gene spat, pivoting back to face him. “...Either you can join the Mafia, be whatever you’d like-- Mafioso, maybe a Forger, Blackmailer...You name it, and if you’re qualified, you’re under our wings.”

“...And what’s my second option?”

“Well, this one’s a little lengthy. But in the end, it’s fair.” He tapped his own chin in thought. “You’ll tell us the names and roles of your little Neutral friends. As many as you can name. We already know about your brother, so you don’t--”

“You don’t lay a fucking hand on him,” He snarled. “I’ll knock your damned lights out.”

“Hey, now. Nobody’s getting hurt if you play along, Farrow. You’re to tell us about all your neutral killing friends; we won’t kill them-- we can’t, most of them will be night immune. But it’ll give us information to work with.” Farrow remained silent.

“Secondly, you’ll douse who we tell you to douse. This may include some of your friends--none of your family, but ah, maybe a few you won’t mind being picked off. You are not to douse anyone who is in or working with the Mafia, and we’ll make sure of that.”

“This deal sounds terrible.”

“I’m not done yet, idiot,” Gene snapped. “Thirdly, you are to not speak anything about the Mafia. You will not mention us. To everyone including yourself, I’m an Investigator. Got it? You are not to talk bad about the Mafia, and you are not to tell anyone of the existence of the Mafia. Zip.” Gene made a zipping gesture over his mouth. Farrow simply rolled his eyes. “If you do as much as mention the Mafia, you’re dead, and you’re not coming back. Understand that? Dead forever.”

“Wow, I’m so scared. I’m, like, shaking right now.” Farrow scoffed. “The hell’s in it for me, then, if I gotta do all this bullshit?”

“Many things, Farrow. I am working with you, not against you. First of all, if you keep up to my demands for two weeks--that’s it, two weeks of your compliance is all I need-- your secrets are safe with me. The town’ll be blissfully unaware of your presence as an arsonist, your past, your alibis, every single one of your major and trivial crimes. You won’t be hung up in the middle of town. And most importantly, your family and friends shall remain safe and sound. Sounds good, doesn’t it?”

“My...hold on a minute. And if I refuse to do all this garbage?” Farrow furrowed his eyebrows curiously.

“Well, then all your secrets are out, and the town’ll be running to hang you in an instant. Your friends and family’ll quickly find their way as targets for us, and we’ll do anything in our power to swiftly take care of them.” Gene smiled and cocked his head. “I think you’ll find it wise to play with us rather than against us. We take all this very seriously.”

“You fucker. Do whatever the hell you want to me, whatever, kill me in your favorite way or whatever, but leave them out of this.”

“Sorry, Farrow. I already know you value your life as much as you value, ah, a crack in the sidewalk. We need to have something of actual value at stake here, Mr. Twells.”

“You’re not fucking touching them!” He writhed some more, but the ropes weren’t giving away anytime soon. “Literally, take anything you want, my house, my money, whatever! I don’t care! I don’t want them pulled into this shit!”

“Rules are rules, my friend.” Gene chuckled, backing up a bit. “Besides, I’ve set up an easy deal for you. Just do what I ask of you and they’ll be spared. It’s not that hard!”

“We’ll just kill you, you bastard. We’re stronger than you are! You and your goons’ll have your intestines strung up like decorations in your stupid base! My dad’ll fucking shred you!”

Gene smirked.

“Mm. I’m afraid if you attempt any sort of aggression or violent action towards us, we’ll have all of you neatly arranged dead on the ground right tucked into the alley between this house and the neighbor’s. Remind you of anyone, Farrow?” His eyes squinted up in the smuggest smile one’s ever seen.

“...I’ll fucking kill you, you little bitch.” Farrow started thrashing in another attempt to get out of the ropes, anything it’d take to get his hands wrung around Gene’s throat. “I’ll kill you!” He shouted.

“We’ll be having none of that, Mr. Twells.” Gene calmly packed up his suitcase and tucked it inside his coat. Ana flew onto his shoulder following his familiar welcoming whistle, simply tilting her head at the man seething with rage right behind the two. “I suggest you start watching your words from now on, Farrow. I’ve so cleverly bugged you, so anything you say’ll be tracked and logged. No naughty words, alright? We’re watching.” Gene looked over his shoulder and tilted his head. Ana mimicked him, cocking hers to the right as well. Farrow ceased his futile struggling, slumping down in the chair in defeat and breathing slightly heavily. His neck, usually numb, started sending aches down his shoulder and the side of his face. Listening to whatever jargon he has left for him, he glared daggers into Gene.

“Remember the deal I made with you, alright? Feel free to write it down for yourself once you’re free. Just don’t show it to anyone, alright? I’m watching you, Farrow.” He winked.

“Fuck you,” Farrow murmured.

“Two weeks.” Gene held up two fingers, nearing the door. “Two weeks is all. I’ll be seeing you, Farrow. Farewell.” He flicked off the flashlight and set the hat back on his head, tilting it as a goodbye.

“Wait!” Farrow called out. “I’m still tied!”

“Oh, you know well if I untie you you’ll just go for my throat. Your dad’s coming home soon, anyways. Ask him to do it for you.” He giggled. “See you!” He opened the door and shut it behind him.

Farrow lay still for a minute, eyes wide as he tried to process exactly what had just gone down. He couldn’t slide lower into his own chair due to the ropes.

This guy, although hard to admit, knew almost everything about him. He even knew about the smallest things that happened almost 15 years ago!

“God, fuck me,” he grit.

The ominous shadow looking outside the window disappeared into the night the instant Gene started hightailing it home. The clouds gently wafted along to eventually uncover the kindly shining gibbous moon, and the winds picked up outside the house. A creak sounded out from the attic. Farrow shut his eyes and considered just sleeping this off. He waned into sleep….

A loud crash sounded out, and a grown man fell out through the attic. He landed on the floor and swore a bit, quickly getting up. His hands were full of cat food.

“Shit, sorry about that, mate.” Farrow, already disturbed, stared at him silently. “Where’d the guy go?”

“Were you there the entire time? Who...who even are you?!” The blonde man winked and stuck out his tongue playfully.

“I’ve gotta go! Nice seeing you!”

“Wait, wait! Untie me! Fuck, come back!” The man turned around and grinned.

“You’re lookin’ awful tied up, aren’t ya? Aww, that’s too bad. But you’ll be fine, don’t sweat it!” He stood silent, just grinning, the two staring at each other for a solid few seconds. “...Well, bye!” He slammed the door shut.

“Fucker!” Farrow screamed, kicking his own chair. He threw his head back and groaned audibly. Now there were two grown men hightailing after Gene, each for their own entertainment. Farrow sat still tied up in his own living room, and the night dragged on.

#((Farrow has been blackmailed!))#((Juggy was eavesdropping ))#not an ask #writing #art #long post #delrosa #mafia #juggy #s #:)

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sebasticn · 4 years ago

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hi guys i’m late as always because i was cleaning but hi!!! i’m fiona, from the pst timezone, n sebastian here is my troublesome child ... i’ve had him for a while but haven’t been able to develop him as much as i’ve wanted to so i’m super excited to do so here!!

[ douglas booth + cismale + he/him ] —— have you met sebastian vanzin? they are a twenty-three year old senior currently studying music composition. they live on farrow house, and word around campus is that this gemini is audacious + charming, as well as rebellious + egocentric. i wonder if they’ll make it out alive. scattered music compositions, pouring a bottle of wine over his head, and snickering behind other’s backs.

HIS BACKGROUND

here’s another little prodigy hoe with family issues into the mix... queue the theme song of succession to play

he comes from a big family, his parents weren’t necessarily looking to raise children or have a family, more so create kids that could one day be of some use to them

he is the oldest kid but literally.... lacks the most responsibility and was not always ‘present’ so to say as the role model of the family.. literally told his younger siblings that their parents don’t love them lmfao

their family life is pretty rigid, parents never said they loved them as kids or that they were proud of them, because it was never good enough for them and they had the most unrealistic expectations for their kids

his parents discouraged his interest in music and pushed him towards fencing and sword fighting so he spent hours upon hours fighting and perfecting it until he started performing in matches etc

he eventually started writing and composing music, he started taking violin. cello, and piano classes with money saved up secretly behind his parents back and met an amazing teacher that taught him everything he knows now this teacher ended up trying to utilize his talents and potential to exploit him for his own good n when seb found that out he felt betrayed and left, accused him of using him and fell into a pit of self pity and teenage angst that everyone around him wanted to benefit off of him in some way

nothing changed and he went back to sword fighting and piano lessons to the point where his parents just harbored it as eat, sleep, practice, repeat.. he didn’t see his siblings as much as he wanted and this caused a lot of pent up rage and anger towards a lot of people and himself

he got so frustrated during points of his life of feeling trapped and desiring grander things that he started acting out a LOT. he crashed his parents nice ass car when he stole it one night, started sleeping around and essentially ghosting a lot of girls bc he just needed a stress relief! and he didn’t know that if you took a girl’s virginity.. she might call you a lot after!

started drinking etc and eventually got into trouble way too much in high school he got into a fight w somebody when they provoked him (we love a man with no self control or restraint!) and he sent them to the hospital and eventually into a coma where they didn’t make it.. his parents helped him cover it up and they managed it as self defense but the subject is VERY touchy and it haunts him a lot to this day but let’s not talk about trauma or anything let’s get drunk lmao

eventually his parents got annoyed and shipped him off to boarding school and it was his first time into the world without parental supervision or them breathing down his neck so he went.. total riot club ham and got himself into WAAAY too much trouble freshman year

HIS PERSONALITY

he’s a smart ass. acts like he knows more than you. incredibly smug. thinks he’s something special bc he’s talented in different aspects and has a love for the arts

spends a lot of time in the library, kind of gatsby esque in his love for big parties and grand things and gestures. very dionysus-like in a way that he’s indulgent and selfish now.. things came full circle and u can blame his parents for that baby!

an instigator for poor choices and bad ideas. he does stupid shit. he gets bored and wants terror..... queue donna tartt “beauty is terror”

he’s a big family guy.. misses his siblings a lot but always lacked the ability to vocalize his love for them and felt out of place as the eldest child

acts like he’s not a sad boy by distracting himself and drowning himself in dry sarcastic stupid humor when he is in fact a sad boy! think damon salvatore humor at times. maybe even klaus from the umbrella academy

flaunts his money sometimes mostly bc to him money really doesn’t matter despite how shallow he can be sometimes

WANTED CONNECTIONS

fwb, fling!!! something that isn’t serious, just two pals having sex!

a bad influence? somebody he likes to corrupt bc.. finger guns.. that’s his jam! they get into trouble together or he’s always convincing them to do some dumb shitan accomplice!!!!

maybe somebody who knows that he put somebody in a coma and then they passed.. could use it as blackmail against him in some way

he needs friends who will be the ultimate riot club dumbasses and haze other kids and be snooty little posh assholes that wreak havoc and do dumb shit

somebody that he buys drugs from often, they could either not give a fuck about him or maybe sees that he is spiraling into something and is concerned? think maybe fez with rue from euphoria vibes

anyone that hates him.... this is so easy... he’s literally a piece of shit

somebody that he used to train or teach when he was younger? somebody who looked up to him in a way with one of his skills and now knows his personality and is disappointed that they ever looked up to him

#holloway.intro #death tw #drugs tw #alcohol tw #sorry this is long lmao

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nessataleweaver · 6 years ago

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Just watching the 1978 movie of Death on the Nile.

Random comments:

(warnings: indiscriminate switching between actor and character names, also, random spoilers)

God, I’d forgotten how gloriously EXTRA this entire movie is. Even the opening theme is bombastic orchestral.

When 95% of your speaking parts are played by actors whose names show up before the title, it’s safe to say you’ve got an all-star cast.

Jeez, eyes on the road, Mia Farrow! Making out while driving is a safety hazard.

I love Maggie Smith. 90% of her screen time in this movie is her being utterly sarcastic, or even more utterly ‘I am at least 120% done with this shit’.

According to Linnet, following your ex-best friend and your ex fiancee around on their honeymoon is, ‘Common, Jackie. Very, very common.’ Not nearly as common as stealing your best friend’s man, you entitled bitch. *eye roll*

God, the necklines on most of Linnet’s evening gowns are more like waistlines. I’m not saying it’s bad to show off what you’ve got, but has fabric tape even been invented yet? This woman’s showing almost as much of her chest as Nicki Minaj.

Hey, it’s Olivia Hussey! Still my favorite movie Juliet (sorry, Claire Danes). I’m glad to see she got to do something after R&J besides Turkey Shoot.

Peter Ustinov’s accent is so thick and treacly I feel one of his co-stars could spread it on toast for breakfast.

The scene where Jackie confronts Simon and Linnet at the Temple of Abu Simbel is really well done. The wind howling through the temple until yes, it nearly does sing, Jackie’s voice echoing through the valley and the close-up shots of her being buffeted by the wind are all very striking.

Salome’s motherly advice: ‘If you wish that uncouth man to lay siege to your virtue, don’t forget to put up at least a semblance of protest! Men love the chase!’ (actually, that’s rather sex-positive, especially for a 20′s or 30′s set movie. Also, a good point about many men’s ideas of courtship. Ferguson’s exactly the sort of man who wants to do the chasing.)

“Linnet said that she felt everyone on this boat was her enemy”. Well, sheesh. Given the doctor, both Osbournes (mother and daughter), Bette Davis, and Jim Ferguson all became her enemy directly because of things she said or did to them during the first act, it’s no fucking wonder. Actually, it’s extraordinary that she wasn’t murdered earlier.

