Charlotte Rae: Edna Garrett

Quotes 

• Blair Warner : [Guessing what Natalie's story is about]  VD?

  Mrs. Edna Ann Garrett : Blair!

  Blair Warner : ...Valentine's Day!

• Mrs. Edna Ann Garrett : Mail call! I repeat, mail call! Tootie, here are all your fan magazines.

  Blair Warner : Tootie, how can you read those? They're just full of rumor and gossip and innuendo.

  Mrs. Edna Ann Garrett : And for you, Blair: "People", "Celebrity", and "Us."

• Natalie Green : [on what her story is about]  Abortion.

  Mrs. Edna Ann Garrett : Natalie, that's a tough subject for a high-school newspaper.

  Blair Warner : That IS a little touchy, don't you think?

  Natalie Green : Of course, but abortion is an important issue and it deserves attention. It's controversial, emotional...

  Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey : Exploitable.

  Mrs. Edna Ann Garrett : Yeah, I hate to think you were doing this just to boost circulation.

  Natalie Green : It's more than that, Mrs. Garrett. I wanted to make some waves with this, stir things up.

• Natalie Green : What's at stake here is the right of a journalist to protect her sources.

  Mrs. Edna Ann Garrett : Natalie, I'm sure Mr. Parker respects the rights of a free press, DON'T YOU?

  Charles Parker : Well of course I do, but in this case they're beside the point.

  Natalie Green : Sure, principles are great as long as they don't inconvenience you.

  Charles Parker : I have had nothing but frantic phone calls from parents all day wanting to know if it's their daughter who had the abortion. I think they deserve a better answer than "Well your guess is as good as mine."

• Mrs. Edna Ann Garrett : You're just going to have to explain it to Mr. Parker and hope that he understands. You'll have to tell him, that there was no Louise.

  Natalie Green : I would, except there IS a Louise.

  Mrs. Edna Ann Garrett : Wait a minute... I'm getting confused.

  Natalie Green : Mrs. Garrett, I just found out that someone right here at Eastland went through almost exactly what I wrote in my article. Mr. Parker's been hounding me for a name and all of a sudden I've got one. Just one name, and I'm off the hook.

  Mrs. Edna Ann Garrett : Are you, Natalie? You lied, Natalie. You wrote something you knew wasn't true; the fact that a Louise happens to exist doesn't change that.