SYNOPSIS: Gayle King requests an interview with Jolie and her family after a wedding photo leaks to the

media.

TIMELINE: November, after the honeymoon. That would put it roughly 18 months after Nic and Jolie “met”.

DISCLAIMER: Based on the screenplay, A Fine Line . A real person appears in this story, obviously.

PREVIOUSLY... “A Fine Line”: https://www.scribd.com/document/393292331/A-FINE-LINE

“How Do We Do This”: https://www.scribd.com/document/423571601/How-Do-We-Do-This
“The Ride”: https://www.scribd.com/document/423571714/The-Ride
“A Perfectly Imperfect Union: https://www.scribd.com/document/423571821/A-Perfectly-Imperfect-Union

(I apologize in advance for appropriating the likeness of the real person in this story for my own ends. But if you're in here,
it's because I love you..)

RATED PG-13: For language.

~~~~~

By the time Jolie and Nic reached Eleuthera, word of the wedding had gotten out. Media outlets put a
bounty on photos and video, but only one kind of blurry photo, apparently taken by someone on the
catering staff, surfaced. Upon their return home, Jolie spoke with her management and decided to go
ahead and issue a statement and release a portion of their professionally shot wedding video to the
press. A couple of days after that, her management received a call from Gayle King's staff, asking if
Jolie would like to do an extended interview with her on CBS This Morning. She asked them to have
Gayle call her to discuss it.

They talked about the angle of the story. Gayle wanted to do it at Jolie's home. She promised it would
be positive and respectful and asked if she could also talk to Nic and have a brief conversation with
Harry. They ran through a few of the questions she hoped to ask of all of them.

A week or so after the honeymoon by then, Jolie brought up the interview request over dinner with her
family. Harry and Nic were both skeptical and didn't know how to respond to the idea at first.
“I just though that maybe, you know, since we get all these dumb questions and take so much shit all
the time, this could be a chance to have our say. We can't control the reactions people will have to us,
but we can tell our story in our own words. Try to help them understand.”

“I don't think we're gonna change anyone's mind,” Nic countered.

“Probably not. But you know what we can do?” Jolie asked. “We can let young people who're
struggling with their identity know that it's OK to be who they are, that they can find love too. And that
we all deserve the same respect.”

Nic nodded. “I get it, but I guess it just makes me nervous.”

“I know,” Jolie said, taking her hand. “And we'll just say no if you guys think we should.”

“I think maybe we should do it,” Harry offered.

They both looked at him with surprise. “Yeah?” Jolie asked.

“Yeah. We're just like... regular, normal people. If Nic's OK with it, I am too.”

Nic hesitated for another moment, watching them both. “What the hell? Let's do it. I got nothing left
to hide. And I could not be more proud to be part of this family.”

“Then we'll do it. I'll call them tomorrow and set it up.”

***

The following week, the CBS crew showed up at the Vickery home. They took several establishing
shots inside and outside the house, then set up in the living room. Gayle and her producer met with all
of them for pre-interviews. Jolie set no rules, but as always reserved the right to approve anything they
shot of Harry.

Though they were each interviewed separately, Gayle's conversations with Nic and Harry were intercut
during post-production into the main segment featuring Jolie for conversational flow and to provide
context and story continuity...

Gayle's intro is partially voice-over while footage airs of Jolie in concert and at home. The last part
to camera: Jolie Vickery has been making music since she was a preteen. She became a recording
artist at 17 with her band, Venus Butterfly and --- as she tells it --- she had a hit single, a gold album,
and a baby by 19. Most recently, her award winning seventh album went platinum, and she married
Nicole Lightner in a small, private ceremony at her home in New Jersey. Today, we pay a visit to Jolie,
Harry, and Nic to get their take on the events that brought them together.

Gayle to Jolie: I want to thank you for agreeing to sit down with us, and for Nic and Harry's
participation as well. We think your story is inspirational and important and we wanted to give you the
opportunity to share it. You said that you also wanted to clear the air and dispel some misconceptions
you think people might still have.

Jolie: Gayle, thank you so much for the platform. I really like your style, lady. And I know I can trust
you to present the truth.

GK: What's the first thing you want people to know?

Jolie: That we're just like everyone else. That should be a no-brainer by now, but I guess it isn't. And
when I say “we”, I mean that on both the micro and macro level. My family --- and all families with
same sex parents --- work, play, live and love just like you do. We have the same joys and the same
struggles. And we deserve the same respect that you do.

