Beautiful Ruins

Chapter 15 is comprised of an excerpt from Michael Deane’s 2006 book. In 1960, he drops out of college to enter the cinema industry. He starts off as a publicist at and captures the attention of Skouros, the studio head, after he covers up a scandal involving a gay actor. Skouros asks him to deal with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s behind-the-scenes affair on the set of Cleopatra. The affair poses a major threat to the studio since both parties are married and the film is already costing the studio an astronomical amount of money.

Skouros sends Michael Deane to Rome to tell Richard Burton that he will be fired if he continues meeting with Elizabeth Taylor. When he gets there, Michael Deane recognizes that the melodramatic affair is “the greatest Hollywood romance in history” (244) and that he can use it as free publicity for the film. He leaks information to the paparazzi, and the story of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s affair becomes a leading story.

Eddie Fisher flies to Rome to save their marriage, which causes Burton to fall into drinking and seeing Dee. Michael Deane tries to come between Dee and Burton, but the fiasco escalates once he and Dr. Crane discover that Dee is pregnant. Michael Deane wants Dee to get an abortion, but their location in Catholic Italy makes this nearly impossible. He concocts a plan: send Burton to France and then tell Dee she has cancer and must be treated in Switzerland. The plan begins to fall apart since Dee does not want to be treated and would rather “spend her last days with [Burton]” (249). Burton goes to Portovenere to meet with Dee, but Michael Deane sends her to Porto Vergogna.

Richard Burton tells Dee that she is pregnant, and Dee becomes angry at Michael Deane for lying to her. Michael Deane convinces her that Richard Burton loves her but wants her to go to Switzerland and have an abortion. Michael Deane tells her she can come to him after she has the abortion and pick any film role she wants. He drives her to a train station, but Dee neither boards the train or contacts Michael Deane. Michael Deane finishes his excerpt by boasting that he saved Cleopatra and brought Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor together due to his knack for detecting and building desire. The chapter ends with a note from an editor who criticizes Michael Deane’s actions.

In Seattle in 1967, Debra rehearses for a play about Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller. The director, Ron, criticizes her performance, and Debra wonders if he is taking the play too personally. She remembers having an affair with Ron before being cast in Cleopatra and thinks that he resents her for marrying Alvis. Ron says, “You use people. You play with their lives and treat them like they’re nothing” (260).

Hurt by Ron’s words, Debra goes back to her house and prepares to meet Alvis at Trader Vic’s. Her Chevrolet Corsair does not start, and she walks to her destination instead. As she walks, she thinks about her return to the United States and how she nearly gave Pat up for adoption. Then, her thoughts drift to how she and Alvis reunited after the events in Italy and their marriage. Alvis acts as a loving family man after giving up his dreams of finishing The Smile of Heaven.

Debra finds Alvis drunk at Trader Vic’s, and she begins to drink as well. She laments about Ron and expresses regret for having agreed to be in the play. Alvis encourages her to stick with the play. Debra thinks about what Ron said earlier that day and begins to cry until Alvis comforts her by telling her that “no one gets to tell [her] what [her] life means” (267). For a moment, she feels as though she can tell Ron that Alvis is the love of her life, but once the couple leaves, Dee realizes that she “[gave] up on love for her own reflection in [Alvis’s] lovesick eyes” (268). Soon after her epiphany, she watches Alvis die in a violent car wreck.

After Michael Deane and Burton leave Porto Vergogna, Pasquale looks for Dee in the pillbox bunker. He finds her, and the two of them look at the portraits. Dee explains that she only finds the portraits amazing because they exist in Porto Vergogna; they would not look as good in a gallery somewhere else. She asks Pasquale if the painter returned to the girl once more. Pasquale tells her that the painter not only came home but married the girl and had “un bambino” (274).

Pasquale and Dee return to The Hotel Adequate View, and Pasquale introduces Dee to Alvis. Gualfredo and Pelle show up to pressure Pasquale into paying Burton’s tab. Pasquale refuses to pay and hits Gualfredo with a cane. A fight ensues, and Gualfredo and Pelle overpower Pasquale. Alvis jumps onto Pelle’s back to keep him from causing further harm to Pasquale, but Pelle throws him. A fisherman and war veteran named Lugo ends the fight by shooting Pelle in the foot. Valeria tends to Pelle’s wound as Alvis asks Pelle questions regarding his condition. When Gualfredo threatens to return, Pasquale treats the threat with indifference. He watches Lugo drink and thinks about how there are “a million different wars for a million different people” (280).