no; do I want to?

INT.  STELLA'S COFFEE SHOP - DAY

Crowded.
A single unit air conditioner is buzzing with flapping things in its breeze, trying to compete with the heat.

LOWENSTEIN:
-- I think I've underestimated you, Ned.  I don't know why it took me so long.  You've started using your incompetence as a weapon.

RACINE
(smiles)
My defense was evolving.  You guys got scared.  Costanza doesn't like me.  What'd I do to him?

LOWENSTEIN
He's an unhappy man.  Thinks he should be in Circuit Court by now.  Here he is in a state with really top-notch corruption and he's stuck with the county toilets.
(drinks from his glass of iced tea)
I'm surprised you weren't in on that toilet caper.  Could have been that quick score you've always been searching for.

RACINE
Maybe Costanza was in on it.  That's why he was mad.

STELLA writes and places separate checks in front of the two men.

STELLA
What's the word from the hallowed halls of justice?  Anything juicy?

LOWENSTEIN
Maybe Stella was in on it.
(finishes his tea)
Stella, when are you gonna get a real air conditioner in here?

STELLA
You don't like it, there are lots of other places.

LOWENSTEIN
They don't have you. 
Gotta go.

He stands fishing for change, but Racine takes his check and places it with his own.  Lowenstein nods and moves for the door.

LOWENSTEIN
You can't buy me.  No sirree, I don't come cheap.

Just before he reaches the door he does a strange thing -- he takes several graceful dance steps in the Fred Astaire manner.

A VOICE
Lowenstein, you're a fag.

Lowenstein spins out the door, where he is blasted by the heavy air.  His body droops as he disappears.

STELLA
Why does he do that?

RACINE
He's pretty good, that's the weird part.

STELLA
Did you hear about Dr. Block?

RACINE
No.  Do I want to?

-- Agnes Marshall.

-- That must have been Mrs. Block's idea, some kind of punishment.

-- You know, that's right?!  How did you know that?  Christ, you are better plugged-in than I am!  So, you must know about Mrs. Block's friend over in Ocean Grove....

Racine winces, gets up, and puts money on the counter.  He lights a cigarette.

"Stella, this is beneath even you.  Things must be slow."

Stella agrees with a shrug as Racine heads for the door.

STELLA
It's the heat.

{excerpt, Body Heat script, written by Lawrence Kasdan}-------------

-----------------------------------
--------------------------
[from Alex Simon interview with Lawrence Kasdan]

Let's talk about your own experience growing up in a small town in West Virginia.
...Not only was it a different and simpler time in the 50s and 60s, but those places were just the way you'd think they'd be....There are real advantages for a child. 

When I was a kid, if you had a bicycle, you owned the town.  And there weren't places you were afraid to go. 

You could go anywhere.  You didn't need a car, or anybody's permission.  My life was in my neighborhood.  You had total freedom.  My kids didn't have that growing up in Los Angeles.

Part of what Grand Canyon is about, is that we have accepted the fact that our city is not our own.  That for people from south-central, for them to go into Beverly Hills and West L.A., the police are on the lookout.  They feel unwelcome, are under threat.  And vice-versa.  Our cities have become these little armed camps.  When you make movies,

you find yourself obsessing over the way the quality of movies has declined, but it's nothing compared to the way society has accepted selfishness and false values....

I loved the movies from the time I was very young.  The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape (1963) were two favorites, but when I saw Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, that just blew my mind.  I knew then that I wanted to make movies.

My brother Mark was at Harvard at the time, had fallen in love with movies himself.  He took me to see it,

and said "Look, this is something that someone has made.  They've written each scene, thought about how to shoot them..."

and that was the first time I'd ever thought about that.  So from that moment on, there was no question in my mind.

-30-