"ERIN BROCKOVICH" A True Story by Susannah Grant PRODUCTION DRAFT 03/22/99 INT. DR. JAFFE'S OFFICE - DAY A successful-looking doctor sits behind a desk in a well- appointed office. He's looking at someone off-camera. DR. JAFFE Uh, but you have no actual medical training? ERIN (off) No. I have kids. Learned a lot right there. I've seen nurses give my son a throat culture. I mean what is it -- you stick a giant Q-tip down their throat and wait. Or a urine analysis, with that dipstick that tells you whether or not the white count is high... DR. JAFFE Yes, I understand. ERIN (off) And, I mean, I'm great with people. Of course, you'd have to observe me to know for sure, but trust me on that one. I'm extremely fast learner. I mean, you show me what to do in a lab once, and I've got it down. He nods. Now we see who he is talking to: ERIN BROCKOVICH. How to describe her? A beauty queen would come to mind -- which, in fact, she was. Tall in a mini skirt, legs crossed, tight top, beautiful -- but clearly from a social class and geographic orientation whose standards for displaying beauty are not based on subtlety. ERIN ...for instance, at one point I wanted to be an engineer, so I was working at Fleuer Engineers and Constructors in Irvine. I fell madly in love with geology. DR. JAFFE Geology? ERIN I learned how to read maps. I love maps. Did you know our present system for map-making dates back to the ancient Greeks in like the third century B.C.? DR. JAFFE No. ERIN Anyway, I was at the company and -- this is interesting, actually -- I helped Ramish Ginatra design, as an assistant, part of the Alaskan pipeline... DR. JAFFE Uh-huh. ERIN ...But I lost that job because my son came down with the Chicken Pox and 104 temperature and my ex-husband was useless, so... ya know... But what I want to tell you is I, uh... I had always wanted to go to medical school. That was my first interest really... but then I, you know, got married... had a kid too young and... that kind of blew it for me... Jaffe stares at her. DR. JAFFE Uh-huh. ERIN (beat, looks around) This is a really nice office. Jaffe looks down at her resume, trying to figure a polite route. DR. JAFFE Thanks. (looks up at her) Look... Beat. By Erin's expression, she knows what's coming. EXT. DR. JAFFE'S OFFICE / SO. CALIFORNIA SUBURB - MAIN DRAG - DAY A side street. No pedestrians, just parked cars. Erin is finishing a cigarette. Her face has fallen -- the enthusiasm and spirit she showed in the interview are now replaced by a desperate type of concern. She takes a final puff, puts the cigarette out and walks to her car. A PARKING TICKET flaps under the wiper of an old Hyundai. ERIN Fuck. Even when she talks dirty, there's a heartland goodness to her voice. Like Kansas corn fields swaying in the breeze. As she grabs the ticket from the windshield, her sunglasses accidentally CLATTER to the ground. ERIN Shit. When she picks them up, a fingernail snags on the pavement. ERIN God damn it. She tends to the nail as she opens her car door and gets in. WIDER ON THE STREET The Hyundai starts it up, signals. Then, just as it pulls slowly out into the street, a JAGUAR barrels around the corner, accelerating out of the turn, and SLAMS into the side of Erin's car, sending it CAREENING into the median. It SMASHES into a foot-thick lightpost. And stops. EXT. MASRY & VITITOE - DAY A respectable building in the valley. ROSALIND (O.S.) Morning, Mr. Masry. How you doing today? INT. MASRY & VITITOE - RECEPTION - DAY A sign over the reception desk reads: MASRY & VITITOE, ATTORNEYS AT LAW. ED MASRY, senior partner in the firm, enters the office and approaches his secretary's desk. His avuncular presence masks a savvy legal mind, and his somewhat rumpled appearance indicates a disinterest in pretense. ED Fine. You? ROSALIND Did you watch it last night? ED No, I was out. I taped it. Don't tell me what happens. ROSALIND (overlapping him, excitedly) It's sooo great... (as he walks to office) Your nine o'clock's already in there. Ed peers into his office. It's a mess -- papers everywhere, unopened mail. Standing in the middle of the room is Erin, in a teensy, leopard-print mini-dress. As she jiggles a spike- heeled foot, everything about her shimmies gloriously. Except her head, which is held in place by a neck brace. ED Remind me. BRENDA Erin Brockovich. Car accident. Not her fault, she says. (beat. They exchange looks) She was referred. He nods. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - ED'S OFFICE - DAY Not an office that necessarily exudes authority, and ED's blustery entrance only adds to the sense of chaos. ED Erin -- hi. Sorry you had to wait. Here, sit down, sit down. He clears a stack of papers off a chair, places down a mug of coffee. ERIN Thanks a lot. (as she sits) I tell you, I never thought just standing would take it out of me, but ever since that shithead hit me, it feels like my whole body's put together wrong. Ed gives her a look of pro-forma sympathy. ED (sits) Jesus, you poor thing. Did anyone ask if you want some coffee? ERIN Yeah. I'm fine. ED Great. Well, listen... whoever did this to you made one hell of a mistake, and you and me, we're gonna make him pay for it. He sips coffee like it's a healing potion, takes out a pad and paper, gets ready to write. ED Why don't you tell me what happened? CUT TO: INT. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COURTROOM - DAY Erin is on the stand, wearing the most conservative thing she owns: a red, form-fitting mini dress, telling her story to Ed, who's questioning her. ERIN I was pulling out real slow, and out of nowhere, his Jaguar comes racing around the corner like a bat outta hell... She glances at the defendant's table, where a DOCTOR sits nobly. His WIFE and two beautiful KIDS are behind him. A frigging Norman Rockwell painting. LATER IN HER TESTIMONY ERIN They took some bone from my hip and put it in my neck. I didn't have insurance, so I'm about seventeen thousand in debt right now. STILL LATER ERIN ...couldn't take painkillers 'cause they made me too groggy to take care of my kids. STILL LATER ERIN ...Matthew's six, Katie's four, and Beth's just nine months. STILL LATER ERIN ...just wanna be a good mom, a nice person, a decent citizen. Just wanna take good care of my kids. You know? ED (oh so moved) Yeah. I know. INT. COURTROOM - LATER Erin is still on the stand. But now the doctor's lawyer is questioning her. DEFENDING LAWYER Seventeen thousand in debt. Whew. Is your ex-husband helping out? ERIN Which one? DEFENDING LAWYER (feigning shock) There's more than one? ERIN Yeah. There's two. Why? Erin looks over at the jury. The personification of conservative family values. Oh, shit. LATER IN HER TESTIMONY ERIN (getting defensive) ...not like a career, 'cause I had my babies. But I woulda worked, for sure, if I didn't have this neck thing. Erin sees a juror staring in judgment at her short hem. Erin gives it a tug, pulling it down a stitch. DEFENDING LAWYER (sarcastic) Right. No doubt. Erin sees a few jurors share dubious glances. Great. STILL LATER The defendant's lawyer is on the offensive. Erin's starting to feel the case slipping away. DEFENDING LAWYER So. You must've been feeling pretty desperate that afternoon. ERIN (pointed) What's your point? Ed shakes his head slightly to her -- don't get mad. DEFENDING LAWYER Broke, three kids, no job. A doctor in a Jaguar must've looked like a pretty good meal ticket. Erin sees jurors nodding almost imperceptibly in agreement. She's on a sinking ship. ERIN What? Hey -- he hit me. DEFENDING LAWYER So you say. ERIN He came tearing around the corner, out of control -- DEFENDING LAWYER An ER doctor who spends his days saving lives was the one out of control -- ERIN (erupting) That asshole smashed in my fucking neck! INT. COURTHOUSE HALLWAY - LATER THAT DAY Erin barrels toward the elevator. Ed trails. ERIN ...Open and shut? Open and fucking shut? ED Which is exactly the kind of language that lost the case. ERIN Oh, please, it was long over by then. God damn, he made me look like some cheap -- ED I told you the questions might get a little persona -- ERIN Bullshit. You told me I'd get half a million dollars. You told me I'd be set. ED notices her ranting is starting to draw attention. ED Okay -- let's try and settle down here. You want something to eat? ERIN You want to feed my kids too!? Fuck settle down! I got seventy-four dollars to my name! I can't afford to settle down! Beat. ED I'm sorry, Erin. ERIN Do they actually teach lawyers how to apologize -- because you all suck at it. Erin turns away from him and heads for the stairway. EXT. ERIN'S HOUSE - DAY A shitty little house in a shitty part of Northbridge. The Hyundai with a bashed-in side pulls up to