I’m still a little surprised that Louise the Maid didn’t just steal some jewellery or at least speak to a lawyer about Linnet pretty much blackmailing her into working for Linnet for as long as she wants. Or at least putting something in her tea to give her diarrhea. Though, I’m not sure why she’s so hung up on the Egyptian dude; he sounds like an utter loser.

Okay, so it’s been awhile since I read the book or watched any of the other adaptations.. but WTF is up with the cobra in Poirot’s quarters? Is it to give David Niven something to do beside give Poirot a Watson to exposition to? Or is it foreshadowing? Poirot knocking on the wall between their cabins in morse code to alert Colonel Race, foreshadowing Simon yelling to alert Jackie in the cabin next door to alert her to Salome Otterbourne about to reveal all?

“You perfectly foul French upstart!”

“Belgian upstart, please.” - not even Bette Davis can take down Poirot in verbal judo.

The Muses bless you, Angela Lansbury. She’s such a Large Ham you could make an entire picnic worth of sandwiches out of her performance, and she’s very obviously loving every second of it.

“I might have Hair of the Dog, but never Scale of the Crocodile!” I wish I could use that sentence sometime. (hmm... keep it in mind for a fic?)

Huh. Poirot might have gotten the best of Bette Davis in that conversation, but she out-foxed him there and left him fuming. She might not have those pearls, but Poirot’s got zilch on her now.

Honestly, Poirot, if you tell your friend what to order in French terms, knowing that he doesn’t speak French, you have no right whatsoever to complain or even look exasperated when he orders you eel instead of mushrooms.

Ah... that’s Louise dead. Honestly, doesn’t she know that she’s in an Agatha Christie? The quickest way to be murder #2 is to blackmail someone. Must give Jane Birkin credit, though; she’s very different here than the character she plays in Evil Under the Sun (also with Ustinov as Poirot).

“I saw that it was-” BANG! Alas, Angela Lansbury. If you weren’t so interested in milking your Great Revelation for every drop of drama, you could have gotten out the info without getting dead. Let that be a lesson to you, ladies and gents and non-binary persons: if you know who the killer is, tell everyone in the vicinity IMMEDIATELY.

And... Poirot already know who it is? Less than a minute later? Well, that’s a quick segue to the Grand Summation.

And.. you’ve got to throw in one last red herring? Hinting that Jim Ferguson killed Mrs Otterbourne because he thought he couldn’t get Rosalie permanently with her mother still around?

When Poirot looks at the boat’s butler and hints he killed Linnet by mistake, the dude gives him one of the best ‘WTF, dude, are you on ‘shrooms?’ looks in cinematic history.

Oh... every time an accused murderer starts laughing at Poirot, it’s a dead cert they’re guilty as.

Now wondering... why didn’t Simon throw the nail polish bottle (that he used to help fake his wound) overboard, rather than putting it back in Linnet’s bathroom cabinet? It gave Poirot a major hint, and it’s not like anyone could have found it in the river, or even think to mention it. Further in that line, if he’d tossed the gun separately from the stole - the improvised silencer - it would have been harder to connect the hole in the stole with an extra shot that way. Not to mention ripping the hole open a little? but then, simon’s trying not to scream in pain from the fresh wound, so...

It might have been easier to pay Louise off once, then kill her later.

This version is gloriously OTT and colourful (the outfits, alone!) and loaded with scenery porn (you can tell they definitely got to film in Egypt for this one!)... but I still like David Suchet as Poirot better. (Sorry, Sir Peter)

I also like Emma Malin, from the Poirot tv show better as Jackie. She comes off as genuinely melancholy over losing Simon, rather than Mia Farrow’s bordering on a nervous breakdown over-acting. It makes Jackie much more convincing as the brains of the operation. Her delivery of the line “One must follow one’s star” during her exchange with Poirot on deck the night before the murder, you get the feeling Poirot truly liked Jackie, and wanted her to turn away from whatever she had planned. Malin and JJ Field also have much more chemistry than Farrow and Simon Corkendale, and Malin comes across as a woman who loved ‘not wisely, but too well’, and Field makes Doyle a man who simply found himself in a situation that brought out the worst in him, and couldn’t resist the temptation. Farrow comes across as someone in desperate need of a ‘women who love too much’ seminar, who manages to fall in love with a selfish man-child who brings out all her worst traits (like the Lonely Hearts killers). You get the feeling Farrow’s Jackie and Corkendale’s Simon would have had an unhealthy relationship, whether Simon ever met Linnet or not.

Although I can’t help but feel Linnet would have gotten her heedless, entitled, self-centered, lacking in empathy for other people self murdered pretty early in life anyway. Like I said before, she managed to get three people to have serious motives to kill her, and two others minor motives within what, four days of meeting them? Wonder if that big fancy estate of hers was anywhere near Midsomer county?

At the end of the 1978 version, Ustinov quotes the philosopher Moliere, “The great ambition of women is to inspire love.” Though in this case, it was more the man who inspired it that got (counts it up) five people killed. If it was Jackie that inspired love, rather than Simon, I think things would have ended up rather differently.

Having written all this, I’m actually rather interested in seeing how Kenneth Branagh does this next year. While I had a few quibbles, overall I was quite impressed by his version of Murder on the Orient Express. Going by the cast he assembled for that, I’m looking forward to seeing who he’ll get for Nile. On one hand, I’d love to see Sophie Turner as Jackie... she could pull it off like a boss. On the other hand, I’ve seen Sophie suffer enough on screen (with more to come in Dark Phoenix. I’d like to see her playing characters who get to have a good time for a year or so.

Just checked imdb... Jackie’s actor hasn’t been announced yet. But Gal Gadot is going to be Linnet. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her as a thoroughly unlikeable character before, though I’m sure she’ll do well.

#death on the nile #hercule poirot #agatha christie

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trustseal · 2 years ago

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Waterloo big clock

She did it as a favor for her husband, director John Farrow. This was Maureen O'Sullivan's first film in five years, since Tarzan's New York Adventure, after which she had concentrated on raising her family. Charles Laughton was cast as the villain. Leslie Fenton was announced as director but he was held up on Saigon so John Farrow took over. Jonathan Latimer was assigned to write the script and Ray Milland to star. ) The purchase price was a reported $45,000. (Fearing's earlier novel The Hospital (1939) had been a best seller. Paramount bought the rights to the novel before publication. Morgan's screen name later would become "Henry 'Harry' Morgan" and eventually Harry Morgan, to avoid confusion with the popular humorist of the same name. Noel Neill as Elevator Operator (uncredited).Lloyd Corrigan as Colonel Jefferson Randolph aka McKinley.Douglas Spencer as Bert Finch, a reporter.Luis Van Rooten as Edwin Orlin, a reporter.Janoth falls down the elevator shaft to his death. Janoth shoots Hagen and tries to escape in an elevator, but the car is stuck floors below (jammed there by Stroud earlier while evading the security men). Enraged, Hagen turns on Janoth and reveals that Janoth killed York and that he helped with the coverup. Hagen implores Janoth to clear him, but Janoth tells him only that he will provide him with the best possible legal defense. He confronts Janoth and Hagen and presents evidence that appears to point to Hagen as the killer. Stroud evades the dragnet by various maneuvers, finally hiding in the clock. Building security men sweep the building to find the wanted man. All exits from the building are sealed, and the building's occupants must leave by the main door, with the witnesses watching for the mystery man. Stroud slips away before the witness identifies him to the investigators, who now know that the mystery man is in the building but do not know his identity. Stroud tries to avoid the witnesses, but one of them sees and recognizes him as the mystery man. Asked to paint a portrait of the mystery man, she produces a modernist abstract of blobs and swirls. One is eccentric artist Louise Patterson, who created the painting that Stroud purchased. The witnesses are brought to the Janoth Building. He must also secretly conduct his own investigation to prove Janoth's guilt.Įventually York is identified by the Crimeways team and witnesses are found who saw her on the town with the mystery man. He reluctantly agrees to return to his job and lead the manhunt, to Georgette's disappointment.ĭuring the manhunt, Stroud must appear to lead the investigation diligently while also preventing the investigation from identifying him as the culprit. He discloses enough details for Stroud to know that the mystery man is Stroud himself. Janoth calls to rehire him in order to lead the effort to find the mystery man (without any mention of York). Stroud has since caught up with his wife and son in West Virginia and tells her that he has been fired, but leaves out his adventures with York. Janoth decides to use the resources of Crimeways to find the man instead of calling the police. However, Hagen convinces him that they can frame the man whom Janoth saw leaving York's apartment for the crime. Janoth goes to his assistant Hagen and tells him what happened, intending to surrender to the police and confess. Janoth assumes that York is cheating on him, leading to a quarrel in which he strikes York with the sundial, killing her. Janoth sees someone leaving but does not recognize Stroud in the dark. Stroud and York go to her apartment, but York sees Janoth arriving and Stroud leaves. Stroud spends the evening drinking with York, and he buys a painting and a sundial. When Stroud loses track of time and misses the train for West Virginia, Georgette angrily leaves without him. Stroud goes to a bar to drink and is distracted by the attentions of Janoth's glamorous mistress Pauline York, who proposes a blackmail plan against Janoth. His tyrannical boss Earl Janoth wants him to stay to pursue a missing-person story that Stroud has just cracked, but Stroud refuses and Janoth fires him. Thirty-six hours earlier, Stroud is eager to embark on a long-postponed honeymoon in Wheeling, West Virginia with his wife Georgette and son. The clock dominates the lobby of the Janoth Publications building in New York City, where Stroud works. George Stroud, editor-in-chief of Crimeways magazine, hides from building security inside the "big clock," which is the largest and most sophisticated clock ever built.

#Waterloo big clock

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maxwell-grant · 3 years ago

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I supposed there is already multiple exemples of that but, how would a crossover Shadow/Doc Savage would look like for you ?

Putting this one below the cut but to sum it short: I have a particularly intense dislike for Doc Savage and I'm too biased to give this idea a fair shot without my distaste coming through, and none of my ideas for how I'd handle Doc would please his fans so I'd rather keep them to myself. That's the short version. The long version is:

I would have the Crime College being shut down and replaced with a more humane alternative helmed by Slade Farrow and Rupert Sayre, and Doc getting shit on why he has no right being such a sanctimonious prick, even though kidnapping and lobotomizing people to erase their memories against their consent is far worse than shooting murderers in last resort (I know that's not what the comics Shadow does, but we're not talking about that guy). That's really all I'd care about doing with the premise, personally, and it would be a really bad, boring story.

Doc Savage does not tolerate murder or criminal methods, and The Shadow is willing to kill and employ criminals and criminal methods. The Shadow, in turn, I would not have tolerate someone surgically brainwashing criminals into submissiveness, and I can point to a pulp story called Master of Death where he fights a villain who does exactly that, as well as several radio stories with that premise. I don't see the two tolerating each other long enough for a more substantial story to take place, although it's clearly not an impossible premise since it's been done a lot.

I don't trust myself to write Doc Savage without my distaste for the character bleeding through. I don't like Doc Savage. I don't care for his allies, I don't like Lester Dent's prose, I don't care much for stories that are all about debunking the supernatural in the name of "rationality" (what a joke of a concept that is), and I don't like the character himself, even in otherwise good stories that play up all the fun parts. And even if I could put all that aside, which I even could, the Crime College, fascinating as it may be a concept from a storytelling perspective, is a massive, unnegotiable dealbreaker for me. There are other pulp heroes who also had the whole "rehabilitation facility that's well-intentioned but morally dubious at best and extremely illegal regardless", like The Shadow and Sar Dubnotal had them, but none of them had lobotomies and involuntary brain surgeries and brainwashing people into forgetting everything about their past lives, and that's what really fucks with me personally. It's a very intense fear of mine for very personal reasons.

That is where the "college" came in. Dangerous criminals whom he captured were taken there. Doc's skilled fingers performed brain operations upon them. When they departed from the institution, all memory of their previous life had left them. Certain nerves had been cut, isolating parts of their brains. Then they had been re-educated. They had been sent back into the world under new names, freed from all connection with their past.

And call it "delicate corrective operation" all you want, even if they don't lose cognitive function, even if it's intended to be a progressive alternative to the prison system, he's still performing INVOLUNTARY BRAIN SURGERY to "correct" behaviors deemed socially incorrect so the people he's doing it to can become "productive" members of society. They make it a point even that Doc keeps the whole thing under secret because "society isn't ready for it", and at least once crooks have tried to blackmail him over it or have seeked revenge immediately after regaining memories or learning about it (ergo, it doesn't even justify it's existence through the foolproof results the stories claim, if the bad guys were really that much happy and better off in their new lives, they wouldnt come gunning for Doc the literal second they learn about what was done to them)

It's fucking lobotomy and it's fucking horrifying and it invites comparisons to so many of history's worst atrocities done against individuals and groups of people. We have at least one very popular book and film on why it's disturbing and dehumanizing beyond measure to do this kind of "correction", even to people who unarguably deserve worse than death, and it's not even a case of adaptations twisting the concept, that's just what they were, like this section from The Purple Dragon makes very clear:

Doc Savage himself established these men in business. He usually located them far from the scene of their original crimes, safe from the danger of casual recognition by former associates. And, feeling himself responsible for them, he endeavored to keep track of all who had undergone the "regenerating operations"

And really I've come to realize recently that, between the likes of Tom Strong and Doc Thunder and Doc Samson and Mr Terrific, I actually very much can enjoy the archetype he embodies, if it's not Doc Savage with the goddamn lobotomy factory.

