"You want me to look into the telephone?" "This is the movie camera?" "OK." "OK, like this?" "OK, now?" "OK." "My name is Vijay." "Did I look in the right place?" "I am..." "Minx." "Well, my name is Bradley White, and, yes, certainly, I will explain my work to you, Michelangelo." "But first a little background, as this is educational." "I am Anita, Anita De Los Angeles." "My job?" "My job is... zip, invisible zip, so you no can see them." "And hem." "I do invisible hem." "My name is Dwight Angel." "Er, I graduated recently." "Er, I majored in Philosophy, Psychology and Ethics." "My name is Roth, Edith Roth." "My friends call me Edie." "I'm the manager here." "My name's Lettuce." "They call me Lettuce Leaf." "I was new face of the year." "Well..." "last year." "I think everybody knows who I am, OK?" "But just for you, my name is Merlin." "My name is Otto, and my job is public relations in this crazy madhouse." "You like blue?" "Oh, very sophisticated." "Blue screen, hmm?" "So, what background will you give me, then?" "Desert with camels or Swiss mountains?" "I make sense of the chaos of the world with my collections, which are statements." "Do you know what a statement is, Michelangelo?" "OK, a statement is something full of meaning in a meaningless world." "Ah, the life of the city, so full of excitement but so empty." "In fact, life is empty and my role is to fill it with truth." "That is the role of the poet." "And, by the way, I take risks, you know?" "I never take the easy way." "No, no, no, no." "I like to be... dangerous." "That's why every collection is an event." "That's why I am an event." "Testing one, two, three." "Yes, it is true, also, that my work inspires envy, and it hurts me." "Yes, it hurts me when a certain writer..." "No, no, I am not going to say, no, I am not going to say." "...when a certain writer criticises my designs in a magazine, because I am sensitive, Michelangelo, very sensitive." "An artist must be sensitive." "If you are not sensitive here, you cannot create." "But also you have to be ruthless, because this is the only way to say the truth!" "My job?" "Er..." "Actually, usually..." "Usually I am delivering pizzas." "It's a good job." "It's a very good job, actually." "It's... not an official job as such." "But this Merlin, sometimes he's wanting pizza in the middle of the night, when he's working, so..." "I come on my bike." "It's a good model." "Import model, nice handling, good pick-up." "I ride very fast to keep the pizza hot." "Then last night, all of a sudden, he asks me, do I like to be in the show with my bike, with a beautiful model, a girl, riding with me on the back?" "So what can I say?" "I say yes." "And why do I say yes?" "Because..." "Because, actually, I am looking to break into the show business." "No questions?" "Are you shy because I am celebrity?" "Yes?" "Then, let me think." "Maybe you want to know the secret of my success." "Am I right?" "I love myself, Michelangelo." "If you do not love yourself, you cannot be beautiful." "So I practise every morning." "I look in the mirror and say, "Minx, you are the one and I adore you."" "It's not easy." "Sometimes I resist." "Sometimes I say, "Minx, there is room for improvement."" "You see, even me, I am not perfect." "With self-esteem you can always go higher." "Only joking!" "Actually, I do not have narcissistic personality disorder." "What do I do?" "Well, for example, I get to coordinate the celebrity guest list," "A list, B list and the nobodies." "Er... a nobody is somebody nobody has ever heard of." "You know, Miss Roth, you're gonna meet her later, she takes care of everything backstage." "She's been doing that forever, but she doesn't really know how to speak to the movie people, you know?" "She's a little bit older." "So it's up to me to decide who sits next to who." "You have to know who's important." "Some people get very upset if I don't seat them in the front row, oh!" "But it's all worth it when there's the big "standing O"." "You know, the buzz." "Ohhhh." "It's ovation." "But 'O' is for Otto, that's my motto!" "What a nice smile!" "Well, this is a family business, Michelangelo." "My father named it after me when I was born." "Edie's." "Er, but then everything changed, including the name, when we were bought out by Mr Diamonds." "The garment trade, it was called in my father's time." "Now it's called the fashion industry." "It's the same thing." "Although, actually, in my view, trade is a better word, because there have always been markets and women have always needed clothes." "Well, maybe we want a little more than we need, but is that such a bad thing?" "Let's see." "What else could I tell you that would help you?" "Er..." "In the old days, we knew every bead and button sewer, every cutter and presser, every janitor in every warehouse, every delivery boy all by name, hmm?" "Of course, that's all changed now." "Now, the line of work I'm in is marketing." "I am the intermediary." "Now, do you know what an intermediary is, Michelangelo?" "Between the product and the consumer." "I find out what people want and I give it to them." "Well, not me, personally, but the companies I advise, such as this particular sector of the fashion business." "Now, fashion, Michelangelo, is all about image." "The image becomes a brand, and the brand creates an awareness of a product, in this instance a fragrance." "Well, it's a small product but a big idea." "M, M, M. Now listen to this." "M is for mystery." "And I really shouldn't have told you that, because we're keeping the concept under wraps until we launch the fragrance tomorrow." "But, you know, since this is educational..." "It's, you know..." "I guess, technically speaking, I'm an intern, at the moment, but I've been taking initiatives at a high level." "Such as..." "Well, for example, I've been brainstorming in some depth about names for the fragrance." "At first, I thought of Perfume or Scent." "Straightforward, you know?" "Anyway, when this M idea came up, I..." "Well, to be honest, it was my idea, actually." "Well, right away I thought of tag lines, such as "the mystery thing", or "M is for