the curb. Erin gets out, takes the mail from her mailbox, then heads over to the equally grim house next door and rings the bell. A Hispanic woman in her 60's opens the door, holding a white baby. This is MRS. MORALES. MRS. MORALES Hi, Erin! You're back so soon. She hands Erin the baby. It's BETH, Erin's 9-month old. Erin avoids the question by focusing on her baby. ERIN Hi, sweetie. Were you a good girl? Where are Matt and Katie? MRS. MORALES Outside with the sprinkler. So it's good? The truth is too depressing to share. They walk towards Erin's house as they talk... ERIN It'll be fine, yeah. (BETH COUGHS in her arms) Oh honey... MRS. MORALES She's got a little cough. I sat with her in the steam to loosen it up. But... ERIN I've got enough medicine, I think.. MRS. MORALES Ai, bueno. Listen, I didn't want to tell you before, with your worries -- ERIN What? MRS. MORALES My daughter, she's bought a big house with a room for me. I'm going to move in with her. ERIN You're moving away? When? MRS. MORALES Next week. ERIN (stunned) Next week? MRS. MORALES I know. But it's good for me. Now I can help my daughter take care of my grandkids. And it's good for you, too. Now you have money, you can find a good baby-sitter, huh? Not the old lady next door. Oh, God. Beth COUGHS. EXT. ERIN'S HOUSE - DAY Erin carries Beth up to her house. As she nears her door, she steps on a GIANT WATER BUG. It crunches under her sole. ERIN Ugh. Insult added to injury. She heads up to the house, dragging her shoe, wiping off the bug guts. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Hand held camera follows Erin as she puts down her bag and looks through cabinets to see what she can make for dinner, all the while holding Beth who coughs on and off. ERIN Oh sweetie... that doesn't sound so good, huh?... my baby... let me just start dinner... Erin finds nothing but boxes of macaroni and cheese and some canned peaches and vegetables. She pulls out a box of macaroni and cheese and a can of peas. She bends down and grabs a pot, placing it under the faucet. She grabs another pot and places it on the stove. She searches for a can opener to open the peas. She moves back to the sink, shuts the faucet and sees: Another waterbug crawling up the side of the pot from the drain. ERIN Ugh! Goddamn it! She bangs the pot onto the bug spilling the water and upsetting Beth. ERIN It's all right honey. Mommy's sorry. It's all right. As she rocks Beth, who coughs in between tears, Erin looks around -- at her meager dinner and bug infested kitchen -- and is fed up with the whole day! She dumps her bag out, gets her wallet, opens it up and sees what little money she has. Camera follows her out the kitchen, into the main room where she heads for a window, opens it and shouts to Matthew and Kate in the yard: ERIN Matthew! Katie! Dry off. Put your shoes on -- we're going out to eat. They shout their excitement as Erin (and camera) continue through the house, through the bedroom and into a bathroom. ERIN Don't go getting sick on me, baby. Okay? But Beth's cough is getting worse. Erin opens the medicine cabinet but finds nothing appropriate. EXT. DRUGSTORE - DAY Matt and Katie are messing around with a gumball machine. INT. DRUGSTORE - AISLE - DAY Erin is holding Beth, wandering the aisles. She stops at the medicines, thinks for a long moment, then, hating herself, glances to make sure no one's looking, and picks up a bottle. INT. DRUGSTORE - AT THE REGISTER - DAY As a CUSTOMER steps away from the register, Erin steps up with the bottle in her hand and smiles at the CHECK-OUT LADY. ERIN Hi, remember me? I was in yesterday. Bought a whole mess of stuff. Round about five? CHECK-OUT LADY Honey, it's a zoo here at five. I'm lucky if I even see a face, much less remember it. ERIN Oh, shoot, yeah, I guess that'd be tough. Well, listen, I meant to buy my baby here some medicine, and by the time I got home, I realized I'd bought this adult stuff by mistake. And now, wouldn't you know, I can't find the receipt. I was wondering -- could I maybe exchange it anyway... INT. CHEAP DINER - TWILIGHT Beth is feeling better on Erin's lap. A drugstore bag sits on the table with the cough medicine. The two other kids sit opposite in the booth. Erin is helping the kids read the menu as the Waitress arrives. WAITRESS Everybody ready? KATIE (proudly) My mommy reads backwards. ERIN One of my many talents. Go ahead kids. MATTHEW Cheeseburger deluxe and a coke. KATIE (whispers across table) Mommy can I get the cheeseburger deluxe with no cheese and no bread. ERIN (to Waitress) You get that? (Waitress nods and smiles) This one here'll have just a cup of that chicken broth and some crackers. WAITRESS And for you? ERIN Cup of coffee. Waitress takes away menus and exits as Matthew asks: MATTHEW You're not eating mom? ERIN No, honey -- my lawyer took me out to a big fancy lunch to celebrate and I'm stuffed! (to Beth) You feeling better baby. (feels her head with her cheek) Cool as a cucumber. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT The kids are asleep. A starved Erin is sitting at the kitchen table, eating canned fruit cocktail. O.C. Beth coughs. Coughs again. Erin looks up. Hopes it doesn't turn into a coughing fit... Beat. A waterbug crawls across the table. Erin stares at it. Calmly, comically, she reaches off camera and grabs a can of bug spray. She aims and sprays the bug with a consistent, focused force until the damn thing slides off the table in a river of bug repellent. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - ED'S OFFICE - DAY Midday. Ed enters with a cup of coffee in his hand. As he heads to his desk, he trips on a box of files. Coffee sloshes up out of his cup and on to his shirt. ED Damn it! (calling out) Brenda! She pops her head in. BRENDA Yeah? He grabs a tissue, swabs his shirt, then kicks at the box. ED What the hell is this doing here? BRENDA It's those files you asked for. ED I didn't mean for you to leave them in the middle of the floor. Jesus. Look at me. As Ed checks his reflection in the glass wall of his office, he notices, on the other side: ERIN, standing in the middle of the secretaries' area, talking to DONALD, the office boy. Donald heads away from her. ED What's she doing here? BRENDA Who? Ed goes to his office door and waves Donald over. ED Hey, Donald, what's she doing here? DONALD She works here. Ed looks back out at her -- what the hell? INT. MASRY & VITITOE - MAIN ROOM - DAY The support staff -- mostly middle-aged women -- are all stealing glances at Erin. Ed approaches her, friendly. ED Erin! How's it going? Up close, the wear and tear of worry show on her face. ERIN You never called me back. I left messages. ED You did? Wow, sorry about that. (beat) Listen, Donald seems to think that you said -- ERIN There's two things that aggravate me, Mr. Masry. Being ignored, and being lied to. You did both. Glances skitter between the secretaries -- get a load of this. Ed lowers his voice. ED I never lied, Erin. ERIN You said things would be fine, and they're not. I trusted you. ED I'm sorry about that. Really. But -- ERIN I don't need pity. I need a paycheck. And I've looked, but when you've spent the last six years raising babies, it's real hard to convince someone to give you a job that pays worth a damn. (referring to Brenda's staring) You getting every word of this down, honey, or am I talking too fast for you!? Brenda jumps. Ed sees everyone watching him, listening. ED I'd love to help, Erin, but I'm sorry, I have a full staff right now, so -- He starts to escort her out, but she stays put. ERIN Bullshit. If you had a full staff, this office would return a client's damn phone calls. She's backing him into a corner here. The secretaries exchange knowing glances. ERIN Now, I'm smart, I'm hard-working, and I'll do anything, and I'm not leaving here without a job. C.U. on Erin as she steps in close to Ed and speaks in a low voice that combines fierceness with desperation: ERIN Don't make me beg. If it doesn't work out, fire me... But don't make me beg. Ed looks at her for a long moment. Then: ED No benefits. