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The Goodbye Girl, the 1977 Herbert Ross romantic Broadway stage play melodrama ("Thank you Neil Simon for making us laugh about falling in love... Again."; "Thank you, Neil Simon, for Marsha Mason"; "Thank you, Neil Simon, for Richard Dreyfuss"; "Thank you, Neil Simon, for 'The Goodbye Girl'"; "Written by Neil Simon"; about two struggling actors who work in the theater, and one has a ten year old daughter, and they hate each other, but they are forced to share an apartment, and naturally, they fall in love; nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award) starring Richard Dreyfuss (winner of the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), Marsha Mason (nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for this film), Quinn Cummings (nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for this film; billed as "Introducing Quinn Cummings as Lucy"), Barbara Rhoades, and Paul Benedict. This hit movie had a very troubled background! It originally had Robert De Niro as the leading man and Mike Nichols as the director (it was loosely based on Dustin Hoffman's life as a struggling actor, and supposedly the studio turned down Hoffman for the lead!). There were major differences between De Niro, Nichols, and writer Neil Simon, and then two weeks into filming, De Niro and Nichols were fired! Other actors were then candidates for the lead role including Jack Nicholson, James Caan and Tony Lo Bianco. Finally, Richard Dreyfuss was brought in to test opposite Marsha Mason and Neil Simon liked their chemistry, so Dreyfuss was cast and Herbert Ross was brought in as director, and ultimately, the movie proved to be a big hit!
NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.

Important Added Info: Note that this script is the second revised draft from July 7, 1975 (and it is contained in a 3-ring loose leaf binder) and the screenplay was written by Neil Simon. It has Robert De Niro's name and phone number written in pen on the top of the title page, and under it is a list of items, and there are pen notations scattered throughout the script (many of the notations are next to lines of the Judy character, so it would seem possible that this might have been Marsha Mason's script!). Also note that this script is from when Robert De Niro was still the lead actor, and there is an 11-page pink cast list in the beginning of the script, which gives De Niro's character name as Michael Bellini, and oddly, Mason's character is named Judy Bellini, and her daughter is Nancy Bellini, and she has a second daughter, apparently a baby named Sandy Bellini, played by triplets! So apparently, at this stage, the lead characters were married but separated! Of course, De Niro was fired and replaced by Dreyfuss, and the script underwent a major rewrite, with Dreyfuss becoming Elliot Garfield, and Mason becoming Paula McFadden, and she lost her younger daughter, and it was nearly two years later before the movie was finally released! Also note that the script has the working title "Bogart Slept Here", but the movie ultimately was called "The Goodbye Girl". Also note that there are a multitude of different colored revision pages from between 8/20 and 8/29 (apparently this script was revised over and over, which must have driven the actors crazy!).

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