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Episode Summary

"Smile" / Season 2, Episode 15
A story of contraception, private institutions rules and Barry Manilow the cat.
Broadcast: February 14, 2006

Shirley and Denise represent Amelia Warner (18), who was raped and is now pregnant because a Catholic hospital refused to give her the morning-after pill, and she insists on a trial to go public with it. Alan's former secretary (Phyllis Deaver) asks for his help in getting her daughter (Marissa) into a private school, who has nerve damage and cannot smile.
From ABC: Alan Shore files a discrimination suit against a private school that refuses to admit a gifted nine-year-old girl with nerve damage that makes it impossible for her to smile. Since Brad Chase’s attempt to bribe Denny Crane’s fiancée, Beverly Bridge (Joanna Cassidy), failed miserably, she threatens to tell Denny what happened unless Brad can find a legal loophole to save her sickly cat from her ex-husband, who wants to take it off of life support. Meanwhile, Shirley Schmidt and Denise Bauer defend a teenaged girl who was brutally raped and is now pregnant. The girl wants to sue the Catholic hospital where she was treated because they refused to provide her with emergency contraception.

Episode Credits

Directed by .... Bob Yannetti
Written by .... Corinne Brinkerhoff

Joanna Cassidy.... Beverly Bridge
Steven M. Porter.... Kevin Willhite
Ken Lerner .... Howard Bridge
Kelly Smith.... Amelia Warner
Mary McDonough.... Theresa Warner
Hannah Leigh Dworkin .... Marissa Deaver
Shannon O’Hurley.... Phyllis Deaver
Kenneth Kimmins.... Dr. James Tusten
Don McManus.... Attorney John Lennox
Andy Umberger.... Attorney Morrison
Ron Canada.... Judge Willard Reese
Richard V. Licata.... Judge Dale Melman
Brandon Ford Green.... George
Freda Foh Shen .... Dr. Ann Kumi
Craig Patton .... foreman

 

Episode Dialogue


Alan Shore: I suppose coming to a lawyer’s office can’t be much fun.
Marissa Deaver: Actually, everyone seems friendly here.
Alan Shore: Well, they’re given an unlimited supply of donuts.
[Alan's original line in an early script was: "It comes easy at five hundred dollars an hour."]
__

Phyliss Deaver: I had a hard time trying to find you.  I called Cruthers, Abbott…
Alan Shore: Oh, I was fired. Embezzlement.
Phyliss Deaver: Then I tried Young, Frutt and Berultti.
Alan Shore: Oh, yes. That ended badly.
Phyliss Deaver: And here you are at Crane, Poole and Schmidt.
Alan Shore: For now.
[Phyliss' original line in an early script was: "Then I tried Donnel, Dole, Young and Frutt…" to which Alan replied: "I shut them down."]
__

Phyliss Deaver: I need your help. You always said I could come to you for anything.
Alan Shore: I meant sexually.
__

Alan Shore: I think smiling is overrated. As you can see. *shows her the cover photo on the Boston Tribune - a smiling Tom DeLay [R-TX], headlined 'DeLay Charges Ongoing"*
[Alan's line in the original script was: "Some of the most despicable people on earth smile all the time."]
__

Denny Crane: Brad’s the best. I just made him partner.
Bev Bridge: Denny, I want reassurance.
Denny Crane: The man served in the Gulf War. The one that turned out okay. He was top of his class at West Point and Harvard Law School. I’d put my own life in his hands.
__

Shirley Schmidt: Denise, I understand you’re going through some difficulties in your personal life.
Denise Bauer: It’s hard, but I’ll get through it.
Shirley Schmidt: From what I know about you, when things get tough you prefer to bury yourself in your work. Allow me to provide you with a shovel.
__

Denny Crane: Bev will be happy which makes me happy, which makes you happy. *Brad tries to follow that* So really, Brad, you’re doing this to make you happy.
__

Dr James Tusten: Catholic hospitals are free to interpret sections of the Ethical and Religious Directive liberally or conservatively. St Mary’s takes a very strict application of Catholic teachings. That’s why I chose to work there.
Shirley Schmidt: I see. Tell me, Dr Tusten, do you have a set schedule at the ER?
Dr James Tusten: Of course.
Shirley Schmidt: But that puts you squarely on the job during the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 states that those who work on the Sabbath should be put to death.

__

Atty Morrison: Nevertheless, the court awarded Mr Bridge joint custody of Barry.
*Judge Reese looks at the documents*
Judge Willard Reese: The cat’s name is Barry Manilow?


Did You Know... ?


