Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1330: Tax loopholes and election changes
The evil queen was not so evil in prison. She had a good chat with the public relations and calculated for a long time, and finally gave Ronald a one-day shooting permit, including the location shooting on the top floor and the helicopter aerial photography permit.

"So easy to talk to?" Ronald looked at Pat Kingsley with some disbelief.

"She was struck by hatred of the rich..." Kingsley, wearing glasses, took out the copies of Mrs. Helmsley's court documents and a brief report of the news reports and explained to Ronald.

This vicious queen, have you ever done anything particularly evil? Not really, her so-called tax evasion is actually done by many wealthy people, but they are not as arrogant as she is and talk nonsense to her assistant.

Among her charges, the tax evasion part was actually relatively minor; the more serious charges were the combined forgery of documents and defrauding the government.

Her biggest sin is being mean. After George Sr. took office, there was a period of economic contraction. Economic stagnation has done great harm to the living standards of the lower classes. And during the eight years that Ronald Sr. was in office, although the economy was thriving, it also caused a widening of the gap between the rich and the poor.

Her assistant, gardener, lawyer, and maid (all fired by her) repeated her harsh words in court. The jury had already made up their minds to sentence her to the highest possible sentence. The media hyped up these stories, which put pressure on the judge to cancel the jury's verdict.

However, the sentence in the first instance clearly exceeded the appropriate range, leaving room for an appeal in the second instance. By then, she would have already been in prison for some time, and if she appealed with this loophole, there was a high possibility that she would be sentenced to a lighter sentence in the second instance.

Of course, the premise of doing so is that the evil queen can no longer say any malicious words to mock the poor. On the contrary, she should try to make some friendly gestures, and it is best to do something that makes the public feel better, so that her image can be reversed through the media, so that she can be foolproof in the second trial.

"Want to thank her in the movie subtitles? That's impossible..." Ronald saw the Evil Queen's proposal and found it came with conditions. She wanted a line of thanks in the subtitles.

"So what's your counter-offer?" Pat Kingsley certainly knew that this kind of thing would lead to trouble.

"I can only thank the Empire State Building. Tell her if she wants it or not. If not, I'll build the set myself..."

……

"Nowadays, rich people are unwilling to show up in the media. The process of making wealth for many wealthy people in the financial circle is not so sunny, so no one wants to become Rudy's spoils..."

Little Douglas, who was sitting opposite Ronald, happened to come to see Ronald with Donna, and they started talking about the unfortunate vicious queen.

The Rudy he was talking about was the Southern District Attorney who lost the last election for New York City Mayor. Under his leadership, several Wall Street billionaires and Italian family members were sent to prison.

Over the past few years, the public has become more favorable to him and more hateful of those who greedily get rich by illegal means. In the movie "Wall Street", Michael Douglas played the banker who said "greed is good" and won the public's approval. It seems like a thing of the past century.

Everyone was rich, so they all felt a little cold about the change in social trends. From the incident with the vicious queen, the three of them were also thinking about how to prevent it. Doing charity, funding scientific research, or doing something that would make people appreciate your benefits would be a perfect umbrella of protection when problems arose.

"Well, we have to donate some money to charity, preferably something that costs little but has a big impact," Douglas Jr. concluded.

"Please help me think about it..." Ronald handed this image project over to his cousin Donna.

"Is our seat in Staten Island secure?" Ronald asked Doug Jr. about the House of Representatives election, which will be held at the end of the year at the same time as the presidential election.

For wealthy people like Ronald, some things are as protective as doing good deeds, that is, these elected politicians. As long as these people still need their votes on Staten Island, they still have high utilization value.

"There is nothing wrong with the election, but some people are still clamoring for redistricting to separate our Staten Island and South Manhattan..."

The so-called "some people" refers to the current New York City mayor, Dinkins. After this black man came to power, he did nothing but pursue racial reconciliation and turn Manhattan into a colorful patchwork of different races.

People of different races have very different incomes and crime rates. The result of forcibly combining them is a rapid deterioration in public security, and the real estate prices in New York City near new public housing units have also fallen rapidly.

The most disgusting thing is that in Midtown Manhattan, Times Square, which was once a must-see for tourists, has now become a place for fireflies to seek out their guests. It is like moving the block in the movie "Pretty Woman" to this most famous tourist attraction.