GK: And you don't always feel that that's forthcoming?

Jolie: Not always, no. Look, I have this weirdly public job, and people are going to yap about me.
They always have. That's fine. Some of it, I probably earned. They say I was a little too wild when I
was young. But I'm not a kid anymore.”

GK: Looking around, you seem to be living the life of a fairly typical soccer mom.

They laugh.

Jolie: Baseball mom, but yeah. I'm not out there looking for attention everyday. I make a record, I
promote it, I tour, and then I just want to come home and decompress. Be normal.

GK: No one even knew you were getting married until that photo leaked from the reception.

Jolie (laughs): I wasn't planning to hide it forever or anything! We just wanted privacy on the day so
the experience could be just ours. We figured we'd announce it when we got home from our
honeymoon.

GK: You've always been pretty forthright with the media.

Jolie: I have nothing to hide. I don't know how to be anything but myself. These days, I do feel more
protective of my family though.

GK: Why's that?

Jolie: Flat fact, you mess with my son, I'm coming after you. Most folks seem to understand that and
they leave him alone. But Nic can't even have public social media, she gets so much crap from people.
Especially after the story got out that she decked a guy for talking trash about me. Misogynist jerks
came out of the woodwork over that and just savaged her. The things they say can be really disturbing.
She's been through so much. She doesn't need that garbage.

GK: Don't you get a lot of flack too?

Jolie: I do.

GK: But you are on social media

Jolie: A little. The difference is that I frankly do not give rat's ass what those people who are going to
hate us no matter what we do have to say about me. I can take a jab.
GK: You took a lot of jabs when you released part of your wedding video, didn't you?

Jolie: Yeah, but we got so much support too. You wouldn't believe some of the letters I've gotten the
last couple of weeks. Just really beautiful. It's also heartbreaking what some of these people have
suffered. If they get even a tiny bit of comfort from seeing what's possible, it was worth sharing.

GK: The good outweighed the bad?

Jolie: Very much so. We just want to say to people, “You are not alone. There is nothing wrong with
you. You should not have to hide, or be ashamed of who you are. Love is love And you deserve it as
much as anyone else does.

GK: It must have been pretty painful, though, that both your parents and Nic's declined to come to the
wedding.

Jolie: My mom and dad are good people. But they're also pretty conventional and that's something I
certainly am not. My mom very much wishes that I'd stayed home and married a nice professional
man, had a boatload of kids, and never gotten involved in “this rock & roll business”, as she calls it.
And I'm gonna be real honest here and say that for many years, I bought into the fantasy that maybe
one day I would marry a man and have a boatload more kids. On some level, I wanted her approval.
But at the same time, I just kept fooling around in these ridiculously casual relationships, never letting
anything become too serious because deep down I knew that I couldn't live her dreams. I had to live
my own dreams. And part of what she doesn't get and will probably never get is that I didn't change
because of Nic. I'm the same as I always was. I fell in love with a person, not a gender. And I've never
been secretive about the fact that I was capable of that.

GK: So you've always been bisexual?

Jolie: Gayle, I think labels can be very reductive. Human beings are too complex. So I've never really
attributed one to myself. I did hear something once that I think kind of fits me though... “I'm neither
gay nor straight, I'm bendy.”

They both laugh.

Jolie: And I'm not trying to diminish anyone else's experience. It's very true that bisexuality is often
misunderstood and people can be very dismissive of those of us who identify somewhere along that
spectrum. I also know that it's a really fixed thing for some people, who they're attracted to. And that's
great. It just wasn't like that for me.

GK: You've had relationships with women before?

Jolie: Yeah, those rumors were true, I just didn't feel the need to publicly address speculation about my
personal life. There were relationships with women as well as men. One of them, I might've even
called fairly serious. But at that time, I just wasn't ready to love anyone.

GK: What about Harry's father? Any love there?

Jolie: That is one thing I'm not going to talk about. It's a private matter.
GK: Understood.

The scene shifted to Gayle and Nic, in mid-response...

Nic (intercut): We didn't invite my mother. She refused any contact when we were in Europe earlier in
the year, so there was no point.

GK: Was that because you're in this relationship?

