BSC #130 -- Stacey's Movie
Hi all. I'm a long-time lurker, first-time recapper who comes to you from the also-fabulous 1bruce1 community. Since my mother went a little nuts and threw out nearly all my BSC books at some point during my high school career, this community has pretty much been my source for anything BSC. I do have a few books left, though, and one of them happens to be Stacey's Movie.
And before you ask, no, it's not that kind of movie. I firmly believe Stacey won't have the idea to videotape her conquests until she reaches high school.
The cover: does anybody else see a raging resemblance between Stacey and Amanda Seyfried? It's positively uncanny...except for the late nineties attire, obviously. Also gracing the cover is Pete Black, and...well, I could go on about Pete Black forever. What a catch. Also, the slate Stacey's holding actually says 'Stacey's Movie' on it, which I think is slightly unfair to the other three people in her group. And there's no being unfair to Pete Black when I'm around, let me tell you that.
Onto the recap. Stacey and Abby are walking down the hall, and Stacey is in some sort of daydream about being in the New York Film Festival. Only she's very loudly acting out her daydream for Abby. Um. Abby is rightfully embarrassed to be anywhere near Stacey...that is, more embarrassed than usual. Stacey makes some throwaway comment about how she wants to be a movie director. Since fucking when, Stacey? Oh, that's right...since SMS is making its students participate in a three week-long mini-course called Short Takes. Apparently each student gets to sign up for a different 'subject' -- modern Egyptology, music composition, architectural design, etc -- and Stacey's signed up for moviemaking. Wow, who would've predicted that Stacey would be making a movie in this book?
Stacey tells us that she's always been fascinated by movies. Again, I have to ask, since when? Oh wait, apparently it's part of her New York character trait to instinctively love movies, on account of them always being filmed there and everything. Well great. Lah-di-fucking-dah for Manhattan. Plus, her boyfriend lives there. Not that Ethan has anything to do with ANYTHING we've just been talking about. I guess Stacey just wants to name-drop him and impress us all. Of course, this would totally have worked on nine-year-old me, and I'm not ashamed (read: very ashamed) to tell you that when I was growing up, I wanted to be Stacey McGill. How glad I am that I failed.
Chapter 2. Before we get into the obligatory spiel, Claudia tells the girls that Alan Gray wrote 'I Love Alan Gray' on her art project T-shirt with a permanent marker. And I laugh out loud. That's something I'd do. Alan Gray, you're annoying as fuck, but as long as you keep annoying the right people, you're golden to me.
Claudia outfit! "She was wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt (which she dyed herself) under a pair of white overall shorts. But these weren't ordinary overalls. She'd painted a rainforest scene over the entire fabric." You know, when I started reading this book, I was worried that because it was one of the later ones, there would be lack of fug outfits. Don't worry; I can admit when I'm wrong. Stacey mentions that Claudia "looked like a walking mural." Hmm. Our local mural is a magnet for many a drug dealer and graffiti artist, and in the daylight hours the neighbourhood kids kick soccer balls at it. Claudia had better watch out, or Alan Gray might tag her again.
Anyway, on to the obligatory Chapter 2 crap:
Claudia is such a skinny bitch even though she eats junk food. Well me too, Claudia, but you don't hear me bragging about it.
Kristy dresses like she's poor but is really rich. Unnecessarily mean, Stacey.
Abby lives in Kristy's neighbourhood, but Stacey quite rudely points out that her house is only almost a mansion.
Mary Anne is so boring, Stacey can't even describe her without lapsing into a description of bicoastal Dawn.
Logan is Mary Anne's 'great guy' boyfriend. You guys can snark that one yourselves.
Jessi is a dancer, and she's also black. In that order.
Mallory is in Massachusetts, nerding up some boarding school. I actually kinda miss Mallory, because she's so much fun to laugh at.
At school, everyone's gathered around the bulletin board to see which Short Takes class they got into. Stacey and Kristy both get the movie class. Stacey's reaction? " 'Ready! Set! Action!' I cried, for no other reason than total excitement." Apparently it does matter that Mal's no longer with us, because Stacey seems to be picking up the slack feeb-wise.
