Bono says, absolutely, it's going to happen.

Joanou asks Bono if he really is in consideration for this job or is this

[114]

Just a polite brush-off—'cause if it is, tell him now and save him looking like a jerk. No, Bono says, he is absolutely in favor of Phil directing— if he can sell Mel on it.

At midnight, during a break from the TV editing, Bono hooks up for dinner with Oldman and Joanou, who worked together on State of Grace and on an episode of a pay-TV series called Fallen Angels. Joanou also directed Oldman's wife, Uma Thurman, in Final Analysis. The director and actor are well acquainted. Joanou is explaining in great detail the differences between himself and Francis Coppola; how Coppola never says "Print," but Joanou always yells "Print!" real loud so that the cast and crew know they've done a good job. Bono perks things up by doing a loud and grotesque imitation of Oldman's performance in Dracula. Everyone at the table has a good laugh at that, although Oldman, as uncomfortable as any actor with some amateur chewing his scenery, jumps in and says now he'll do an impression: Phil Joanou directing a scene.

Oldman leans forward nervously, starts chewing rapidly on imaginary gum, and pushes his hair behind his ears over and over while shouting, "Print! Print!" Everyone laughs hard, but it strikes me as a junior high school one-upsmanship.

Both Bono and McGuinness have told me repeatedly that Oldman is a big fan of Joanou's, thinks he is a real actor's director with whom people like Oldman and Penn feel safe pushing themselves to the limit. Is that true, I wonder, or is Joanou a director Oldman thinks he can dominate? McGuinness, who spent a lot of time in Hollywood as the producer of U2 Rattle and Hum, says there is a game of savage ball-busting that is carried on between top actors and directors that looks brutal to an outsider, but they have to respect you to let you into the game.

Joanou looks across to another table and then turns back and says. "That girl over there looking at us, she's on Twin Peaks, but I can't remember her name." We all steal glances. "Oh, yeah, is she ... ? and everybody starts listing different actresses from the cult TV series. Joanou says he's going to go get her. He does, plucking her from her own TV-level company and depositing her among the rock and movie stars. She nods and everyone else nods at her and goes back to their discussion as if she wasn't here. So the actress starts talking about this new film that would be perfect for Joanou to direct and she can set it up

 [115]

and there's a role for Oldman and all of a sudden Joanou yells, "Bullshit! That is just fuckin' Hollywood bullshit!" The actress is taken aback but Oldman looks up, impressed. He says to Joanou sincerely, "Fair play to you, mate,"

Bono says it's time to go back to the TV studio and invites everyone to come along. He walks into the editing room, where Godley has been up for days, trailing Oldman, Joanou, and the Twin Peaks actress. Godley looks up as if considering the career ramifications of wrapping his fingers around Bono's throat. Bono leads his procession to a screening room to look at some finished footage. Oldman jumps into an oversize, vibrating, cocoonlike superchair and starts doing imitations as he hits the buttons on the armrest: "You cannot escape, Mr. Bond." "Uhura!"

The movie screen in the room lights up with a concert version of "Until the End of the World." On the screen Bono is walking down the ramp to the B stage, through what looks like a wheat field of out­stretched arms. The conceit of this TV production is that, in true Zoo TV style, the show will reach for the channel changer before the viewer can, so while Bono is emoting, the shot suddenly switches to a ditsy blonde from the ramp-side being asked if she got close to Bono: "Not close enough!" then cuts to an overhead shot of Bono lifting his hand in the air and singing, "I reached out to the one I tried to destroy," and then—zap—a despairing peasant woman in black and white and—zap —a tidal wave and—zap—Edge rocking out, and under all this Bono singing, "You said you'd wait until the end of the world." There's no doubt that all this fancy editing breaks the spell of the music.

Bono turns to his guests, who are sprawled around the room flirting and chatting and asks if they don't agree that cutting away from him during the climax of the song ruins the whole effect. Of course everyone says, "Yeah, um, right, I was thinking the same thing." Thus fortified, Bono leads his troops back into the editing room where the exhausted Godley, his wife, Sue, and his producer, Rocky Oldham, are slaving away. It's 3 a.m.; they don't look anxious for any more input.

Bono says that the strangest thing just happened: he was watching the footage with his guests here and every single one of them said they thought the power of "Until the End of the World" was ruined by all those cutaways at the climax. Godley looks up sadly. Bono's guests all nod and grunt and say, "Um, yeah. Right. I thought so too."

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