Nic: No. I mean, I don't know. She left a long time ago and broke all ties with Dad and I. So I've
never spoken to her about Jolie, or anything else. If she sees this in Paris, maybe at least she'll know
that I've married my soulmate and I'm so happy. Will she care? Your guess is as good as mine. As far
as my dad and I, we have our issues, but I'm determined to make that better. We got stuck on a very
scary emotional roller coaster after she left and we both made some terrible mistakes. This was long
before Jolie entered the picture for me. And I don't wanna speak for him, that wouldn't be fair. All I
can say is that I love my father and I miss him. I hope one day we can reach a mutual surrender.

GK to Jolie: A lot of the flack you and Nic have gotten involved her being the daughter of your
longtime friend and producer, Sammy Lightner. I'm sure that situation must have been difficult.

Jolie: Well, yes, it was. But for the record – and this is very important to understand --- Sammy and I
were never in an exclusive romantic relationship. So people who hate on Nic for breaking us up have
that all wrong. For lack of a better term, you could call what we were “friends with benefits”. And I
do hate that term, but it's as close as I can get to the reality of how it was with him.

GK to Nic: You described experiencing a kind of emotional upheaval when you first realized you had
feelings for Jolie...

Nic: Yeah, I don't have any angst about it anymore. But I admit, I did at first, only because it was all
brand new to me. I got over it pretty quickly though because let's face it, she's amazing.

GK: How so? What drew you to her?

Nic: (smiling): From the start? Her warmth. I was not nice to her at first. My back was up. But she
was unfazed. She treated me with kindness. Every minute I spent with her, the attraction got stronger.

GK: This is your first relationship with a woman?

Nic: Yes, and it did kind of knock me for a loop.

GK: You thought you knew yourself?

Nic: Well, no, I wouldn't say that. I absolutely sucked at relationships, but I refused to examine the
reasons why. Too painful. Instead, I drowned my confusion in a sea of chemicals.

GK: Confusion?

Nic: About my sexuality.

GK: Do you identify as gay, or bisexual?

Nic: I'm gay. I could've saved myself a lot of time and trouble and been so much happier if I hadn't
been too scared to acknowledge that.

GK: Why do you think you were scared?

Nic: I don't know... Maybe... because this kind of structured, safe world my parents were always
struggling to maintain had already fallen apart, and I thought the only way to not lose the last shreds
of it was to trudge along the expected path.

GK: You thought you'd lose your dad?

Nic: I was sure of it. And when you're already vulnerable for whatever reason, an upheaval as big as
questioning your identity can just feel like a bridge too far.

GK: Why did you think you'd lose him?

Nic: I didn't think he could take one more crack in his armor. Turns out I caused an even bigger one
than I anticipated, because it was Jolie who was the catalyst to this reckoning I couldn't avoid
anymore.

GK: Wasn't Jolie around when you were a kid?

Nic: She worked with my dad several times over the last decade or so. But there were musicians
around all the time. I barely remember most of them. And I was off at school a lot.

GK: Last year was the first time you “met” her as an adult?

Nic: Yeah.

GK: When you were working for your dad as a studio intern?

Nic: It's more complicated than that, but yeah.

GK: Complicated how?

Nic: I can't go into detail, but basically, I left school under very bad circumstances...

GK: Tabloids reported that there were drugs involved in your expulsion. Was this when you were
drowning your feelings with chemicals?

Nic only nods.

GK: When did that start?

Nic (drawing a deep breath): I was young. I don't know... 13 or 14 the first time I drank a beer. It
didn't become an anesthetic till things blew up between my parents a year or two later. By the time I
got to college, I was relying a little too heavily on booze and weed to get through the day, Xanax to
sleep, Molly on the weekends. I found myself in some really dangerous situations, but I think I was
past the point of caring. Then a very bad person violated my trust. It was a brutal wake-up call.
That's really all I can say, legally.

GK: OK, we'll move on. You went home?

Nic: I went home to LA and took a job with my dad because I had no choice.

GK: He was recording Jolie's last album at that time?

Nic: He was. And Jolie and Harry were staying with him. I clicked with that kid right away. He's so
much like me, only far less cynical. We just get each other. It was us against the world that first week.

GK: Did the drug use continue?

Nic: I was still drinking and smoking weed for a little while after I got out there. I was pretty
miserable.

GK: What happened?

Nic: Jolie happened.

Jolie (intercut): She kissed me. She hates it when I tell this story, but we'd been through this crazy-
emotional day and we were trying to hash all of that out. And we had this... moment. The electricity
between us was insane. Like nothing I'd ever felt before. I think it freaked us both out a little bit. But
we also couldn't let it go.