Their moviemaking teacher is Carrie Murphy, a famous documentarian. She comes in and says something about how excited she is to be working with tomorrow's award-winning filmmakers. Sorry, Murph, but this is Stoneybrook Middle School. The only filmmaking they'll ever do is with their girlfriends on prom night. Stacey looks around the room and sees that Alan Gray, Pete Black, Erica Blumberg, Emily Bernstein, Sarah Gerstenkorn (who? And also, hee!), Ross Brown, Rick Chow and Jeff Cummings are also in her class. What an unnecessary round-up. I think the ghostwriter here is saying, "Look! I totally did my homework and remembered these tertiary characters! Worship me!"
Ms. Murphy puts the kids into groups of four, and each group is to make their own movie. In Stacey's group is Erica Blumberg (who I have no recollection of), as well as Emily Bernstein (of whom I have a vague recollection but no real opinion). Also in Stacey's group is Pete Black, everyone's favourite bra-snapping lothario. Now I have to go a little off-topic here and tell you that when I was a kid, I loved Pete Black. Maybe it was just admiration of the fact that he singlehandedly worked his way through the not-overtly-lesbian members of the BSC (and their New York friends), but even at an early age I knew that Pete was a way better catch than Logan "ahm the world's best boyfriend" Bruno.
Anyway, Ms. Murphy assigns jobs for each person in the group to do. Erica is the director, Pete the cinematographer, Emily the producer and Stacey the screenwriter. Stacey gets her bitchface on 'cause she wanted to be the director. After all, it's been her life-long dream for a whole 27 pages! Where's the love, Murph?! Plus, it's not like she can get anyone to help her, because the BSC member whose character trait the whole writing thing is has shipped up to Boston and left these crazy folks behind. Oh noes!
Pete suggests that they do a Godzilla movie, and Erica shoots the idea down because it would infringe on way too many copyrights it's not practical. They eventually decide on a slasher-type movie, starring kids from SMS who have nothing better to do than be at Stacey McGill's beck and call. For some reason, Emily adds, "And the kids who were in it would think that it's fun." What a weird sentence. Is...is that a threat? What happens if they don't like it? Do they get sent to K.Ron for a spanking?
Oh, and apparently Ms. Murphy is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker. And now she's teaching moviemaking to snot-nosed punks in suburban Connecticut? How the mighty have fallen. Even money says Marisa Tomei is leading the drama class right now.
Stacey is having trouble writing her script. Because it has nothing to do with fashion or New York, I suppose. At the obligatory BSC meeting, Kristy says her group is doing a documentary called Stoneybrook's Funniest Kids, where they're going to interview all the kids the BSC sits for and wait 'til they do something funny. Oh my fucking God, Kristy, could you get any lamer? If that's the B plot, I'm gonna be pissed. (I totally skipped over the non-Stacey chapters in this book when I was younger.)
Stacey finally comes up with an idea for her movie. Want to hear it? Of course you do, I don't even know why I asked. It's about a geeky, unpopular girl (didn't you hear me, Stacey? Mallory's gone, she can't be in your stupid movie!) who wishes that everyone would go away and stop teasing her, and then when she goes to school one morning, she discovers that everyone has disappeared. Um, spooky? It's kind-of like that episode of Buffy where that nerdy chick turns herself invisible and tries to cut up Cordelia, but backwards. Or a school version of Home Alone. I'm gonna cry foul if it turns out that the student body is hammin' it up in an apartment in France eating all of Uncle Rob's shrimp.
Wait, no, Stacey's decided that all the school kids turn into zombies and start attacking said geek. And when she presents her idea to the group, they actually think it's cool. Emily nominates herself to play the geeky girl, and Stacey's like, "Totally, you fit the bill." Stacey puts the call out to all the SMS students and asks them to meet her after school dressed like zombies. And they do. Nobody has anything better to do like, say, work on their own movies? Stacey snarks that, "Although Claudia, Jessi and Abby had the best outfits, the other kids had done pretty well." The fact that Claudia, Jessi and Abby are all Stacey's BFFs has absolutely nothing to do with that assertion. Her decision is completely unbiased, I'm sure.