mother", you know, for the mother's market." "A lot of people are buying perfume for mothers." "Er... or M is for mujer." "That's Spanish, right, Michelangelo?" "There's a great big niche right there." "God, the Latin American sector." "Or M is for motherfucker which is for the African-American..." "I like to do invisible or very visible." "Same thing." "It's about quality." "I give quality." "Er..." "No matter if they see or not see." "Come." "Come, come." "Like me." "I am not visible." "In this city, I no exist." "I come, I go, when they want." "Er..." "It's better for me and it's very better for them, because they no have to pay insurance, vacations, you know." "Used to be all on 8th Avenue, and then it was Asian families in Brooklyn." "And now it's China." "Everything's made in China." "You don't believe me, look inside your shoe." "They say the time will come when nothing is made here, not a thing." "I do believe that life will become difficult for some people in this country in the near future." "Indeed..." "It already is difficult, and that is what the people outside, yes, that's what they're protesting about." "OK, OK, OK, OK, Michelangelo." "One second, Michelangelo." "It is true the collection is not inexpensive." "OK." "But you have to pay for beauty." "One way or another, you have to pay." "In this case, OK, with money." "OK?" "I must go now." "Wait, wait." "Except... the point is, my work influences everyone even if they cannot afford it." "You see, it is like a secret research laboratory." "In that sense, I am a scientist." "Yes, I make discoveries!" "You see, a dress is not just a dress." "It is a a revelation." "It is like a sacred vessel for the... miraculous." "In that sense, I am also a priest." "Yes, fashion is very spiritual." "Very." "OK?" "Now I must go." "Rhoda, she's my agent." "She said, like, if I work really hard this year, I can make it big." "But, of course, she said in order to be big, you have to be little." "That's Dorothy." "She's crying cos she thinks she looks too fat in the dress thing." "But that's Dorothy." "Like, she's always crying." "She..." "I think that's enough now, Lettuce." "There's one other thing." "This..." "This Dorothy girl who's, er... who's riding with me on the back, she's... she's always crying." "And she's also very, very thin, very thin." "Like an insect." "I don't think..." "I don't think she is well, actually." "Actually, I am quite worried about her." "No, I don't wanna sit." "Ready?" "My name is Frank and I take pictures." "Mona Carvell." "Writer." "Critic." "My name is Diamonds." "Er... they call me Tiny." "I have no idea why." "My name is Jed, and I'm Mr Diamond's bodyguard." "Is that OK, kid?" "You want me to do it again?" "Well, I have no idea what I'll write." "I haven't seen the collection yet." "Merlin does not share his creations in advance." "More's the pity." "One could help." "One could advise." "You see, sadly, he believes he's making art." "But fashion is not an art form." "If it's anything at all, it's pornography." "To which millions are addicted." "Hopelessly addicted." "Take the look in a woman's eyes when she's shopping." "It's a crazed lust of a desperate junkie, who can't afford the real thing, so will settle for any rubbish they sell on the street." "It's much worse than heroin, take it from me." "Oh, have I shocked you?" "Good!" "And as for the designers, they're mostly desperate, deluded individuals, who all think they're doing something new." "But nothing's new in this game." "If you think you're in, you're already out." "You started already?" "OK." "I did Afghanistan, the Gulf War." "I was one of the first embedded with our boys in Iraq." "That's my job." "It's more than a job, it's a vocation." "I shoot." "Not with a gun, though I know how to." "You have to." "Places I've been, the things I've seen." "You don't know what danger is till you've been in a war zone." "You don't know what death is." "You know something, kid?" "If somebody told me that I could never take another picture," "I would go right home and put my head in the gas oven." "If I had a home." "Or an oven." "But I live in a hotel." "Actually, it's a dive." "That's the best kind of place to live." "I don't bother to unpack." "I keep a bag by the door, ready, just in case I get the call." "Things." "You don't need things in this life." "You need mobility and chances." "Now, when you get a chance, kid, you should take it, cos you wake up a minute later and they say you're too tired to see action." "Tired?" "Do I look tired?" "What they mean is old." "But this is experience in my face." "Experience." "See, you're young but you won't always be young." "That's the thing, kid." "Hello again." "I've been thinking, Michelangelo, and I would like to give you some more advice." "There are two things in this life which are important." "Money and fame." "All the rest, frankly, I would not bother with." "Mr Andy Warhol said everybody will be famous for 15 minutes but some people will be more famous for longer." "The beautiful ones, and if you are not beautiful, you better be rich." "So... no offence, but I think you better start making plans, Michelangelo, hmm?" "OK." "What?" "Afraid?" "Afraid of what?" "Am I afraid of... getting old?" "Is that what you're asking me?" "Do you think I'm old?" "Look." "Look at my face." "Look at the light on my face." "Some people, the light makes big ugly shadows." "Me?" "It's a fucking caress." "The light loves me and I love the light." "Together we can do anything." "Is there anything I like about fashion?" "Well, of course." "It's a brutal, amoral business." "Issues of right and wrong, good and bad, simply don't come into it." "Which in this current climate of political correctness is extremely refreshing." "You see, in evolutionary terms, morality is irrelevant." "Beauty is worshipped infinitely more than goodness." "And why?" "Because without it there'd be indiscriminate copulation, or even none at all." "Beauty attracts, my child." "Beauty is power." "Which is unfortunate, because, in fact, it is surface, Michelangelo." "Surface through and through." "And when the bloom