The Bonfire of the Vanities

The next day, Kramer meets with Weiss in Weiss’s office. Weiss is watching a news story about Sherman’s arraignment yesterday. Sherman’s arrest has been covered widely, including in a front-page story in the New York Times. The City Light also printed a front-page story about it. Kramer and Weiss discuss the attempt to raise bail to $250,000 and then Weiss brings up Bernie’s attempt to do a favor for Killian by letting Sherman turn himself in.

Weiss says that Bernie is angry because part of him (Bernie) truly believes that Sherman deserves special treatment, even if Bernie doesn’t realize it. But, Weiss says, they have to treat Sherman just like any other defendant to send the message that justice truly is blind and that it works the same way no matter who you are, even if you’re White and wealthy like Sherman. Weiss then tells Kramer that he did a great job yesterday and tells Kramer to call him by his first name. He also invites Kramer to stay for lunch in his office, where they’ll be joined by a judge who’s a friend of Weiss and a reporter from the New York Times.

After coming home following the arraignment, Sherman is surprised by how quickly he falls asleep. But he has a troubling dream in which he’s walking in a neighborhood in Harlem and people begin closing in on him. The next morning, the press is waiting outside of his apartment when he leaves to walk Campbell to the bus stop. Someone puts a microphone in his face, and he swats it away. The woman holding the microphone says that he hit her. As Sherman walks away, the woman, who is White, calls him racist and says he doesn’t care who he hits with his car. When Campbell gets on the bus, another reporter is close by, and Campbell starts crying.  

Fallow goes to work the day after Sherman is arrested. Gerald Steiner approaches him smiling and shows him a picture in which it appears that Sherman is hitting a reporter. Steiner says they’ll run the picture in tomorrow’s paper. Steiner says that Fallow’s stories have been sensational. Not only have they been widely read, but, Steiner says, they’ve also presented a morality play. Now, The City Light is a beacon of liberalism and civil rights. Vogel then calls Fallow. He says that he’s representing Annie Lamb in two civil cases—one against the hospital for negligence and one against Sherman. Vogel asks for Sherman’s phone number. Fallow is reluctant to give it to him but ultimately agrees when Vogel says that Fallow can have the exclusive story about Annie Lamb’s lawsuits.