They get down to the filmin'. Good, because there's been a lack of Pete Black so far. They get the sixteen or so extras to climb into a bunch of lockers and filming begins. (Not only did people actually volunteer to be in this movie, they actually got to people volunteer to leave their lockers open so zombies could get into them. Sigh.) Except that on their cue, only seven zombies jump out because the rest of them have locked themselves in their lockers. Hee! That's actually funny. Even money says Alan Gray is one of them.
Erica spends a good five minutes freeing everyone with the master key, and then it's back to filming. Nothing goes right. People fall over. The principal walks into their shot. Three people get fed up with this shit and leave. It's a big ol' mess, and when they go back to Stacey's to watch their "masterpiece" (their word, not mine), it looks hella stupid. And while Pete may be super awesome in 300 different kinds of ways, working a camera is not one of them. Sigh. Even Pete's letting me down.
Oh, shit. The B plot is Kristy's stupid doco. Mary Anne's sitting for the Rodowskys, and Kristy comes along with her group. (Which consists of Logan, Anna and Alan, for those of you playing at home.) Alan gets pissy that Kristy wants to take charge of everything even though he's the director. Alan, have you ever met Kristy? How did you not know that was gonna happen? Logan and Anna are just standing there doing nothing.
Jackie gets upset that Kristy's only paying attention to him. He thinks that she's just waiting for him to do some of his patented Walking Disaster moves. Sad thing is, he's totally right. Even Mary Anne knows it, and she ain't exactly Miss Cluey. She tells Jackie that he doesn't have to be in the movie, and Kristy gets pissed. And Alan's still pissed. And while Logan and Anna aren't ballsy enough to convey it outwardly, even money says they're pissed too.
That night, Stacey has a dream. Don't worry, Marthin Luthor King she ain't -- this is an actual dream. She's in Australia, and her whole school is there waving at her. And a kangaroo hops by, in case you didn't know that this was Australia. As an Australian, I take offence to this stereotype. Stacey wakes up, and tells everyone her new idea for their film -- they'll do a documentary! And she has her crazy dream to thank for said idea! (How in God's name did she come to that conclusion? Stacey is a few cents short of mental stability.)
Stacey goes into detail, saying that they should create a documentary based on the lives of typical middle school students. Because that's not the easiest way out I've ever heard or anything. Pete actually says, "I like the easier part." At least he's honest. Since the other students aren't quite convinced, Stacey suggests they do a test run, using Pete as their interviewee. Pete's like, "Huh?" but they push him in front of the camera without letting him think twice. Pete makes them move away from the garden first, because the flowers are too girly, and I cast my mind back to that time Pete and Robert went on a man-date to see a romantic chick-flick. Somehow, this only makes him more attractive to me. (He's only thirteen, he's only thirteen, he's only thirteen...)
Emily asks Pete how his day's been, and he makes some snarky comment about how he just loves doing homework on a nice Saturday afternoon. Emily yells at him for daring to have a personality. Okay, Emily, here in my hand I have a prescription for 24 Chill Pills that I'd like you to fill. Don't worry, my prescriptions are like gold in Stoneybrook -- just ask Sharon Schafer.
Emily asks Pete questions about his thirteen-year-oldness, and Pete gets all excited and starts yelling about how it sucks that he doesn't have a job or a car, and if he did, he'd get out of fucking Stoneybrook as fast as he possibly can. Now do you see why I heart Pete? He even says it "with unexpected heat", a phrase I find just a tad dirrty! and shame on Stacey for saying it. Pete does lose some cool points for his desperation to "work a cash register or wait on people." Um, no Pete, that's something you definitely don't want to do before your time. In case you haven't noticed, people suck, and all you do with cash registers is push buttons. Maybe Pete's got a money fetish or something. We'd get along so well.
Everyone in the group decides that this doco's a good idea, and they go interview Abby straight away. Oh no, Abby with the dead dad and the scoliosis and the perfect twin -- ladies and gentleman, we are now entering Angst City. The captain has turned on the 'fasten seatbelt' sign for a very good fucking reason. Stacey asks lame questions about how Abby's day has been, and eventually Emily's like, "Fuck this shit; you're no Oprah, you know" and jumps in, asking Abby questions about her mother and her busy lifestyle. Abby's like, "Whoa, I'm turning into my mother!" (I'm sure we've all been in that place, ladies) She freaks out, walking off to contemplate this new information. Emily's like, score! Real drama! Wow!
