Phillip calls, expecting to drive her to Justice Peabody's party that night, but she declines, not wanting to resume their relationship. After meeting with the President's advisors, David fashions a Senate resolution for the American annexation of his island if Phillip and Tom are given appointments far from Washington, and he and Gustav are made United States citizens. That afternoon at the Peppertree home, Tom arrives with presidential orders to take Mary to a White House movie screening. Mary Peppertree (Deanna Durbin) starts a new job as a telephone switchboard operator at the White House, where her father Timothy has been working as a guard for many years. In October 1941 Joe Pasternak, who produced ten movies with Durbin at Universal, announced he wanted to make Washington Girl at MGM, based on a story by Ruth Finney, about a telephone operator at the White House. In January 1948 Universal reported that Mary Loos and Richard Sale were working on the script and the film would be known as Washington Girl. In September 1947 Universal announced Durbin would star as a White House telephone operator in White House Girl based on a story by Karl Turnberg, who adapted Up in Central Park.
