Word: vistas
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...today: "Most of the conversation is yours, I really mean it." She is talking to Marjory Tabankin, national director of VISTA, who is also trying hard to sell the idea of VISTA to the public. Unlike McGraw, she understands the organization and how it works; McGraw is simply one of the 50-odd "celebrities" asked by VISTA to do day-long publicity stints...
...claiming to be more informed than I am," McGraw says after failing to explain VISTA's functions to yet another interviewer. This was suposed to be a "day of education" for her, but somehow she ended up going straight to work, traipsing from TV station to TV station, interviewer to interviewer. Every chance she gets she tries to get educated, sitting there listening, head tilted, lips pursed, trying to understand...
McGraw's silver screen appeal doesn't thrill the VISTA people, who wish she and reporters would stick to the issue--their promo campaign. Their prayers are answered when the van pulls off the highway in the South End and parks in front of a VISTA-run refuge for battered women. Tabankin is here to find out how well the VISTA program is working. McGraw is here to learn. As reporters look on, she speaks with the organizer of the home for a few minutes, and the first time she raises her voice above a whisper...
Some people from Boston University filming the home try to act unruffled by the movie star's presence. Certainly the women at the home are unmoved. The VISTA volunteers calmly ask all the men to leave (except the filmmakers) and begin their scheduled discussion on battered women. A battered wife speaks for some time, describing her experiences. Her account is followed by several others. All these women have been beaten, McGraw realizes, horror slowly registering on her Pacific-tanned face as she discretely twists her necklace around so the diamond doesn't show...
...Hollywood returns once the meeting ends, and she responds to one filmmaker's "How you doing?" with all the warmth of a close friend, looking straight into his eyes and smiling. The voice returns. "Gosh, can you believe it?" And then, very seriously, "I think it's great that VISTA is helping these women out. I'm knocked out by the kind of work that's being done...