Oh, God. It's Jessi's turn to get interviewed. One guess what this is going to be about. Firstly, though, I have to share with you this priceless exchange verbatim:
Jessi: I have a little time to kill between now and our BSC meeting. Do you want to hear about the BSC?
Emily: Maybe later.
Yeah, you hear that, BSCulters? NOT EVERYONE CARES ABOUT THE FUCKING BSC! In fact, by the sound of things, Emily actively DOESN'T care about the fucking BSC. Suck it, K.Ron!
Emily asks about how Jessi "recently lost [her] best friend." Um, Emily, Mallory's not dead, you know. Don't make me take away your awesome points now. Then she asks Jessi about her African American friends, and Stacey cringes, because racism is like so totally a tough issue, you guys. (Which it is, no doubt, but not the way the BSC books treat it.) Jessi says that she had friends who were "white kids" in Joisy as well, and Stacey actually says, "It never occurred to me that she must think of us as white kids." Of course it wouldn't, Stacey. It's okay for you and your master race friends to go on endlessly about how she's the black kid, but how dare she call you white! Jessi, have you no shame?!
Jessi angsts about how she feels like she has to be on her best behaviour because she's representing her race in a white world, and it puts all sorts of pressure on her. I don't want to snark that, because it's actually kind of sad. Stacey is hella shocked, especially when Jessi says she feels more comfortable around her Dance New York friends 'cause they're her age and they have the whole dancing thing in common. (And their not fucking nuts, like Kristy and Co.) Stace realises that Pete is now filming her. Because Stacey's so pretty and fashionable that it's not long before the camera is on her again, I guess. For shame, Pete Black. I thought you were different.
The next day, Cokie Mason comes up to Stoneybrook's favourite amateur filmmakers and bitches them out for not asking her to be in their film. Emily agrees to interview her, and Cokie sets herself up on the hood of a car because she thinks it'll look "cool". Or something. Cokie talks about friends, clothes and boys, saying that "boys are people who can be jerky but who can also be adorable." Then she smiles at Pete flirtatiously and he smiles back. Hmm, do I see another notch on Pete's belt? Pete rulz.
Cokie talks about how being cool has nothing to do with personality, and everything to do with looks. Stacey's like, "OMFG, are you for realz, Cokie?" and Cokie tells Stacey that she could hang out with the popular kids (look how well that turned out last time), except that Stace and her BSC friends think they're so much better than everybody. Am I hearing right? Cokie Mason? The voice of reason? She goes on to say that everyone thinks their own clique is the best, and Stacey actually concedes that she may be right.
Claudia time! (Is it just me, or is this documentary pretty much Stacey's Friends And How To Be Like Them? The only exception is Cokie, and she had to demand to be in it.) Claudia expresses her dislike for school, and how making you do subjects you don't like stops you from being a well-rounded person. This is laughable for many reasons -- firstly, the obvious (the BSC characters are as one-dimensional as you can get), and also, was Claudia not the girl who was so amped about the Short Takes course so that she could try new things? I'm looking back to the third chapter, and yes, yes she was. Claudia, just go eat some junk food and read Nancy Drew. Stop pretending to be a person.
Emily gets interviewed next, just to cut through all the BSC treacle. Because her one and only character trait is that she's a journalistic type, she turns the interview back on Stacey and they talk about how Stacey likes math, but math isn't a career. Stacey gets all huffy, and is all, "Um, what about engineering? Without geometry, there'd be no engineering!" and Emily's all, "Without lamps, there'd be no light." Okay, I'll stop with that. Bottom line -- Emily's interview is shit. Stacey's a math-loving bitch. Erica still has no personality. Pete's still hot. (He's only thirteen, he's only thirteen, he's only thirteen...)