of youth fades, only those graced with the right bones will survive." "That's what beauty has become in this age of photography." "Bones." "Bones that will one day lie in the dusty earth." "The people that work for me?" "What about them?" "Well..." "I..." "I like to... encourage talent." "They get the chance to express themselves and to develop, and, then, of course, I own the product." "And the designers with talent, they move on to the next thing, and if there's no talent, then, they sort of disappear." "It's a natural selection, survival of the fittest, in a fashion jungle." "Life can be..." "Life can be so insecure." "Which I why I am fond of permanence." "Which is why I collect." "And a collection must grow." "That is its nature." "Right now, I'm collecting women's magazines and cable television." "Miss Carvell, I believe you've met." "A very dear friend of mine." "Her writing is so brutal." "Marvellous!" "Well, she doesn't know it yet but the journal she writes for  I just bought it." "Shh!" "All right." "Being a bodyguard, it's different." "It's different." "I know some people probably tell you it's a step down from being in the police department, but I wouldn't agree." "Mr Diamonds has been very good to me." "I mean, he let me talk to you, for instance, right?" "Now he's seated in the front row, where he belongs, of course." "Yeah, but he knows I got the eye." "Oh, yeah." "Gotta have the eye." "You know, he says to me, "Jed, hey, watch my back." "You can't miss!"" "He's a jokester!" "That's cos he's relaxed." "He's relaxed cos I take care of the anxiety for him." "Cos we travel a lot." "We travel from place to place." "We go to Milan, Paris..." "Beijing, New Delhi." "Stay in some fancy hotels." "Very fancy." "I mean, I sleep in the corridor, but that's if I sleep." "You know, I gotta stay alert 24/7 so I drink tons of coffee." "You know, it's an interesting fact, Michelangelo, but, uh..." "I've never been interviewed before." "Nope." "I mean sometimes I'm standing outside of Mr Diamond's door at night..." "I'm just standing there staring at nothing." "I don't know, I start thinking about things." "A lot of things." "I don't know, it's probably the coffee." "Probably the coffee gets me all stirred up." "You drink coffee?" "Do you know there are 256 Starbucks in the city?" "256..." "I know where every single one of them is." "That's right." "I got it like a map in my head now." "I carry a little flask with me, just in case, but for a quick fix, I drop in for two triple shots, three to four times a day minimum." "Minimum." "Michelangelo, the thoughts that I have." "Oh, the thoughts that I have, I could fill a book." "Oh, yeah, if I had the time." "But, you know, I'm not paid for my opinions, I'm paid for my eye." "It's not that I don't have any either." "Right." "What are my opinions?" "Yeah, you're asking for trouble now!" "Son of a fucking bitch!" "Listen, kid." "I gotta get these pictures in." "Take it from me, you missed the action out there." "What are you doing back here with this frigging blue screen?" "When you get a situation like this, you gotta concentrate on getting the best angle of the real thing." "And you gotta make choices." "I mean, let's say, for example, you're in a war zone, and you see a little old lady lying screaming on the side of the road." "Do you give her a hand or do you take her picture and get it in the papers?" "Which is gonna do more good in the long run?" "See, you get to think about things like that in my vocation." "You have to because you're right there and you're in it." "Did you see what happened at all?" "To Dorothy?" "I just can't..." "I just can't quite believe it, actually." "I just can't." "I mean, Dorothy always had, like, bad things happening to her, but this is like the worst." "Like, you can't get much worse." "You know, I've seen a lot of movies so I know how people die." "Blood." "Violence." "You see it a lot, you know?" "But, actually, this is the first time that I saw it happen in..." "real life, you know?" "And it's a little..." "Oh, my God." "It's upsetting, actually." "It's... very upsetting." "But the weird thing is, is that it's also kind of inspiring." "Yeah." "You know, I was ready." "You know, on the bike, with the smiling." "And they told me, "Vijay, don't smile."" "So I am very serious, very serious, and I rev the bike." "It's a good model, 250cc, one down, five up." "They push me out and..." "You know for... for one, maybe two seconds, it feels like the most incredible moments in my life." "You know, the flash, flash, the flash, the pictures of me!" "This is rocking!" "Actually, they didn't tell me the lights, they blind you, actually." "Did you know that?" "Anyway, the..." "The incredible moment is finished, because there is something stuck in my back wheel." "Why did they last minute put this long scarf round her neck, hmm?" "And why did this thing happen to her?" "And to me, also?" "I must wait to speak to the police detective." "It's not good." "It's not good at all." "Actually, right now, I think my life is finished." "It's finished now." "Completely." "This interview is over." "Over." "Thank you." "Listen, Michelangelo, this is for your school project, only, is this so?" "Good, OK." "But listen, I don't think you need to talk to the bike boy." "Is it Vijay?" "Yeah." "You can erase that interview, OK?" "Good." "This is a tragic moment, Michelangelo." "Very tragic." "But an artist must be detached, even from death." "What is death, anyway, for an artist?" "He lives through his work, and his work lives on after him, if it's good enough." "So what is there to be afraid of?" "Nothing." "I say... my prayers for Dorothy." "Poor Dorothy." "Poor Dorothy." "I light candle for Dorothy so her soul can rest in peace." "Let's put a check on this little project now cos..." "There's gonna be a press conference tomorrow to make a statement of sorrow and bring closure, and you can come to that but no more now, OK?" "Michelangelo, off!" "Homer." "That's my name." "Detective." "That's my occupation." "And to be or not to be, that is the only meaningful question, Michelangelo." "Except by the