Help me remember a story about a many making lots of money dry cleaning.

July 31, 2009 2:07 PM

Recently I read a story that went along the lines of a man who offered to do a company's dry cleaning for $10, which they paid. Then the next week he charged $20 and they paid. Eventually he was charging loads for their dry cleaning. I can't for the life of me recall who the company was or where I even read about it. Does anyone have any info or perhaps recall reading the same story recently?
posted by Hates_ to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

Best answer: This story is told in the movie What Just Happened with the guy doing dry cleaning for the movie studios.

I doubt that's where you heard it, though, since I don't know anybody who actually saw that movie. Maybe you read it in the book that it was based on.
posted by dogwalker at 3:08 PM on July 31, 2009

It's a better movie than the reviews might have you think.

There was a big excerpt from the book in Vanity Fair, so that might be where you saw the dry-cleaning story, even if you didn't read the book.
posted by Sidhedevil at 3:28 PM on July 31, 2009

Response by poster: @dogwalker - That was it! I saw that a week ago, although I could have sworn I read the story.
posted by Hates_ at 3:32 PM on July 31, 2009

Weird. I've read the book and seen the movie. Don't remember it in the movie.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 8:55 PM on July 31, 2009

Best answer: I've read the book and seen the movie. Don't remember it in the movie.

It's on page 201 in the book. And at 44 minutes into the movie:

He started by cleaning the wardrobes for the movie studios.
He charged them like $10 a suit. They paid.
Next time, he charged them $50 a suit. They paid.
Next time, charged them $100 a suit. They paid.
He said, "I wanna be in the movie business. I understand these people."

And the minutiae you can find on the internet these days just made my head explode.
posted by effbot at 2:32 AM on August 1, 2009

And the guy they're talking about is most likely producer Elie Samaha, perhaps most known for having produced Battlefield Earth ("... not merely bad; it's unpleasant in a hostile way") in a somewhat Bialystock-inspired fashion, which resulted in him winning a Razzie (said to be his only award ever) and losing a $75 million court case ("Yeah, I took money, but hey, I am who I am").
posted by effbot at 3:11 AM on August 1, 2009

I agree, it is an interesting movie...worth watching, especially if you're a film buff or in any way connected to the film industry....
posted by HuronBob at 3:48 AM on August 1, 2009