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Sandy Mills

When a Hollywood starlet returns to North Carolina to attend college, she finds that keeping her identity secret is hard, but falling in love is easy. Finalist in family, semifinalist in comedy, 2008 Screenplay Festival, Finalist in 2009 SkyFest I.

Sandy Mills, a young actress on the LA fast track, puts her movie career on hold to attend the University of North Carolina, the college that her dead father loved so dearly.

Using her real name (Sandra Ann Millburg), Sandy blend in. But student life intervenes. Sandra Ann auditions for a school play and gets a starring role. Meanwhile, she finds herself falling for director, Alan Burroughs, who is her English TA.

Because university regulations frown on teacher  student relations, Alan and Sandra Ann continue an innocent flirtation. They co-write a screenplay, two versions to reflect competing imaginings of Henry James Turn of the Screw.

Meanwhile, Sandy Mills' latest movie is a blockbuster, she is nominated for an Academy Award for supporting actress. Sandra Ann wants to tell Alan, but does not know how. At the play's opening night, Alan and Sandra Ann share their first real kiss backstage as reporters swarm the auditorium for their celebrity story. Alan feels betrayed, embarrassed, and endangered (improprieties with a student). He pushes her away and she is swept back to LA.

On the rebound, Sandy becomes mired in a relationship with John Brooks, a notorious actor bad boy. When that affair goes publicly bad, she tries to reunite with Alan. But because of transcontinental complications and misunderstandings (she believes that Alan is now with her best friend, Alan is enraged that she has given her version of the screenplay to her agent), they retreat to their respective coasts --he to Carolina, she to California.

During a TV interview on E! before the Academy Awards, Sandy discusses the events and confesses her love for Alan. Later that night, Sandys best friend telephones and lets Sandy know that the friend is dating Alans roommate, not Alan. Sandy wants to find Alan, but he is nowhere to be found -- and the Awards ceremony is tomorrow.

As Sandy prepares for the show, Alan flies across country. As the ceremony begins, Alan and Sandy are reunited in the audience. As Sandy Mills is announced before a hundred million viewers, Alan proposes and Sandy accepts  the award and the proposal.

Script Excerpt
Format:
Screenplay
Budget:
Low
Starring Roles For:
Amy Adams
Mark Wahlberg
Freddie Prinze Jr.
In the Vein Of:
Notting Hill
Never Been Kissed
Doc Hollywood
Posted:
10/10/2008
Updated:
07/29/2024
Author Bio:
Born in Charleston South Carolina, I received my undergraduate degree in history from Univ. of South Carolina, magna cum laude. I graduated from two of the nation's best med schools -- a J.D. from Duke and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Johns Hopkins. This was my poetry phase with 100 poems in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies.

In my next act, I taught at the University of Texas. Then I practiced law (high tech and aerospace), and later I worked as an activist, entrepreneur and attorney in the space arena.

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Contest Results:
Screenplay Festival (Finalist, finalist for family)
SkyFest (Finalist)
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