Aaand...we're back to interviewing the BSC. It's Mary Anne's turn. Ten bucks says she'll cry. Stacey's worried that Mary Anne won't give good interview on account of her shyness and never saying what's on her mind. After reading a number of these recaps, I think it's pretty obvious that Mary Anne is the only BSC member who actually says what's on her mind, even if it's sneaky and backhanded. Still counts.
Mary Anne's interview is baffling, to say the least. First she pays out mean people. Then she pays out teachers. Then she pays out her poor dead mother, screaming, "Why did she have to die?!" Then she cries. Stacey and her group just sit there, going "..." And I'm sitting here reading this, going "..." I mean, what the fracking frack just happened?! Just...seriously...I...I don't even know.
Abby and Kristy babysit the Pikes. Fucking goody. Kristy brings along her Short Takes group, though I don't know why she'd bother. The Kristy Thomas I know would have gotten rid of that dead weight by now. Alan's being a jerk, telling Kristy that she can't do anything without his permission. Kristy's being a jerk back, though, so it cancels out. Vanessa writes a jingle for Kristy's movie, and Alan says that he hasn't decided yet whether or not he wants to film it. Then he says to Vanessa, "No offence, little girl," and my coffee very nearly comes out my nose. I take back every mean thought I've ever said about Alan.
Logan grows some fucking balls for once and tells Kristy that Alan's the director, not her. Kristy eats his head. Not really, but this next part has me convinced that Kristy really needs therapy. Claire Pike, in a last-ditch effort to score some attention and camera time, does a somersault on the couch and very nearly hits her head on the coffee table. Abby totally saves her, and Kristy -- wait for it -- yells at Abby for ruining her movie. Apparently useable footage trumps a little girl's safety in Kristy's mind. Yet another reason these girls should not be left alone with someone else's kids. (Except Abby.) And while I've never done that exact thing, per se, I did once take a tumble off a chair and hit my head on an iron bedframe. And you know what? It fucking hurt. I wouldn't wish that shit on anybody, not even a Pike. I assume they spend enough time in hospital waiting rooms with blood from a head wound rapidly turning their mother's favourite washcloth bright red.
The whole damn babysitting job turns into Kristy being reckless and Abby yelling at her. Margo tells them not to fight, and Abby tells Margo to shut up. Oh dear Lord, Abby. Just when I thought you couldn't get any more awesome. Margo cries. Logan, the experience babysitter, does nothing. I guess he's in the corner, crapping himself from when he tried to tell off Kristy.
Stacey's chapter begins with, "Later that afternoon, I sat in Claudia's room wishing Pete were there to film the meeting." No, Stacey. Pete has better things to do than film your stupid meeting that no one except you and your stupid friends cares about. Personally, I wish Pete was there too, simply because I have a creepy little boy-crush on Pete. (My math skills tell me that since this book is ten years old, Pete is now 23. Assuming he did eventually get that cash-register job and high-tail it out of the time-loop that is Stoneybrook.) Anyway, the meeting's boring. Kristy and Abby are mad at each other, and Mary Anne's all quiet. How that's different to any other meeting I've read about is beyond me.
After the meeting, Mary Anne walks with Stacey and asks her to omit her interview from the final cut of the doco. She explains that she'd been fighting with Sharon before that (Sharon forgot to pick up Mary Anne's dry-cleaning, the scatterbrained bitch!) and she doesn't want anyone seeing what she said about her mother. Stacey says she'll talk to the group about it.
And talk to the group she does. They've just finished watching Mary Anne's emo interview, and apparently it turned out really well. Emily's like, "Hells no, we're keeping it," because it's so dramatic and whatnot. Actually, it's not. Mary Anne sat down, screamed that she hated her mother, and ran off again. That's not good journalism, sweetheart, that's Days of Our Lives. Pete says, "Hells no, we're keeping it," because it's visually perfect and the sound's good. I like that Pete is suddenly a cinematographer extraordinaire. Or maybe I just like Pete. Either way, I agree with him. As usual, Erica says shit all, because she has no discernible personality whatsoever.
Emily says that the rules of journalism state that if you agree to be interviewed, you can't un-agree. As a journalism student, I should probably be sticking up for her or something, but the nine-year-old Stacey lover in me is going, "Agree with Stacey! Agree with Stacey!" I think I'm just going to take the easy way out and agree with Pete. Oh, Pete. You can snap my bra-strap any time.