In addition to the beautiful women who amaze international tourists (especially Japanese tourists), there are also increasingly rampant black and Latino thieves. These new gangs that grew out of public housing do not follow the rules like the old Italian, Irish, or Chinese gangs, and they attack tourists without regard for their own safety, causing the entire city's tourism industry to decline rapidly.

But Dinkins had the support of blacks and Latinos, who had moved from the Bronx upstate into Manhattan and were doing brisk business, and all of them had pledged to vote for him.

In order to consolidate his own vote base, Dinkins has always wanted to split Staten Island and South Manhattan, so that the stable vote base of the Elephant Party would be dismantled and become the Donkey Party's vote base.

Several people agreed that they should continue to support their Congresswoman Susan and let her resist the proposal to redraw the constituency.

"What's the status of the presidential election now?" Compared to the mayoral election next year, the presidential election at the end of the year is more urgent.

"He has no competitors within the party. Even the governor from the Democratic Party is no match. There have not been many presidents in the White House who have failed to be re-elected. Besides, he won the Cold War and the Gulf War. I don't think anyone can challenge him. We'll just go and show our support when the New York primary comes." Doug Jr. said that was no problem.

"When the governor comes to New York again, I will donate money to his PAC." Donna whispered to Ronald in the back as they left. Don't offend these politicians unless you know there is no room for easing.

"When I get back to Los Angeles, I need you to come over for something..." Ronald called Diane again. He lived in Los Angeles for more than half of his life, so he couldn't forget to support the politicians there.

The congressman near Beverly Hills and the candidate for the senator by-election both asked Diane to come forward and donate money to support her. As a female actress, it is normal for her to support a female candidate, right?
……

"How does the Evil Queen bargain?"

Ronald asked Pat Kingsley on the plane back to Los Angeles.

"You can just thank the Empire State Building, but you only have half a day..." Kingsley adjusted his glasses. This vicious queen really didn't want to suffer any loss, no wonder those assistants and maids who couldn't get any oil were ruthlessly fired by her.

"Ha, it seems she is in desperate need of PR exposure. If I can take advantage of her, can I be considered a successful businessman?" Ronald said with a smile. Mrs. Helmsley, the evil queen, was not the kind of woman who gained wealth through marriage. Before she married her current husband, she was a business woman who built a hotel chain from scratch.

"You can say that, but you also took advantage of her situation." Pat Kingsley also laughed. This Ronald was indeed different from other Hollywood clients. He would actually be happy because he took a small advantage of other entrepreneurs in business, instead of being carried away by dating a popular female star. No wonder he could achieve success in his career.

"Thank you very much, Pat, I have to...you know..." Ronald made a gesture of putting his hands beside his head. The staff around him knew that he liked to sleep on the plane.

"Please go ahead. We'll talk to you about your image problem after we get to Los Angeles."

Pat Kingsley also took on another job in New York this time. It was a business deal given to her by Ed Bastian, the president of Ronald's television, radio and newspaper business.

On the surface, he gave her the crisis public relations work order for this business, so that he could use his professional talents to help the New York Daily News Group gain a better reputation. In fact, he gave her crisis public relations company an annual consulting fee to find a way to create a good reputation for his boss Ronald among the public.

After she understood Ronald's plan, she also made a plan. In general, it was to create all kinds of seemingly accidental encounters. Ronald helped some poor people that the public could empathize with. At the same time, he did not actively publicize it in the newspapers, but treated it as an urban legend, which was finally discovered and reported by the media.

Her first idea was to find some actors from films directed or produced by Ronald in the past and start from there to create some stories that the public would like to hear and hear.

"Huh... ah..."

Pat Kingsley made a plan for the first case. He turned around and saw that Ronald had fallen into a sweet dream under the smooth takeoff of the special plane by Bono.

……

"So these taxes you're talking about are just deferred, not huh?"

In his dream, Ronald saw familiar characters appear on the screen again.

"It's actually Weintraub. This guy's guest-starring businessman is quite stylish..." Ronald recognized that the man who asked the lawyer for details about tax avoidance was actually his friend, Jerry Weintraub, the producer of The Karate Kid.

