Finding Patricia Neal
I know the woman isn’t Patricia Neal, but that’s who she reminds me of. Such a knowing smile.
Now the woman handing out papers (the Post) was another story. She wasn’t happy with me standing on the corner and taking pictures in her direction and she told me so. Who, she wanted to know, are you working for?
I’m not working for anyone. I’m working for myself.
Well I don’t like you taking all those pictures ’round here. You must be somebody.
No, believe me - I’m nobody. Really. Nobody at all.
Well I don’t like it.
So I step a bit back; it’s not like pictures with Spitzer and the Disgrace Headline are going to be that good; although I’ve already got a couple from just walking around that day; and missed a good one on the subway when just as I took it the guy sneezed, and the shaking got the whole thing blurry…
But I’ll go back and say that this is smiling lady is a true New Yorker - who knows that we are living in the center of the media universe; and that’s just the way it is.
Comments
Comment from matt
Time: March 14, 2008, 6:39 pm
Wasn’t Neal the gal in Hud?
Comment from JPH
Time: March 14, 2008, 7:43 pm
You better believe it, Matt! Hud is one of my personal all time favorite films… she won an Oscar for her role in that one… that film was the first thing that came to my mind too when I saw the ‘Finding Patricia Neal’ title
HUD: How much you take the boys for tonight?
ALMA: Twenty dollars and some change
HUD: You’re a dangerous woman to have around
ALMA: I’m a good poker player
HUD: You’re a good housekeeper, you’re a good cook, you’re a good laundress [lying down on her bed], what else you good at?
ALMA: At takin’ care of myself
HUD: Shouldn’t have to, a woman who looks like you
ALMA: Oh, that’s what my ex-husband used to tell me… before he took my wallet, my gasoline credit card and left me stranded in a hotel in downtown Albuequerque, New Mexico
HUD: What’d you do to make him take to the hills? Where your curlers to bed or somethin’?
ALMA: Ed’s a gambler. He’s prpbably in Vegas or Reno right now, dealin’ at night, and losin’ it all back in the daytime
HUD: Oh, well a man like that sounds no more better than a heel
ALMA: Aren’t ya all?
HUD: Honey, don’t go shootin’ all the dogs ’cause one of them’s got fleas
ALMA: I was married to Ed for six years… The only thing he was ever good for was to scratch my back where I couldn’t reach it
HUD: You still got that itch?
ALMA: Off and on
HUD: Well, let me know when it gets to botherin’ you
That dialogue followed by one of the best sustained, in silence scenes/exchange, in movies ever… in my book 
Okay, sorry, Mr. Beckerman for makin’ this look like the Quotes section on IMDb!
Comment from dave
Time: March 14, 2008, 7:59 pm
After she had her stroke - after her husband left her (the author Dahl); a child hit by a car; after so much trial and tribulation, I saw her interviewed on TCM and she looked something like this woman — and I say that carefully - something. But she has always been my ‘ideal’ movie fantasy. Not just beauty - but strength.
Comment from Lester
Time: March 14, 2008, 2:08 pm
The woman handing out papers was probably afraid you might photoshop her head on Beyonce’s body and send it around the internet. The older woman was smiling because she hoped you would.