The View from the Bridge by Nicholas Meyer

It was December of 1982 and Verna Fields was dead. The woman known as Mother Cutter, editor of Jaws, had died, aged sixty-four, of cancer and a memorial service was being held at the Alfred Hitchcock Theater at Universal Studios. I had known Verna socially and like many other young directors, I had benefited from her counsel, support, and advice. She would take me to lunch and afterward treat me to an expensive cigar from the humidor of a nearby tobacconist. "Verna," I would protest, "how are you paying for this?" She'd grin merrily behind large glasses. "I'm wooing you, baby, I'm wooing ou." She was a brilliant editor so of course after Jaws they'd made her an executive and stuck her behind a desk, which you might say was like promoting Captain James T Kirk to Admiral. What a waste.