Nic: Even my fear of this crazy situation was so delicious I realized that I didn't want to murder my
feelings anymore.

GK: You put the drugs aside?

Nic: Yep.

GK: Was there rehab involved?

Nic: No, I quit cold turkey.

GK: Are you still sober?

Nic: I had one slip, but yes. Nothing stronger than Advil for well over a year. I was lucky to get out of
that mess when I did. Once I had some clarity, I was able to let go of a lot of anger and learn to
manage my anxiety with mindfulness. I'm grateful that I can be present for my family, and I have hope
for the future.

Jolie (intercut): Nic is such a good person. Just this cool, sweet, loving, expansive soul. She's a
natural-born caretaker. She will also kick your ass if it needs kicking.
Jolie looks directly into the camera for emphasis when she continues...

Jolie: To anyone casting aspersions at her, for frankly very ignorant and mean-spirited reasons, I can
only say you don't have any idea what the hell you're talking about. Step. Off. The bottom line of
what happened in LA is that I ended things with Sammy immediately, permanently the night Nic and I
shared that very first kiss. You wanna blame someone for him getting hurt, blame me.

GK: The situation you all found yourself in made finishing the album seem nearly impossible, you were
quoted as saying.

Jolie: Of course it did. But Sammy's a pro, and we always had a great working relationship so we
tried to keep moving forward. I know now that I had misjudged his feelings for me and I really hate
that I hurt him. I seriously owe him so much and I hope one day we'll be good friends again. I do
think that if we'd recorded the songs we planned the way we planned them, things would've been easier.
I tried...

GK: But you couldn't?

Jolie: There was just no way. I was writing on the fly. Songs were screaming out of me. And it felt so
good and so... real! No matter how hard it was, I just knew that I had to record those songs.

GK: You wrote “Fade Away Blind” with Nic...

Jolie: Kind of. She showed me a poem she'd written and it was so beautiful. Read the lyrics to that
song sometime. I just adapted it to music. The real heart of it is all Nic.

GK: And it was huge.

Jolie (smiling): Yeah, that makes me so happy because I love every word she wrote.

Nic (intercut): I couldn't believe she created a song out of that poem, and I knew it would upset my
dad. But it's so pretty and I confess that I'm really proud to have contributed something to it. It also
helped me get out of a really bad financial situation.

GK: Jolie said you deserve all the credit for that song.

Nic (with an embarrassed laugh): Nah, she flatters me. It was just a bunch of emo scribbling till she
worked her magic on it.

GK: It really tells your story, both of you. Which is why people reacted so strongly to it, wouldn't you
say?

Nic: I guess so. I mean, I don't know that it's unique to us. I think everyone has that feeling sometimes
of not being heard, of not being able to reach out, and in some sense feeling invisible.

GK: When did you write it?

Nic: Bits and pieces here and there toward the end of my time at LSU and after I got home. I wasn't
even sure it was finished before I showed it to Jolie. But it felt like the most honest thing I'd ever
written.

GK: Did it upset your dad like you thought it would?

Nic: It broke everything. I felt like I broke everything. He and Jolie had this huge, ugly fight in front
of Harry. She left, came home.

GK: Without you.

Nic: Yep.

GK: Why didn't you go too?

Nic: Jolie's first instinct is always going to be to protect Harry. Coming home was about pulling him
out of this screwed-up mess with Sammy. But I was stuck there.

GK: Stuck how?

Nic: It's part of the stuff I can't talk about, but he bailed me out of a lot of trouble and I was working
for him to pay him back.

GK: But you did end up following Jolie here.

Nic: You're being really polite, Gayle... I stole her truck from the freight company that came to pick it
up to ship to her and drove it here myself. It was a crazy decision made while I was hungover from
that slip I mentioned. I wasn't thinking clearly. It was more than a week after she left and Dad told me
I couldn't go to New York with him when he was due to go work on the video for the single that
following month. I panicked. I thought I'd never see her again and I couldn't stand that idea.

GK to Jolie: What did you think when you found out she was on the way here with your truck and bike?

Jolie: I thought, that's my girl! Was it a little bit crazy? Sure. But it also took a lot of guts. I was
proud of her. And I desperately wanted her here with me... I don't know if I can adequately express
how terrible it felt, leaving her behind... I had no choice but to walk away from the LA situation. But I
couldn't be the one to take her out of there. That had to be her choice, her action.

