EXT. CATHEDRAL – SAME

 

BLACK SUV GOVERNMENT VEHICLES and SECRET SERVICE parked in front of the cathedral. Fed Men are getting out of their BLACK-WINDOW vehicles, walking official and postured up to the steps to enter into the church.

 

DISSOLVE TO:

 

INT. PRIVATE BACK ROOM IN THE CHURCH - SAME

 

The Bishop of the Catholic church is having a meeting in a secret room in the back of the church with three other male clergy dressed in full ecclesiastical attire, white collars, robes, and rosary, the Bishop in a BRIGHT RED ROBE with YELLOW HIGHLIGHTS. BELT SASH, and CAP.

 

BISHOP

We’ve got to stop this woman! Now! This screenwriter is ruining our plan! Hollywood absolutely cannot get within its hands this screenplay Jett Durango! It is damaging. Damaging!

 

PRIEST #1

And incriminating! How did the screenwriter get this information? Those files of abusive priests were locked in an alarm-rigged room sealed in a locked safe. For the love of God, my brothers, we’re in for Armageddon!

 

PRIEST #2

What Bishop kept a known pedophile priest in the system! Blasphemy! Brother Berce molested these children, girls and boys, and his higher authorities knew it for years! For the love of God, why didn’t the Bishop pay Brother Berce off to leave the parish? In Christ’s name, our Lord forgives this, but the scandal will live on if this cover-up surfaces!

 

PRIEST #3

I know a way. Forgive me, Lord, but I know a way. Let me work on it—

(he’s cut off by a knock on the door)

Who is it?

 

The Feds walk in. The mouthpiece of the Bureau speaks.

 

FED AGENT

Gentlemen, the IRS commences to strip churches of their tax exempt status if they are violating the law by mixing religion and politics. You are in violation of the Tax Exemption Statute of the IRS Code IRC 501(c)(3). You are therefore being stripped of your tax-exempt status. You will be taxed on property owned and revenue accrued.

 

DISSOLVE TO:

 

INSERT: A Week Later, Los Angeles

 

The scene starts at the back of the church at the occupied pews, and slowly moves down the aisle to the front at the altar and the pulpit. Black Dahlia is standing at the pulpit in her BLACK and GOLD VESTMENT about to give a sermon. She is postured and well-received by the congregation. Her delivery is impeccable.

 

SCENE NOTE: (This scene is a SHOCKING turning point in this film. The value of this scene will have the audience blindsided into hand-over-the-mouth-jaw-dropping disbelief. This character leads a double life. She has a split personality. One of Black Dahlia’s alters is The Reverend Bea Klune.)

 

BLACK DAHLIA (THE REVEREND BEA KLUNE) 

The battles for our minds are many—that is reality. It would be nice if they were one, but they are a few—and not far between, surfacing. Everything has been impacted, even one’s identity if one follows God. In the book The Mask Behind the Mask, biographer Peter Evans says that actor Peter Sellers played so many roles he sometimes was not sure of his own identity. Approached once by a fan who asked him, "Are you Peter Sellers?" Sellers answered "Not today." Let us open our bibles to Jeremiah 13:23.

 

CLOSE ON -- The Reverend Bea Klune flips to her marker marking the verse in her bible resting on the pulpit.

 

 

TIME CUT:

 

DISSOLVE TO:

 

INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - DAY

 

Black Dahlia as the Reverend Bea Klune is standing behind the pulpit in her BLACK and GOLD VESTMENT. She is delivering what appears to be her resignation to a full house, reading from a paper on the pulpit. She is pale with a YELLOW cast, and her voice cracks in emotion.

 

BLACK DAHLIA (REVEREND BEA KLUNE)

The Reverend Bea Klune as you all know me, has prepared a resignation speech instead of a sermon. Reflective of my sexual abuse by a priest in my upbringing in my formative years, and the ties I still have with him today as an ex-communicated priest, I am resigning from the ministry. I am Black Dahlia involved with a ring of predators in a sex scandal sprinkled heavily with mafia ties, trafficking, money laundering, blackmail, extortion, forgery, plagiarism, embezzlement, and lesbianism. A lesbian screenwriter has written the film which has been bought by Hollywood.

 

Overcome by sickness, Black Dahlia faints and falls to the floor. A male priest runs to her.

 

PRIEST

Someone please call 911! Lord, have mercy! Pray, everyone!