My Life with Cleopatra Read Free Page B

there, as was Buddy Adler, Lew Schreiber, David Brown, Sid Rogell, who is in charge of studio operations, and Robert Goldstein.
    It was decided, evidently, that my status on the project was to be subordinated to that of Goldstein, who would be completely in charge of the production. While I could go abroad on the production, Goldstein would be responsible for all decisions and, in the event of dispute, Buddy Adler would be the arbitrator.
    It was estimated that the picture will cost between $4,500,000 and $5,000,000, with overhead including $1,300,000 for the stars and $100,000 for the director. The plan is to make the picture in London.
    Rouben Mamoulian was proposed as director by Skouras, who is Rouben’s old friend and has now decided he wants someone with an artistic reputation. Up to now, all they wanted was someone who was efficient and fast.
    O CTOBER 8, 1959
    Skouras has taken a poll of everyone at the New York office, and they all want Susan Hayward to play Cleopatra. He told me he is going to announce Susan for the role immediately.
    Skouras seems determined to have a contract actress—and Susan is under contract—play Cleopatra because he hasn’t much faith in the potential gross of the picture. “It can’t gross really big unless it is produced at a limited cost,” he told me. “Only biblical pictures can do big business today.”
    O CTOBER 9, 1959
    I called Elizabeth at the Beverly Hills Hotel, to tell her she doesn’t have the part and thank her for being so nice. She started to cry.
    “I want to do it,” she said. “Why don’t they want me?”
    “They won’t pay a million dollars,” I said.
    “I’ll do it for a guarantee of seven hundred and fifty thousand, against ten per cent of the gross,” she said.
    I called Adler, who said, “See if you can get her for six hundred thousand.”
    I called Lew Schreiber, Kurt Frings, Liz, and Frings again, and at last got the negotiations back on the track.
    O CTOBER 10, 1959
    Kurt Frings is negotiating with MGM to get them to allow her to do
Cleopatra
as an outside picture. According to her contract, she has one more film to make for MGM, and they’re insisting she do
Butterfield 8
.
    Ironically, Elizabeth was willing to do
Cleopatra
for $750,000, but I am told Frings has now got her back to the million-dollar figure.
    Elizabeth doesn’t want to do
Butterfield 8
.
    “The leading lady is almost a prostitute,” she told me. “When I told this to Sol, he said he’d clean up the script. But she’s still a sick nymphomaniac. The whole thing is so unpalatable, I wouldn’t do it for anything, under any condition.”
    O CTOBER 12, 1959
    Elizabeth is in
Cleopatra
again, and
Butterfield 8
is being rewritten for her.
    Frings and the Fox lawyers are busy working out details of her contract for
Cleopatra
, which will follow
Butterfield 8
. We are going to stage a contract-signing scene in Buddy Adler’s office within a few days, however, to make it look official, although the real contract won’t be ready for months.
    Elizabeth has read the script. Her feeling is that the opening scene is forced, and that a girl—nineteen years old, with a lot of background and intelligence—should still be seeking wisdom and having qualms about her decisions. Caesar helps her make a gradual transition from a child to a woman.
    She thinks the characterization needs that sense of development from beginning to end. She feels very strongly that the scenes with Caesar are a little flat and should be more lifelike, with a certain amount of charm and warmth and feeling that is lacking at the present time.
    Also, she would like any research material and books I think she ought to read on the subject.
    She told me she would like to have both penthouses at the Dorchester in London. She had them last time she was there and she’d like them during this picture.
    We discussed cameramen, and she said she is mad about Jack Hillyard, who is now with Fred Zinnemann in Australia. I’m