time I'm on the scene, it's usually been answered." "In the negative." "So what do I do?" "I look around." "I observe." "And what do I see?" "That clothes proclaimeth the man." "Except in this specific situation, a man designed the clothes that proclaimeth the woman." "If you can call them women, Michelangelo." "Minx is ready." "She's always ready for a camera, even... a little one like yours." "A lens is a lens." "As long as there is light she is happy." "Let me tell you, today she is not happy." "Not happy at all." "I tell you, Michelangelo, my agency got very excited about my pictures yesterday." "You see, experience does count for something, you know, when it comes to shooting a stiff." "These others, these fashion types with their long lenses on tripods, no mobility, Michelangelo, no mobility." "They don't have the stomach for it, either, throwing up like that all over their camera bags." "You gotta be able to get in there, close-up and look death in the face." "Reality, Michelangelo." "This is the first piece of real shit that these people have seen." "You can count on that." "Hey, did you see my picture in "The Post" this morning?" ""The Post", Michelangelo, it's a newspaper." "No?" "Well, my agency offered it to "The Times", but they said their readership don't have the appetite for this kind of detail." "So they used some earlier photo of the model looking, you know, nice and alive." "You know, the clean shit." "Then my agency says, "You're doing a great job, Frank." ""Now you gotta get some pictures of the press conference."" "But I am not a press conference type of a guy." "You understand me?" "An accident, especially of a young and beautiful model, terrible though it is, attracts awareness, focus." "And you have to rise above your own tendency to have emotional reactions and go with the flow of the situation." "Now, the show is there to generate awareness." "Right?" "The show goes wrong." "But sometimes wrong can be right." "Guess what?" "Another chapter heading." "You see, I think this can be an opportunity for M." "And M is for mystery." "The mystery of what?" "The mystery of mortality." "I thought that up last night when I was rising above the emotional tendency." "And I have decided that that is going to be the new tag line that we will present at the press conference today." "Otto is very busy, Michelangelo, very." "We have never ever had this much interest." "It's, er..." "It's a buzz, really." "I could not sleep last night." "I just have to make sure about something." "This is not to control you, cos I would never do that, would I?" "I have much more important things to think about." "I have ABC, NBC, FOX, all the cable channels coming." "But my sister tells me that her little girl has seen me talking on the web." "Now, I know only one camera that's pointed in my direction." "Hmm?" "Are you posting your material on some kind of secret website, Michelangelo?" "Some people have no luck, you know?" "No luck at all." "I mean, perhaps..." "Maybe Dorothy brought it on herself." "Mr Sigmund Freud called it a death wish." "She was pro-ana, you see." "Do you know what that is?" "It's good if you don't, because it's sick, absolutely sick." "They have websites, everything." "Have you seen those?" "You have?" "You see..." "I'm lucky." "I can eat anything." "I just choose not to." "You probably don't read women's magazines, Michelangelo, but they're always asking Minx for her beauty regime." "She says, "Salad, fish," ""moisturiser, a good perfume and fall in love."" "You have to set an example, you see." "But, between you and me, I like a diet of cookies and coke!" "I do not relate well to the thin thing." "I prefer a more traditional female dimension." "However, I can see you like to eat." "With respect, you could do with a little more on the fitness side." "You probably spend all your time at a computer." "Am I right?" "See, that is an observation." "A detective has to observe, which, I can assure you, is not always a pleasant activity." "O, woe is me." "To have seen what I have seen, see what I see." "And whilst it is true that all that live must die, passing from nature to eternity, this particular passing seems a little previous, does it not?" "This is a serious situation, very serious." "Not only has a young and beautiful life been snuffed out but also, as your mentor..." "Yes, I think I can say I'm your mentor." "I can be open with you about this." "My investment in Merlin is seriously at risk." "I do not like to be involved in conflict, turbulence, anything dark." "No offence, Michelangelo!" "None taken?" "Good boy." "Because all my life, all my life," "I could get anything I wanted, anything." "Except peace." "Peace of mind." "Harmony." "At home it was always war." "And that is why I am not interested in raised voices and sad faces." "You got a second, kid?" "Can I talk to you?" "Look, I just want to add something because..." "Remember before I told you I had opinions?" "Remember that?" "Yeah, well, listen up, kid." "Listen up." "There's trouble brewing round here, oh, yeah, and it's not the coffee!" "But that guy I saw you talking to just now, the detective Homer," "I used to work with him at the police department, all right?" "We had a nickname for that guy." "You know what it was?" "The Bard." "He had ideas above his station." "I mean, he thinks..." "He thinks he's a superior type of person, that's what." "But between you and me, he's way out of his depth here, OK?" "Way out." "I know his hands are tied behind his back and all that." "I mean, you got those protestors outside, for instance." "Now, if it was up to me, you know what I would do?" "I would just round those guys up and just throw them in jail." "Of course, everybody thinks they got rights, right?" "They all do." "They think they got more rights than I do, Michelangelo." "More rights than me." "And then they want job security on top of that?" "Come on!" "Who the hell do they think they are?" "Oh!" "They want me now." "They have to style Minx for the press conference." "I think she's ready, don't you?" "Like this?" "Not too much make-up." "Serious." "Appropriate." "Maybe