Stacey's like, "Fine, whatev, keep Mary Anne in the film," and wishes she could be more like assertive Kristy. No, Stacey! Take that back! Don't ever wish that! Now it's time for Erica's interview. Gah, this should be a barrel o' fun. Erica has absolutely nothing of substance to say, just that she hates war or something. I don't even know. Even the ghostwriter's like, "Oh no, this is so goddamn boring! Backpedal, backpedal! Oh God, what do I do now?" So the doorbell rings. (Ooh, apparently we're in Pete's house right now! I so wanna go up to his room and look through his drawers!) It's Alan Gray, ready to be interviewed. Like Cokie, no one actually asked to interview him, but I guess he had some spare time or something.
Alan begins the interview by snarking Kristy and calling her the dictator of the universe and Darth Vader. Stacey's like, "Fuck off, Alan, you're such a jerky jerk who can't stop being a jerk to everyone." She finally finds her interviewer backbone and asks him why he graffiti'd Claudia's T-shirt the other day. (Remember that? Boy, I'm glad I mentioned it now.) Ohh, here's when it gets a little sad. Alan says that all he wanted to do that day was talk to Claudia, but she took one look at him and ignored him. Because everyone ignores him. He's the human joke. My heartstrings! My poor heartstrings! After all these years (year?) we've finally worked out why Alan Gray is Alan Gray -- he'd rather be remembered as a douche than be ignored. Naww, Alan. I want to hug you. Actually, no, I take that back.
It takes Stacey two days to work up the nerve and call Kristy, telling Darth Vader (hee!) that Alan has feelings too, and Kristy acts like the world's biggest itch-bay by saying, and I quote, "Alan is not a person. He is a pimple on the face of the earth." Okay, I'm gonna need some Kahlua in my coffee. Kristy flat-out refuses to believe anything Stacey says about Alan, even though Stacey called her for this reason alone, and why would she do that if she wasn't serious? Kristy actually hangs up on her. God. I just...I need to count to ten and think of happy thoughts before I put my fist through this book, paper cuts be damned.
Because that phone call went oh-so-well, Stacey calls Mary Anne and tells her that she's going to be in the movie whether she likes it or not. (Okay, she's somewhat nicer than that.) Mary Anne hangs up on her, too. It's not a good day for Stacey and phones.
It's now Stacey's turn to get interviewed. She hopes that she can give passionate but refined answers like Pete did. Pete is so the benchmark. Pete wins at life. When the interview starts, Emily asks her about her parents' divorce, and she gives a pamphlet answer about how kids in these YA books are supposed to feel about being children of divorce...and Emily totally calls her out on it. Way to make use of your one character trait, Emily. Emily starts riling Stacey up about how said divorce must be the reason why Stacey fears commitment (or, in my worlds, is a big ol' horndog!), and I am suddenly starting to like Emily very much. Erica has to ruin it for everyone by lying about how the tape has run out to preserve Stacey's feelings.
Emily thinks that was a great interview. Okay, Emily, do you know nothing about journalism? That was two minutes of the interviewer talking. Stacey hardly said anything. But now Stacey now knows how Mary Anne feels, and she doesn't like it. I like how Stacey only shows signs of empathy after being put in the exact same situation herself. Nice. Stacey vows to try and change hers and Mary Anne's interviews somehow.
Oh, fucking babysitting chapter! Kristy is trying to get Rosie Wilder to do something funny for her film, and is failing miserably. Then, just when they've given up, Rosie falls over. Oh noes! Kiddie down! Kiddie down! Logan, "like the football player he is," dives across the room to catch little Rosie. And a vase, which I guess she must've knocked over. Rosie proclaims that Logan saved her life, and gives him a kiss. Naww! Good thing Mary Anne's not there, or she'd get jealous and have to break up with Logan again. Kristy decides that since Alan was the one who told her to film Rosie's fall (I guess it must've happened in slow-motion or something), he gets to be an actual person in her head and no longer the gross earth-pimple. Yay for Alan, I suppose.
