Bonner dropped into the seat opposite him.
"Hello," he said. He looked over at the trade paper. "See the write-up our girl got?"
Dan nodded.
"That wasn't the half of it," Bonner said. "Al Petrocelli told me he never saw anything like it.
They wouldn't let her get off the stage and then when it was over, they almost tore her clothes off while she was getting to the car.
Hope called me first thing this morning and said he wants her any time she's available."
"More proof that I’m right," Pierce said. "I think she's bigger now than Marlowe ever was." He shot a shrewd glance at Bonner. "Still going up there one night a week?"
Bonner smiled. There were no secrets in this town.
"No. After The Sinner opened in New York, Cord tore up her old contract and gave her a new one."
"I don't get it."
"It's simple," Bonner said.
"The morning she got the contract, she came into my office. She borrowed my pen and signed it, then looked up at me and said,
'Now I don't have to fuck for nobody.
Even you!'
And she picks up the contract and walks out."
Pierce laughed.
"I don't believe her. Once a cunt, always a cunt. She's got an angle."
"She has. Jonas Cord.
I got a hunch she's going to marry him."
"That would serve the son of a bitch right," Pierce said harshly. "He still doesn't know she was a whore?"
"He doesn't know."
"Just shows you. No matter how smart you think you are, there's always some bint that's smarter." Pierce laughed.
"How's Jonas doing?"
"Making nothing but money," Bonner said.
"But you know Jonas. He still isn't happy."
"Why not?"
"He tried to get into the Air Corps and they wouldn't take him.
They refused to give him a commission, saying he was too important to the war effort.
So he leaves Washington in a huff and flies to New York and enlists as a private, the schmuck."
"But he still ain't in the Army," Pierce said.
"Of course not.
He flunked the physical – perforated eardrums or something stupid like that.
So they classify him 4-F and the next week, they take Roger Forrester back as a brigadier general."
"I hear David's going up for his physical soon," Pierce said.
"Any day now, the jerk. He could easily get a deferment.
Married, with a baby; especially now the industry's got an essential rating. But he won't ask for it." He looked across the table at Pierce. "Even Nevada's taking his Wild-West show out on the road to work for free on the War Bond drives."
"It just proves that there are still some people around who think the world is flat," Dan said. He signaled the waiter for another round of drinks. "All those guys. I practically started them in the business. Today they all got it made and where am I?
Still trying to make a deal."
Bonner looked at him.
He didn't feel sorry for Pierce. Dan was still one of the most successful agents in Hollywood.
"Yeah," he said sarcastically. "My heart bleeds for you.
I already heard the story of your life, Dan. That isn't why I came to lunch."
Dan was a sharp enough agent to know he was in danger of losing his audience.
He turned off the complaints and lowered his voice to a confidential tone.
"You read the script?"
Bonner picked the script up from the seat beside him and placed it on the table.
"I read it."
"Great, isn't it?" Pierce asked, the selling enthusiasm beginning to creep into his voice.
"It's good." Bonner nodded his head pedantically. "Needs a lot of work, though."
"What script doesn't?" Pierce asked with a smile.