(I swear I didn't put those quotation marks in there)

So yeah, you might want to stick to Will Murray and Michael Uslan's stories crossing over the two on this one.

#replies tag #pulp heroes #pulp fiction #doc savage #the shadow #crossover

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jel815 · 4 years ago

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Hi. I am posting a working in progress story I've been working on. I hope you like it and please if you can give me construction criticism that would be great. Or just tell me what you think. Should I go on or stop and just throw this away. Lol. Anyway. I hope you like it. 😟

Tom

Darkened clouds lit up with long white streaks of lightning followed by loud crashes of thunder. I rush out through the tall double glass doors colliding with a young couple.

"Excuse me. Pardon me." I brush by them and smile at the couple as I pass. I hear Max and Markarian's voices echo inside the large Art Deco lobby behind me. I lift the collar of my beige trench coat and walk out of the buildings large exit doors. I need time to think over the deal that was offered to me by Markarian, my grandfather's worst enemy. It would be hard to give up my life in New York and go back to England. I knew i couldn't leave New York. I've invested most of my life here in the States and I didn't want to leave. The only thing I have back in England is an ex-wife. Skye didn't want me to come to the States to take over my grandfather's "family" business. I made an agreement with my grandfather to keep his restaurant "Collective Souls," alive after he died and I was going to keep my promise. A warm light breeze stirred the muggy air. It lifted a strand of my long hair to the front of my face. I tossed my head to the side to remove it from my eyes. My dark hair was now long passed my neck half-way to my shoulders. I didn't want to remove my hands from out of my coat pockets. I needed a haircut. My grandfather, Steven Farrow came to the States as young man in the Summer of 46. He created his restaurant/bar "Collective Souls" in the early 60's. I leaned my tall frame against the cold white marbled wall of the building and sighed. I enjoyed the smooth coolness through my thin beige trench coat. It felt good on this hot sweaty back. I go back to England i will be out of the con artists business my grandfather created. Except, I didn't want to leave without making my grandfather's gang legitimate. I didn't want to leave the States a failure. I frown at the thought. "Are you hiding Farrow?" Markarian smirked. "He’s not hiding,"Max replied. "he doesn't hide from anyone!" He came out from behind me and wrapped his long black trench coat around himself. Markarian glared at me.. I was the grandson of his great rival Steven Farrows. I am his brat grandson who's took over his business ten years ago. I’m an annoyance not a real threat to Markarian. He leans closer. I blink twice, turn up my nose and frown. The fishy scent I smell is the tuna salad club sandwich he had for lunch. He needed a breath mint.

"Take the hundred million and go back to England, Farrow, "E. Markarian's snarled.

"And leave all my employers at your mercy?" I growl."I'm not that cruel."

My lips spread into a smile. Markarian narrowed his eyes to glare back at me.

"I can keep the police from finding out your grandfather's real "family buisness." Markarian said. "The underground mob is still looking for the men who'd conned them out of the shit-load of money back in September."

Markarian chuckled.

"Like I told you inside, Farrow. you don't take the money and sell your grandfather's restaurant bar to me the underground city mob will find out about how you conned them out of their money," Markarian warned.

"You would do that wouldn't you?" I answered. I knew that he would. I have to play this right.

"Yeah, in a New York minute Farrow," Markarian's chuckled. "take the money, Farrow!"

Markarian pulled his head back from me. He thought he had me. Markarian thought i really was going back to England and will be out of his life by the end of the week. Markarian was sure of it. I knew from an inside source that he knew I was thinking of leaving New York to be with my ex-wife even before this meeting. Markarian knew my ex-wife was a sore spot with me. I must play this act right.

"How is your ex-wife these days, Farrow?" He asked. "Skye isn't it?" A smirk played at the corner of his thin wet lips.

I glared back at him. I was ready for this. A unguarded smile, curved Markarian's lips.You left her back in England, right? She didn't want to come to New York with you to live and now she's divorcing you." Markarian said. His eyebrow lifted. I raised my head slowly to glare at Markarian. "My wife is none of your concern," I muttered. I wanted to punch him out cold here on fifth avenue. It would feel excellent I know, but it wouldn't bloody well solve anything. I wish I were more American. Punch first, ask questions later. "Oh, I bet it's pretty lonely without her." Markarian asked. I didn't answer. Markarian lifted his dark eyes from my shoulders. He noticed the scar etched across my left cheek. A smile spread slowly across Makarian's lips. "It's such a shame Tommy boy. I had to mess up that pretty boy face of yours," Markarian said. He relished the small victory when he bested me a lifetime ago. Silence I finally found my voice back. My accent thick and pained. The memory of that day was still fresh in my mind.

"Does it still hurt?"

"No, " I answered defiantly. My voice sounds timeless to me. I reminded myself once again to keep steady. Markarian was not worth getting myself arrested on Fifth Avenue.

"I see it has scabbed over." Markarian said. His dark eyes roamed along the deep ugly scratch now etched over on my left cheek. Markarian's hot stale breath blew into my face as he examined my scar.

"It doesn't look as bad as it did when I first cut you. I remember it wouldn't stop bleeding for days." Markarian said. He stepped closer and nodded at his handiwork.

"It's nothing but a scratch. It doesn't hurt," I snarled back. I clenched my jaw tight. Markarian's eyes locked with mine again. We glared at each other.

"Was it?" Markarian's smiled. "I'm sure that little reporter Ms. Benis does not find you so pretty now." His smile widened.

"My business with Ms. Benis is none of yours Markarian, " I answered. Markarian lips pressed together tightly and his face turned a shade off rosy red. I smiled. I knew about Markarian's infatuation with the attractive New York Times reporter Elizabeth Benis. Ms. Benis is interviewing me for her New York paper about the protest after i bought an old relic of a building. The protesters want it to be a landmark. It is the biggest battle this city has seen in a long time. The verdict is yet to be determined. We glared at one another once again. Markarian lowered his eyes and dramatically sighed. He shook his head.

"Well, alls I'm saying, Farrow. You will finally be rid of that restaurant money pit you inherited ten years ago," Markarian's sighed. "you will be back in England where you can reunite with your ex-wife and live happily ever after."

"Leave my wife out of this!" I growl back at Markarian. "she has nothing to do with this!"

"Oh, I hit a nerve!" Markarian teased."don't you mean ex-wife, Farrow?"

Markarian laughed and shook his head.

"Come on Max. We better get back before everyone wonders where we've been." I ignore Markarian and walk away into the plaza quickly and didn't look back. Max smiled at me and nodded his approval of the whole silly show. Max looked back at Markarian and winked at him. Markarian 's bugged out and his mouth fell open as he watched us walk away. I suppose he didn't expect his offer to be totally ignored by this little foreign bastard.

"You're making a huge mistake not listening to my offer, Farrow!" Markarian yelled. "Don't kid yourself you English tea bag! You're never going to live up to be as big as your grandfather! You might as well, go back. ”I'll GET YOUR ASS DEPORTED BACK TO ENGLAND!!!! His voice rose above the loud traffic noises of the large bustling, vibrant city. The huge crowd walked passed Markarian as he screamed. Max and I didn't look back as we were swallowed up by the huge crowd on the sidewalk. I became real hot and sweaty under the heavy mid- summer humidity as i dodged a woman with a large shopping bag preventing a collision.

"God, I hope it rains soon. This heat just won't let up. feels like it is getting hotter." Max moaned. He wrapped his long black trench coat around his large body. He swiped his large arm over his moistened forehead and began to hum.

"The rain isn't going to cool anything. It's just going to make everything feel even hotter, " I chuckled."like a sauna." Max nodded and continued to hum happily. We pass a young hurried mother pulling the arm of her crying toddler beside her making him walk faster. She is an attractive, petite suburban mother who probably is meeting her husband for lunch. She has short blonde hair cut in a pixie cut and I can see a smattering of brown little freckles across her nose. I flash my best smile at the young women hoping she'll return it.

"Creep!" She muttered. She pulled her crying child hard against herself and walked faster through the crowd away from me.

"I love this city, " I chuckle. I shake my head. I look over to look at Max from the corner of my eyes. Max is smiling and humming loudly over the ear-splitting noise of loud construction enveloping us.

"Stop it Max!" I shout. His frown turned into a smile as he turned to look away again.

"Why?" We won back there!"

"Did we?" I muttered softly. I lifted my head to the hot humid wind. A drop of sweat fell from my forehead. It ran down the bridge of my long nose.

"Yes, we won the battle," Max answered. "we told that ass-hat where to get off with his blackmail."

"Yes, but at what cost?" I mutter softly. Max turned to look me. His eyebrow raised over one eye.

"At what cost, what?"

"What is refusing Markarians deal going to cost us in the end, Max?" He will throw everything he can at us, now. He will never give up, " I explained. A silence fell between us as we excused ourselves to let an elderly lady with a walker pass us on the crowded sidewalk.

"He's a danger to us because of all he knows about my grandfather's family history here in America. And the con games I've continued in his name," i murmur. I sigh heavily. A loud bang erupted in the middle of the street. We jump in surprise and instantly turn. We sigh audibly when we find it was only a back fire from a parked grape Purple colored Volvo behind us. We then catch ourselves before colliding into a lady walking her poodle.

"Watch it! Dumbass, "she yelled."come on baby." She cooed at the dog. Her overdone pancake makeup looked as if it melted on her aged face. We apologize quickly and walk briskly through the crowd. I then clench my jaw tight. My shoulders rise and tense. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. The loud bang from the car had left me frazzled and very tense.

"Markarian has wanted me gone ever since I had came from England ten years ago to take over my grandfather's business. If I don't take his offer to sell him the restaurant he's going to probably go to Ms Benis and tell her everything about my con artists relatives and all our rivals. All the people my grandfather has conned through the years will know the truth, " i mutter."I just don't understand why he hasn't told her already. What is he waiting for?"

"Probably to see if you will take the offer?" Max answered.

My footsteps grew faster. I take a breath and let it out slowly.

"I'm thinking of accepting his offer, Max." I whisper.

Max glared at me and turned away. I spoke before Max could.

"I can't, Max, I have seen enough in these ten years of this "Life" to last me a lifetime. And I'm terribly homesick. I want a normal life, again." I explain.

A silence fell between us.

"In England?"

Max saw this coming for the past two months now. I can feel it as we prepared for the meeting this morning. We then fall quiet as we continued walking down the street.

"Was it Skye and the divorce?"

"No. I'm not thinking of quitting cause I'm missing Skye!" I reply sarcastic. "I've finished and put away that part of my life when I decided to take over for my grandfather and she decided to stay in England."

I sighed. Max was silent. After two years, Max knew when to leave the subject of my wife alone. Max's full lips spread into a smile. His handsome face lit up.

"Is it Ms. Benis?" Max said, with a wink. "are you afraid of actually meeting her in person instead of talking through the Emails?"

I turn my head to glare at him.

"No, Max!"

"But you have seen her? Max asked."on t.v I mean?"

"Yes." I nod my head and close my eyes. I really didn't want to have an image of Elizabeth Benis on my mind. Her long curly dark brown hair and those deep brown eyes. Her full pouty lips. Elizabeth Benis was beautiful beyond belief but I knew I couldn't have her. Not when and if she finds out the truth about me. And I knew she will. She was an investigative reporter doing a piece on me and the protesters. She is bond to find out.

"Not of meeting her so much," I answer." Of her finding out the truth. I think I better leave before she does."

"What about your grandfather? And your promise to keep his restaurant alive? and making the "Farrow" family legitimate?"

"I love my grandfather. I just don't think I really can do it, Max, " i reply.

"Do what?"

"Make the family legitimate, "I sigh. "The con has gone on for too long. It's ten years and I still haven't made it legitimate,Max. I still haven't made a significant dent." Another crash of lightning erupted above them. We look up to see once fluffy white clouds now dark and ominous. We continue to walk unconcerned for a few more steps when a heavy downpour of cool rain falls. A loud pop and Multi-colored umbrellas blossomed like bright flowers all around us. We found ourselves underneath a transparent umbrella with a white pearl handle. The pretty honey blonde holding the umbrella gaping up at us.

"I guess we should have taken our umbrellas, after all." Max said wryly. A smirk curled around his full lips. I stared at him.

"No, Max really. Ya think? I hissed. I sucked my teeth and rolled my eyes at Max. I turned away from Max and sighed. I sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. God! I am tired! Emotionally. I want to just get back to my apartment and sleep like the dead until the morning sun rises.

"Excuse me please, but aren't you?""THE" Tom Farrow" who owns the "Collective Souls" bar?"

You are more gorgeous in person then you are on television!" The pretty honey blonde exclaimed. She leaned forward and looked up to meet my eyes.

"THE Tom Farrow?" Max chuckled. He shook his head. His eyebrows lifted. I shrugged my broad shoulders our hot breaths came out making us feel even hotter.

"Yea, this is THE "Tom Farrow." "And I am Max, I work with Mr. Farrow as his advisor."

Max waved his hand between us. His chiseled sharp handsome features softened as he smiled at the pretty younwoman. He licked his lips. The pretty blonde smiled warmly at us. Her whole face lightening up softly underneath her umbrella.

"Oh, really,"She cooed at me. Her voice rose.

."Maybe I'll see you both there tonight. My girlfriends and I are planning on a ladies night- out."

