Last week we learned that the movie based on Lee’s memoir is, in fact, still very much alive! (Unlike Lee herself.) Nicole Holofcener’s script will still be used, but she is no longer directing — the reins have been turned over to Marielle Heller, whose debut effort, 2015’s Diary of a Teenage Girl, impressed me. But what really surprised me was the announcement of the new lead actress: comedy superstar Melissa McCarthy! Will this push the film in a broader comedic direction? (Though McCarthy did do a nice, subtle, serious performance in St. Vincent with Bill Murray.) We won’t know for a while; shooting is not scheduled to begin till early 2017. One thing’s certain, somewhere Lee is smiling — and likely offering pointed suggestions.
In the meantime, let’s return to my collected correspondence from Lee. This is an action-packed batch, containing one of Lee’s final bits of forgery, her delightful creation Dr. Pinky….
4/2/12
[As we began to plan our next get-together:]
Julius’
April in Julius. dah-dah-dah-dah-da. Is there a musical clef on the keyboard?
4/16/12, 10:43 am
schedule
We’re meeting Thursday, 19.OK? 6.30? ….I’ve just heard a Republican bitch on the radio. Don’t knew where to start, so I won’t Lee
2:07 pm
[after Wednesday was suggested instead, as I was attending a Yankees game on Thursday:]
The only note of my calendar for that day: “NO HOT OR COLD WATER.”
As the Germans would say, “Sie hat kein Leben.”
Wednesday is good. Let me know. Lee
4/17/12, 7:11 pm
Pincus Goldsmith, PhD.
I watched the beginning of the game and looked for you. No luck. Not a great game….So here’s a story. I looked carelessly through a copy of one of those start-up publications. It was in the foyer of my apartment house and so was I. Called [TITLE REDACTED] ..horrible..disgracefully full of errors in spelling and punctuation. Dropped the editors a line, thinking maybe I could get a little work (which I may not so desperately need now because it looks like Kilgallen will be optioned for a movie again.) I said, in effect, the publication is piss poor because of all the errors (I wasn’t so boorish in the beginning.) We went back and forth and they said, finally, not knowing me, and from my name assuming I was a guy–called me a pompous dink, that I was probably fat, 5.2, kinky black hair, huge front teeth. Asked me not to reply, which I did..saying merely they should buy a stylebook and a dictionary. But I was angry. Now I destroyed the exchange I just described, but here is what happened next. Under my anonymous e-mail, the following transpired. [Emails put in chronological order.] Note the times and how hard up they are for ads. I’m only sorry I didn’t make it earlier..:
4/17/12, 2:49 pm
Desire to advertise
We are about to open a store to sell books for the young ones, on West 96th. . We heard about your publication; haven’t seen it. What are your rates for advertising? Pincus (Pinky) Goldsmith, PhD
2:59 pm
Hello Pinky
Thank you for the email. I would love to meet with you to take you through the paper, (and talk about ad rates) in person. Are you available sometime tomorrow? That way I can take you through the first 3 issues so you can get a real feel for the paper. My schedule is fairly open, so please let me know when might work for you and we can hopefully chat soon. Thank you!
James [LAST NAME REDACTED]
Founder
2:59 pm
James…
You sound awfully dedicated. A good sign. We can meet tomorrow, though my plate is fullish; but it must be early, say, 8.30 am. Too early? I am at 100 Riverside Drive –82nd Street NW corner). Ask for me (I’m known to the staff as Dr. Pinky). Penthouse B. Let me know as soon as you can. What with the opening and the new advertising budget my book is filling up. Pinky
3:51 pm
Perfect! I’m up at 5:30 every day (2 babies at home). See you then!