with dark glasses." "What do you think, Michelangelo?" "About Dorothy." "Hmm?" "Do you believe in karma?" "Hello, Michelangelo." "Good morning." "I am here because they say to me, "Come back to see the show."" "No bike this time." "Just to come see and enjoy." "The... the manager, Miss Roth, she told me to call her Edie." "She was very kind to me, actually." "She said to me, "Come, see the show." ""Maybe it will help you to get over the shock feeling."" "But, er..." "I don't want to see the show." "It reminds me of that very bad, very terrible thing that happened." "The worst thing that happened to me in my life, actually." "That's the music from the day that..." "I feel quite sick." "Sorry." "I spoke to the police detective, Mr Homer." "He was very polite." "He said to me, "Vijay, what is done cannot be undone."" "Er... he's a very nice person, actually." "And..." "But now he is asking for my papers." "This is most unfortunate." "Now I see the pizza delivery, it was a very, very, very good job, indeed, and no papers necessary." "But, unfortunately, I left this job." "You see, because I thought this fashion show, with me on the bike, it will be my lucky break." "But, actually, now, I think what is broken is my life." "Completely." "Oh, actually, some people, they don't realise when they have a good life, isn't it?" "I didn't myself, actually." "But why they so angry, the protestors on the sidewalk with their?" "They're lazy, isn't it?" "They don't realise..." "Actually, they're the lucky ones, because they have the free country and the free speech, and, also, because they can say what they like because they have papers, isn't it?" "And..." "Don't you agree?" "It's because we are living in a democracy..." "No, no, no!" "Go, go!" "Michelangelo, you come with me." "You coming?" "Listen, kid, where Frank goes, the action follows." "You get my drift?" "That's because when you get the angle, the perspective, you see the way it is." "Being alive, see, is just temporary shit." "Every single fucking life ends in a death." "Simple but true." "And truth is the thing, right?" "The camera never lies, right, Michelangelo?" "Right?" "You know why it was amazing being in the same show as Bonnie?" "She was the person I admired most in the whole world." "And I was right behind her on the runway, and then, suddenly, there was this shot and she was falling down." "Bonnie had amazing hair, but her personality was, like, abrasive." "That's what the stylist said." "You've got to listen to the stylist, that's what Rhoda said." "Bonnie used to do her own styling." "That's why she was a genius." "In fact, she was like a..." "mega superstar, and she had been in the business for ever." "She had longevity." "That's what the make-up artist said." "She said she had longevity until it was cut short." "Not her hair." "Bonnie wouldn't let them cut her hair." "Some of the models with longevity like to keep changing their look but Bonnie was consistent." "Consistently demanding, that's what Rhoda said." "But you have to ask or you don't get." "That's what my dad said." "When he put me on the plane." "You know, to come here." "I'd really like to go home..." "you know?" "Yes, Michelangelo." "They are now officially saying that this is a murder investigation." "But, look, maybe they will find that after Dorothy Darling's unfortunate accident, well, maybe Bonnie, she..." "she killed herself somehow, because..." "she was not happy person." "How?" "I don't know how." "Because I am not a pathologist." "No, no, no, This is something I never wanted to be." "Never." "Actually, I don't like to be around dead people." "Where I come from, people were dying a lot, you see." "Well, everywhere people are dying in the world, actually, in hospitals and so on, or at home, in private, but not so much in front of everyone." "It's not good to die in public, on the street, surrounded by strangers." "Anyway..." "Me, I prefer to explore life." "I came here to this city because it is full of life." "Empty, meaningless, I admit, but, nevertheless, not dead, Michelangelo." "Not dead is better." "I thought you might wanna interview me one more time." "I mean, that's what I thought." "Am I right, yes?" "No?" "You tell me." "You let me know." "Because what happened to me was, talking to you before, kind of stirred me up a little bit." "Yeah, it did." "And I realised that, you know, my opinions aren't generally taken into consideration." "That's because in my line of activity, the attributes of loyalty are so much more important than your attributes of opinions." "Cos, a bodyguard..." "What does a bodyguard do?" "He's gotta stay close to his subject at all times, all the time, and you're wondering what am I doing here right now, right?" "Well..." "Well, Mr Diamonds said, "Hey, go take the afternoon off." ""Take a few hours off." "You deserve it."" "You know what that's called?" "It's called esteem." "Esteem for loyalty." "I mean, I don't..." "I don't need time off, cos anything could happen when I'm not covering his back." "He could be talking to other bodyguards, for instance." "Yeah, right?" "I mean, I'm not concerned as such, I'm not concerned, because, well, I'm..." "I'm that guy, that one-in-a-thousand kind of a guy." "I'm that guy that will go the distance." "I will go all the way." "They no respect for the dead!" "They no respect for nothing, Michelangelo!" "Dorothy, Bonnie, they pass on!" "Poor babies." "They just babies!" "Like you!" "My daughter, yesterday night, she say she see what you doing on internet." "She say she see me speaking!" "She say, "Mum, you are famous!"" "But I do not want to be famous!" "I want to be invisible!" "Invisible!" "So you stop now." "Right now, Michelangelo!" "Child, you go home." "Please!" "Pray to lord for souls of dead!" "Hello, dear." "Are you all right?" "This is a terrible, terrible time for us, Michelangelo." "Actually, I'm really not sure that you should still be here." "Poor Dorothy." "Poor Bonnie." "Even if she was a little difficult..." "Well..." "She made the people in the backroom suffer, you see, at her fittings." "The lateness, the screaming, the