Ed made some remark about a car accident. The implication seems to be that he was in one of the joyriding cars that hit the limo, and that he ended up with some sort of black book that the guys who were about to kill Rita possessed. In the logic of Diane's dream, the hit man needed that as a lead to where she was. — Allen B. Ruch
I think this scene takes place after Rita has been killed and the hit man guy is covering his own tracks. The black book (which he has when he sets up the hit) links him back to the crime. — Jamie Schardt
Ed's character assumes the role of Diane's pimp mainly because he has a black book that Diane saw Joe with at the time Diane was arranging the hit on Camilla in her real life (Winkie's). To Diane, a black book represents phone numbers, and phone numbers represent the call girl profession. So since Joe is her ally against Camilla, she creates a scenario in her fantasy for how Joe came to have this book that may help him locate Rita/Camilla. — Alan Shaw
In the reality segment, when Diane is "hiring" Joe, he already has a book which is similar to the one Diane dreams he takes from Ed. Does this book prove Camilla was connected, ordered, and paid for the disappearance of her competition for the lead role as Sylvia North? Would it prove complicity in strong arming that film's director into choosing her for the part?
Read the full theory here: A different form of revenge — jschroeder
Possible historical references
- If I remember correctly, there was a post on this forum last year relating the "history of the world in phone numbers" to a real-life L.A. murder case of 1981, which became known as the 'Wonderland Murders'. The post mentioned a TV show update about this notorious case, in which four people were bludgeoned to death, and a Hollywood nightclub owner was accused (and acquitted) of masterminding the killings. I believe the case involved a drug ripoff. Anyway, the club owner's "black book," which supposedly had 2,000 telephone numbers, had been referred to as "the history of the world in phone numbers" because of the number of people it implicated in shady doings. The nightclub owner's first name, apparently, was Eddie. — gainsborough
- The black book as a reference to the 'Black Dahlia murder' case of 1947? The murdered Elizabeth Short had stolen an address book from a local nightclub owner. It had several pages torn out. The removed names (pages) were those of high-profile people. — more
- A reference to Heidi Fleiss' "little black book"? In June of 1993, Heidi Fleiss, age 27, was arrested at her Benedict Canyon home, accused of running a high-priced call girl service catering to L.A.'s rich and famous. There was talk of a "little black book," which supposedly contained names of top studio executives and other entertainment figures. Newspapers followed her trial salaciously, drooling with hope the real scandal would erupt, that she would name names, spill the contents of her 'little black book' and Hollywood's power set would be brought crashing down. Some executives denied connections before they were accused. In the end only Charlie Sheen was outed, testifying in court against her. Heidi Fleiss eventually got sentencing on January 7, 1997, of three years' imprisonment for pandering, tax evasion and money laundering.
- The History Of the World in Numbers… I would assume it to be a Mel Brooks reference — referring to The History of the World, Part 1. Particularly, since Mel Brooks gave DL his big break (The Elephant Man) this would seem to be a nice reference. Mel's son's name is Ed, by-the-way. — ctyankee