James
4/18/12
[writing to me again, and I’d also sent her the trailer, via boingboing, for Bobcat Goldthwait’s then-new film, God Bless America:]
100 Riverside is directly across the street from my real address. . I wish I had a dog to walk at 8.30. ……..I will look later at boing boing. lee
4/19/12, 10:19 am
[after I’d admitted an error I made at the previous night’s get-together, regarding the top tax rate:]
I’m usually the one going straight to Google because really I am so frequently wrong. But in this case, I Noemi was right…Right wingers are always saying, “Do you want to live in yuk France and pay…85%. And there was that recent staterment by a very rich man (you must rmeember who hie is ) who bemoaed the fact that his secretary paid more taxes x than he, and she paid thirty percent, See you soon. Going out for a noise machine at toysorus (sp?nosie.
P.S. I left in my errata pre-spell-check.lee
4/19/12, 3:32 pm
[to her friend Tom, an anti-noise-pollution advocate, who’d been at Julius’ the night before. I was CC’d:]
Tom The noise unit I bought at Toyurus surprised me. In fact, it has an earphone capability. So i can use my Bose headset with it,and that should be very effective. Think about it for yourself. Keep in mind this is for babes in their cribs. So there are various offerings: babbling brook, ocean, ,wind, rain, summer night. But also “thunder.” Who would chose thunder for the wee one? Maybe they were going for “a little bit realistic.” The next step would be ,”Mommy and Daddy arguing, he calling her a big, fat , stupid cunt”? Tom, you’re the entrepreneur, think about white noise/realistic.
4/19/12, 4:41 pm
Jack I just now saw the “godblessamerica” .(spell-check corrected this ironically to “cataclysmic”) .it’s great. thanks i swear what happened to me was just like what happened to the guy with the big tumor in the film; my hematologist told me that I had cancer and then she took a phone call and was on the phone for about four minutes..oddly, i don’ know that that little patch fits into the rest. Great stuff though ……I’m going to pursue in my reading more about the liberal/conservative schism, and whether it has always been so…especially in a Jefferson bio (the President not the dry cleaner) i am now reading.
4/21/12, 4:53 pm
[During a game, in Boston, that the Yankees were then losing badly. And another opportunity to tease me about a actor/director Bob Balaban’s daughter,who I’d previously known:]
and yet another
Ha Ha Ha The Sox have this adorable little “bandbox” — which is what Updike called it — ….the greedy Yankees have this giant, charmless, Darwinian stadium.. I hate the Yankees and so does Dr Pinky .. As I write this another run comes in
and yet another during spell-check. Lee
Saw Balaban yesterday. Did not mention you.
5:20 pm
Of course, I’d rather see a good game. Who knows, with the Yankees it could happen
11:04 pm
[After the Yankees scored 14 combined runs in the 7th and 8th innings, to win 15–9, and I’d sent her the Hemingway quote “Have faith in the Yankees”:]
I missed the gangbuster innings. I was at my desk copy editing, thinking there wasn’t much to see. Darn..
4/22/12, 6:19 pm
[After I’d guessed tonight’s Yankees/Sox game would be rained out:]
Earlier today, I looked at part of a quite brittle, witty movie…then I saw this little icon “rained out” on the screen. This movie was for Mets fans.. Can you imagine. The morons miss a game and then they see Noel Coward/ …finished editing that awful “met cute” paper. Boy, do they need me. I did at least a hundred edits. Maybe I can count on $400 a month from them We’ll see. It was an atrocity.
4/25/12, 1:07 pm
[I was CC’d on an email to a prominent Broadway writer who’d done an early draft of Lee’s movie:]
my good news
Hello Jeff The New Yorker just took my latest parody. It helped that one of the editors is a big fan and even wanted to publish my memoir. I have to cut it by about one-third, but that I can do. I don’t know whether it’s a shout or a murmur, but I am mighty pleased.
Took me three months to write the thousand words; revised it maybe 75 times. Now if they will only make our movie! Hope to see you again. .
Lee
• Volume 1: 2005–6
• Volume 2: 2007–8
• Volume 3: 2009
• Volume 4: 2010
• Volume 5: 2011
of course, i did not know lee, but choosing melissa to play her does make one think of melissa’s usual performances. i hope this film doesn’t become another xerox of mccarthy’s other’s. i adored how israel wrote and that made me adore her, along with her choices of subject matter.