insults." "She insulted me, too, often enough." "She had to have this and she had to have that." "Whatever you did was wrong." "Whatever you paid her, it wasn't enough." "It was a nightmare." "Of course, it was galling to think that in one day, a so-called day, she earned more than some workers earn in six months or even a year." "It doesn't seem fair, does it?" "Well, but then there she was the next day on the front pages." "You know, dear, my father, he started this business from nothing." "My mother worked all hours." "They both did." "And I was their only child." "I wanted to go to law school." "I wanted to be a politician." "I wanted to change the world." "But how could I let them down?" "I couldn't do that." "And now it all seems irrelevant." "Bonnie's family are flying in." "The whole thing is unbearable." "I can't even bear to talk about it." "Not even to you." "Let me tell you that this is one of the worst days of my life." "Remember how I told you Minx's best friend was the light?" "Well, now I realise I was wrong." "Bonnie was my best friend." "Bonnie." "I saw that crystal clear today when I went to the airport to pick up her parents." "It was a good photo opportunity for Minx." "So she went, even though it was very early." "You didn't laugh at my little joke against Minx, Michelangelo." "Maybe you don't have a sense of humour." "Anyway, her family are fat." "They're all fat and small." "Her little sister looks like a sausage." "Look over there." "But they loved Bonnie." "They loved her." "Nursed her through the operations, the eyes, the nose, everything." "Worked night and day to pay for it all." "And now she's gone." "All for nothing!" "The detective asks me how I feel about my models." "I told him again and again, I adore them." "Of course, Michelangelo!" "They wear my designs!" "OK, OK, Dorothy was, I must admit, tiring." "It was the tears like a fountain." "And Bonnie was, I admit, a nightmare, but in the show, you see, she was a winner." "She could walk, you see." "And then there was the hair, red, which was, in my opinion, overrated." "That's why I put her in a wig but not just any wig, you understand." "A 30-metre long black braid, Chinese reference." "It was superb, truly superb." "A little bit heavy, I agree." "But, anyway, she hated it." "Hated me for making her wear it." "And then, you see, Michelangelo, models, they hate this or that." "Ultimately, they hate each other." "Like all women do." "So what do I do now, you might ask." "Well, first, I wait for Forensics to come back to me about the line of fire, complicated by the mother of all wigs, apparently, and then I look for motive." "I've been talking to people." "I've been asking questions." "Lots of questions." "From what they's been saying to me, seems everybody loved everybody here." ""My best friend Dorothy this, my best friend Bonnie that."" "These fashion folk doth protest too much." "For praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear." "Between you and me I'm a little nervous, because you know what they say, these things happen in threes." "And I'm damned if I'm gonna be the third." "Minx, stay on top!" "Yesterday..." "Was it yesterday?" "I was trying to explain to you my views on fashion and morality." "I do feel my views have been vindicated." "Forget beauty." "Forget creation." "Look at the human race." "What do you see?" "Look honestly." "Not a species of creatives." "Humans are, quite simply, the greatest destroyers of all time." "Rape and pillage is the norm." "And not just of each other but of the planet." "You'll be lucky if there is a planet when you reach my age." "Afraid?" "You should be." "Well, the world of fashion is no exception." "It thrives on fear and on hatred, Michelangelo." "Fear of failure, hatred of the non-entity." "And why?" "Cos only the brightest sparks will gleam for longer than a moment." "None of us seek oblivion." "In fact, we are all secretly foot soldiers, marching in a great army against time." "It's a hopeless cause." "Hopeless." "Speaking of which, I'm sure you are aware of the students standing around outside with their..." "Their tacky placards and clichéd slogans." "Listen." "To a worker in the Dominican Republic, or a village in China a garment factory is not a sweatshop." "It's an employment opportunity." "You know something, Michelangelo?" "Merlin kept this collection under wraps." "He said it would be a wonderful surprise." "He promised there would be music, dancing, beading." "Now, you put that together with a fragrance and a brand name that works any time, any place, any language, you are on to a winner." "And they came up with M." "Mysterious." "Magical." "Mother." "Excellent name for an excellent investment." "Excellent." "Very secure." "And now some clever journalist, in a paper I do not yet own, writes that M is for murder." "My marketing people did not warn me of this possibility, Michelangelo." "No, they did not." "This was not what I had in mind, not at all." "OK." "Did you get that?" "Good." "As I've always said, you must look for opportunity in every situation." "A lot of people would think if they are let go from an employment position, for example that their future is not looking so very bright." "But, then, every ending is also a beginning." "That's, guess what, another chapter heading for the book I'm going to write." "Which I will be having a lot of time for from now on." "Also..." "leisure opportunities." "As a matter of fact, I always wanted to dance." "Have you spoken to Dwight a lot?" "You have?" "Well, he's very bright, isn't he?" "Very well educated." "They... seem to like that." "Yes, it's true." "I have been promoted, Michelangelo." "How did you guess?" "You see, I made a counterproposal to Mr Diamonds after Bradley's proposal didn't go over so well at the press conference." "I could see that Mr Diamonds was not impressed by "M is for mortality"." "Ladies don't want to be thinking about death and dying when they're buying a fragrance." "Anyway, so I thought, under the circumstances, why not change tack and target the youth market with the perfume?" "Actually, it was talking to you that