Sex and Violence (and repeat)--First Friday with Rita

SEX AND VIOLENCE, SEX AND VIOLENCE, go together like a horse and carriage…

 Hum along if you wish. Priscilla is right. Why on earth are they seen together so often?

 In the 1970s while I toiled within the gates of Sodom and Gomorrah, aka Hollywood, as a scriptwriter, I was invited to appear on a panel on that very same subject.  I was in very famous company. Some of the top movie and TV writers appeared alongside me.

Sorry, I don’t remember anymore who was there. But we attracted a big crowd. Everyone seemingly concerned about where those two hot subjects were heading. Each panelist gave an impassioned speech. Cut down on violence. It was destroying our children. Blatant sex belonged in the porno world. Let’s keep the arts safe. Yada yada…

Well, you know how that went.

Copycat me will copy Camille and give you an incident in my career.  It’s 1978. I went into the network to pitch a story for a TV movie I was commissioned to write. Sex was what the title was about since it was based on a song called Torn Between Two Lovers. Yet, nothing in the lyrics stated the obvious. Infidelity was a delicate subject. We had to tread on egg shells. The script would be handled with tact, subtlety, class and never that word would be uttered. The S word. 

Sex or violence. Your choice.

So I’m building to second act climax (oops, no pun intended here) I tell Ms twelve-year- old network exec (at least that’s how she looked to me) that our star would have just come home from a secret liaison with this hunky guy she met (and to her own chagrin she was attracted to a man, not her hubby.) They had, er…intimate relations… Anyway, so as not to drag this out, she arrives home and oh, boy, shock. Her hubby has returned early from his business trip. And he wants, er…intimate relations…

In my mind, at that moment our star is filled with mortification and shame and guilt and every other emotion possible to dredge up all at the same time.

I pause, expectantly (no pun intended here either) waiting for our chick exec to respond to this high point in my drama.

She speaks, “So…?

I say “So, what do you mean, so?”

She says, “I mean so what. What’s the big deal?”

And at that moment I saw the future. Nothing would ever shock anyone anymore. Ever.

Comments

[Camille Minichino]

oy. Now, no big deal, the hubby would also have had Intimate Relations on the flight home. I wonder if the trend will peak (pun) and go back to twin beds on the screen for married couples.

[Susan Shea]

Camille, I don't see a return to twin beds on screen any time soon, unless it was a man who was having a strange three-way with twin women!

[Camille Minichino]

haha I'm sure you're right, Susan!

[rita lakin]

susan eek, what an image. the man trying to keep a leg on each bed at the same time. Fill in the rest yourself.

[Ann]

It's come a long way from I Love Lucy... Wasn't it considered "not done" to show a pregnant woman on TV or some such? I seem to recall reading that the series almost didn't get off the ground because of that. I do remember the episodes when she was pregnant with her son, though.

[Priscilla]

Love your story, Rita! I do think there are extremes of prudishness and inyourface sexuality. Much prefer the inuendo and leaving a bit to the imagination myself but I hated the Code in films and thought the twin beds pathetic. Yada, yada...

[Michael A. Black]

"Torn Between Two Lovers" . . . What a great song. Maureen McGovern, right? And the TV movie starred Lee Remick and George Peppard. It was so truamtic for him that he enlisted in "The A Team." Talk about sex and violence...

[rita lakin]

Michael, LOL
I used to live up the street from Peppard and his dog used to tempt my dog out of the yard and finally my dog got hit by a car. Now, there's violence.

They hired him to be sexy in my movie, but all I could think about was my dog.
Is this a non sequiter?

[Michael A. Black]

Sorry to hear about your dog. I've lost a few pets myself and know it's hard. As my brother Andrew says, losing them wouldn't be so hard if love ended with life.