Ted Hewitt.
Dot-Com businessman who has made it to the top on his wits. He didn’t
struggle up through the corporate ladder, but made his money by capitalizing
on some odd technical need in poorly understood supply chains where he provides
necessary and expensive services so that others can make money. He is probably
the man who comes up with a “Next Big Thing” type idea and exploits
it well.
He is a college drop-out, but largely self educated in his particular field.
He is the son of a blue collar worker and he lavishes money on his widowed mother.
He is divorced once and has an ex wife who lives to suck extra cash from him
while she is living with a massage therapist in Southern France.
He is confident, but over compensates a little for his humble origins. When
it is implied in the first scene that he earned his fortune with more luck than
skill, he feels obligated to take the bet.
He is still on the rebound from his first marriage and has no steady partner,
but one of the executives in his business – the beautiful and ruthless
Phaedre Livingston – is positioning herself as his next wife. They have
gone on several dates and he slept with here once, but realized it was a mistake.
Margot Durand
Margot is a pretty, but poor woman of Montreal who works for her father’s
bakery during the mornings, but has fallen in with a bad crowd at night. She
is the one-time lover of Louie Lemaire. She is more a Gun-Moll than a prostitute,
although she definitely has a heart of gold. She has been drawn in more than
once on unpleasant schemes with Louie and wishes to be free of him, but he keeps
showing up and forcing here to cooperate. He threatens her family in order to
get his way, but she will no longer sleep with him.
Louie Lemaire
Louie is Career criminal and thug. He is a short and frightening looking man
with scars and prison tattoos. He grew up near Margot’s parent’s
bakery and at one time Margot’s father tried to help the troubled kid.
But Louie was just plain no good and went to juvenile detention for two years
for beating up another kid who wound up a quadriplegic. When he got out and
came back to Rue Ste. Catherine, Margot’s father was dead and he found
the young Margot easy to manipulate.
His arrest record includes drugs, extortion and assault. He is currently wanted
for the murder of a corrupt police officer, who Louie attempted to blackmail,
but the situation got out of hand and Louie killed him where witnesses (including
Margot) could identify him. Most of those witnesses had since been found dead.
Margot is probably next to die and she suspects this.
John (Sully) O’Sullivan
John is a Limousine driver by day and a Jazz Musician at night. He rents a limousine
from an old Black Jazz Musician who owns a small fleet. The old Jazz musician
played with Django Reinhardt in Paris in the 1930’s and is John’s
Mentor. He has a an exaggerated Canadian accent and emphasizes it by adding
“eh” to the end of every sentence when in reality he is from Paramus,
New Jersey. Sully is a huge man with a beard, piercings and biker tattoos. His
long term relationship with a jazz singer ended recently with her death from
a heroin overdose.
Phaedre "Fay" Livingston
Vassar Bitch and one-time lover to Ted. She is now sleeping with best friend
who rode to riches on Ted's shirt tails. She has a Harvard MBA, but has made
her way to the top of Ted's company by manipulating the politics and taking
advantage of Ted's open and honest management style.
Mark Jameson
TV reporter. Mark once worked in Los Angeles as the evening anchorman at an
independent station. His taste for illicit drugs and kinky sex got him into
trouble even in a city that tolerates such behavior. He is currently trying
to climb back up into the major markets by paying his dues in Montreal. He needs
to prove he is more than a talking head to get the attention of the networks.
His odd mannerisms and oddball contests have made him a popular personality
to Montreal audiences, but, unknown to him, most consider him a joke rather
than a real journalist.
Julie Suarez
Julie is the wise-cracking friend of Margot. She has a confused and interesting
love life, but is the only one who tells Margot that her relationship with Louie
us not a good one. She is responsible for getting Julie to see reason. She takes
an immediate like to Sully and goes about throughout the film working on getting
him into bed.
David Gold
David is an executive VP in Ted’s company and Ted’s best friend.
They went to college together, but David stayed to finish his BS and MBA. David
married Ted’s sister. Ted then hired him to run the business side of the
company and David was very loyal. He is being blackmailed by Phaedre who has
seduced him. She is threatening to tell both his wife and Ted’s sister.
David has contacted a dose of clap from her and is having enough trouble keeping
it from his wife, using a condom with the excuse that he doesn’t really
want a fourth child and his wife should not take the pill for health reasons.
Kesheng Wu
Internation Financial Genius. Wu is an avid Karaoke fan and singer of country
western songs. He is also one of the world's most respected financial advisors.
He is a running character in the story that Ted keeps running into and finally
is able to make a financial deal with that makes Ted and Wu millions. In the
mean time, Ted steals his identity and lives in Wu's hotel room when Wu is at
the conference.
Babe McKenzie.
Babe is Jazz drummer toured Europe with Django Reinhardt and who later played
with Bird. Now in his 80’s he is settled in Montreal and is a part owner
of the Chat Noire and an aging fleet of cool but slowly dying limousines. He
is godfather to Sully whose mother was a scat singer in the 60’s in New
York and married a Tenor Man. They moved to Montreal in the late 70’s
where the Tenor Man died of cirrhosis, leaving the mother to raise sully in
a city where the only one she knew was Babe and his wife. Babe’s wife,
a jazz pianist is now an invalid, but sometimes comes down to the club to join
in on a few jams.