Her full mouth spread wide as she smirked at us.

"Can't wait. May I reserve the first dance of the night."

Max winked.

"Yes, of course." She giggled.

She nodded then Max turned his head to look at me. I lifted an eyebrow and nodded.

"And I shall take the second dance, " I answer."

"Oh, I love that accent. It's even more sexy in person than on t.v." She squealed. The rain stopped and we came out from under her umbrella. We said our goodbyes. She waved back at us and went on her way. We turned to stand at the corner to wait to cross the busy large street.

"My advisor, Max?" I snickered.

Max's lips curved at the corner of his mouth as he smiled.

"Couldn't think of anything else." Max shrugged.

"Well, whatever, advisor!" i laughed. I open my coat wider and frown. I flap my coat once to cool myself off. I was right the short rain pour only succeeded to make everything hotter and more muggy. The light changed and we walked across the lineup of cars. We were silent lost in our own thoughts. I look up to see a huge crowd of people protesting across the street in front of the "Collective Souls" Their voices united with one cause. To make New York make the old iron building a landmark and for me to return it. We stop to lean our bodies on a parked car to watch the show.

"Down with the outsider! Down with the foreigner!" The protesters chanted. They raised their large poster boards above their heads in protest.

"That's harsh calling you a foreigner!" Max groaned. He pursed his lips in protest. I shrug my shoulders. I lower my head as I stare at my long legs pushed out in front of me lost in thought. I really didn't have to go on with this life anymore. I could chuck everything and just go back to England. I was a foreigner. But how can i still be an outsider after I've helped so many people during these ten years. I've given to charities and helped people find jobs at my club. I've even given to many police charities in this city. I smile at the irony. It was really out of guilt that I gave to The NEW YORK POLICE FUNDS and other charities. I sigh loudly. I smacked my lips. Haven't I just gone over all my guilt feelings already today. I came out of my thoughts just in time to hear Max loudly curse at the protestors. I look down at my legs again and cross them at the ankle.

"Hey are you ok, Farrow?" Max said.

Max reached out his hand again and grabbed my shoulder. I lift my head to meet Max's eyes.

"I don't know if I can go on living my grandfather's life, Max."

Max blinked up at me and stared startled that i wanted to continue the conversation.

"Which one con man or famous restaurant owner?"

"Both!"

I cough into my fist again.

"Both? With beautiful women falling over themselves when they meet you? At least Celebrity club owner has it's advantages, Farrow."

"I didn't ask for any of this, Cullen! But, the celebrity part isn't so bad. No, I really just want to be normal again. The one hundred Million will help me do that, " I reply.

My eyes shift to the protesters again and i frown. Max follows my gaze.

"Not in England!" Max protested."the high taxes will kill you."

"but I can't stay with all this happening." I gesture to the crowd of protesters in front of us. One member saw my hand and gave me the "finger" He screamed louder.

Did you see that?" That college kid just flipped you the bird!" Max shouted.

"Yes, I saw!" I grumbled. I knitted my eyebrows as I stared at the young girl now screaming out loudly above the rest. Max was right. She was young. Not a girl but a college student maybe. Pretty. Blonde, blue eyes, thin lips smiling at him. She had a very boyish haircut. I cross my arms against my chest and shift my butt against the car.

"We better try to find a way to get back inside my restaurant before this gets ugly," I mutter.

I take a step forward and then freeze. A woman stepped out from behind one of the protesters. It was Elizabeth Benis. She smiled waving at Max and me and walked toward us.

I gulped.

"Shit!" I cursed.

To be continued:

©Joanna Lopez 2017.

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frivoloussuits · 7 years ago

Text

The Henrietta Farrow Charity Gala

Summary: “Next up in our talent show,” the announcer declares, “is another child of the legal world. Please welcome Harvey Specter, who will be performing a brand-new hit from Broadway!” . . . That’s not right.

Word count: 2.7K Rating: G Relationships: Marvey

Written for @suits100‘s 64th prompt: “At a social event (fundraiser, maybe) character A secretly puts character B on the list for the event’s talent competition.“

Harvey hands Mike his invitation to the Henrietta Farrow Charity Gala. “This right here is proof you’re making a mark on this city. I’ve already had Donna RSVP on your behalf saying you’d be thrilled to come--”

“But--”

“So go see Rene for a new tux.”

And with a grand wave of his hand, Harvey shoos Mike from his office.

He sighs and stops by Donna’s desk. “I know Harvey usually has the monopoly on being Bruce Wayne, but I’m really tempted to scream about fat spreads and society hags right now.”

“Oh, give it a break,” she chuckles. “Some of the money does actually make it to charity, and it’s fun.”

“It’s funding research on terminal illness, that’s the opposite of fun.”

“And even an hour of scientific speeches about dying a slow, painful death is funny when there’s that much champagne. Especially if you’re mostly sober and everyone else at your table is spilling their deepest secrets.” She winks.

“. . . Okay, I’m never going to get drunk while you’re around.”

“Smart puppy.”

To the extent that he can, Mike largely forgets about the ball, but he still picks up rumors and whispers around the office.

“Henrietta’s an 72-year-old ball of sass and seduction,” Norma tells him with a cackle. “We go waaay back.”

“Henrietta invites all the most respected lawyers and doctors and businessmen from around the city and then presses them for secrets, though whether for blackmail or personal pleasure, nobody can tell,” Katrina mutters to him. “That’s what the talent show’s for. And also the infrared cameras in the hedges and on the roof. She says they’re for ‘security,’ but I hear she only turns them on the night of the gala.”

“Henrietta’s my role model,” Donna sighs dreamily.

And so Mike ends up at the mansion of a geriatric woman who somehow terrifies him more than Jessica Pearson, checking his reflection in a hallway mirror and fidgeting with his bowtie.

“There you are, rookie. Brave choice, hanging a piece of non-representational art around your neck.”

Mike just throws him a look. “Ties are hard enough, but this thing’s outright trying to kill me.”

“Oh, for god’s sake--” Harvey takes Mike by the shoulders and turns him away from the mirror-- “I’ll do it.”

“But what about the cameras--” He cuts off his sentence as Harvey’s suddenly loosening the bowtie and re-tying it properly, practically caressing Mike’s neck.

“It’s because of the cameras that I can’t have you looking like an embarrassment,” Harvey replies a moment later, his smirk surprisingly gentle. Then he turns and strides back down the hallway, calling, “Isn’t that right, Henrietta?”

Mike just stares, unable to shake the feeling of having entered the Twilight Zone. He can still feel the prints of Harvey’s hands, warm on his skin.

Donna takes a seat by Mike, holding two glasses of champagne. “Would you like a drink?”

He eyes her briefly before accepting. “Is it just me, or is Louis acting more like a supervillain than usual?”

“It’s the talent show,” she explains. “He’s probably sabotaging whatever poor sucker’s going after him.”

“. . . Why?”

“Because he says that, in a talent show, one is judged not only by their own performance but by the performances of those immediately before and after him. And given that I’m before him . . .”

“He can only sabotage the person after him.” Mike shudders. “Well, good luck to you, at least.”

“I don’t need luck,” she replies with a wink. “I’m Donna.”

Louis’ bucktoothed smile grows even more prominent the nearer the competition draws. Mike tries to imagine what sort of attack he’s planned for his successor-- starting a slanderous rumor? Poisoning a cup? Literally breaking a leg? He tries to enjoy Donna’s monologue, an objectively brilliant piece of thespian magic, and Louis’ monologue, which sadly proves almost as impressive, but he can’t shake the feeling of foreboding.

“Next up in our talent show,” the announcer declares, “is another child of the legal world. Please welcome Harvey Specter, who will be performing a brand-new hit from Broadway!”

That’s not right. That can’t be right. Harvey Specter would never stoop to engaging in such a spectacle, and certainly not with musical theater.

Mike gapes at Donna, who is gaping at Louis, who stole his smile straight off the Joker. Then Mike shoots a glance at Harvey, who is wearing his impenetrable poker face as he gets up from his seat. The audience titters as he makes his way onstage, but Mike stays silent as he waits for his boss to take the mic, apologize for the mix-up, and drop out of the show--

He certainly doesn’t expect Harvey to stride up to the grand piano and shoo away the accompanist.

Harvey raises the piano’s lid and props it up with what Mike realizes is practiced ease, before sitting down on the bench and placing his hands over the keys. His fingers hover for just a moment, and Mike’s breath stops—

From the first measure there are cheers, because this song is from Hamilton, the show this whole city is obsessed with, tripping over itself for seats, treating the ticket lottery like it’s the Powerball. To be fair, Mike’s mildly obsessed with Hamilton himself, though he first approached the story through the Chernow biography. It’s a rags-to-riches story about an orphaned lawyer who rises through the ranks in New York on the strength of his genius—what’s not to love?

Mike recognizes the song at once—“Satisfied”—and he’s surprised. He would have pegged Harvey as more of a “My Shot” or “Non-Stop” guy, dallying briefly with “The Reynolds Pamphlet” or “Burn” when he’s on one of his loyalty kicks. Still, there Harvey Specter is onstage, playing the song of a discontented maid of honor watching the man she loves marry her sister. He’s doing an excellent job of it, too, playing from memory, and he keeps his expression calm and blank as he rolls smoothly through the intro.

The song itself devolves into controlled chaos as Angelica, the maid of honor, reflects on her past. Harvey has of course eschewed the lyrics, but he captures the building tension, pressing a pedal so that his notes start to run into one another— and then something snaps. The song turns suddenly spartan, almost clinical, a series of beats with all the spirit of a sewing machine.

I remember that night, I just might-- I remember that night, I just might-- I remember that, I remember that--

Mike murmurs the words as Angelica plunges back into full-bodied song, recounting a ball where innumerable suitors tried to impress her and her sisters, tripping over themselves to win their praise. Harvey too plunges into the music, weaving rich harmonies with his left hand, embellishing the main line with variations and grace notes and brief trills.

But Alexander, I'll never forget the first time I saw your face.

His stare flits from Harvey's fingers to his eyes, now drifting shut even as he presses forward, physically leaning into each chord he plays.

I have never been the same, Intelligent eyes and a hunger-pang frame, And when you said 'hi' I forgot my damn- dang name . . .

Mike blinks as he stumbles over the word, replacing Angelica's tame adjective with what Harvey would say instead.

Set my heart aflame, every part aflame, this is not a game.

Here Alexander enters a dialogue with Angelica, and Mike knows his part should feel low, smooth, suave. Yet there's a strange ping in how Harvey plays the notes. They're short and fresh, brazen and cheeky and somehow almost cute, even as Angelica's notes answer with a more mature, even-handed gravitas.

You strike me as a woman who has never been satisfied, Alexander announces.

Angelica replies, I'm sure I don't know what you mean, you forget yourself.

You're like me, he says. I'm never satisfied.

Is that right? There's an undeniable fondness in how Angelica sings those words, and Harvey keeps the same wistful edge in his playing. As he does, an old snatch of conversation echoes in Mike's mind.

I'm inclined to give you a shot, but what if I decide to go another way?

I'd say that's fair. Sometimes I like to hang out with people who aren't that bright-- you know, just to see how the other half lives.

Mike chuckles at the memory.

I've never been satisfied, Alexander insists.

Where's your family from?

Unimportant! There's a million things I haven't done, but just you wait, just you wait!

So, so, so-- Harvey opens his eyes and launches full-force into Angelica's rap. He strikes the keys with the same intense precision with which he chooses the words of a closing statement.

So this is what it feels like to match wits With someone at your level! What the hell is the catch? It's the feeling of freedom, of seeing the light, It's Ben Franklin with a key and a kite, You see it, right?

Mike's not paying any attention to Harvey's hands, but neither is Harvey-- instead his eyes are shifting slowly upwards, large and dark and wondering, and with a start Mike recognizes that expression. It's the same look he gave Mike when he found out about his eidetic memory for the first time, slowly raising his eyes from the Barbri handbook.

The conversation lasted two minutes, maybe three minutes, Everything we said in total agreement. It's a dream, and it's a bit of a dance, A bit of a posture, it's a bit of a stance. He's a bit of a flirt, but Imma give him a chance--

Mike's thankful for the darkened room and for the fact that nobody's looking at him, because his eyes are bugging out. How can Harvey have missed the parallels between their meeting and Alexander and Angelica's? It'd be willful blindness for Harvey to learn this song, to study it until he can literally play it with his eyes closed without noticing--

He's penniless, Angelica observes. He's flying by the seat of his pants.

And Mike's breath stops.

Angelica starts a lament, listing reason after reason after reason why she and Alexander cannot marry. The gossip in New York City is insidious, she says, and Mike is instantly reminded of the world of Biglaw, which exploits every sign of emotional vulnerability, and the firm, which would tear such a romance to shreds.

Then there's the problems with the power imbalance itself. On the one hand, Harvey can't possibly suspect Mike of using him for social climbing purposes, like Angelica suspects Alexander. On the other hand, Harvey's got a strong ethical core, no matter how hard he tries to hide it, and maybe he wouldn't want to put Mike in a position that screws their relationship further, pun half-intended.

Now comes Angelica's third and most urgent reason for staying away from Alexander-- she can't break up her sister's engagement to him. And Mike knows Harvey knows about the women who step in and out of his life-- Jenny, Tess, assorted one-night stands-- plus he's had a front row seat to the debacle with Rachel. With his feelings on cheating, he'd never cross the line, not while there's still any chance of Mike and Rachel getting back together--

The song collapses, moving from full-volume fury to melancholy pianissimo in a heartbeat, and Mike's theorizing shudders to a halt. Harvey's poker face has utterly dissolved, and in its place is a look of naked yearning.