Explanation of Marissa Deaver’s Magritte-style painting for Alan Shore
by Debb from Montreal
Debb, our Trek in the Courtroom Forensic Television Anthropoligist, gathered this series of paintings from Rene Magritte to explain Marissa Deaver’s Magritte-style painting for Alan Shore. To this day, it is the only personal item in Alan’s office. The golden hand is the hand of God. The fish on the Shore is one fish that could feed many, as in Alan holding the salmon in Finding Nimmo. There is something about Shore that is human, compelling, forgiving, calm, and passionate and righteous, generous. He is Kelly's interpretation of God's advocate.
  >> Click to see six Magritte paintings that compare to Marissa's painting


Awareness about emergency contraception from RaisingHerVoice.com
RaisingHerVoice.com has created a Boston Legal Viewing Party Toolkit >> pdf.  They hosted a viewing party in Philadelphia and provided material for other activists to do the same, including Host/Facilitator Instructions, Episode Guide with Talking Points, Fact Sheet about Emergency Contraception & Sexual Assault and Next Steps for Activists. Following are examples of facts presented by RaisingHerVoice.com in connection to the episode:

From the script:
Amelia: “My mom and I asked about [EC], and they said the risk [of pregnancy] was small.”

Fact: According to medical reports, the incidence of pregnancy for one-time unprotected sexual
intercourse is 5%. Using the 5% figure and statistics from the 2002 National Crime
Victimization Survey, the Rape and Incest National Network (RAINN) estimates that there
were up to 4,315 pregnancies as a result of rape in 2002. Because rape is such an underreported
crime, others put the figure at 25,000 a year.

From the script:
Amelia: “We went to our family doctor to try to get the prescription there. That’s when we found out
you have to take it within 72 hours. It was too late. I was already pregnant.”

Fact: Though Plan B is FDA-approved for use up to only 72 hours, experts encourage its use for
up to 120 hours (5 days) after unprotected sex. However, EC is more effective the sooner
it is taken.
>> read more


Six Degrees of the Guest Star
Don McManus plays Attorney John Lennox in this episode. He's reprising his role as John Lennox in the first episode of Boston Legal ("Head Cases"). He had a role in 1991 movie True Colors with James Spader as well as appearing in episodes of Star Trek: Voyager (1996), a Murphy Brown (1995) with Candice Bergen, and Ally McBeal. Most recently, he appeared in an episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Thanks to Sue for this research. For more acting Six Degrees for every guest star in this episode, see our forum episode page

Episode Reviews


 | 2.15 'Smile' written by Abney


Coming soon.


Written by: Abney | Send feedback and comments to Abney at aliasabney@hotmail.com





Episode News


Ratings  Ratings [101 by Nielsen]

Feb. 14, 2005 "Smile"
Households:

>> More ratings information in our Forum


Trial by Fire
Lawrence Journal World by Mindie Paget
[excerpt] Corinne Brinkerhoff was your basic intern. Young. Green. Adept at copying and filing, making herself as useful as possible. Her efforts paid off with an offer to become the boss’s personal assistant. The boss? Television giant David E. Kelley. [edit] ...After being promoted to development manager for Kelley’s Los Angeles production company and telling her boss that her dream was to write — he deemed the first script she’d ever attempted good enough for an episode of “Boston Legal.”
>> read Jan. 10 article  |   >> read Feb. 13 update


Art imitates politics in drama over a drug'Morning-after pill' is prime-time issue.
By Marie McCullough, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer

Although the Bush administration continues to spurn emergency contraception, promoters of the method are partying.

Across the country, they are gathering with friends and neighbors to watch tonight's episode of the ABC-TV show Boston Legal. It will feature "a teenaged girl who was brutally raped and is now pregnant. The girl wants to sue the Catholic hospital where she was treated because they refused to provide her with emergency contraception," the network says.

Carol Petraitis, an emergency-contraception advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, posted Boston Legal viewing guides and sexual-assault fact sheets on an ACLU Web site, raisinghervoice.org.

"This is a good way to show there are real victims and this is a real problem," Petraitis said.

In the episode, the teenager goes to court and, well, suffice it to say the verdict is a Valentine to victims' advocates.

The backstory: The "morning-after pill" is an overdose of regular birth-control hormones that must be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. Medical experts say it should be standard care for rape victims, who have about a 5 percent chance of pregnancy.

In late 2004, the Department of Justice issued its first-ever national guidelines for treating sexual-assault victims, with no mention of emergency contraception.

Justice spokesman Eric Holland would not comment on the show but said the guidelines take "a victim-sensitive approach."

Medical, public-health and rape-crisis experts who helped write the 130-page protocol were outraged by the omission of emergency contraception.

Since then, they have prodded eight states to to require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims. New Jersey passed an "EC in the ER" law last year, and Pennsylvania is considering one.

Massachusetts' law went into effect exactly two months ago - but not before some fact-checking by a Boston Legal scriptwriter sparked a political furor over whether religious-affiliated hospitals had to comply.
>> read more

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Episode Video


Watch the preview for "Smile" (:25)
Airdate: February 2006 / wm stream; 340 bitrate / no downloads


Watch the preview for "Smile" (:40)

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Transcript
Read the episode, transcribed by Imamess: [pdf]  Transcript

Episode Ratings
February 14, 2006:
Households: