Temptation by Douglas Kennedy

Author:Douglas Kennedy [Douglas Kennedy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2010-05-05T16:00:00+00:00

Two

THANKS TO THE dubious wonders of technology, Tracy was able to scan Theo McCall’s new column and have it dispatched to my home computer screen within minutes. Sally stood over me as I sat down to read it. But she didn’t put a reassuring hand on my shoulder, nor did she utter any words of support. In the time between the end of my phone call with Brad and the arrival of the article, she said nothing. Nothing at all. She simply stared at me with something approaching incredulity . . . the same sort of disbelief that I saw in Lucy’s face on the night I told her I was in love with someone else. The disbelief that accompanies a betrayal.

But I hadn’t been trying to betray anyone. Not even myself.

I sat down at the computer. I went online. Tracy’s dispatch was waiting for me. I opened it. There, in bold print, was the article in question. I wasn’t just stunned by its length, but also by its headline:

THE INSIDE DIRT by Theo McCall

IS THE ‘ACCIDENTAL PLAGIARIST’ REALLY

THAT ACCIDENTAL?

New Evidence Uncovers Selling You Creator David Armitage’s Penchant for the Borrowed Line

As we all know, Hollywood is an industry that will overlook any venal or mortal sin committed by one of its own . . . as long as the individual in question is well connected and profitable. Whereas a mere mortal like you or me would find themselves permanently unemployable after being found in sizeable possession of a Class A drug – or caught in flagrante delicto with some jailbait minor – the entertainment industry closes ranks behind their own whenever such pesky little problems besmirch them. And whereas most self-respecting newspapers, magazines or centres of higher education would immediately dismiss (with extreme prejudice) any writer or academic who perpetrated the offence of plagiarism, in Hollywood they will go to excessive lengths to guard the reputation of a literary shoplifter. Especially if the shoplifter in question is the writer of one of the hottest television series of the past few years.

Two weeks ago, this column pointed out that David Armitage – the abundantly talented, Emmy-Award-winning creator of Selling You – had allowed a couple of lines of dialogue from the classic newspaper play, The Front Page, to end up in one of his scripts. Instead of simply acknowledging the error and moving on, Mr Armitage and his people at FRT went on the offensive, finding a sympathetic hack at Variety to write his side of the story . . . the same hack, by the way, who was, just last year, romantically involved with FRT’s Head of Publicity while on sabbatical from his marriage. And before you could say ‘nepotism’, many of Hollywood’s leading scribes were lining up to sing Mr Armitage’s praises and to damn the journalist for daring to point out the transposition of four lines from one script to another.

Naturally, the most bellicose of all the writerly voices was the Papa Hemingway of Santa Barbara, Justin

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