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - FILE ROOM - DAY A tight office lined with file cabinets and shelves. ANNA, the humorless file clerk, is showing Erin around. ANNA ...what we do in here is keep track of all the case files. That way, at any time, we can find out a case's status -- where it is in the office, stuff like that. We file 'em all here, alphabetically -- ERIN Simple enough. As Anna continues to show Erin around the office, they pass JANE, the bitter office manager, and Brenda, at the coffee area. JANE Just last week, he told my sister we weren't hiring. BRENDA What's your sister look like? INT. MASRY & VITITOE - ED'S OFFICE - NIGHT Ed is packing up his office. Erin sticks her head in. ERIN Mr. Masry? He turns, sees her. ED Yeah? ERIN I was wondering -- could you tell me who I'd talk to about maybe getting an advance on my paycheck? Just -- for the weekend. ED Jane's the office manager. She handles payroll and petty cash. But she leaves early on Fridays. ERIN Oh. Okay. That's okay. Ed looks at her a moment, sees that it's far from okay. ED Oh, for Christ's sake... He takes out his wallet, looks in. ED All I have is hundreds. ERIN I don't wanna take your money, Mr. Masry. ED Where do think your paycheck comes from? He slaps a hundred in her hand and leaves. When he's gone, she looks at the bill -- her life raft. EXT. BABY-SITTER'S HOUSE - NIGHT Erin is at the door, taking Beth from the BABY-SITTER, a shabby, unkempt-looking woman in her 40's. Katie and Matt pull on their backpacks and troop out of the sitter's house. EXT. ERIN'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Erin and her kids are putting away bags of groceries. Beth watches from a baby seat. The kids are trying to tell her a story. They fight over details. Erin loves listening. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - MATT AND KATIE'S ROOM - NIGHT A small room with Salvation Army furniture. A BUNCH OF DAISIES is propped in a Ragu jar on Katie's bedside table. Matt and Katie are asleep in bed. Erin looks down at them, smiles, then kisses them good night. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - HALLWAY - NIGHT Erin comes out of the bedroom and softly closes the door. But just as the handle clicks into place, the house is filled with the DEAFENING ROAR of a MOTORCYCLE, REVVING and REVVING. It sounds as if it's gonna drive through the wall. EXT. ERIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT Erin steps out onto her front stoop and looks over at what used to be Mrs. Morales's house. A few MOTORCYCLES are parked on the lawn; A FEW BIKERS are drinking beer on the stoop; and one asshole is on his bike, REVVING HIS ENGINE. ERIN Hey! But of course he can't hear her. She walks over to him, stands right in his line of vision. ERIN HEY! He sees her and kills the engine. Everything about GEORGE HALABY is tough -- his denim, his leather, his bike, his long hair. Everything but his eyes, which twinkle like Santa's. GEORGE Well, hello to you, darlin'. ERIN What the hell do you think you're doing, making all that goddamn noise? GEORGE Just introducing myself to the neighbors. ERIN Well, I'm the neighbors. There, now we're introduced, so you can shut the fuck up. The guys on the porch chuckle. Erin turns and starts back to her house. George hops off his bike and follows her. GEORGE Ooh, now, see, if I'da known there was a beautiful woman next door, I'da done this different. Let's start over. My name's George. What's yours? ERIN Just think of me as the person next door who likes it quiet. GEORGE Now, don't be like that. Tell you what. How about if I take you out on a date to apologize for my rudeness? Erin shakes her head in disbelief and keeps walking. GEORGE Come on. Gimme your number, I'll call you up proper and ask you out and everything. She stops at her porch, turns to him. ERIN You want my number? GEORGE I do. ERIN Which number do you want, George? GEORGE You got more than one? ERIN Shit, yeah. I got numbers coming out of my ears. Like, for instance, ten. GEORGE Ten? ERIN Sure. That's one of my numbers. It's how many months old my little girl is. GEORGE You got a little girl? ERIN Yeah. Sexy, huh? And here's another: five. That's how old my other daughter is. Seven is my son's age. Two is how many times I been married and divorced. You getting all this? 16 is the number of dollars in my bank account. 454-3943 is my phone number. And with all the numbers I gave you, I'm guessing zero is the number of times you're gonna call it. She turns and heads inside. He calls out after her: GEORGE How the hell do you know your bank balance right off the top of your head like that? See, that impresses me. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - RECEPTION AREA - DAY Morning. Erin walks in, wearing her usual garb. She passes the coffee area, where Jane, Brenda, and Anna are milling. Brenda sees her, gives Anna a nudge. They both check out her short hem. Anna nudges Jane, who looks as well. Erin glances over just in time to see all three of them staring at her judgementally. She stops in her tracks and stares back. ERIN Y'all got something you wanna discuss? The women go back to stirring their coffees. Erin walks on. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - ED'S OFFICE - DAY Ed is walking into his office with a coffee cup in his hand when he trips over the same box of files again. ED Damn it! (calling out) Brenda! (no answer) BRENDA! INT. MASRY & VITITOE - FILE ROOM - DAY Erin is alone, filing as she talks on the phone. ERIN How long's she been crying like that?... Well, she's got that tooth coming in -- Ed appears in the door, carrying the box of files. ERIN Give her a cold washcloth to suck on -- (sees Ed) I gotta go -- there's a clean one in that bag -- I'll check back in a bit. (hangs up) Sorry. My kid -- ED Where's Anna? ERIN Out to lunch with the girls. ED Oh. Huh. (beat) Well, look, I have to open a file. Real estate thing. Pro-bono. He plunks the box of papers & files on her desk. She stares at it, with no idea of how to go about that. ERIN Oh. Okay. He sees her staring at the box. ED You do know how to do that, don't you? ERIN Yeah. I got it. No problem. ED Good. Ed heads out, but pauses before leaving. ED You're a girl. ERIN Excuse me? ED How come you're not at lunch with the girls? You're a girl. ERIN I guess I'm not the right kind. Erin goes back to work. Ed starts out then stops. ED Look, you may want to -- I mean, now that you're working here -- you may want to rethink your... wardrobe a little. ERIN Why is that? ED Well... I think maybe... some of the girls are a little uncomfortable because of what you wear. ERIN Is that so? Well, it just so happens, I think I look nice. And as long as I have one ass instead of two, like most of the "girls" you have working here, I'm gonna wear what I like if that's alright with you? Ed hides a smile. He nods. As he exits, Erin returns to work and remarks, without looking up... ERIN You may want to re-think those ties you wear.. Suddenly self-conscious, Ed looks down to his chest... INT. MASRY & VITITOE - FILE ROOM - NIGHT Erin is at her desk, staring bewildered at the files from the box Ed gave her, which are now spread across her desktop. She sees Anna packing up her things to leave. ERIN Anna? With this real-estate stuff -- could you remind me, cause I'm a little confused about how exactly we do that. Why are there medical records and blood samples in real estate files? ANNA (exasperated) Erin, you've been here long enough. If you don't know how to do your job by now, I am not about to do it for you. EXT. BABY-SITTER'S HOUSE - EARLY EVENING Erin arrives to pick up her children from the unkempt baby- sitter. She knocks. No answer. She knocks and calls out. No answer. She looks through window. It appears no one is there. She panics. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - EARLY EVENING Erin runs into her house calling her children's names. No answer. She is almost near tears with panic, rushing through each room. She grabs the phone to call the police when she hears -- The sound of her children laughing, outside. ERIN Matthew! Katie! EXT. ERIN'S HOUSE - EARLY EVENING She runs outside, trying to locate the voices. She follows the sounds of her children laughing and talking, towards the back of her yard, which sits across from: EXT. GEORGE'S BACKYARD - EARLY EVENING Katie and Matthew are sitting at a picnic table, eating hamburgers and hot dogs, barbecued by George, who sits opposite them with little Beth on his lap. They all seem right at home. Erin is confused. ERIN What the hell happened? MATTHEW/KATIE Hi mom... GEORGE Hey. You hungry? ERIN What are they doing here? I went to pick them up -- GEORGE She came by about an hour ago. Said something came up and she had to drop the kids off. ERIN Something came up! Why didn't she call me at work? GEORGE (Erin is fearsome) I don't know. She... I... she... I don't know. ERIN THAT FUCKING BITCH! MATTHEW MOM! ERIN Sorry!! I can't believe she just dumps my kids off when nobody's home!! GEORGE I was home. (Erin realizes this) They're fine. The kids are being fed a full meal with clean plates and napkins and glasses of milk. Beth acts like she's known George all her life. Erin doesn't know what to say. George just smiles. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT George is on the floor with Matt and Katie, playing war. Katie points to the Harley emblem on his leather jacket. Both kids are dressed for bed. Erin watches them interact with George. She notices how good he is with them. How comfortable they are with him. KATIE What's that stand for? GEORGE That's for Harley Davidson. The best damn motorcycle ever made. ERIN And if I catch either of you anywhere near one, I'll knock you silly. Go on to bed, now -- I'll come tuck you in, in a minute. They get up... GEORGE 'Night. KATIE AND MATT 'Night. ...and head into bed. George starts cleaning up the cards. GEORGE Great kids. Erin bends down to help him. ERIN Yeah, well... I'm sure I'll fuck them up eventually. GEORGE Why? ERIN I'm never here. I'm obviously not a good judge of character or I would have never left them with that idiot who cost a fortune and smelled like chicken fat. After I find her and kill her, I don't know what I'm going to do. GEORGE If you need help with them, I could do that. ERIN I'm not gonna leave my kids with you. GEORGE Why not? ERIN 'Cause I don't even know you. GEORGE What do you want to know? Ask me. ERIN Look, thanks for today but -- GEORGE You're welcome. Erin doesn't know what to say. GEORGE What's the matter, you got so many friends in this world, you can't use one more? I'm serious. If you need someone to keep an eye on them -- after school or something -- I don't have a job now, so I'm around in the afternoons. ERIN Oh, that's a great recommendation. You're unemployed? GEORGE By choice. I work when I need to. ERIN Yeah? And what do you do the rest of the time, live off your trust fund? GEORGE I do construction, which pays real good. And I make it last by living cheap. ERIN (with a little laugh) I hope that's not supposed to impress me. GEORGE Are you this hard on everyone who tries to help you? ERIN It's been a while. I'm out of practice. GEORGE Then lemme remind you, the polite thing is to say, thank you, it's a real nice offer, I don't mind taking you up on it. ERIN Why in the hell would you want to watch my kids? GEORGE Cause I like kids. I like hanging out with them. ERIN Right. She starts cleaning up the cards. GEORGE I do. I like how they keep it all simple, you know? They don't get all complicated, like grown-ups do. A bicycle and an ice cream cone -- boom, done, they're happy. Erin thinks about the offer. ERIN You're around every afternoon? GEORGE Yup. Usually working on my bike. She's tempted. GEORGE No big deal. If it doesn't work out, you can send 'em back to the chicken lady. Tempting. Erin looks him over, then, as she exits: ERIN This isn't gonna get you laid, you know. George laughs. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - ERIN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The wee hours. Erin's in a T-shirt, sitting on her mattress on the floor. The paperwork from the box is now spread all over the floor around her. She's reading a letter. CLOSE ON THE LETTER It's from PG&E, to Donna Peter Irving. We see the phrases, "purchase your house...," "fair market value..." CLOSE ON ANOTHER DOCUMENT It's a list of comparable house sales in the area. Owner, cost; owner, cost. Every house is in the $65,000 range. From another room, she hears the sound of BETH CRYING. Still reading the file, Erin gets up and goes into: INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - BETH'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Still reading, Erin gets Beth out of her crib. Beth quiets. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - ERIN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Erin lies down on the mattress and rests Beth on her chest. She sets down the file she was reading and picks up another. CLOSE ON THE FILE It contains a letter from a Dr. Howard Reeves. The first paragraph contains the phrase "...medical examination of Donna and Peter Irving..." Toward the end of the letter there are two columns. One is headed: "IN RANGE". The other: "OUT OF RANGE". Under that head appear the following: "lymphocytes, T-lymphocytes, natural killer cells, T Helpers, T8 suppressor cells"... Erin stares at it, confused. INT. ED'S OFFICE - DAY Ed sits at his desk, working. There's a knock. ED Yeah. Erin enters, holding a file. ERIN Hi. Sorry. Would you mind if I investigated this a little further? ED Investigated what? ERIN This real estate thing with the Irvings. The pro bono case... ED (overlap) Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.. ERIN (overlap) See, yeah... I just want to make sure I'm understanding what I'm reading. So you do mind? ED No, go ahead. ERIN Great. Thanks. Erin exits. Ed returns to his work. EXT. L.A. FREEWAY - DAY The beat-up old Hyundai heads east out of L.A. EXT. HINKLEY, CA - DAY This is a dry, desolate part of California. No downtown, no community. Just tract after tract of arid farmland, with small, bland, unprotected ranch home cropping up out of landscape like occasional tombstones. A beat-up old sign on the road reads: "HINKLEY, CA. POP:" but the corner where the number would be has broken off. As a gust of wind lifts dust from the fields, Erin turns onto Community Boulevard, the main road that cuts through Hinkley. In doing so, she passes a nearby UTILITY PLANT. Its criss- crossing PIPES and large COOLING TOWERS stand out clearly against the flat, dry fields. Erin doesn't notice. INT. ERIN'S HYUNDAI - DAY Erin cruises through the neighborhood, looking at a piece of paper with the Irvings' address on it. This area has seen better days -- many of the houses have been razed, leaving heaps of lumber and wire behind. EXT. DONNA IRVING'S HOUSE - DAY A generic ranch home standing all alone in the middle of nothing. There's a pool out back and a chain link fence hugging the property. No landscaping. Dull, but clean. A few BOTTLES OF SPRING WATER wait by the door. The Hyundai pulls into the driveway and stops. Erin gets out. As she heads up to the door, her spike heels sink into the dirt. She rings the bell. It has a melody chime. DONNA IRVING opens the door. She's 35, petite, with a scrappy, high-strung manner. She's wearing tight jeans, and her dark curls are piled on top of her head. ERIN Hi. Donna Irving? DONNA Yes? ERIN I'm Erin Brockovich, from Masry & Vititoe? DONNA (a little surprised) You're a lawyer? ERIN Hell, no. I hate lawyers. I just work for them. You got a minute? INT. THE IRVINGS' HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY The house is furnished with little money, but lots of care. Erin's on a plaid couch, in a sea of needle point pillows. Out back, two GIRLS, ages 9 and 11, are playing in a pool. ERIN This is a real nice place you got here. DONNA (O.S.) Well it oughta be, with all the work I put into it. She comes out from the kitchen with a tray of iced tea. DONNA I added air conditioning, put in the pool, made all those pillows by hand... ERIN Yeah? I should learn to do stuff like that. They make the place feel real homey. Donna corrects the positioning on a couple of pillows. DONNA Thank you. I think so too. That's why I'm being such a stickler on this house price thing. I don't mean to be a pain in PG&E's backside, especially after all they've done for Hinkley, but I look around here and I think, if they want this place, they're gonna have to pay for it. And I don't just mean pay for the house; I'd like them to pay me for the trouble of starting over. ERIN So you didn't have the house up for sale -- they just came to you and wanted buy it? DONNA Yeah. I don't want move. Uproot the kids. And besides the moving, there's decorating a new place, and if the windows aren't the same size, you know -- you're making all new curtains. Honest to God, I don't know if I have the energy. You know, I've been sick. Me and Pete both have. ERIN Yeah, I'm real glad you brought that up. I was going through your file here, and I ran into these medical records. They kinda surprised me -- This would be the perfect opportunity for many to get self- pitying. But not Donna. Life's handed her a shitload of lemons, and darned if she hasn't made a shitload of lemonade. DONNA I know. They're more than a bit unusual. See, two years ago, Pete got Hodgkin's disease. That's a kind of cancer -- ERIN Yeah, I'm real sorry to hear that. DONNA Thank you. It's in remission now, thank the Lord, but you never know. And then while that's going on, I end up having to have a hysterectomy. Plus a whole mess of lumps removed from my breasts. All benign so far, but still, no matter how positive you stay, an operation can still take it out of you. (Erin nods) So the whole idea of selling the house -- if they aren't gonna pay us properly, I just don't see the point. ERIN Yeah, I can see that. (beat) I guess the only thing that