gave me the idea." "You know that?" "Yeah, young people, they have identity issues and insecurities about body odour." "Am I right, Michelangelo, hmm?" "So I thought of "M is for me"." "It works for the 12- to 16-year-old out-of-control hormonal situation, that teenage demographic, and, then, as for the under-12s with their... so used to violence with their video games, that brand association of murder and perfume... whoa, man!" "That could really take off." "Now, well, Mr Diamonds, he didn't exactly get it at first, but then he got kind of excited and he called it damage limitation, Michelangelo." "And I think there's an amazing niche right there... in damage limitation." "OK, Michelangelo," "I have decided to use these disasters and rethink everything." "Yes." "They want me to revise my collection?" "Overnight?" "OK, I will give them a collection that they will never forget." "Yes." "I will, I will... wrap everything, cover it, and I will call it my burkha collection." "Yes, and then I will rip everything to shreds as if a burkha was hit by a bomb." "This is East/West, you see, in one." "Brilliant, no?" "But my backer, my business manager, my public relations people, they all will say no." "Why should I listen to their opinions?" "Because, Michelangelo, they control the finance." "Therefore, they only think about what will sell." "What will sell a perfume." "Second, they are afraid it might offend." "They don't want to upset people." "People like me." "Not because they care about our feelings but because they are afraid of us." "Do you understand?" "And, suddenly, my designs, they must attract people under 12!" "What are they thinking of?" "Suddenly, my designs must attract children?" "I mean, children!" "No offence to you, Michelangelo." "I mean no offence to you." "I am very fond of children." "I was once a child, too, but not for long." "You have to grow up fast where I came from, very fast." "Yes, Michelangelo, a very successful meeting." "Sometimes you just have to be firm with designers." "Ultimately, they are reliant upon my investment, but they do tend to forget this from time to time." "They get emotional..." "but then everyone gets emotional when they feel they may lose their position." "But as Mr Trump says, it's not personal, it's business." "Now I am going to have a little word with Miss Carvell." "I have some ideas for her column." "See what an education you're getting here." "How to run things from the top." "Are you learning things?" "Good." "Yes, I did meet with Mr Diamonds, Michelangelo, although, quite frankly, it is none of your business." "I'm absolutely fine, thank you." "Hmm." "Now listen up, Michelangelo." "See, I have observed that you have been speaking to the exact same people I've been speaking to." "Sometimes ahead of me." "Maybe you have a fascination with this fashion universe and you is trying to make a reputation, reputation, reputation with this little camera." "Or maybe, as beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold, you is stealing the truth out of their mouths, and by the time they get to me, they is all talked out!" "So... just what exactly have they been saying to you?" "Anything you want to pass on brother to brother?" "Hello, Michelangelo." "How are you?" "I have good news, Michelangelo." "My photograph was in a magazine for celebrities." "My face." "Actually, it was an action shot, falling." "So..." "And, also, Otto is phoning me." "He is telling me that a big producer is phoning him to offer me a very good role in a commercial." "It's for the bad guy, actually." "The villain." "The killer, actually." "With a knife." "All right, I'm gonna tell you something, kiddo." "I woke up last night thinking about it." "I couldn't sleep at all." "First I thought, "Who am I gonna talk to?"" "And then I thought, "Michelangelo."" "Because you're a good listener." "I mean that, really." "But it's not an easy thing to talk about." "Because..." "Well..." "Maybe..." "Maybe it was my fault what happened to Bonnie." "And Dorothy." "Because you see, in a way, Minx wanted them dead." "But a girl can't help her feelings, can she?" "That's all they were." "Private feelings." "Private thoughts." "I didn't really want it to..." "You know." "What do you think, Michelangelo, honestly?" "Do you think I made a mistake with my career?" "You see when I was born mother decided I was to be something respectable, reliable." "So you can imagine, when I started playing with dolls, mother started crying day and night." "It was a nightmare." "And that's when I began to dream of being a psychiatrist." "To stop mother from crying." "And then one day, a man told me I was beautiful, asked me if I wanted to be in a commercial." "Big hair, big eyelashes, big fur." "Vodka." "It was a big success." "They called me Minx, sent me to New York, and I sent money home to mother and she stopped crying." "That's when I learned that the best medicine is money." "Money." "I still dream of being a psychiatrist." "Because I think I could help people with their problems." "Really I do." "Do you?" "I've been developing my ideas, Michelangelo." "And I'm here to make a proposal to you." "I've seen your site." "Yes, I have." "I know my way around the web, all right." "Now if you put your mind to it, you could become one of our brand-awareness operators, Michelangelo." "You could become... an influencer." "Do you know what that is?" "That is a kid who sets a trend." "And we employ a lot of them." "Now tell me, OK, honestly." "How many hits did your site have yesterday?" "Wow!" "Really?" "You see, I knew that the youth market was the niche to explore." "It is just where the numbers are..." "Except for the ageing population, of course." "Wow!" "That just came to me." "Geriatrics!" "They sure need fragrance, right?" "See, Michelangelo, you have to think ahead in the world of the new." "That's a pity it's not called N." ""N is for new."" "But then that wouldn't work for the old." "Michelangelo, can I?" "Can I ask you something?" "Do you think that something is, like, there, whether you look at it or not?" "And... and do you think everything or every, every, every, every, everybody exists that ever was or ever will be?" "Because, then, logically you don't have to do anything at all." "You can just sit and wait and wait for it all to happen but..." "But I don't want to wait, you know?" "Cos what if that's not true?" "I mean, free will must have something to do with it, otherwise what's the point of being alive?" "Have you got?" "Have you got?" "Have you got, like, some place I could stay?" "I mean..." "I mean, would your mum?" "Would your mum mind, if I?" "I..." "I just really want to get away from... from all this." "You know, like doing, like..." "like doing the show." "Doing the show again and..." "And I thought..." "And I..." "But Rho..." "I mean, Rho..." "Rhoda said..." "But I..." "I thought..." "I thought... maybe..." "W... what... what do you think?" "Michelangelo I would like you to record something for posterity." "And you keep it safe." "You understand?" "You see, before you know it, they will point a finger at me." "And why will they point a finger at me?" "Think about it." "This collection was reflecting, quite deliberately, the culture of violence in which we live." "So of course the models were carrying guns." "Of course they were pointing the guns at each other." "It was a statement!" "And, you know, I explained to you what a statement is." "But maybe they will interpret this statement as part of a larger plot to destroy the whole of society and then I will be finished." "Maybe they will take me away and I will disappear and that will be that." "Now you have a record of this thought in your little camera, OK?" "Just in case." "Good morning, Michelangelo." "Yes..." "Now..." "Now we have to get serious." "What have you been doing?" "Are you crazy?" "This is not what we agreed." "All those kids outside, hundreds of them, among the protestors, some of them calling my name when I came in just now." ""'O' is for Otto, that's my motto!" They were calling that and laughing!" "Now I don't mind people calling my name, not at all." "I do feel it's my turn to have a little piece of the limelight, but, er this information, it was private, between you and me." "You know?" "You have... you have betrayed all the confidence I put in you." "My God, Michelangelo." "Will you switch that thing off?" "Enough is enough!" "Michelangelo..." "I think you were the last person to speak with Lettuce Leaf yesterday." "She told me that she wanted to talk to you, and today she's nowhere to be seen." "Did she say anything to you?" "No?" "Well, I can't really blame her for not wanting to turn up here." "Merlin will just have to manage as best he can and Minx can fill in for the absentees." "I won't be helping out, as it happens, no." "I thought it might interest you to know that I, myself, will be joining the demonstration myself this afternoon when the show begins." "Yes." "I'll be protesting against the policies of the company that I manage." "We have an escalation situation, Michelangelo." "An escalation situation." "We have demonstrators chanting and waving things in the air." "We have a mob of young people, very young, crying in unison, "To be or not to be," when I pass by." "Now, I like to see young people interested in Mr William Shakespeare's verse, Michelangelo, but something don't smell right and it might just be you!" "Come here, Michelangelo!" "You have to take sides, brother, and I don't know what side you're on." "See, when I was a kid, if we saw a cop, we started running, right?" "We knew, in the eyes of the law, we were guilty of something." "Even if that something was just the sin of having a darker complexion." "Then, one day, I made a decision." "I'd rather be the chaser than the chased." "I made a career choice, brother." "That's how I got the cuffs in my hands and not on my wrists, and in my hands is where they're gonna stay!" "It is absolute mayhem out there, Michelangelo." "I have never seen such crowds." "Incredible." "Absolutely incredible." "And so young, the demographic." "He was right." "The boy was right." "So down to business." "How much do you want for it?" "The website, Mikey, the website." "He told me all about it." "What do you mean, it's not for sale?" "Everything has a price, Michelangelo." "Everybody has a price." "In the end, everything and everybody is for sale." "All right, all right, you think about it." "You think about it and you give me a call when you're ready." "You will be." "You will be." "I have decided to sit the show out, Michelangelo." "This time with you." "After all, what's the point in watching it, when my opinions can subsequently be cut to suit the needs of of the sales graph of a perfume?" "The fact is, Michelangelo, until now I've had reservations about Merlin's work, serious reservations." "He's always had big ideas, but, in my view, they were the wrong ones." "But now, I feel Merlin is having his moment." "You could say he was a prophet in this age of AIDS and... century of terror." "His clothes are shrouds." "Are you crying, sweetheart?" "There, there." "It's better to face up to things as they really are." "But the truth hurts, my love, doesn't it?" "It was chaos out there." "I think I may have..." "I was..." "I was trying to save the white sister." "And... and..." "and there was a lot of people..." "Even some... some kids, who were here because a certain brother invited them here on his website/cell-phone/blog thing!" "You know what Macbeth said, Michelangelo?" "He said "My life has become a tale told by an idiot," "..."all full of sound and fury signifying nothing."" "I think you better start running, Michelangelo." "There's blood on your hands." "Listen my words, Michelangelo." "There is one life only." "Hmm?" "We got precious gift from Lord God." "N... no matter if nobody speak your name on television or nothing the Lord God, he know you are there." "Hmm?" "That's why, to him, you never invisible." "OK?" "It's not your fault, Michelangelo." "It's not your fault." "Even if you invite them to come here the childrens choose to come." "Everybody choose what they do." "Mm-hm." "It's OK, it's OK." "Michelangelo." "Give me that." "It's, like, my turn."