So when I fantasize at night It's Alexander's eyes, As I romanticize what might have been If I hadn't sized him up so quickly . . .

Harvey hurls himself into the song’s grand ending, where Angelica belts her heartbroken wedding toast, and his hands fly to the extremes of the piano. He picks out keys with all the zeal of a mad alchemist tossing ingredients into a cauldron, and he throws in virtuosic flourishes, fingers almost blurring with speed. Yet the melody rises back up, clear and pure and sad, as Angelica finishes her song:

And I know he will never be satisfied-- I will never be satisfied.

As soon as he lifts his foot from the pedal, the room bursts into applause, even as Mike sits, stunned into stillness. Yet Harvey’s poker face slams firmly back into place the moment he rises from the bench to bow. Of course, he smiles as he basks in the applause, but it’s his regular smirk, the one he deigns to throw out to clients and opposing counsel and outsiders of all kinds, nothing softer or deeper. Harvey sweeps back to the firm’s table and immediately starts jabbing at Louis-- “This is a first, Louis, I just managed to beat you in a competition I wasn’t even in”-- and teasing Donna-- “You didn’t see that coming? What happened to knowing everything, huh?”

When Mike tells him he played exceptionally well, he replies that of course he did, Harvey Specter excels in every arena, it’s alarming that he hasn’t grasped this by now. There’s no trace of vulnerability left in Harvey’s demeanor, and Mike wonders if he imagined it in the first place.

Mike finishes his dessert first and slips from their table, heading down a quiet hallway to the bathroom just to clear his head, when he hears a creaking voice: “The suits do an excellent job of hiding that hunger-pang frame.”

He spins around to find Henrietta herself at the end of the hall, matching him in height thanks to rickety heels and the blue-gray hair piled on her head.

“Thank you?” he replies. “Rene would be glad to hear that his work’s apprec--”

She cuts him off: “Are you in love with Harvey Specter?”

“Uh-- er-- he’s incredibly straight, and I also prefer women.”

“You’re dead wrong on the first count,” she says, advancing steadily until she’s looming right in front of him. “I have footage to prove it. And ‘prefer’-- well, that’s a lovely lawyer’s denial, but I know better than to take it at face value.”

He stammers for a moment before electing to shut up.

“Good choice,” she says with a nod. “So let me tell you what’s going to happen now. I’m going to take the recording of this entire conversation and send it to Harvey, and, while he can’t read people quite as well as I can, he’ll see your feelings plain as an open book.”

“What?” Mike squawks. “You can’t--”

“Like hell I can’t. This is the most fun I’ve had in half a century.”

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“Because I think you’ll try to limit the damage by scooping me and telling him yourself.”

“I can’t . . . He doesn’t feel the same way.” He struggles for more words and finds none. “I can’t.”

“Boy, let me tell you something,” she says, silencing him with an imperious waggle of her finger. “Almost as long as I’ve been holding these balls, I’ve been waiting for Harvey Specter to play my piano. He signed up for my very first talent show, said he wanted to go first so it wouldn’t even be worth anyone else’s time to follow him. Then he dropped out.” She sighs, shaking her head. “Took me some investigating to figure out why. Turns out his father, the man who taught him to read music before he could read a book, had just passed. After that, I figured I was never going to hear Harvey Specter at all. Hear his playing, I mean, not his talking. He couldn’t stop that even if he wanted.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying he found his music again, and after today’s performance I’d bet all my companies it’s because he found you.”

“That’s a beautiful thought,” he murmurs, “but your evidence is at best circumstantial.”

“Well, I saved the best proof for last, naturally. My friend Norma, eyewitness on the front lines, tells me he watches you like he wants to devour you whenever he thinks he’s not being watched.”

Mike chuckles, even while he swallows back tears. “So what do you think happens now?”

“Oh, well, I’d never presume to know exactly what you’ll do next,” she says, before raising one pencilled eyebrow and giving a Cheshire smile, “but I imagine that you’ll make your confession and then surgically extract one from him, and then he’ll take as much pleasure in taking off that tie as he did in putting it on, and then you’ll create some way to . . . satisfy him.”

Well, creativity has always been his strong suit.

A/N: I actually rewrote “Satisfied” as a 100% Marvey song and covered it. You can find it here!

#suits100fanwork #marvey #mike ross #harvey specter #louis litt #suits #my fic

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cinephiled-com · 5 years ago

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New Post has been published on Cinephiled

New Post has been published on http://www.cinephiled.com/interview-director-mark-landsman-scandalous-untold-story-national-enquirer/

Interview: Director Mark Landsman on ‘Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer’

Sex! Gossip! Scandal! For over 60 years, the National Enquirer has pumped out salacious, shocking stories, stretching the limits of journalism and blurring the lines between truth and fiction. Mark Landsman’s Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer is the remarkable true story of the most infamous tabloid in U.S. history, a wild, probing look at how one newspaper’s prescient grasp of its readers’ darkest curiosities led it to massive profits and influence. From its coverage of Elvis’s death, Monica Lewinsky, and the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the National Enquirer rattled the foundations of American culture and politics, sometimes using payoffs and blackmail to get its scoops. With rare archival footage and revelations as wild as National Enquirer headlines themselves, Scandalous examines our obsession with the rich, famous, and powerful, and the tabloid that has fed those obsessions for generations of Americans, and changed many aspects of American life, including politics, forever. I sat down with director Mark Landsman to discuss this provocative and wildly entertaining film.

Danny Miller: It’s so fascinating to hear from so many reporters who worked for the National Enquirer. Was it a long process to get them to agree to appear in the film or were they eager to talk to you?

Mark Landsman: “Eager” is not the word I would use, it was very challenging! It all started with the father of a good friend of ours, Malcolm Balfour. We met him for dinner one night and out of the blue he started talking about his career at the Enquirer in the mid-1970s and telling us all these stories about Jackie and Aristotle Onassis and hiring a one-man dirigible to go underneath their boat and other crazy stories like that.

That was during the infamous Generoso Pope days?

Oh yes, that was during the heyday of his ascent. Pope had poached Malcolm from Reuters to come work at the Enquirer, at that time all you would hear in the newsroom were British accents. I just couldn’t believe the stories I was hearing from Malcolm, the spy stuff, the disguises, the enormous bribes. There was so much money flying around those days at the National Enquirer that you were chastised if you weren’t spending lot of money, like you weren’t doing enough to get the story! I was fascinated, and then Malcolm introduced me to some of his former colleagues and we were on our way.

I knew they had tricks for getting stories, but I was surprised to hear how far they went.

Oh yeah. Back then if you weren’t paying off every single person at a hotel were Liz Taylor was staying, you just weren’t doing your job!

And even more shocking to me was that they were also bribing friends and family members of the celebrities for dirt.

Absolutely. A brother or sister, a disgruntled lover, an ex — many of them would sell people out for large sums of money. Even nurses in hospitals. And, of course many hairdressers, valets, and lots of others, anyone could end up on the National Enquirer’s payroll.

Barbara Sternig in SCANDALOUS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER, a Magnolia Pictures release.

I have to say that I especially enjoyed hearing from the woman who worked for the paper: powerhouse reporters like Judith Regan, Val Virga, and Barbara Sternig. As much as an Old Boys Club such newsrooms were back then, it almost seemed like the National Enquirer, for all its outrageousness, gave women opportunities that other media sources did not. Do you think that’s true?

I think you’re right on the money with that. What I heard from every woman I interviewed is that Mr. Pope cared about one thing only — he didn’t care about your gender, he only cared about whether you could get the story. He hired Judith Regan in the early 1970s right out of Vassar. She had no experience as a journalist but he got a sense of her gumption and her chutzpah and he hired her on the spot. He flew her to Florida to be interviewed and then immediately sent her off to try and get Mia Farrow to talk about Frank Sinatra!

And yet, as she says in the film, he never ever looked her in the eye! It sounds like Pope had a lot of quirks but, thank goodness, sexually harassing his employees wasn’t one of them.

I never heard about anything like that but, of course it was a very fluid environment. It was the 1970s and there was a lot of alcohol and drugs. After working hours many of them went straight to the local bars and kept on working, it was like the extension of the workplace.

Did you find with the people you spoke to that there was a bit of defensiveness about their decision to work for the National Enquirer in the first place?

Honestly, no. I don’t think I talked to a single person who had any shame about it. Quite the contrary, most of them thought in retrospect that this was one of the most exciting jobs they ever had, and certainly the highest paying with the exception of people like Judith Regan who went on to become one of the most powerful women in publishing or Shelley Ross who ended up producing Good Morning, America. Most of these people were making triple the salary of other journalists at the time. As one guy says in the film, he was making three times what Ben Bradlee was making at the Washington Post.

You do hear some remorse from the reporter involved in the coverage of John Belushi’s death.

They may have some remorse about certain things that happened, but I don’t think they regretted those decisions in the moment. I think these people had all struck intense Faustian bargains to take jobs at the National Enquirer. I mean, look at that John Belushi reporter, Larry Haley. He came from the Chicago Sun-Times, the very building where Mike Royko and other legendary reporters were working. These were bastions of respectability. To move from there to the Enquirer, you had to be striking bargains with yourself.

Steve Coz and David Perel

I admit I had some really mixed feelings as I watched the film. On the one hand, when you show that clip of George Clooney basically blaming Steve Coz for single-handedly causing Princess Diana’s death, we could all see that this wasn’t fair at all. I had empathy for and was fascinated by all of these reporters in the film. At the same time, though, I could see Clooney’s point and was cheering him on since so much of what they were doing was pretty repulsive and, in my view, has damaged our world.

I hear you. It makes me think of the people on Wall Street at the height of the financial crisis. They’re just going about their jobs and doing things that they probably knew were having some deleterious effects on our society, and yet they kept going, somehow rationalizing it all to themselves. I think it’s similar to how people involved with the Enquirer must look at it. You kind of need to widen the lens and look at the larger system that creates such a huge economic incentive for people to hound someone to the point where their drivers get involved in a high-speed chase in a Parisian tunnel. I mean, yes, the fact that Diana’s driver had lots of alcohol in his system didn’t help anything, but would any of that have happened if there wasn’t such a high premium on getting anything about her? I think Clooney’s indictment of Steve Coz wasn’t fair but he was certainly talking about a context that is real and chilling.

Do you think that episode really affected Steve Coz?

Yes, but Steve is a remarkably resilient guy who is credited with bringing a lot of legitimacy to a paper that never dreamed of or cared about such legitimacy. Coz made that happen by driving coverage on O.J. to a relentless level and insisting that they find proof that Simpson had worn those Bruno Magli shoes. Like a very smart editor at the helm of a very powerful engine, he unleashed all of the resources on it and spared no expense. I think they spent about a million dollars on sources for that, something that no other paper could do. I think they had 20 reporters on the O.J. Simpson story and left no stone unturned.

Was it hard when you were working on this film to decide which stories to include? There were so many other ones important to the National Enquirer that you could have mentioned. Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Fawn Hall, John Edwards, and so on.

Yeah, it was hard, we didn’t go into JonBenet at all either. All of them have fascinating aspects to look at in terms of the National Enquirer but we decided to just choose the stories that were seminal turning points for the paper itself because for this film the paper was our character, not the stories or the people in them. What were the stories that changed the paper profoundly and how did that reflect our culture at that time in a significant way?

Got it. Although one story I kept waiting for was Carol Burnett’s successful libel suit against the Enquirer.

I know. That one existed on a card in our editing room for a long time. Maybe it’ll show up one day in some extra features!

Did you ever try to sit down with David Pecker himself? I’m sure you started the film before all his Trump troubles came to light.

Yes, we were working on this before what he was doing with “catch and kill” was exposed in The New Yorker with the Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal scandals. But he had no interest in talking with us.

I’m glad you cover Pecker’s repulsive relationship with Donald Trump, though. That seemed to really change things. As several of the reporters said, until then the Enquirer didn’t really take sides. Do you personally think the National Enquirer played a role in Trump getting elected?

I don’t think there’s any metric to scientifically understand how much that influenced the election but think we’d be very naïve to deny the fact that it certainly had an impact.

youtube

Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer is now available on many digital platforms.

#David Pecker #Judith Regan #Mark Landsman #National Enquirer #Scandalous #Steve Coz #Interviews #What's Hot

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mrstevenbushus · 5 years ago

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House Design Masterclass Part 7: Contract Management

Engaging an architect for your self build comes with a raft of advantages. While high quality design is undoubtedly at the top of the list, there are plenty more benefits to working with a pro.

Once your chosen practice has prepared a tender pack, you might decide to progress through the rest of your scheme without their assistance. However, this can turn out to be a false economy, as a professional has a lot more skills on offer to help you transform a set of drawings into your real-life dream home.

House design masterclass part 6: Tender Pack

Here, I take a closer look at the value an architect can add to your project when it comes to managing the intricacies of delivering the scheme once the design phase is complete.

Choosing your construction team

One of the most valuable services an architect can provide is assisting in your search for the best contractor for your requirements.

The British builder often gets a hard time in the media. Television shows and newspapers like nothing better than a good story about how unwary consumers have taken on a shyster who proceeds to con them out of a small fortune, leaving them with a badly built, unfinished house.

