confronts Vincent, he throws her screenplay at her, mocking her while he's on drugs and naked with two other women. Jerilee has a mental breakdown in a sequence wherein she sees the faces of callous people of her past appear on her typewriter keys. After spending time in a sanitarium, Jerilee rewrites her screenplay. She reconnects with director Guy Jackson, who helps get her script produced successfully; however, she's expected to have sex once again, this time with the producer's wife. At the prestigious live movie awards telecast, Jerilee wins the best original screenplay award for her film, The Hold-Outs. On stage, she bluntly criticizes the Hollywood system, in which women have to "fuck [their] way to the top," and admits to her ex-husband Walter that she never learned "the meaning of self-respect." Jerilee then refuses the award, departing the auditorium with her newfound dignity. Cast Production Universal Pictures purchased the film rights for The Lonely Lady in 1975, one year before the novel was published, hoping to release the adaptation in 1976. Susan Blakely, who had signed a three-picture pay-or-play contract with Universal, accepted the role of Jerilee, with the conditional approval of the screenplay and director. Despite multiple drafts by Robert Merrill and Dean Riesner, Blakely was never satisfied with the script and eventually opted out of the project. The Lonely Lady eventually entered production when Israeli multimillionaire industrialist Meshulam Riklis signed on in 1982. Riklis had already funded the 1982 film Butterfly as a vehicle for his wife Pia Zadora, and he wanted The Lonely Lady to serve the same purpose. Riklis reportedly supplied approximately half of the film's $6–7 million budget, along with completion costs, but refused any mention in credits. Robert R. Weston, responsible for the previous Robbins adaptation The Betsy, was the producer. Butterfly director Matt Cimber would write the script, before being replaced by Ellen Shepard and the duo John Kershaw and Shawn Randall. Principal photography began on June 14, 1982, at a villa near Rome, where various Los Angeles landmarks were constructed, from the exterior of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to local supermarkets. Some exterior photography was also planned for Los Angeles. Interiors were shot at Twickenham Studios in Middlesex, England. Reception The Lonely Lady was panned by critics. Roger Ebert opened his review saying that "If The Lonely Lady had even a shred of style and humor, it could qualify as