We all have one of those writer-type friends. You know, the ones with delusions of grandeur? A dream of writing the great American novel about absolutely nothing at all? And Sunset Boulevard has one of those folks, too: Norma Desmond.

Norma is writing a screenplay based on the story of Salomé, the Biblical princess who helps pull off a successful plot to behead John the Baptist. (The young, beautiful Salomé holding the saintly Baptist's severed head on a platter became a famous subject in art.) Naturally, Norma feels attracted to this role. She fancies herself a young, still-famous actress who could pull it off:

NORMA: Salomé—what a woman! What a part! The Princess in love with a Holy man. She dances the Dance of the Seven Veils. He rejects her, so she demands his head on a golden tray, kissing his cold, dead lips.

The role also mirrors Norma's own destructive tendencies. Joe Gillis is no John the Baptist, but he's seer-like enough to gaze past Norma's illusions and into the abyss of loneliness and sadness lying behind them. And, like John the Baptist, he gets murdered. So, there's another similarity.

Also, the story of Salomé is very much in line with the kind of Biblical epic that Cecil B. DeMille liked to direct (you might've seen The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston as Moses). And since DeMille is the director Norma wants for the project it seems like a match—if only, in Joe's judgment, the screenplay weren't so absolutely terrible. In the end, the script is just another in Norma's long list of delusions.