Designed by Kast Architects, this stunning replacement dwelling enjoys far-reaching coastal views. The house is finished in locally-sourced larch and features aluminium-clad timber frame windows

But these stories distort the true picture. In reality, there are plenty of firms run by highly skilled, decent people who take pride in their work and leave many satisfied customers in their wake. Some don’t even have to advertise, but your architect will know many in your local area, plus the ones to avoid.

For most self builders the quality of workmanship needs to be high, without threatening to break the bank. This balancing act is best performed by adhering to some simple rules. It’s vital to treat all the tenderers fairly, without giving an advantage to one over the other.

Read more: How Much Should I Pay a Builder?

All the contractors should receive the same information from you so that they can give you a price that can be compared easily. If you give one of them new information in the course of a chat or relevant query, all the rest should be told about it, too. Otherwise, when the tenders are opened, one price might seem higher than another because it scopes for something that other companies don’t know about.

In addition, all firms you tender to should be given the same time to prepare detailed quotes. If any bids come back to you early, the figure must be kept confidential.

Kennedy Twaddle oversaw this striking self build project from the design concept phase, through planning and to completion

Apart from being an ethical approach, this procedure ensures you get a reliable price from the lowest bidding contractor. It’s not unusual for estimates to come in higher than expected, but so long as you’ve been tracking the budget throughout the project thus far, the price can usually be brought down via negotiations with your preferred builder.

Hashing out the details

Once you’ve agreed a figure, start date and construction programme with your chosen company, you’re ready to commit to a written agreement.

There was a time, I am told, when a contract could be agreed with a price and a handshake. If this is done today without problems arising during construction, I would suggest either the client will have been incredibly lucky, or has compromising photos of the builder to use as blackmail.

This self build project was both designed and managed by Thomas Trail of Carpenter and Trail Architects, while he was working with Farrow Silverton. As the contract administrator for this build, Thomas oversaw the scheme from start to completion

You might feel that these official documents are just invented by the legal profession to help them earn more cash. However, any construction lawyer will tell you that they get their biggest fees on cases where the terms of an agreement are ambiguous or absent.

This is because a good contract, accompanied by a detailed set of records, is the best way to ensure everyone understands exactly what they need to do. It also defines the consequences if either party doesn’t live up to these obligations.

Fortunately, there are some standard agreements available from bookshops or the internet. In my view, the best ones are produced by the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT). These are devised by a group with representation from all parts of the UK construction industry, who have decided on a set of terms and conditions designed to be fair to everyone.

Essential terms to include in your building contract

The parties State who you are and who the builder is. In past conflicts, sometimes one participant in a contract has used the fact that they’ve been wrongly described to avoid their liabilities.

Identification of the works This is a brief summary of the location of your project and scope of the job. It is particularly important if you ask the contractor to take on additional tasks later, such as landscaping, that are separate from the initial contract.

Contract documents It is essential to state the specific drawings, by number and revision letter, as well as the version of the specification. These might be different from the original tender documents if there have been alterations to the price since original quotes were received.

Contract administrator If you’re using an architect to manage the contract on your behalf, this will be the designer’s role. The agreement must make clear what powers they have.

The contract sum This needs to tie in directly with the associated documents and must reflect any post-tender changes.

Project duration & liquidated damages The terms should clearly state the dates when work should start and finish. It is useful to include a clause that specifies that any unwarranted delays will give you the right to make deductions from money due to the builder. This is usually a set amount for each week, called liquidated damages.

Payment terms Contractors are usually paid monthly, every four weeks or at specific stages in the job; for instance, when damp proof course level is reached, first floor joists in, weathertight etc. A certain amount, usually 5% should be held back until completion. Once finished, this can be reduced to 2.5% until three, six or 12 months after the project.

Variations These are items of the work that are omitted, changed or added after the agreement has been signed.

Insurance The builder must have adequate cover for public liability, fire and theft. This may not extend to items that belong exclusively to you and are stored on site, unless you specifically ask for it.

Solving disputes There should be a description of what parties can do if there’s a disagreement, plus what happens if it can’t be settled amicably.

Of course, there are more complicated versions of these for all manner of large commercial projects. However, for a one-off house the JCT Minor Works solution is appropriate, provided you have an architect managing the building work. If there isn’t a professional designer overseeing this aspect of your small-scale scheme, the JCT Contract for Homeowner/Occupiers is a good alternative.

Be very wary of using a document produced by the builder or their organisation without independent professional advice. Often, these tend to be skewed in favour of the contractor. Before the contract is signed, your builder should produce a detailed cost breakdown of the work to be done.

This is used to assist the valuation of construction as it progresses and calculate how much money is due at each payment stage. If you use an architect to oversee this, you become the employer and they are the contract manager. This means you are delegating responsibility for the day-to-day, nitty gritty management of the agreement over to someone who can act on your behalf.

Your chosen designer will typically arrange and chair formal meetings, act as the first point of contact for the builder and keep an eye on construction progress.

Money matters

When working with a builder, one potentially contentious issue that may arise is how much they should be paid and when. This can cause problems and delays at any point of the build, so it is important to agree this beforehand.

Managing this effectively is an important part of your contract administrator’s duties. The agreement you make at the outset should describe the payment procedure in detail and, as a rule, the principles are fairly straightforward.

At regular intervals, typically every four weeks, the contractor estimates how much they believe is due for work completed so far. This sum is then submitted to the architect and checked against the detailed breakdown that was agreed with the contract. If necessary, this can be adjusted before a certificate is issued, giving a week or so for you – the employer – to pay.

The post House Design Masterclass Part 7: Contract Management appeared first on Build It.

Article reference House Design Masterclass Part 7: Contract Management

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hollywoodjuliorivas · 5 years ago

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Ronan Farrow overcame spies and intimidation to break some of the biggest stories of the #MeToo era

Investigative reporter Ronan Farrow, author “Catch and Kill,” earlier this week in New York. His new book delves into the Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer cases, among others. (Mary Inhea Kang/for The Washington Post)

Paul Farhi

Oct. 10, 2019 at 1:44 p.m. PDT

Unlike most journalists — most human beings — Ronan Farrow can tell you what it’s like to be tailed, surveilled and tracked by people with possibly sinister motives. It is, he attests, kind of stressful.

“I don’t want this to sound like woe is me, but I’ll be honest,” Farrow says. “It’s really hard when you’re in those moments . . . when you wonder if you’re being followed, and it turns out you are, it’s frightening.”

For a few months in 2017, he nervously eyed suspicious-looking vehicles, spent nights in friends’ apartments and took evasive maneuvers, such as walking against traffic to foil anyone following him in a car.

A friend advised him: Get a gun.

Keep Reading

There are a number of these moments threaded through “Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators,” Farrow’s chronicle/memoir of his pursuit of allegations of sexual predation against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. As Farrow recounts, Weinstein arrayed not just some big legal guns to thwart him and other reporters, but a host of black-ops characters: former Mossad agents, Ukrainian surveillance pros, European undercover operatives. Their mission was to monitor Farrow and other journalists who were closing in on Weinstein. One of Weinstein’s sub rosa retainers was an Israeli intelligence company called — no joke, Mr. Bond — Black Cube.

Farrow pierced this legal and quasi-espionage veil to land a devastating story about Weinstein, published by the New Yorker exactly two years ago Thursday. The story, which followed by five days a separate series of revelations about Weinstein in the New York Times, earned Farrow and Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey the Pulitzer Prize. More important, their exposés touched off a cultural avalanche. Within weeks, other powerful men saw their walls of privilege and protection come tumbling down amid the march of the #MeToo movement.

(Weinstein, who eventually was charged with sex crimes, including rape, faces trial in New York in January. He has pleaded not guilty.)

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This is the story of how Hollywood's unique power structure enabled sexual harassment to remain the entertainment industry's open secret. (Video: Nicki DeMarco, Erin Patrick O'Connor/Photo: Sarah Hashemi/The Washington Post)

In the wake of his landmark Weinstein story, Farrow, 31, went on to expose other powerful men and institutions, becoming the go-to journalist of the movement and the moment.

The immediate follow-up to his Weinstein reporting was his disclosure of the “catch and kill” tactics employed by American Media Inc., parent of the National Enquirer, to suppress stories it sometimes later used to blackmail celebrities (the phrase refers to paying sources for exclusive rights to their information and then withholding, or killing, the story). Among the beneficiaries of the tactic: President Trump. Former Playboy model Karen McDougal had told the Enquirer about her alleged affair with Trump, but her story was caught and killed by AMI during the 2016 campaign.

Farrow’s subsequent reporting brought down CBS boss Leslie Moonves and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (the latter piece co-written with Jane Mayer). Most recently, he revealed that an elite think tank at MIT had a secret funding source: the late billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The story prompted the abrupt resignation of its director.

Farrow, of course, is no ordinary reporter. Aside from his background as an intellectual prodigy, his mother is actress Mia Farrow and his father is Woody Allen, although both his parents have suggested at times that his real father is Frank Sinatra (to which Ronan Farrow quips: “We’re all possibly Frank Sinatra’s son. I’ll leave it at that”). His family issues have been tabloid fodder ever since Farrow’s sister, Dylan, accused Allen of molesting her when she was 7 in 1992.

Allen, who has denied the allegation and was never charged with a crime, later married their sister, Soon-Yi Previn, making the director both Ronan’s father and his brother-in-law. He is long estranged from Mia Farrow and the Farrow siblings.

Dylan Farrow is both the muse and moral center of “Catch and Kill” as Farrow, as an investigative reporter for NBC News in early 2017, sets about investigating vague allegations against Weinstein. She appears repeatedly throughout his narrative to spur him on as his reporting runs into obstructive forces, including, he writes, his bosses at NBC News. (In his desperation to shake Farrow, Weinstein at one point tried to lean on Woody Allen to persuade Farrow to back off; his representatives later argued that Farrow’s family history was a disqualifying conflict of interest.)

Dylan Farrow’s experience, and Allen’s long-running efforts to suppress and undermine her account, were a kind of foreground story for the book, Farrow says. But he adds, “This isn’t a story in which I’m the hero of her narrative.” Long before the #MeToo era, he confesses, he’d sometimes ask his sister to “shut up” about her accusations.

“I felt I had to be nakedly honest and vulnerable about that” in writing his account, he says. In tribute to his sister, Farrow included some of her illustrations in the book.

Befitting a Farrow story, “Catch and Kill” is chockablock with scoops and revelations. The most headline-grabbing is an allegation by a “Today” show producer, Brooke Nevils, that she was raped by Matt Lauer, the program’s co-host, when they were covering the Winter Olympics in 2014. Lauer — who was fired shortly after Nevils went to NBC’s management in late 2017 — vehemently denied Nevils’s account in a lengthy statement Wednesday.

Much of Farrow’s book seeks to answer a question that hovered in the background of his celebrated New Yorker article about Weinstein: Why did the story wind up in the New Yorker when Farrow spent months investigating him for NBC News?

In Farrow’s telling, Lauer is the key to that question. His thesis is that Weinstein pressured NBC News and its executives by using AMI’s accumulated dirt on Lauer to slow down and eventually stop Farrow’s reporting on Weinstein. Farrow writes that NBC covered up multiple allegations against Lauer stretching back years by paying his accusers and ensuring their silence through nondisclosure agreements (NDAs). He also writes about several instances of workplace misconduct by NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack, and MSNBC’s president, Phil Griffin, making them vulnerable to exposure by Weinstein.

In response, NBC News defended its record of covering harassment stories, citing its coverage of Bill Cosby, Jeffrey Epstein and others.

It was, Farrow says, “a corporate coverup.”

Farrow writes that NBC even had a corporate euphemism for its settlements — “enhanced severance” — that enabled it to plausibly deny that the payments were hush money.

Needless to say, this has touched off a battle royal with NBC. The network has vigorously disputed Farrow’s premise and his reporting about it. Lack said on Wednesday that NBC was unaware of any issues involving Lauer until Nevils stepped forward, reiterating NBC’s statement on the matter since the story first exploded.

Further, an executive familiar with the network’s legal affairs said in an interview with The Washington Post that Lauer was the subject of four employee complaints — but three of them came in after he was fired following Nevils’s allegations. Contrary to Farrow’s assertions, “there is no evidence of a pattern” of earlier claims, said the executive, who spoke with NBC’s approval but would not be identified.

In the days leading up to the book’s publication next Tuesday, the network has launched a furious public relations counterattack against Farrow. NBC News President Noah Oppenheim has visited seven news organizations, including The Post, to present an elaborate rebuttal, complete with binders containing timelines, interview transcripts, expense logs and contemporaneous text messages and emails to and from Farrow and his editors documenting his progress on the Weinstein story.

Matt Lauer was fired as co-host of the NBC "Today"show over allegations of sexual predation, which he disputes. (Richard Drew/AP)

The short version of Oppenheim's presentation is that Farrow's reporting wasn't ready, that he didn't have any of Weinstein's accusers on the record at the time he walked away in frustration in August 2017. "There was a wide circle of people [at NBC News], and there was unanimity at the time and there is now, that we made the only decision we could that [Farrow's reporting] hadn't met our standards for air," Oppenheim said.

But Farrow and his producer at the time, Rich McHugh, say they had several women on the record at the time, and commitments from others to follow suit. They also had a damning audio recording of a police sting in which Weinstein admits to assault.

NBC’s “actions were a massive breach of journalistic integrity,” said McHugh, who left NBC in 2018. “They can do all the verbal gymnastics they want, but at the end of the day, they ordered us to stop reporting.”

Farrow’s editor at the New Yorker, David Remnick, also said the reporting was well advanced, though not yet ready for publication, when Farrow initially walked into the magazine. It was published within seven weeks.

Interestingly, NBC doesn’t dispute one of Farrow’s scoops, a minor one but telling nonetheless. In the wake of the Weinstein imbroglio, he writes, the network hired a “Wikipedia whitewasher” to scrub references to the episode from some of its pages, a curious decision for a news organization dedicated to transparency. To this day, there’s no reference to the Weinstein affair under Oppenheim’s Wikipedia entry, and only a fleeting one in Lack’s.

Whatever the merits of NBC’s full-court press against “Catch and Kill,” the network’s campaign seems more likely to boost the book’s sales than to diminish it, and to raise the author’s already ascendant — some would say amazing — profile.

The short version of Farrow’s prodigious résumé:

He started college at the age of 11, and graduated at 15, whereupon he was immediately accepted into Yale Law School. He delayed entry at Yale to work as a speechwriter for Richard Holbrooke, the famed diplomat. He also became a spokesman for UNICEF in Sudan, Angola and Nigeria.

While still a teenager, he began publishing op-ed columns in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and other newspapers. His commentaries focused on issues involving Africa, such as the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan.

After finishing Yale Law at 21, he spent two years at the State Department during the Obama administration, running U.S. relations with nongovernmental organizations in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He also served as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s adviser for youth issues.

He then received a Rhodes Scholarship to study abroad at Oxford University.

NBC signed him to a contract at 25, handing him his own daytime MSNBC program, “Ronan Farrow Daily.” The show lasted a year before being canceled because of low ratings, but the network kept Farrow on as an investigative correspondent.

Soon enough, in one of the many overlapping elements and crisscrossing personalities that show up in “Catch and Kill,” Lauer was introducing Farrow’s reports on the “Today” show.

Along the way, Farrow wrote a best-selling book about the history of American diplomacy, “War on Peace,” published last year.

Earlier this year, he earned a PhD in international relations from Oxford. The subtitle of his 89,000-word thesis: “Political Representation and Strategic Reality in America’s Proxy Wars.” Farrow describes it as an examination of America’s collaborations with foreign militaries and militias.

Aside from Farrow’s formidable intellectual heft, Remnick, the New Yorker’s editor, said he saw something else in the young journalist during his reporting of the Weinstein story: empathy.

Producer Harvey Weinstein exits court after an arraignment over a new indictment for sexual assault on August 26, 2019, in New York. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

“I’ve seen a lot of investigative reporters, but I’ve never seen a situation where so much empathy was required,” Remnick says. “I saw his doggedness and the endless hours he put in, but I also had the opportunity to see him [interact] with the women who were treated so horribly by Weinstein, and it was quite something. There was sincerity. There was patience. It was empathy.”

Remnick doesn’t know whether Farrow was ever in real danger during this period (“I think the surveillance stuff was mostly designed to intimidate and scare him. I don’t think he was about to get a Luger in the back”), but he also said he never saw Farrow sweat under the pressure. “He was very, very cool,” he said.

While the cinematic elements of “Catch and Kill” make it likely bait for a movie or TV adaptation, Farrow says he hasn’t actively considered offers for the book, though there’s been interest in it since it was first announced last year. (Farrow himself is developing a series of documentaries for HBO about “the abuse of power by individuals and institutions”).

“I wanted to put the book first,” he says, “so I’ve kicked that decision [about selling the rights] down the road.” And then Dr. Farrow gives a gentle laugh, adding: “Not that I’m opposed to it.”

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newagesispage · 6 years ago

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MAY 2019

PAGE RIB

***** Illinois pot growers say that if more licenses aren’t issued to growers, there could be a shortage if recreational weed is legalized. Studies show that medical cannabis demand is under reported. ** Support Senate Bill 7 to legalize recreational marijuana. It is the early stages and has not yet been fleshed out but the bare bones of it passed the committee 12-4. Let’s go!

*****With the presentation of the Peabody award, Rita Moreno will become the third PEGOT winner on May 18. She will join Barbra Streisand and Mike Nichols on that list.

***** Harvard and Yale text book writing U.S. rep in California, Katie Porter is really shaking up the congressional hearings. Go Go Go!!

***** Could Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker have a way of keeping Trump off the ballot? Are the Dems getting as creative as the GOP? Illinois is looking into forcing candidates to show the last 10 years of their tax returns or their name will not appear on the ballot.

***** Michael Shannon and Audra McDonald are the newest to play Frankie and Johnny on Broadway.

***** Watching the clueless old white politicians on the Sunday morning shows (yea, you John Barraso) makes me a little queasy. ** And I get so tired of the talking heads speaking for the ‘middle of the country’. Most of the people I know care deeply about the Mueller report. Who the fuck are they talking about? Talk about special rules for our rich President as we remember Nixon and the Clintons. Why should Scary Clown 45 get such great treatment? I am always hearing about the ‘middle of the country’ worrying about feeding our families and fixing our cars and not knowing or caring about issues in Washington. It is true that so many are living the paycheck to paycheck dream and are burdened with health care and other emergencies they can’t afford but they pay attention to the political problems of this country too. Since citizens don’t have the time or the power or money to be in Washington, they rely on those they voted for to keep each other in line. Quit letting the shady shit go on. Have some backbone and do not let things slide. Simple rule: DO WHAT IS RIGHT.

***** Word is that Somebody paid off Brett Kavanaugh’s $92,000 country club fees, $200,000 credit card debt and 1.2 mil mortage. Seems like someone might own him.

***** Maria Butina was sentenced to 18 months.

***** The Man in the High Castle will end after season 4.

***** I love the way Abigail Disney is standing up to CEO’s. The points she makes are ones that the corporation heads always hope you won’t think about. Shouldn’t employees be treated fairly? If a CEO is motivated by their own bonus they are far more likely to overlook things like environmental damage, human rights violations and worker’s rights. Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz agrees.

***** When will the press (local and worldwide), give equal exposure to ALL candidates that run for office, especially President? We want to be informed. I do research but not everybody does and needs it to be easily accessible. Sometimes you have to spoon feed but why is it so hard to be fair? Enough with the agendas!!! There also needs to be more places to look for local issues. I hear so many citizens that tell me they don’t know what will be on the ballot. The info can be hard to find but USA Facts helps. Check it out!

***** Four days after confirmation, secretary of interior, David Bernhardt is under investigation for ethical misconduct.

***** Rod Rosenstein is out! His good bye included praise for the Pres and thanking him for all the personal conversations!! What He is the Deputy AG. What??

***** Jordan Klepper did a great gag on comedy central with the Clintons about Hil doing the audio book of the Mueller report. Yes!!

***** The Trumps are suing Deutsche bank and Capital One so they won’t turn over financial records to congress. Aren’t these actions obstruction of congress?

***** Indivisible is getting voters and candidates to sign a pledge to make the primary constructive and support the ultimate democratic winner.

***** Thank you to Tricia Newbold who is the WH whistle blower who let us know about Trump overriding security clearances. Rumor is that to punish her they took advantage of her physical limitations and purposely put files high and out of her reach. Wow! That is right out of high school.

***** Julian Assange was taken into custody and it seems he has turned into some sort of odd Howard Hughes character.

***** Hollywood is putting on a fundraiser for Mayor Pete. The event will be co-hosted by Ryan Murphy and hubby David Miller, Matt Bomer, Jess Cagle and hubby Matt Whitney and Billy Eichner among others. Murphy also hosted Kamala Harris on April 12. Some of Pete’s major donors have been Ryan Reynolds, Jane Lynch, Mandy Moore, Bradley Whitford and James Murdoch.

***** The Webby awards have been announced. Some winners are Billy on the Street, James Corden, Schitt’s Creek, Pod Save the People and Jimmy Kimmel’s mean tweets. Best music video went to Donald Glover for This is America and The Daily won for its onald J. Trump presidential twitter library.

***** Better Call Saul will call it quits after season 6.

***** Charlize Theron and Seth Rogan star in Long Shot, a political rom com out May 3.

*****& Sara Gilbert joins season 3 of Atypical!!!!!

***** Mushroom season is here and it looks like our friend Kavin is sure bringing ‘em home.

***** The shower toga looks like a great get for the festival scene.

***** Barry has been picked up for season 3. Hell yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

***** The state of Georgia wants to make any embryo a fully legalized citizen. An embryo would count on taxes and be able to receive child support.

***** Please let the immigrant children out of their cages!

***** Stacey Abrams has a best seller, Lead from the Outside.

***** Did Harper Lee write ‘The Reverand?’ Oh how I wish I knew!!

***** When will the Bob Geldof story make it to the big screen and can Pete Davidson play him please??

***** Tuca and Bertie from Netflix looks awesome. It has to be good with stars Ali Wong and Tiffany Haddish!!

***** John Lithgow is about to release a book with his poetry about the President which will carry the title of his pet name (everybody seems to have one for Trump), Dumpty.

***** The Sultan of Brunei owns the Hotel Bel-Air in L.A. and the Beverly Hills Hotel. His country will now stone gay people to death. BOYCOTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*****

***** Tim Ryan is running for President.

***** Seth Moulton is running for President.

***** Joe Biden is running for President.

***** What the hell is happening to Steak ‘n Shake??

***** What the hell is the matter with Senator Mike Lee? He makes a ridiculous presentation with a flying Reagan and all and now he says that babies may be the answer to climate change. He says we need to be free and develop. What is this gut talking about? Why are people like this getting into office?

***** There is a new podcast called Analysis of a killer.

***** Marianne Williamson is running for President.

***** Eric Swalwell is running for President.

***** The notion that Trumps twitter is like a national nanny cam makes perfect sense.

***** Can’t wait to read Seth Abramson’s, Proof of collusion.

***** The question isn’t really collusion. The redacted Mueller report is out and we now see why the team itself did not draw conclusions. All the evidence is there and a sitting President can’t be indicted…. Or can he? There are, however, multiple examples of corruption. It didn’t cost as much as other independent counsel reports because of all the fines that were charged to Manafort and others pretty much paid for it. Mueller called and wrote to Attorney General Barr and told him he created confusion with his memo and that it didn’t really tell the story.

***** In about 12 years Mueller Probe will be a cool name for a band. –Sarah Silverman

***** Federal appellate judge Maryanne Trump Barry, sister of the President has officially retired at age 82. She was put on the U.S. court of appeals by Bill Clinton. And with that, so ends the investigation into her alleged violations of judicial conduct rules because of participation in fraudulent tax schemes with her siblings in the 90’s.

***** I loved the mash up of Trevor Noah taking over the chair and interviewing Colbert on the Late Show.

***** Oliver North and Wayne LaPierre have been fighting amongst themselves at the NRA. Blackmail? Was North trying to get LaPierre out? The board is standing by the VP while North seems aligned with a public relations firm that some board members disagree with. There are many financial questions as well. Once again the NRA held its annual convention which does not allow guns. At the end of April North was forced out

***** The Universe is about a billion years younger than we thought according to astronomer Adam Riess. This is causing experts to look into rethinking dark energy and dark matter. Total mind blow!!!

***** People have taken to wearing Free Britney T’s. Her fans held a protest in L.A. to free her from the facility they believe she was forced into.

***** It seems fads lately are all about internet speak like. “felt cute ….” And etc. like that.

***** They are working on a Beauty and the Beast themed bar in Florida.

***** Seymour, Indiana recently uncovered pieces of a mastodon.

***** Mia Farrow has a cute little blue headed bird that visits here every morning. Is it Sinatra?

***** U go Grace Jones, showing us how to do it at 70!!!!!!

***** J Lo and Owen Wilson will star in Marry Me about a pop star who marries a random man in the crowd.

***** Magic Johnson resigned as President of the Lakers. The Owner and general manager were supposedly bad mouthing him.

***** The sweetest moment in the inductions on this year’s rock and roll hall of fame was the love shown for Rick Allen, the drummer for Def Leppard.

***** So twice as many companies don’t pay taxes now thanks to all the tax cuts. Some even get refunds. Scary Clown sure is making it work for the big guys!!

***** Former President of Peru, Alan Garcia shot himself before his arrest for corruption.

***** Wendy Williams and Howard Stern seem to be having a little war of words. She claims he has gone Hollywood and he called her a cunt. She has filed for divorce from this apparently nasty hubby of hers. I thought I heard her say just weeks ago that they were fine.

***** Joel McHale is in the new season of Santa Clarita Diet.

***** Has anybody checked out John Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg ( Wow! Talk about getting the whole treatment) lately ? John F’s only grandson, better known as Jack Schlossberg , has a bright future ahead.

***** Lori Lightfoot has been elected the first black, openly gay woman as Mayor of Chicago.

***** Dave Tilley beat out John McCarty, who passed away in February, to become Spring Bay, Il. Village President.

*****Britney Spears’ Father is in ill health and Britney checked into a facility.

***** Zachary Quinto stars in the new NOS4A2.

***** It’s funny to me that when a true crime story hour begins, you never hear that he (cuz 9 times out of 10 it is the male spouse who is the culprit), was an atheist or an agnostic. No, it is always that he or the family attended church regularly or that they were close to God. This is just a pattern I have observed, totally my own thoughts. Sometimes it gets way outer limits with the Fathers who sort of run their own cult out of the house. Of course this is not a blanket statement for we see wonderful things being done in the name of the Lord. It just seems like there is a fine line where religion can be used as a way to hold their power and hide secrets. JS

***** Herman Cain and or Stephen Moore on the Federal regulatory board? Well, Herman Cain dropped out.

***** Andrew Yang is running for President. Join the Yang Gang!! He wants to free all prisoners with non -violent marijuana offenses, free healthcare for all and every adult gets $1000.00 a month.

