Just hear me out.

I like the script and I like the premise, I just wish Maddy hadn’t slept with Skip when they first met. She seems too smart to be taken in by him.

What if…she refuses to sleep with him. Something about the whole situation isn’t right, and she knows it. He gets mad and tells her he’ll find someone else to break his slump and storms off. That’s when she discovers what a slump buster is.

The next day, she tells her friends what happened, expecting that they will be as disgusted as she is. Instead, they all admit they would have jumped at the chance to sleep with a ball player. Then her friends convince Maddy to arrange the one night stands for them using her vast baseball knowledge and intellect.

So she becomes a “slump busting madam.” She’s able to exact her revenge while maintaining her dignity.

I think it works better because now Maddy comes across as an empowered woman, rather than just a whore.

What do you think?

I don't think she comes across as a "whore" at all. If sex-roles were reversed any guy would jump at the chance to sleep with a super hot icon.

She gets nothing in return for years. She doesn't tell anybody about it, not even for bragging rights. Which would have been maybe the very least one could get out of landing a super hottie. No, she insists on getting nothing in return... which is the exact opposite of what a whore does.

That said, Jerry's idea may iron out maybe the one curious aspect of the conceit - that she would bottle such a win up inside and keep it secret.

The author said that "Deep down, she always knew something wasn't quite right (about her night with Skip), but until she was hit over the head with a quote from him about her, she wasn't willing to face it, because it would be too painful."

The problem with that is, we still see her years later saying goodnight to her poster of Skip, as if she still is totally crushing on him. Playing internal denial of consummation for a outwardly visible unrequited love... is a difficult set of notes to hit for an actor / director / script.

Thanks for your thoughts, Jerry and Fred –– this has always been a tough needle to thread. I'm pretty well married to Maddy sleeping with Skip and finding out that she was used, because for me, her character arc is about transitioning from a woman who thinks that's all she deserves to a woman who knows how special she is, no matter how she looks. (Cue cheesy music.)

Fred, to your point about the poster, what I was trying to convey in the opening montage is that while Maddy's night with Skip was deeply imperfect, she doesn't have much else going on in the romance department. So her defense mechanism is to repress what she knows deep down (that something wasn't right there), and instead to continue to put the night on a pedestal as this perfect thing. I agree that this is probably a tough notion to convey on the page/on the screen, particularly when it's relegated to an opening credits montage. :) So if any of you out there have thoughts on this or ideas of how to simplify/streamline this emotional beat, I'd be very glad of your suggestions!

I thought the opening and the slump busting sack time was done about as good as it could be done.

It brings out the many layers of emotion we all feel about things that impact our lives. Even bad things done to us by others may occupy places of honor in us.

I thought it a difficult story done good.

Vern

Everyone makes a good point, and the screenplay is great like it is. I just don't enjoy movies where the heroine is easily seduced. In fact, it still bothers me that the mother in Forrest Gump slept with the principal in order for Forrest to attend school. I wish she had come up with a clever way to outsmart him, rather than using her body as a bargaining tool. I suppose I'm just a relic.

Kate, you're probably right. It's very likely that a great actress could nail this -- in fact, it's this kind of inner-turmoil that would attract good actresses.