Hollywood South movie pitch

It's a reboot of "Harvey" only, instead of Jimmy Stewart, we get Tom Benson to star as Elwood Dowd. Renee Benson and Rita Leblanc are Vita and Myrtle Mae.

Tom Benson’s daughter and grandchildren were prepared to take the witness stand Tuesday and argue that their 87-year-old family patriarch is too enfeebled to make decisions about his business empire anymore.

Renee Benson and her children, Ryan and Rita LeBlanc, have not been looking forward to this day, but they are doing what they feel is in the best interest of their family, said their lawyer, Randy Smith.

“They’ve been involved in these businesses since they were teenagers. ... The whole situation is hard,” Smith told reporters Tuesday morning, at the beginning of the second day of Benson’s mental competency trial. “I think a lot of people have gone through seeing a loved one who gets older and needs to be properly protected.”

Renee Benson spent much of the morning session Tuesday on the witness stand. After emerging for a break during a break in her testimony, her daughter and a lawyer quickly ushered her into a restroom generally reserved for the courthouse’s jury pool instead of one that was being used by the general public, including the trial’s participants.

Gayle, of course, is the 8 foot rabbit only Tom can see.