Moviemaking class again. Ms. Murphy the washed-up Oscar nominee is telling her students that editing is one of the most important parts of filmmaking. (Off-topic story time -- last year in one of my Journalism classes, we had to produce a half-hour news program, ads and all. I was one of the principal editors, and let me tell you, it's not fucking fun. Myself and two other guys spent an entire Sunday editing everything together, from noon until four AM. Then we got locked inside the building, because it's not common for people to be at uni at four in the morning. Then we got out. Then one of the guys drove us all home in his '76 Ford, and not only did the demister not work and we couldn't actually see where we were going, but the car stalled under the boom gates. It was an interesting day/night.)
Stacey raises her hand and asks Ms. Murphy whether it's ethical to include embarrassing and hurtful interviews. Emily's like, OMGYOUBITCH. Ms. Murphy basically provides no help, and Stacey's back to square one.
The next couple of paragraphs are completely devoted to redundant editing software. I won't bore you with the details. Pete says he thinks they should use popular songs from the week each interview was conducted so they don't have to specifically state when said interviews took place. Hey yeah, Pete, what a great idea...if you want to date your film that badly. Believe me -- I just read a paragraph of Stacey describing SMS's high-tech VCR editing software, I know what I'm talking about. Plus, songs generally aren't just popular for one week. Even the Macarena topped the charts for six.
Stacey tells Emily that she's not happy with her interview, but is willing to leave it in if they can cut Mary Anne's. How selfless. Emily flat-out refuses, and then handsome, reliable Pete comes to Stacey's aid and agrees with her, saying "We interviewed friends" and therefore they have an advantage over regular journalists who interview strangers. A good point, Pete, except for that whole 'friends' thing. They interviewed Stacey's friends. Hodges was right; this really is Stacey's movie.
They fight with Emily some more, and she accuses Stacey of choosing friendship over filmmaking. Stacey's like, "Um, yeah. Exactly. Where have you been?" and Emily says that since Erica is the director, Erica should decide. Erica comes pretty close to topping herself at the thought. Despite being a poor man's Mary Anne, Erica decides to throw dear old MA under the bus and keep the interview. Gotta love middle school politics.
After the next BSC meeting, Stacey tells Mary Anne that even though her tyrant group won't let her cut the interview, she can certainly add to it. Mary Anne so doesn't fall for that one. Stacey says that it's completely off the record, and if MA doesn't like the way it turns out, Stacey will "burn it or drown it or whatever." Stacey actually thinks she can drown a tape. Head, meet desk. Mary Anne finally agrees, and explains her previous outburst and blah blah whatever.
Editing time! Pete "fell in love with the video editing system." Won't he get a nasty shock when it skips out on him, and in moves its slutty cousin digital editing? I don't know how Pete will cope. Erica's not sure that they're going to use the new footage, and Stacey gets a bit frowny.
Stace also goes to take a peek at how K. Ron and her gang are going with their movie. The fact that they're watching the Rosie/Logan stuff leads me to believe that our lovely ghostwriter literally can't think of any other cute things for kids to do. Stacey says the movie's looking good, and Logan's like, "Thanks," even though he, as far as I can tell, has done absolutely nothing. (Except save a kid from getting a boo-boo.) Stacey asks Logan stupid Mary Anne questions, like whether she should apologise or whether she should invite MA to the premiere. Because Logan thinks for Mary Anne, he's happy to answer these questions. Seriously, Logan. Go take lessons on how to be a man from Pete.
Fifty kids rock up to the premiere. Holy St. Francis, people really have nothing better to do. Kristy's group's lame movie is apparently really hysterical. Then the oddly-named Sarah Gerstenkorn gets to present her group's film, and I only include that because I wanted to mention Sarah Gerstenkorn's name again. Hee! Sarah Gerstenkorn. Sarah Gerstenkorn. Okay, I'll stop now. Seriously, though, who is she?
I guess lame ol' Erica grew a spine or something, because at the end of the film, Mary Anne's second interview comes up. She talks about how she's lucky enough to have two mothers and blah blah whatever. In the audience, Mary Anne cries. The end. Thank God I found that Kahlua.