This movie seems to be about tax avoidance, which is not common in Hollywood movies in the past. Maybe in the next few years, people's perception will change again, and they will have more recognition of the fact that these rich people have been brought to justice?
"The dollar of the future may be worth only half of what it is today." The camera turned to the opposite side of Weintraub, where Gene Hackman, the actor who sold him The Silence of the Lambs, played a tax lawyer.

"Who said that?" Weintraub, a cigar in his hand, said disapprovingly.

"After the election..." Gene Hackman tried to start his speech about his understanding of politics and finance.

"Are you telling me that you know who will be sitting in the White House for the next four years? If you know, that would be very valuable information..." Weintraub interrupted the other party's nonsense without hesitation. He was acting like himself. He looked like this when I met him that year.

"Sir, what he means is that no matter who enters the White House in the next four years, you will benefit from it..." The camera turned and a third person interrupted. The young man who played this young lawyer in a well-fitting suit was Tom Cruise. It is rare to see him playing such a role with lack of confidence like this.

"Let him say, hey, who the hell are you? Who is this, your lawyer?" Weintraub was very annoyed that a young man dared to interrupt his tax issues.

"This is a very sensitive matter so we don't involve outside lawyers, this is our own lawyer."

"Hey, did you hear that? This guy is threatening me in a hidden way. I'm a good person. You see, you are different from those people in Chicago. As long as I make money, I don't care who the hell deals with my taxes. You get paid directly, while those people in Chicago have to do business with me to make money."

Weintraub's expression changed instantly. He said to Tom Cruise's confused face, "You don't know me. I'm a good man. As long as you can save me a million dollars in taxes, I won't break your legs..."

"Hey, let's not change the subject..." Gene Hackman quickly interrupted. The topic was getting more and more scary, and they didn't want to scare the fledgling Tom Cruise.

"Hey, what did I say? What did I say?" Weintraub pulled out that who-said-something-illegal look from the movies.

"Maybe it's what you didn't say..." Tom Cruise seemed to have found a godsend and convinced the customer.

"I didn't say anything fucking? I didn't say anything?"

"Thank you, my colleague said that there is no risk or legal problem in using this to avoid taxes..." Tom Cruise still had that youthful spirit, and he impulsively said something that he thought would satisfy his client.

"You mean to say that the worst-case scenario is that I won't have to pay taxes until many years later?"

"No, the worst outcome is that they will close the loophole in the tax law next year and you won't be able to buy it. Then you'll feel like you're regretting eating a bowl of elephant dung..."

"Ronald, Ronald, we're here..."

"Huh? How come so soon?" Ronald was just dreaming when he was woken up by Pat Kingsley. Everyone was waiting for him, but only Pat came up and woke him up. It can't be that everyone is waiting for you to dream, right?
"Um... um..." After picking up his luggage, Ronald listened all the way to the plan that Pat Kingsley perfected on the plane and how he helped a poor actor and started his career.

"Sir, sir, could you please sign for Ross Perot?"

"Who?" Ronald suddenly heard an unfamiliar name. "Oh, a politician? I have my own congressman to support." Ronald looked at the picture of a handsome man on the display board, with the Stars and Stripes and his name below, and knew that this was a fundraiser.

"No, we just want signatures. Mr. Perot is running as an independent, so he has to get the support of voters in all states. He is the best candidate and is not tainted by any rich people. He is a billionaire and he pays for his campaign himself."

Ronald waved his hands and walked forward quickly. Is this a joke? How is it possible to run independently from the two parties?

"He is a self-made billionaire who once went to Vietnam and brought back prisoners of war. He said he wanted to reduce the deficit and protect the people. He would never go back on his promise to raise taxes during his term.

He also told all his supporters not to donate more than five dollars. Do you want to take a look at his campaign platform?
Take a look at this. You can call this number to show your support. Do you understand? One week after the hotline was set up, we received more than one million calls of support..."

"What?" Ronald stopped and took the promotional card. No donation of more than five dollars, no party platform, and more than a million calls of support?

The enthusiastic participation of ordinary people reminded him of the enthusiasm of Ronald Sr. when he ran for election more than ten years ago.

(End of this chapter)