max sayer -- national echo.
this is the story.
our leaders aren't presidents anymore -- they're pop stars and screen idols. if woodward and bernstein were alive today, they'd be right here in hollywood with me.
so they're probably here. you might be able to sell this 'disappearing act' to the rest of the world, but i'm not buying it. what's really behind this simone woman? the public has a right to know. why is she staying out of sight? and why the hell is she with you? i don't want you to take this the wrong way, viktor, but you're not exactly cecil b. demille -- more run-of-the-mill.
oh, i know all about integrity. i know even more about persistence. look that one up.
is it a jamming device?
taransky isn't that good an actor. no, they're taking special precautions. some kind of new encryption.
whatever it is, it's dark.
yes, very.
she sounds like a prisoner, taransky. are you holding her hostage? are you some kind of svengali?
the cops? the cops read my column to know who to bust. we're the only watchdog the public has. none of this is going away. we'll be here tomorrow and the day after that. until you slip up. and you will. you are looking at your shadow. because all these elaborate precautions with simone -- every instinct in my body tells me, it's not natural.
nice try. if we can't get to her through you, maybe your family will be more co-operative. i can guarantee you, taransky, one way or another, miss simone and i are going to get acquainted.
leave me for a moment.
-- she goes to a major, hollywood, a-list party and we don't get an interview, a comment, we don't even get a photograph? is that what you're telling me?
24-hour tail on taransky?
obviously the name isn't real -- she's using an assumed identity, travels under a false name, checks into hotels with an alias. she never stays in the same place two nights in a row. anything on the satellite photos? what about the fingerprints? what happened when we dusted that hotel suite?
which means they're significant. incriminating. perhaps, criminal. she's hiding her past. she's hiding her past.
of course -- no one's that perfect, that pure. you know i had something on mother teresa. but then she died and it wasn't worth it anymore. i know how to flush out this simone -- a tell-all story from her childhood.
i will when you're finished writing it.
am i wasting my time with you? when she sues to protect her privacy, she'll have to appear in a public courtroom to do it.
sometimes you have to tell a small lie to get to the bigger truth. as for a photo -- if you can't do it, i know twelve million people who can.
she likes apple jacks.  just like me.
what do you want -- ?
-- cashier's check went out to our anonymous tipster this morning -- worth every penny too. who says there's no place for checkbook journalism? we'll be running stills of this for months, then release the whole tape -- we'll get our money back -- maybe show it on an exclusive pay-per-view event. do you realize what we have here? we have the only independent footage of simone in existence.
get out.
i know where that is.  i know.
-- i've been here before! -- on my honeymoon with my ex-wife.
you see, that's the exact same tree and in the distance, there's the.  .  mountain.
i don't understand.
get in the car.
nice boat, taransky.
i know what you're up to.
i think you do. i know it's a fake.
got your attention now?
it's bogus. you used an old library shot for the background.
she was never in new mexico. she never left the studio.
i've done my homework. i've studied her.
-- i've looked at every piece of publicity she's ever done, the video in the supermarket, there's no evidence she's ever left the studio. oh, and for some reason this woman leaves no paper trail. but i have "obtained" a copy of your bank accounts. i know you have power of attorney but so far you haven't transferred one single solitary cent to her.
i know that's what you'd like us to believe. but i got to tell you -- embezzlement is a serious matter. not to mention abduction.
i don't buy the whole recluse scam. how are you doing it? what is it -- drugs? blackmail? mind-control? all three? what do you do -- keep her locked in a box somewhere?
i want to see her. unless you show me simone live and in person i show these pictures to the authorities.
er,.  good.
looks familiar, doesn't she? no one comes from nowhere, taransky. you turn over enough rocks.
i traced her to a nursing home. a young woman fitting simone's description dropped her off five years ago.
she hasn't uttered a word that whole time -- until she saw the big show.
who would think that "saint simone" would abandon her own mother? i've been looking into the family history -- heartbreaking. most likely a biography to run over four issues.  who knows, maybe there's a pulitzer in there somewhere.
that doesn't prove a thing -- wait until i get a court order for a blood test.
i do? sure i do. can we speak off the record? i'm a fair man. i'm willing to sit down with her and tell her side of the story.
no. thanks. absolutely.
don't you?
-- he was a controlling madman, she was a prisoner. i blame myself.  i should have done more to stop it.