confused me is -- not that your medical problems aren't important, but -- how come the files about them are in with all the real estate stuff? Donna tops off their iced teas. DONNA There's so much correspondence, I just keep it all in one place. ERIN Right, but -- I'm sorry, I don't see why you were corresponding with PG&E about it in the first place. DONNA Well, they paid for the doctor's visit. ERIN They did? DONNA You bet. Paid for a check-up for the whole family. And not like with insurance where you pay, then wait a year to be reimbursed, either. They just took care of it. Just like that. We never even saw a bill. ERIN Wow. Why would they do that? DONNA 'Cause of the chromium. ERIN The what? DONNA The chromium. Well, that's what kicked this whole thing off. INT. ERIN'S HYUNDAI - DAY As Erin leaves Hinkley, she stops the car and takes a look at the power plant she passed so obliviously on her way into town. Maybe it's the angle, or maybe it's what Donna's been telling her, but somehow the plant seems more threatening now. Like it's bearing down on the town. EXT. UCLA MAIN LIBRARY - DAY Large. Looming. Very establishment. Through the windows, we see Erin at the desk, talking to a LIBRARIAN. She has the file in her hands. The librarian gives her directions to somewhere else. INT. UCLA SCIENCE BUILDING - HALLWAY - DAY A long, academic hallway lit by fluorescents. Erin gets off an elevator and heads down the hall. She finds a door with a nameplate that reads "Brian Frankel, Toxicology" and KNOCKS. The door opens and DR. FRANKEL appears, looking as though he's getting ready to leave. Nothing like Erin has ever shown up at his door. He reels at the sight of her. ERIN Doctor Frankel? FRANKEL Yes? ERIN Hi, I'm Erin Brockovich. I was just over in the library there, asking a mess of questions about -- I guess they call it toxicology? -- and the fella there told me to find you, 'cause you know all about it. FRANKEL (suspicious) Is this a joke? Did Baxter put you up to this? ERIN Who's Baxter? FRANKEL He did, didn't he? Baxter! BAXTER, another scientist, leans out of a door down the hall. BAXTER Yeah? Baxter and Erin look at each other. No recognition, of course. Frankel is immediately embarrassed. FRANKEL Oh. Oh. ERIN No one put me up to anything. I was just hoping I could ask you a couple questions. FRANKEL (mortified) Of course! Oh, Gosh, of course -- INT. BUILDING CORRIDOR - DAY Erin follows Frankel down the hall. FRANKEL What kind of chromium is it? ERIN There's more than one kind? FRANKEL Yes. There's straight-up chromium -- does all kinds of good things for the body. There's chrom 3, which is fairly benign, and then there's chrom 6, hexavalent chromium, which, depending on the amounts, can be very harmful. EXT. UCLA CAMPUS - DAY Erin and Dr. Frankel continue walking. ERIN Harmful, like -- how? What would you get? FRANKEL With repeated exposure to toxic levels -- God, anything, really -- from chronic headaches and nosebleeds to respiratory disease, liver failure, heart failure, reproductive failure, bone or organ deterioration -- plus, of course, any type of cancer. He rattles it off coolly. Just facts. Erin's stunned. ERIN So that stuff -- it kills people. FRANKEL Oh, yeah. Definitely. Highly toxic, highly carcinogenic. Bad, bad stuff. ERIN What's it used for? FRANKEL A rust inhibitor. See, the utility plants run these piston engines to compress the gas, the engines get hot, you gotta run water through them -- chromium's in the water to prevent corrosion... ERIN Well, how do I find out what kind of chromium they use in Hinkley? FRANKEL Have you been to their water board? ERIN Hunh-uh. What's that? FRANKEL Every county has one. They keep records of anything water-related within their jurisdiction. You should be able to find something there. ERIN County water board. All righty, thanks. FRANKEL Good luck. (beat) Oh -- I wouldn't advertise what you're looking for if I were you... incriminating records have a way of disappearing when people smell trouble. EXT. LAHOTAN REGIONAL WATER BOARD - DAY A small building on a small street baking under the desert sun. Anybody with any sense is inside, out of the heat. Erin's Hyundai pulls up and stops in a cloud of dust. Erin hops out, checks her reflection in the side-view mirror, then heads into the building. INT. LAHOTAN REGIONAL WATER BOARD - DAY Drab, government-issue. ROSS, the bored desk clerk is thumbing his way through ROAD & TRACK. Just as he stops to stare at a motor oil ad in which a buxom blonde is straddling the hood of a car, the huge door opens and Erin enters. ERIN Whew! Goddamn, that's a heavy door. Ross looks up. It's like the girl from the ad walked right off the page. He jumps up, to help her with the door. ROSS Oh, hey -- lemme give you a hand there. ERIN Thank you very much. Aren't you a gentleman? Mr... ROSS Ross. ERIN Ross. Real pleased to meet you. I'm Erin. She smiles. He can't believe his luck. ROSS Erin. Cool. What can I do for you, Erin? ERIN Well, believe it or not, I am on the prowl for some water records. ROSS (with a laugh) You come to the right place. ERIN (laughing along) I guess I did. ROSS You just tell me what you want to look at and I'll be glad to dig 'em out for you. ERIN I wish I knew. It's for my boss. He's fighting his water bill, and he wants me to find all manner of bills from all kinds of places. The easiest thing would probably be if I just squeezed back there with you and poked around myself. Would that be okay? ROSS Heck, yeah. Come on back. Just gonna need you to sign in here -- He hands her a pen. He reads over her shoulder as she signs her name -- Erin Pattee Brockovich. ROSS Pattee? That your middle name? ERIN Nope. Maiden. ROSS (disappointed) You're married. ERIN Not anymore. She smiles and winks at him, then goes around the counter with him and looks at the stacks and stacks of files. ERIN Well. Here goes nothing. She heads down an aisle, reading the spines of the files. They're all town names -- Barstow, Victorville, Oro Grande, Helendale -- in no particular order. Finally, Erin spots one that says Hinkley. She pulls it down. IN THE FILE are pages and pages of Xeroxed memoranda, letters, charts, graphs, handwritten notes. All shoved in willy-nilly. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - MAIN ROOM - DAY George is watching a football game on TV. He's just put TV dinners on the floor in front of the Matt and Katie. MATT Our mom gives us sandwiches on Fridays. GEORGE That's a sandwich. KATIE No, it's not! GEORGE Sure it is. Here, I'll show you. He picks up Matt's chicken, tears it in two... GEORGE Most people think a sandwich's gotta have bread on the outside. Not true. Chicken is a perfectly good outside for a sandwich. ...then places the broccoli neatly between the halves. GEORGE See? Katie and Matthew look at it, then up at George, and smile. They eat quietly -- not watching the TV. George gets the feeling they're not into the game. He grabs the remote and turns on a Nickelodeon-type show. They perk up, recognizing it. He likes pleasing them. He looks over to Beth -- George likes how this feels. EXT. WATER BOARD - NIGHT It's gotten dark. Erin's Hyundai's still there. INT. WATER BOARD - NIGHT Erin is on the floor, her legs stretched out in front of her. She has a bunch of files open and spread across the floor. The one in her hand has caught her attention. INSERT ON THE PAPER It's a memo titled: "CLEAN-UP AND ABATEMENT ORDER" from the water board to PG&E. Erin is concentrating hard on it, reading laboriously to herself. ERIN (O.S.) "...On December 7, 1987, the discharger notified the regional board and the San Bernardino County Environmental Health Services of the discovery of 0.58 ppm of hex-a-... hex-a-valent chromium in an on-site ground water monitoring well..." (beat) ...hexavalent... INT. MASRY & VITITOE - RECEPTION - DAY CLOSE ON A XEROX OF THE ABATEMENT ORDER. WIDEN to see it is on top of a stack of papers that Erin is carrying as she enters the office. She has an efficient air about her -- a sense of purpose. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - FILE ROOM - DAY Erin swoops in, ready to work, only to find her desk cleared off. She turns to Anna, who's already hard at work. ERIN Where's my stuff? Anna looks up. ANNA Where've you been? ERIN What the fuck did you do with my stuff? ANNA Don't use language with me -- But Erin's out the door before Anna can finish her sentence. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - JANE'S OFFICE - DAY JANE is at her desk. Erin barrels in. ERIN Someone stole my stuff. JANE Nice to see you, Erin. We've missed you. ERIN I had photos of my kids, plus a mug -- Jane reaches under her desk for a box, looks through it. JANE -- toothbrush, toothpaste, and a pair of hose. Here. ERIN What's going on? JANE There may be jobs where you can disappear for days at a time, but this isn't one of them. Here, if you don't do the work, you don't get to stay. She hands her the box. Erin doesn't take it. ERIN I've been working. Shit, that's all I've been doing. Ask Mr. Masry. He knows. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - ED'S OFFICE - DAY Ed's at his desk, dialing the phone when Erin barrels in. ERIN You said to fire me? He sets down the receiver. ED Erin, you've been gone for a week. ERIN I left a message. I've been dealing with that real estate thing. I was gonna write up a whole damn report and -- ED That's not how we work here. You don't just leave a message and take off. Jane follows her in, still carrying the box of stuff. ERIN What am I supposed to do, check in every two seconds? JANE Yes. It's called accountability. ERIN I am not talking to you, bitch. JANE Excuse me? ED Okay, enough -- (beat) Now, look Erin -- this incident aside, I don't think this is the right place for you. So what I'm gonna do is make a few calls on your behalf. Find you something else, okay? ERIN Don't bother. She turns to Jane, takes her box, and heads out. ED Come on, I'm trying to help here. ERIN Bullshit. You're trying to feel less guilty about firing someone with three kids to feed. Fuck if I'll help you do that. And she leaves. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - OUTSIDE ED'S OFFICE - DAY As Erin heads for the door, pleased glances fly from secretary to secretary. Erin reaches the door, but can't open it with the box in her arms. She turns to the room. ERIN I don't suppose any one of you cunts could open the door for me. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - MAIN ROOM - DAY Erin enters, puts down the box and stares at the mail. Bills, bills, and more bills. As she throws them on the table, she sees George coming out of the kitchen. ERIN What are you doing here? GEORGE Fixing a leak under your sink. She heads into the kitchen, weary and irritated. ERIN I didn't ask you to do that. Damn it, George, I don't ask you to do things like that. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Erin enters, sees all the cleaning stuff from under the sink is spread around the kitchen floor. A tool box lies open. ERIN Great. GEORGE I'm gonna clean it up. Erin gets down on her knees and starts putting things away. GEORGE Relax, Erin, I'll do it -- I'm not -- Before he can finish, a huge WATER BUG runs onto Erin's hand. ERIN Ugh -- Jesus -- She jumps and brushes it off. GEORGE Yeah -- you had a whole family of those things hanging out back there. She takes off her shoe and smacks at the bug, missing it. ERIN Damn it -- The bug skitters away from her, along the floorboard. Erin chases it, smacking at it repeatedly, missing it every time. GEORGE Don't worry about it, I'll get it later. But Erin keeps after it, corralling all her frustrations into killing that one bug. ERIN Come here, you little motherfucker -- The bug crawls up onto the table, zipping behind the salt, the paper, the napkin holder. Erin keeps after it, BANGING the table harder and harder with each SMACK of her shoe. GEORGE Hey, whoa -- relax -- The salt and pepper skid off the table. The napkins fly from their holder. Just as Erin's about to nail the bug, it slips into a crack in the wall and disappears. Erin hurls her shoe at the crack. It SMASHES into the wall. ERIN GOD DAMN IT! As Erin stands there staring at the wall, her breath starts to come heavily -- those deep breaths that precede tears. She slowly slides down into a chair, defeat overcoming her. ERIN (almost a whisper) ...God damn it. She looks around at her for-shit kitchen and starts to cry. ERIN What kind of person lives like this? Huh? What kind of person lets her kids run around in a house crawling with bugs the size of housecats? GEORGE It's a simple thing. Everybody gets them. All we gotta do is call an exterminator. ERIN I can't call an exterminator. I can't afford one. God, I can't even afford my phone. (beat) I got fired. GEORGE What? But you been working so hard -- ERIN Doesn't matter. Doesn't make one fucking bit of difference. She exits. After a beat, George follows. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - ERIN'S BEDROOM - DAY Erin sits on the bed, drying her eyes. George enters. Erin looks up at herself in the mirror above her bureau. ERIN I don't know what happened to me... George listens by the door. ERIN I mean I was Miss Wichita, for Christ sakes. Did I tell you that? Did ya know you were living next door to a real live beauty queen. (wipes her nose) I still got the tiara. I thought it meant I was gonna do something important with my life, that I was gonna be someone. GEORGE You are someone. ERIN No I'm not. Look at me. GEORGE You're someone to me. He takes a step toward her and kneels in front of her, very close. He takes her shoe from her hand and puts it back on her foot. Then he takes her hands in his and kisses them. ERIN Are you going to be something else I have to survive? Cause I'll tell you the truth, I'm not up to it. But he kisses her anyway. And for the first time in so long, she feels like something other than a failure. He pulls her into him, and she lets herself be pulled. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - ERIN'S BEDROOM - DAY Erin and George are in bed, naked, curled around each other. As Erin recites her beauty queen speech, they are both laughing at the naive, impossible goals of her youth. ERIN "....and I will devote my entire reign as Miss Wichita to bringing an end to world hunger... and to the creation of a peaceful earth for every man, woman and child..." GEORGE How long were you going to be Miss Wichita? ERIN One year! (George laughs) Of course by the time I got through opening new supermarkets. I had just a few weeks left for hunger and world peace, so... Ha, ha, ha... damn... I don't know what the hell I was thinking. GEORGE I wanted to run my own antique shop. Erin looks at him. Beat. She bursts into laughter. GEORGE (laughing) Oh that's nice... that's very nice! He starts tickling her. She screams then covers her mouth so as not to wake the kids... They roll over each other. ERIN I'm sorry... I'm sorry... GEORGE My parents rented antiques on the side. I'm not just some grease monkey, you know. ERIN Oh, I know. You're one of those Zen gods of motorcycle maintenance, aren't you? GEORGE (smiles) Maybe. Maybe there's a reason I found that place next door. A reason I revved my bike that night and you came out tearing my head off. ERIN Yeah, we just did the reason. She says this as she is about to get up but George holds her back, suddenly dead serious... GEORGE Don't do that to yourself. If that's all I wanted, I don't need to go next door to a woman with three kids... Erin suddenly grows uncomfortable at the implied intimacy. GEORGE (laughs) All I'm saying is, I can't believe whatever kind of God there is, put you here -- looking the way you look, with the brains and balls you got -- just to trip you up and watch you fall. Can't be. He kisses one of her earlobes. Erin likes the sound of this but it also makes her apprehensive. She leans in to kiss him, but before she does: ERIN Don't be too nice to me, okay? It makes me nervous. George looks almost hurt, but empathetic. Erin kisses him long and hard as they begin to make love again. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - ED'S OFFICE - DAY Ed is at his desk. The PHONE RINGS. And RINGS. And RINGS. ED Brenda! (no answer) BRENDA! Nothing. Ed growls in frustration, then gets the phone. ED Yeah, Ed Masry here... She doesn't work here anymore. Who's this? INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY CLOSE ON THE TABLE, where Beth is bobbling in her baby chair. On one side of her is a heap of bills with "PAST DUE" and "PLEASE REMIT" stamped on them. On the other, the well- thumbed CLASSIFIED SECTION, with circles and X's all over it. The DOORBELL rings. Erin swoops in and picks up Beth. ERIN Come on, baby. Maybe that's Ed McMahon. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - FRONT DOOR - DAY Erin carries Beth over to the front door, spies through the peephole, and sees Ed standing there. She opens the door. ERIN Wrong Ed. (Ed looks confused) What are you doing here? ED I got an interesting call this afternoon. It was from a Doctor Frankel from UCLA. ERIN Oh, yeah? ED He wanted you to know the legal limit for hexavalent chromium, is .05 parts per million. And that at the rate you mentioned, .58, it could be responsible for the cancers in that family you asked about. The Irvings. ERIN Well, that was nice of him. Isn't it funny how some people go out of their way to help people and others just fire 'em. ED Look, I'm sorry. You were gone. I just assumed you were off having fun. ERIN Now, why in the hell would you assume that? ED I don't know. Maybe 'cause you look like someone who has a lot of fun. ERIN OH! So by that standard I should assume you never get laid. Ed takes a beat, copping to the charge. He admits: ED I'm married. (Erin suppresses a smile) So what's the story on this thing? This cancer stuff? ERIN You wanna know, you gotta hire me back. I got a lot of bills to pay. He glares at her. Realizes he has no choice. ED Fine. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - LATER Erin has let Ed in. They're sitting. ERIN ...so Donna had just put in these new cabinets -- real nice, stained the wood and all -- when she gets this call from somebody at PG&E saying that a freeway's gonna be built and they want to buy her house so they can make an off ramp for the plant... Meanwhile, the husband's sick with Hodgkins and she's in and out of the hospital with tumors -- believing one thing has anything to do with the other. ED Because PG&E told her about the chromium. ERIN Get this -- they held a seminar. They invited about two hundred residents from the area. They had it at the plant in this warehouse. They set up legal booths to tell them what their legal rights were. They had medical booths to tell them what their medical rights were.... Ed is listening with more and more interest. ERIN ...telling them all about Chromium 3 and how it was good for you, when all the time they were using Chromium 6. ED (impressed) You got all this from her? ERIN (beat. shrugs) She made coffee. Cupcakes. She's real nice. Beat. ED That document you found at the Water Board, the one that says it was the bad chromium -- you didn't happen to make a copy did you? ERIN 'Course I did. ED Lemme see it, will you? Before getting it for him, she looks at him. ERIN I want a raise. And benefits. Including dental. ED Look, Erin, this is not the way I do business. ERIN What way is that? ED Extortion. Erin doesn't budge. ED Okay. A five percent raise, and -- ERIN Ten. (off his look) There's a lot other places I could work. I could even take everything I know to another law firm. ED A ten percent raise and benefits. But that's it. I'm drawing the line. She goes to her box of stuff from the office and digs out the document for him. He scans it. ED This is the only thing you found? ERIN So far. But that place is a pig sty. I wouldn't be surprised if there's more. ED I know how those places are run. They're a mess. What makes you think you can just walk in there and find what we need? ERIN They're called boobs, Ed. Shaking his head, Ed rises to leave as he says; ED I can't believe you just said that... EXT. 10 FREEWAY - DAY Erin's Hyundai zips along the freeway. Erin's driving. Matthew's in the front seat. Katie and Beth (in a car seat) are in the back; INT. HYUNDAI - DAY Improvisational... I.e. Matthew keeps trying to tell a joke he heard. Katie keeps trying to guess, like it's a riddle, frustrating Matthew and cracking up Erin... EXT. PG&E COMPRESSOR STATION - DAY The Hyundai is parked at the entrance to the station, by a row of dead trees. Erin is standing beside a sign that says "Private Property. No Trespassing," taking pictures of the massive structure in the distance. Matthew, Katie, and Beth are drawing in the dirt with sticks. ERIN Stay out of the road. I'll be right back. She wanders up the drive, onto PG&E property, moving around the plant, taking pictures of it from every possible angle. As she wanders over a big, flat, dry field to the side of the plant, she glances over her shoulder to check on her kids and notices the trail she made in the dirt has a greenish hue. She looks at the dirt right her feet. Kicks the ground. Below the surface, the dirt turns from brown to green. Erin notes this, then looks back at her kids playing in the dirt. Worry comes over her face. She heads back to them. EXT. HINKLEY MART - DAY The kids are waiting at the car. Erin comes out of the store with a bottle of water and uses it to rinse off their hands. EXT. WATER BOARD - DAY The sound of a BABY CRYING. The Hyundai's parked in front. MATTHEW (O.S.) I'm hungry. INT. WATER BOARD - DAY Erin is at the Xerox machine, copying a file while she tries to calm Beth. There's a stack of files on the nearby table. Matthew and Katie are flopping around on the floor. ERIN We'll go eat in a minute. Settle down. Ross is on the phone with someone -- we don't know who -- but the look on his face is one of anxiety. His eyes keep shifting between the call and Erin. He nods as if he understands and hangs up... He crosses to her. ROSS (real friendly) So, how we doin'? ERIN We're doing great? ROSS (off the cuff) Good... Well, you've got quite a lot done already... so uhh... I'm sorry but uh... we... we have to have those records back now. OK? Erin stops... looks at him... and quickly knows how to respond; ERIN No. ROSS What? ERIN These papers are a matter of public record. I'm not leaving til they're copied. Erin returns to copying. Ross is stymied. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - BRENDA'S DESK - DAY Ed comes in in the morning, and without pausing, hands Brenda a copy of the STACK OF DOCUMENTS, with a Post-It on the top. ED Fax these to this number, okay? BRENDA All of 'em? ED All of them. He continues into his office and closes the door. CLOSE ON THE FAX MACHINE LED Brenda types in the number. The recipient's ID comes up on the LED: PG&E CLAIMS DEPT. INT. IRVING HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Donna has made lunch for Erin. The remnants are on the coffee table. A copy of those DOCUMENTS are in Donna's hands. She's on her couch with Erin, reading them. Outside, Donna's two daughters are playing in the pool. She reads the last page and looks up at Erin, bewildered. DONNA An on-site monitoring well? That means -- ERIN It was right up on the PG&E property over there. DONNA And you say this stuff, this hexavalent chromium -- it's poisonous? ERIN Yeah. DONNA Well -- then it's gotta be different than what's in our water, 'cause ours is okay. The guys from PG&E told me. They sat right in the kitchen and said it was fine. ERIN I know. But the toxicologist I been talking to? He gave me a list of problems that can come from hexavalent chromium exposure. And everything you all have is on that list. Donna resists this idea hard. DONNA No. Hunh-uh, see, that's not what the doctor said. He said one's got absolutely nothing to do with the other. ERIN Right, but -- didn't you say the doctor was paid by PG&E? Donna sits quietly, trying to make sense of this. The only sound is the LAUGHING and SPLASHING from the pool out back. Then, gradually, Donna realizes what it is she's hearing -- her kids playing in toxic water. She jumps up... DONNA ASHLEY! SHANNA! ...and runs out to the pool. Erin follows her. EXT. DONNA'S HOUSE - DAY From the door, Erin watches Donna run to the edge of the pool in a frantic response to this news. DONNA OUT OF THE POOL! BOTH OF YOU, OUT OF THE POOL, RIGHT NOW! SHANNA How come? DONNA 'CAUSE I SAID SO, THAT'S WHY, NOW GET OUT! OUT! NOW!!! Erin watches compassionately as Donna flails to get her kids out of the contaminated water. INT. ED'S OFFICE - DAY Ed is attempting to tie his tie in a mirror, as Erin looks on. He's very excited as he fumbles the knot... ED I'm telling you, the minute Brenda sent the fax -- I'm talking the second she pressed that send button -- PG&E claims department is on the phone to me, scheduling a meeting. ERIN So you think we... let me do this, you're driving me nuts... She makes him face her as she ties his tie.... ED It's the material. ERIN (looks at label) Armani? (Ed shrugs) You think we scared'em, don't you? ED Well, they're taking the time to send someone. It sure as hell sounds like they're sitting up and taking notice. Now do me a favor, and let me handle this. Lawyers have a way of talking to each other. ERIN (humoring him) Oh, I know. Brenda pops her head in, ignores Erin -- though clearly takes notice of her tying Ed's tie. BRENDA David Baum from PG&E is at reception. Erin feels the chill Brenda's sending her way. Erin decides to tease her by speaking to Ed in a sultry voice: ERIN Oh Mr. Masry, we better learn how to dress faster. People can come in so suddenly... (giggles) Brenda leaves without acknowledging Erin. Ed grimaces; ED Is that... necessary? Brenda's gonna open her mouth all over the offi -- ERIN Oh come on. I'm teasing. Who gives a shit... INT. MASRY & VITITOE - BRENDA'S DESK - CONTINUOUS Jane is delivering paychecks, spots Brenda exiting Ed's office and whispers: JANE What's she doing here? BRENDA He hired her back. With a raise. JANE What?? Why? BRENDA He's a man... She's a woman. JANE What are we -- office supplies? INT. MASRY & VITITOE - MAIN ROOM - DAY Ed and Erin come out and see DAVID BAUM waiting at reception. Forget law school, this kid looks like he's just out of twelfth grade. Not a hair on his chin. His suit and shoes look brand new. Ed stops suddenly, before being seen. Erin stops too. ERIN What? Ed's expression upon seeing the "young" representative tells us he's none too happy. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Ed and Erin are seated across the table from Baum. To say this kid lacks authority is a gross understatement. He doesn't talk; he squeaks. BAUM ...in the interest of putting this whole thing to rest, PG&E is willing to offer the Irvings 250,000 dollars for their home. Ed laughs a little in disbelief. ED 250,000? BAUM In terms of land value out in Hinkley, Mr. Masry, we feel it's more than fair price. ED What about in terms of medical expenses? 250,000 doesn't come close to what this family's gonna have to spend on doctors. BAUM I understand they've had a bad run of luck, health-wise, and they have my sympathies. But that's not PG&E's fault. ED You're kidding, right? Baum doesn't answer. ED Look at these readings for Christ's sake. Pg&E's own technicians documented toxic levels of hexavalent chromium in those test wells on numerous occasions. Ed shoves them across the table. Baum doesn't look at them. ED Everything the Irvings have had is proven reaction to exposure to hexavalent chromium. They've had... He stalls a moment. Erin jumps in. ERIN -- breast cysts, uterine cancer, Hodgkin's disease, immune deficiencies, asthma, chronic nosebleeds. Despite their persuasiveness, Baum parrots what is obviously the party line: BAUM A million things could have caused those problems. Poor diet, bad genes, irresponsible lifestyle. Our offer is final and more than fair. ED Wait a minute -- I thought we were negotiating here. BAUM 250,000 is all I'm authorized to offer. Ed looks across at this pissant little kid. Then stands. ED I will present your offer to my clients. I doubt they'll accept it. As Ed starts out, Baum tries to take a stand; BAUM Mr. Masry, before you go off on some crusade, you might want to remember who it is you're dealing with here. PG&E is a twenty-eight-billion-dollar corporation. ED (smiles, acting excited/greedy) Twenty-eight billion dollars! I didn't know it was THAT much! WOW! Baum suddenly realizes he's made a mistake admitting the company's wealth. Ed leaves the conference room. Erin follows him out. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - MAIN ROOM - DAY Erin follows Ed as he stomps back to his office. ERIN At least they made an offer. ED (undoing his tie) That wasn't an offer. A million would've been an offer. When they send the god damn mail clerk down to jerk me off, waste my time, it's a fuck you. Ed throws the tie off. ERIN I don't get why they'd do that. ED Because they can. You heard that kid -- they have twenty-eight billion dollars at their disposal. They can afford to waste all the time in the world! ERIN And you can't? ED What, you think I'm made of money?! ERIN What are you yelling at me for? ED Because I'm fucking pissed off! ERIN (yells back) Good! ED FUCK YOU! Erin starts to smile. Ed cracks a smile then starts to laugh. ED I really hate you sometimes, ya know that. ERIN You love me. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - LADIES ROOM - NIGHT At the end of her day, Rosalind enters to fix herself up before going home. She walks in on: Erin, splashing cold water on her face... and dabbing her eyes with cool, wet paper towels... They do not speak as Rosalind steps beside her to face the mirrors above the sink. After a beat or two, Erin exits. Alone, Rosalind has her lipstick and is about to apply when she looks at herself in the mirror... She tries lowering her neckline... then, loosening up her hair... as if secretly showing herself what an Erin-makeover would do for her. INT. MASRY & VITITOE - OUTSIDE ED'S OFFICE - NIGHT End of the day. Most everyone has left. Erin is at her new work space near Ed's office. She's poring over a fat file of documents. Rosalind wanders by with her coat on. ROSALIND You've been reading for hours. ERIN I'm a slow reader. Whatever she thinks of her, Rosalind can't help but see Erin's hard at work. She turns on Erin's desk lamp and heads out -- it's the first helpful hand Erin has received from one of the women. Erin turns back to her work when her attention is then drawn to the big glass office doors; on the other side, Rosalind is talking to a lost-looking COUPLE IN THEIR MID-30's. These are MANDY and TOM BROWN. He's in a security guard uniform, with an envelope under his arm. Rosalind points to Erin. The Browns enter the office and approach her. MANDY Excuse me, are you Erin Brockovich? ERIN Yeah. Who are you? TOM I'm Tom Brown. This is my wife Mandy. We used to live across the street from the Irvings. Pg&E bought our house last year. INT. ERIN'S DESK - LATER CLOSE ON PHOTOS OF CHICKENS, each with a twisted, limp neck. TOM It's called wry neck. It's when they're born without any muscles in the neck. WIDEN to see Erin looking at them with Tom and Mandy. ERIN Wow. How many were born like this? TOM Twelve, maybe thirteen. MANDY When Donna told us about you, and what you told her about the chromium, we figured that might have something to do with this, too. ERIN It sure could, yeah. Thanks a lot. She tucks them into a file, as if that's it. MANDY There's something else, too. ERIN What? TOM Well. Mandy here's had nine miscarriages. ERIN Are you kidding? My God -- MANDY I know. It's an awful lot. ERIN I'm surprised Donna didn't say anything. TOM She doesn't know. No one does. It's not something you want to talk about, you know? MANDY I figured it musta been something I did, like when I smoked marijuana, maybe. Or took birth control pills. But then Donna told me you thought this chromium might be to blame for her problems, so I figured... INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT Erin enters, exhausted. She collapses on a chair. George is on his hands and knees, apparently searching for a lost toy. Erin talks to him with her eyes closed. ERIN I got to take a bath. GEORGE You should go in. ERIN They're not asleep? GEORGE Katie and Beth are. They exchange a look. Erin knows Matt's upset. INT. ERIN'S HOUSE - MATT AND KATIE'S ROOM - NIGHT Matt and Katie are in bed, with the light off. Erin comes in, quietly, in clothes from work. ERIN Hey. CLOSE ON MATT. He's awake and pissed. She sits on his bed. She knows he's mad at her -- she speaks softly, caringly; ERIN How was school? MATTHEW Fine. ERIN Did you do your homework? MATTHEW Yeah. ERIN Any problems? He doesn't answer. She comes in and sits on the bed. ERIN Look, I know you're upset. But the way this job is, things come up at the last minute, real important things, and I gotta deal with -- Matt turns around in his bed and pulls up the covers, cutting her off -- MATTHEW Fine. ERIN Please don't be mad at me. I'm... I'm doing this for us... I know it's hard for you to understand but... I mean, don't you want mommy to be good at her job? (no answer) And it's not like I miss dinner all the time. We all ate together last night. MATTHEW (from under the covers) You were reading the whole time. He's got a point there. Erin feels like shit. ERIN O.K... O.K. I'm sorry. I'll try a whole lot harder to be around, okay? I promise. She lays her hand on his body. Without turning towards her, his little hand rises out from the covers and touches hers. EXT. ROUTE 10, INLAND EMPIRE - DAY Ed's big old Mercedes is toodling down the freeway at a rate well below the speed limit. INT. ED'S MERCEDES - DAY Frank Sinatra on the stereo, the "Songs for Swingin' Lovers" album. Ed looks over at Erin and smiles. Erin just stares at him, then looks over at the speedometer. 50 mph. Ugh. Ed's car phone rings. He picks it up. ED Ed Masry. (his voice softens) Hi, baby. Yes, I did. I did, really. He laughs, and the car starts drifting across the lane markers. THWACK THWACK THWACK. Ed doesn't notice. Erin's getting nervous. ED Of course I do. Of course I do. Okay. He makes a kissing noise into the phone. He's practically driving off the road. ED Bye-bye... bye-bye... no, you. Okay, together: Bye-bye. He hangs up, smiling to himself. Erin clears her throat. ERIN Um, you mind pulling over? Just for a second? EXT. FREEWAY - DAY The Mercedes pulls to a stop on the shoulder. Erin gets out, walks around to the driver's side, and opens the door. ERIN First of all, don't talk baby talk to your wife in front of me. It really undermines your authority. Second, I