Godley says if Edge really wants to, they can do it without film in the camera.

Bono says it would be good if, when the solo ends, Larry comes in and puts his face in front of Edge as if he's checking out what's on the imaginary TV, but that creates a problem, "Then how do we get rid of Larry?"

Godley repeats the question. "Yeah, how do we get rid of Larry?"

Larry says, "Usually you get the manager to do it."

Guggi, whose wife is German, arrives in time for supper. Godley accepts that they are not going to be able to use two extras they imported for this shoot. He gestures to a large flight case. I open it and meet two very large pythons. Guggi reaches in and hauls out one of the snakes, petting it. This leads to a reverie between Guggi and U2 about his old snake in Dublin, and the time it escaped and wrapped itself around his flatmate.

Bono asks if I've seen Into the West, a new film written by Jim Sheridan about two kids growing up in the Dublin projects. I have. "Guggi and I grew up in the houses behind those buildings," Bono says. "Those were the 'seven towers' in 'Running to Stand Still.' That movie was no exaggeration. They did have kids tearing around on horseback, horses in the lifts."

Larry asks Guggi how one of the neighborhood characters is doing and Guggi says bad, he just finished a prison term for murder and his brother's body was just fished out of the canal. He's had a bad run of luck. "But, of course, he was one of twenty-two children." U2 go on to recount with great amusement inviting a movie star acquaintance of theirs who happened to be in Dublin to go along with them to a

[258]

Wedding, where the actor ended up drinking and having a great time with this particular hardcase. The two of them bonded and made plans to go off together later in the week. The band wondered how much trouble the Hollywood star might have ended up in before he realized that he was keeping company with the sort of bad guy you don't find in movie scripts.

Back on the set, Edge returns to his seat while Morleigh and Andrea climb up on card tables on either side of him and start rubbing their bare feet all over his face. Edge, his eyes closed, is enjoying it very much. Larry sneaks up, takes his shoe off, and adds his smelly, socked foot to the facial, ruining Edge's fun. The director encourages Morleigh to try to get her little toe into Edge's nostril.

Bono, assuming a certain directorial prerogative, walks around the set making suggestions and vetoing ideas like Cecile B. DeMille. A man leads a poodle into the room; Bono has it sent back. I whisper to him that it would be funny if someone lifted Edge's ever-present hat off— and he had another one underneath. Bono's eyes light up and he goes over and whispers the idea to Godley, who laughs. They call over Edge, who shoots it down faster than a slow duck on the first day of hunting season. Edge keeps his lid on.

The choreography continues: Ian Brown, Godley's Scottish producer, is drafted to gently caress the Edge's cheek with his big, burly hand. Morleigh in her belly dancing costume hunches beneath the camera and then rises up, wiggles in front of Edge, and spins away. One of the cameramen struts up and flashes Edge's photo, then two teenage extras run up and do the same.

With the second sequence pretty much worked out, they just need an ending. It presents itself when Paul McGuinness strolls in with some friends with whom he's just had dinner. U2 insists that the video end with Paul coming up to Edge, leaning into his ear, and saying, "I have someone I'd like you to meet."

To the band members those are the eight most dreaded words in the language. It means the manager is about to stick them with some awful radio consultant, journalist, or royal relative. U2 swears with passionate hyperbole that McGuinness saves these requests for when they are in the depths of either exhaustion, depression, or conversation with fascinating women. "It's the line," Bono says, "that puts the fear of God in all of us."

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Paul has had some wine with dinner, so he's agreeable. Edge gets into position, on the floor where Larry shoved him at the end of the first half. Lights, camera, and action are called and: Larry is staring at Edge's unseen TV; Adam comes by, takes a look over Larry's shoulder, and leaves; Larry leaves; Edge regains his seat, slipping on a jacket; Morleigh's foot caresses Edge's left cheek; Andrea's foot caresses Edge's right cheek ("More pressure with feet now!" shouts Godley. "Feet out!"); Morleigh, off camera, slides off the card table and hunches under the camera; a bouquet of flowers is thrown at Edge; Morleigh shimmies in and out of the frame; boy snaps photo with flash camera; girl snaps photo and kisses Edge on cheek; cameraman snaps photo of himself with his arm around Edge; Paul McGuinness walks up and says the dreaded words and Edge sadly gets up and goes off with him.

"Numb" is shot. It is 1:15 in the morning. The filming took about thirteen hours. Everyone relaxes, gabbing and laughing and looking at videotape. Bono comes over and pulls up a chair and I ask how All's Chernobyl trip went. It turns out to be a touchy subject. He says that she has had an experience such as he has on tour; she went off with a group of people to a strange place, they saw some mind-blowing things, they ate and traveled and slept together as a small, tight community— and now that she's back she's taking a little time to get readjusted to domestic life. The U2 tour has a week off after Berlin, and All's been telling Bono not to worry about hurrying right home if he has other things to do.

This scares Bono to death. He is the one who strays in and out of the family, not she! It occurs to him with some horror that the only reason they are able to function so well is that while he changes personalities, Ali is constant. He knows she has the right to go out and experience everything he has, but if she does, will they never both be at home mentally at the same time?

In the interests of shoring up the domestic dam, Bono has arranged for Ali and the kids to meet him in Paris as soon as the Berlin concert is over. From there they'll go spend a week at their house in the south of France and he will woo her like a teenager. Bono knows very well that he is able to have everything—a wild life in the world and a secure life at home—because of Ali. He would, in every respect, be lost without her.

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