Selective halogen-metal exchange at position-5 of 3a was initially carried out with EtMgBr (1.1 equiv) at 0 °C, [15] then indole 4 [16] was added to the solution to afford a mixture of alcohol 5a and lactone 6 in 52% combined yield (Scheme [2] , Table [1] entry 1). Replacement of the Grignard reagent by BuLi (1 equiv) at -78 °C led to the lone alcohol 5a in 49% optimised yield. ... It is noteworthy that better coupling yield (83%, drawing not shown) was obtained ...