GK: She chose correctly.

Jolie: She did! Looking back, if I hadn't been in such a hurry to get Harry home, I probably should've
just given her the keys and told her to bring the truck to me if she decided that she really wanted to
come here and be with us. Would've made the trip so much easier for her.

Nic (intercut): It was terrifying. I wasn't sure she'd be OK with me showing up in Jersey, and I also
really thought I'd get arrested for taking the truck. But when I texted her to tell her I was coming, she
told the police there was no need to pursue me for the stolen vehicles. Just my luck, I actually did get
picked up for sleeping in the truck in a strip mall parking lot. I didn't realize I only had about 30 more
miles to go and I was so tired, I was afraid I'd run off the road if I didn't pull over for a nap. In the
end, all I got was a ticket for driving on a suspended license. Jolie welcomed me into her home with
open arms. That was really the start of our life together. There's no place else on earth I'd rather be.
Here, they cut Harry in for the first time...

GK to Harry: When Nic got to New Jersey, you weren't too sure about things. Why?

Harry: That's not exactly true, people don't get it. Nic is awesome. We're best friends. I wasn't unsure
about her. I just... I guess I knew that everything was gonna change. If she and Mom were a real
couple, here at home, some people were gonna be jerks about it. And we'd have to put up with that.

GK: Were they? Jerks?

Harry: Yeah. But the cool thing is the ones who mattered mostly got over it.

GK: How'd you feel when your grandparents didn't come to the wedding?

Harry: I was sad, you know? I understand that my grandma's just really old fashioned. A lot of folks
are. But Mom and Nic don't deserve that kind of disrespect.

GK: They're good moms?

Harry (laughs): I never really thought of Nic as a mom. She's more like my big sister, kind of. Is that
weird?

GK: Families can be complicated.

Harry: Yes, families can be complicated.

GK (checks her notes): It kind of makes sense, when you think about your chronological ages. Did
you ever notice that? Your mom is nine years older than Nic, and Nic is nine years older than you.

Harry (still amused): I really hadn't thought about that. We're just... us. Whatever that is, it works.

GK: If your grandma happens to watch this, what would you say to her?

Harry (after hesitating for a long moment): Grandma, I have a real family now who loves me. Mom
doesn't have to worry so much anymore because when she has to go away for work, Nic is always here
for me. Things are good. You and Grandpa should come visit. You'll see.

He smiles and Gayle can't help but smile too.

GK: You used to travel with your mom.

Harry: Everywhere. She loves me. She worries.

GK: But you all planned instead for you to stay home with Nic while your mom was on tour this year.

Harry: Yeah, I thought I'd rather be here and go to school with my friends.

GK: And it all worked out?

Harry: It really did. Nic was great. And we had some family time when Mom came home on breaks. I
missed her when she was gone, but I loved being home.

GK: You all did a TV show together when she was on break, Ride with Norman Reedus.

Harry: Yeah, that was insane! So much fun. I'm a big fan of Norman's. He's the coolest.

GK: You're in high school now, right? How's that going?

Harry: Great.

GK: What are you studying? Music?

Harry (laughing): That's an in-joke I have with Nic. People do always ask us that. In my case, yeah, I
play drums, so I'm a freshman band geek. I'm also taking drama. I love movies, so I'm in AV Club.
I'm gonna play baseball when the season starts.

GK: All is good?

Harry: Better than good.

GK to Nic: You said you have hope for the future now. What do you hope for?

Nic: That my family is healthy and happy. That we get to watch Harry play baseball next season, and
that all of his wildest dreams come true. I hope that Jolie gets to keep on playing the kind of music she
truly loves and that people keep responding to it. I hope my dad finds someone who's crazy about him
and good for him and he falls in love again. I've had this idea for play for a while that I hope to write.
And I just really really hope that everything gets better for everybody who's struggling.

GK to Jolie: It's been a pleasure getting to know you and your family better.

Jolie: Aw, thank you so much. You're really good at this. We all felt really comfortable with you.

GK: Anything else you want to say before we close out?

Jolie: I just want to urge everyone to stay open. Live your truth. You never know what the Universe
has in store for you. It might not always be easy, but it's infinitely better than the alternative. Above
and beyond all else, choose love.

~~~END~~~