It was a wondeful service.
Elizabeth wouldn’t leave Mel’s side.
Mark, Christina and his kid were there. Noel, Jess…everybody but Susan. Susan couldn’t stand being there with Sean’s girlfriend there. That is a freaking shame. Susan and Dean were very close over the years.
Sean had Geoff (another of his assistants) make a tribute to Dean which they played throughout the service. Clips from his movies and photos of him through the years.
Several old school executives were there. The guys who helped build Hollywood. They spoke so fondly of Dean. They gave him credit for movies he never got credit on. The Exec on “Das Boot” said word for word everything there was Dean’s and it was only due to a German translation that cost him the credit. Anther exec said “Starman” was all Dean Riesner. “Blue Thunder” and several scenes later used in the Dirty Harry movies were scenes Dean had written years ago for earlier films.
I opened and here’s what I had to say.
I was Dean Rienser’s closest friend.
Now Dean has numerous friends and therefore I feel I should offer up some form of proof to this claim. So I gathered up some of the many notes we’d received over the years and I’ll read a few to show you just how important I was to Dean.
“Dear Dumbass, Read that script you laid on me. What can I say? You’re a damn fine typist. Dean”
“Dear Melanie, Dump that bum your shacking up with and come live with me and be my love. Dinky Dean”
“Dear Todd, I seen that movie of yours and I’m too goddamn old to go teaching a fella how to write but like I said I seen that movie of yours so here goes”.
At which point he proceeded to give me the how-to’s of writing.
“Dear Melanie, Get that no good bastard of a man of yours to read this script. He might know what to do with it. I doubt it, but what the hell. I’d like to see my name up there one last time. Ever Thine, Dean”
Two together–
“Dear Melanie, I look forward to seeing you and the dummy Saturday. After a bath and some smell good I’ll be irresistible. On second thought, dump that bum and let’s you and I have some fun. Dinky Dean”
“Dear Todd, You ain’t invited. D.R.”
Thus, as I was saying, I was Dean Riesner’s closest, most respected friend.
Our relationship was primarily made up of my calling him to complain about how miserable my life was and his laughing until he cried.
The sad truth is, the three of us had a falling out about a year ago. It was a misunderstanding and we worked through it, but the damage was done and the relationship was never quite the same again. Oh, he still came over for Christmas morning where he had his gifts under the tree and a stuffed stocking. We had our lunches and spoke on the phone and he was always there to give screenwriting advice.
The last note Dean sent our way was very simple.
“Dear Todd, I really am sincere when I say, you and Melanie are the best 2 people in the city, world, Universe. I love you both. D.R.”
I just hope we were able to give him a fraction of the happiness he had given to us.
I didn’t read that very last note during the service. Dunno, at the time it seemed wrong.
After the service we went back to Sean’s. Mel and I didn’t really feel like it but the truth is, Dean would have liked it. Sean had food and booze and overall it was nice to talk about the old fart.
Maila spent about three minutes with Sean’s girlfriend and then returned to inform us that the blond over there is a “golddiggin cunt”. The old broad has a set of furry ones on her. She had no clue whether or not we were close to Sean’s girl but she didn’t care. Gotta love her for that. So like Dean she is.
Noel and Jess had some stories to share about the woman sleeping in their father’s bed but I’ve spent enough time making my feelings about her known. Sean’s in love or lust and I hope for his kid’s sake he snaps out of it.
One other thing to mention is Noel. Noel’s a guy. A burly, heavy drinker. He’s not the sort of guy you’d see shed tears. But he was balling at the service and I gotta tell ya I found that endearing. He loved Dean. We all did.
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