***** The Criminal Minds cast is ending their run. I think they should get together one more time and do a sort of Agatha Christie whodunit.

***** Secretary of Homeland security, Kirstjen Nielsen is out.

***** Acting ICE director, Ron Vitiello is out.

***** Dislike the elite? Nobody is more elite that Trump. How do so many people not get that?

***** Every woman should be able to tell her truth and who knows what makes a person uncomfortable but I think Joe Biden is going thru some bullshit. I don’t agree with everything he has done thru the years but I trust Biden and think he would be a great President. I do think, however that his moment has passed.

***** Check out the behind the scenes book of Washington, ‘The Hill to die on’ by Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer. More proof that Trump just looks at everything as just a big show with his quote,“ There are ratings for everything.”

***** The Profiles in Courage award this year goes to Nancy Pelosi.

***** I have seen the pharmaceutical reps while at some recent Dr.visits, buying elaborate catered affairs for the medical staff. It is a weekly thing. They sure have some money to throw around. No wonder everybody is hooked on something.

***** Real National emergencies: The electoral college, the discrepancies between the rich and the poor which makes it impossible to achieve the American dream, climate change and healthcare.

***** The co- founder of Home Depot, Ken Langone has seen to it that medical school students at NYU are given free tuition always. YEOW!!

***** We should take a lesson from Sudan. They have ousted President Omar al-Bashir, the butcher of Dafur. The protests have led to his indictment for genocide and crimes against humanity.

***** We never stop learning: Archaeologists have discovered an extinct human species they have never known in the Phillipines that they are calling homo luzonensis.

***** Is Cody Fern teasing us on Instagram about season 9 of American Horror Story:1984?

***** Rumple Buttercup by Matthew Gray Gubler hit #1 on the NY Times bestseller list.

***** As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Tarantino’s Palme d’or win in Cannes, he is busy editing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It isn’t clear if he’ll get the film to this year’s event. Word is coming out that it is fantastic though.

***** I am a little bit sickened that the worst cooks show actually has Jimmie Walker and Tonya Harding on the same show. Can’t the world find something better for a talent like Walker?? Come on!!

***** Is Stephen Miller and Fox news really running this country?

***** R.I.P. Mildred Mercy Tomes, Christine Marie Rinehart, Sen. Ernest Hollings, Dan Robbins, Shag Sheckler, Charles Van Doren, Georgia Engel, victims of the Sri Lanka shrine and hotel bombings, Lyra Mckee, David Brion Davis, MyLecia Naylor, Shelley Lazar, Mark Medoff, Warren Adler , Lori Kaye, John Singleton, victims of the University of North Carolina shooting and Ken Kercheval.

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hermannovack · 6 years ago

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Source: Vivien Killilea / Getty

Terry Crews Slams National Enquirer’s Publisher

The National Enquirer is in some really hot water right now.

This all started when Jeff Bezos accused The National Enquirer of extortion, claiming that the tabloid leveraged the Amazon CEO’s nude pictures in hopes of stopping his investigation into the company’s motives. Quickly thereafter, acclaimed journalist Ronan Farrow alleged that he had faced similar extortion threats from the media company.

Now, Terry Crews has also come forward to accuse American Media, Inc. of trying to intimidate him to make him drop his lawsuit against WME agent Adam Venit. “This same company, AMI, tried to silence me in my lawsuit against WME and Adam Venit by fabricating stories of me with prostitutes—and even went so far as creating fake receipts,” Crews announced on Twitter.

This same company, AMI, tried to silence me in my lawsuit against @wme and Adam Venit by fabricating stories of me with prostitutes— and even went so far as creating fake receipts.

I called their bluff by releasing their threats online. They blinked. https://t.co/S6lMZ5K6Tb

— terry crews (@terrycrews) February 8, 2019

Terry Crews sued WME and Adam Venit after alleging that the former agent groped him at a party back in 2016. Both parties ended up settling in 2018 and Venit resigned from the company shortly after that. The actor is now alleging that while this lawsuit situation was going on, AMI threatened to publish fabricated accounts of Crews’ affiliation with prostitutes.

Jeff Bezos recently announced that he opened a personally-funded investigation to determine how the National Enquirer obtained the explicit text messages he exchanged with his mistress. The mogul first claimed that the story may have been “politically motivated,” coinciding with Donald Trump’s deep-seated hatred of the Amazon CEO. Bezos also alleged that AMI threatened to release his nude photos should he continue investigating how they obtained them.

The post The Saga Continues: Terry Crews Accuses National Enquirer’s Publisher Of Blackmailing Him appeared first on NEWS.

via http://bit.ly/2WTwH52

#IFTTT #NEWS #news #the news #thenewsfyi #news flash #breaking news #politics #culture

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marymosley · 6 years ago

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Did National Enquirer Extort Jeff Bezos?

In an incredible disclosure, the Amazon founder and owner of The Washington Post Jeff Bezos has released what he says was communications from the National Enquirer that sought to blackmail him into dropping an investigation into the tabloid’s motivations in targeting Bezos, a long target of President Donald Trump. The tabloid is of course owned by close Trump friend David Pecker, who is viewed by many as a thoroughly disreputable businessman. On this occasion, however, Bezos says that he has something that has long been missing: an actual letter laying out the alleged extortive pitch. In the middle of this sordid mess is an American Media, Inc. (AMI) attorney named Jon Fine, who identifies himself as the Associate General Counsel. The role of an attorney in such a matter could raise very serious bar and ethical concerns.

Bezos has been embroiled in an embarrassing divorce controversy where his affair with entertainment personality Lauren Sanchez has become public knowledge with the publication of cringeworthy pictures and messages.

Bezos hired investigators to look into the release of the private information. In the meantime, he alleges that he received emails from attorneys representing AMI on Thursday evening threatening him that if he did not stop an investigation into the National Enquirer, the tabloid would release more damaging photos. In a commendable move, Bezos refused to be blackmailed. In a Medium post under the title, “No thank you, Mr. Pecker,” Bezos disclosed everything and may have triggered a serious scandal touching on both legal and media circles.

In January, the National Enquirer published a story detailing an alleged affair between the billionaire and entertainment personality Lauren Sanchez, publishing pictures and text messages between the couple. Bezos funded an immediate investigation into “how those texts were obtained, and to determine the motives for the many unusual actions taken by the Enquirer.” The obvious suggestion is that Pecker and his organization was again mixing its media assets with political motives.

One would have thought that the last thing any rational person would do is to send a threatening letter suggesting a quid pro quo. Yet, in an email on Feb. 5, 2019, Deputy General Counsel Jon Fine warns Bezos about “continuing defamatory activities.” It was an empty threat. However, then came the kicker: “Absent the immediate cessation of the defamatory conduct, we will have no choice but to pursue all remedies available under applicable law. That said, if your client agrees to cease and desist such defamatory behavior, we are willing to engage in constructive conversations regarding the texts and photos which we have in our possession.”

That sounds a lot like the threat to release damaging pictures unless Bezos pulled back the Washington Post or investigators from digging further into the motivations of the National Enquirer conduct.

Let’s stop here for a moment. The response of Bezos itself raises some concerns in the investigation of a publication. Moreover, the Post itself is in a problematic position in covering a scandal involving its own owner. The fact is that the coverage of Bezos is exactly what the National Enquirer does. He is a celebrity and the tabloid runs sensational stories about celebrities. This is a grocery store tabloid that traffics in gossip. There is nothing particularly atypical or unpredictable in running this story. The Post published a story about the leaked texts under the headline, “Was tabloid exposé of Bezos affair just juicy gossip or a political hit job?”

What is highly unusual and untoward are the emails sent by Fine. If the first email was reckless, the second email on Feb. 6th was pure insanity. Fine demanded that Bezos publicly reject the Post’s coverage and announce “that they have no knowledge of basis for suggesting that American Media Inc.’s coverage was politically motivated of influencer by political forces, and an agreement that they will cease referring to such a possibility.” Then came the quid pro quo: “AM agrees not to publish, distribute, share or describe unpublished texts and photos.”

There is no question that the threat violates core journalistic principles, but AMI and the National Enquirer have never been particular concern with such professional rules. Pecker himself is a much reviled figure for his sleazy conduct. The legal ethical question could be more debatable, but there are good-faith objections that could be raised over the involvement of Fine and other lawyers.

Fine seems utterly clueless or careless in making such a threat. He is seeking to influence coverage of his client by threatening the release of embarrassing material against the owner of a media company. This follows the disgraceful role played by Pecker and AMI in serving as a conduit for hush money to former Playboy model Karen McDougal to help President Trump. AMI secured immunity in exchange for cooperating with the Mueller investigation. In that scandal, reporter Ronan Farrow also accused AMI of threatening to “ruin” him if he continued his efforts to uncover the truth about Pecker and AMI.

Bezos lowered the boom in his posting that began:

“Something unusual happened to me yesterday. Actually, for me it wasn’t just unusual — it was a first. I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. Or at least that’s what the top people at the National Enquirer thought. I’m glad they thought that, because it emboldened them to put it all in writing. Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten.”

Subject to a cooperating argument with the Special Counsel over his use of AMI to protect Trump from scandal, it could prove highly problematic for Pecker to be continuing such work against one of Trump’s critics while working with the Special Counsel.

In one communication from Chief Content Officer for AMI Dylan Howard, counsel for Bezos’ investigator is giving the following list of possible images that could be posted if Bezos does not do what AMI demands:

However, in the interests of expediating this situation, and with The Washington Post poised to publish unsubstantiated rumors of The National Enquirer’s initial report, I wanted to describe to you the photos obtained during our newsgathering.

In addition to the “below the belt selfie — otherwise colloquially known as a ‘d*ck pick’” — The Enquirer obtained a further nine images. These include:

· Mr. Bezos face selfie at what appears to be a business meeting.

· Ms. Sanchez response — a photograph of her smoking a cigar in what appears to be a simulated oral sex scene.

· A shirtless Mr. Bezos holding his phone in his left hand — while wearing his wedding ring. He’s wearing either tight black cargo pants or shorts — and his semi-erect manhood is penetrating the zipper of said garment.

· A full-length body selfie of Mr. Bezos wearing just a pair of tight black boxer-briefs or trunks, with his phone in his left hand — while wearing his wedding ring.

· A selfie of Mr. Bezos fully clothed.

· A full-length scantily-clad body shot with short trunks.

· A naked selfie in a bathroom — while wearing his wedding ring. Mr. Bezos is wearing nothing but a white towel — and the top of his pubic region can be seen.

· Ms. Sanchez wearing a plunging red neckline dress revealing her cleavage and a glimpse of her nether region.

· Ms. Sanchez wearing a two-piece red bikini with gold detail dress revealing her cleavage.

It would give no editor pleasure to send this email. I hope common sense can prevail — and quickly.

Dylan.

What is particularly concerning is the involvement of an attorney in this sordid affair. Fine offers a quid pro quo:

2. A public, mutually-agreed upon acknowledgment from the Bezos Parties, released through a mutually-agreeable news outlet, affirming that they have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AM’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces, and an agreement that they will cease referring to such a possibility.

3. AM agrees not to publish, distribute, share, or describe unpublished texts and photos (the “Unpublished Materials”).

It is not clear if this constitutes a federal crime but an argument could be made that it is blackmail or extortion. Under 18 U.S.C. §873:

“Whoever, under a threat of informing, or as a consideration for not informing, against any violation of any law of the United States, demands or receives any money or other valuable thing, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”

Moreover, there are serious ethical rules that could apply to a review of the conduct of attorneys like Fine. Fine was only recently given his position at AMI. A graduate of the University of Virginia, he previously worked at Open Road Integrated Media Inc. It is not clear where he is a bar member. The common rule of professional conduct (Rule 8.4) stipulates:

It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to:

(a) Violate or attempt to violate the Rules of Professional Conduct, knowingly assist or induce another to do so, or do so through the acts of another; (b) Commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer in other respects; (c) Engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation; (d) Engage in conduct that seriously interferes with the administration of justice; (e) State or imply an ability to influence improperly a government agency or official; (f) Knowingly assist a judge or judicial officer in conduct that is a violation of applicable rules of judicial conduct or other law; or (g) Seek or threaten to seek criminal charges or disciplinary charges solely to obtain an advantage in a civil matter.

Fine could portray this as simply a fight between two organizations. He could argue that he was merely being open about a common understanding between media organizations to reach a type of truce. He was neither hiding nor misleading in his intentions. Moreover, he could note that Bezos was using his organization to trash AMI and he was seeking to end the mutually destructive conflict.

Yet, Fine is clearly threatening to embarrass Bezos unless he did something of value for AMI and Pecker (in clearly them from any improper conduct). Since Pecker and AMI targeting a Trump critic could be raised in conjunction with his criminal cooperation agreement, there is a motivation that could be raised outside of the embarrassment of the coverage. If Pecker and AMI are still working to advance the interests of Trump, Mueller might reconsider his past statements as well as his cooperation.

The problem is who will investigate this sordid affair. Unless Mueller is willing to investigate his own cooperating witness, the other possibilities be Congress or the bar. What is clear is that someone needs to investigate.

Did National Enquirer Extort Jeff Bezos? published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

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