Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 140 Elopement
"I'm tired of my woman,

We have been together too long.

like a favorite song,
The record player is too worn out.

So when she lay there sleeping,

I read the newspaper in bed.

In the personal friend column,

I read this letter.

If you like pina colada,
and get wet from the rain.

If you don't like yoga,

If you have half a brain.

If you like having sex at midnight,

On the sandy beach of the Cape.

Then I'm the love you've been looking for,
Write to me and elope with me..."

The radio was playing "Escape" from the last month of the 70's to the 80's.Ronald didn't remember the title of the song, but he only remembered that it had a nice melody and a witty lyrics, and like everyone else called it "The Pia Colada Song".

In the second half of the lyrics, the protagonist finds out that the woman who is about to elope with him is the one next to him now, and he is really dating his wife.It can be seen that men's aesthetics are stubborn to a certain extent, and they always like women with certain characteristics when they come and go.

Just like the sleepy Antonia beside him, Ronald feels that he still likes pursuing women. Although he can't stay with his beloved woman for a long time at this stage, he occasionally elopes together and enjoys the world of two people for a few days. Already able to do it.

Today Ronald went to the airport to pick up Antonia Franceschi.She returned to New York from a tour just in time for the film "Fame" to premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre.

Thinking of the scene of picking up people at the airport, Ronald smiled.I bought a large bouquet of roses myself and waited for Antonia and her dance troupe to come out at the boarding gate.The sharp-eyed group members had already seen Ronald holding the bouquet and screamed. Everyone stopped and let Antonia go first, enjoying the reunion of the two alone.

Antonia smiled happily and walked up quickly. Ronald opened his arms, and the two embraced tightly. The girls cheered and clapped behind, causing many tourists to pick up their cameras and take pictures.

After greeting the team leader, Ronald found Antonia's luggage, and the two bid farewell to the girls at the airport. Ronald stepped on the gas pedal and returned to the apartment as fast as he could.

Opening the door, the two entered the room. Ronald kicked the door behind him impatiently, and the two hugged each other, kissing passionately while walking towards the bedroom.

As a result, the door of the room opened from the inside, and my cousin Donna came out. "Come back, Antonia, I'll be leaving right away." The two stopped suddenly like ice sculptures, and Ronald scratched his hair in embarrassment.

Antonia was very happy. Seeing Donna who had accompanied her on a tour of Staten Island before, she hugged her and asked her why she was here with her cousin Ronald.

"Teresa and her husband David have such a good leg warmer business that they've taken up half of the apartment where my mother and I live in as their warehouse. I'm here to hide."

Ronald wanted to take Donna home, but Donna refused, "You'd better go back and accompany Antonia, I'll just walk back by myself."

Ronald and Antonia looked at each other with a smile, closed the bedroom door and started talking nonsense.

"Is your leg warmer business already that big?" Antonia woke up and asked about Ronald's leg warmer.At that time, it could be said that the distance between the two was shortened a lot because of this invention.

"It's not bad. I've got two people from my hometown to work in sales. My aunt Karen and her veteran wives are in charge of production. I'm thinking of corporatizing the business and renting a space near the performing arts college. This way the sales volume of the business will be more stable.”

"I have reserved a little share for you, Antonia, although this business is not big, but it is protected by patents, and it may have a good income in the future. You are a single woman and have no family support. It is good to have a fixed income. After all, it was In order to solve your problem, I came up with this invention."

"I still keep the pair you made for me." Antonia jumped out of bed, pulled her luggage, and found out a pair of long leg warmers with AF's initials embroidered on them.

Ronald looked at Antonia's smooth back, and pulled her into his arms again...

"So I waited with hope
she walked into the place
In an instant I recognized her smile
I recognized the curve of her face
that's my own lovely lady
She said "oh it's you"

and we laughed for a while
I said "I never knew"

"You like Pina Colada,

caught in the rain and drenched,

if you like having sex at midnight
on the dunes of the cape

you are the woman i've been looking for
Elope with me"

Seeing that Antonia was awake, Ronald turned up the music of Rupert Holmes' "Elopement".

He helped Antonia fasten the buttons on her back, and then suddenly his hands stayed on her back.

"What's the matter, Ronnie?" Antonia felt his abnormality.

"I really want to be like the song, drop all careers with you and elope. We can go back to Staten Island and we can run the leg warmer business together."

"God has been good to me, Ronnie, and we shouldn't expect more."

Ronald knew in his heart that Antonia, like him, was a person with strong career pursuits, so he stopped talking, but hugged Antonia quietly, enjoying this moment of tranquility and happiness.

……

"I really want to find a man to elope." Diane Lane complained to her father Burt at the airport, "Boji Shields took over the 'Blue Coral Reef', and later the director didn't let her perform naked, You should have been tougher then."

Burt knew that his daughter Diane was throwing a tantrum and talking angry words.The box office of the westerns she participated in before was bad, and the scripts sent to her were not as many as when she just finished filming "Love on the Sunset Bridge", and the quality also declined.

It is rumored in the circle that the test screening of "Blue Coral Reef" has been very good, and it may be another successful movie with a small fortune.Brooke Shields' mother and manager has called out a $100 million paycheck.For an actress of this era, that price tag is beyond imagination.

There are so many productions of the eight major studios every year, among which there are only a few roles suitable for 15-year-old girls. Diane Lane and Brooke Shields have become two of the few competitors who often compete for roles, plus Judy Foster, almost every movie will meet.

In addition, the late-developing daughter has begun to accumulate hormones during puberty, and her personality has become more rebellious, and her temper has become a little irritable.Bert felt the need to change his attitude towards his daughter.

In order to teach her acting skills, Diane Lane was given too much freedom to decide some things by herself.But in a wolf-packed Hollywood, this kind of free personality isn't necessarily a good thing.

"We've already made one movie, and now we have to choose some scripts. I heard that Hollywood strikes out. If I make two more movies in a row, I'll be finished." Diane Lane began to worry about her acting career.

"Don't worry, we still have many choices." Bert comforted his daughter.The principle of three strikes is not an iron rule, but if you lose three times in a row at the box office, it is indeed difficult to receive a good script.

The famous Hollywood screenwriter William Holden once said in his biography, "In Hollywood, no one knows anything."

This is the law of box office success.There are many factors that determine whether a movie is a hit at the box office, whether the script is interesting to the audience, whether the performance is recognized by the audience, whether there are scenes such as action, dance, and youth science fiction, whether the studio invests resources in marketing, and whether there are other movies in the same period. There is no strong competitor, etc. will affect the final box office.

Before filming started, no one knew what was the key factor for box office success.

Hollywood studios have summed up many principles, from the beginning relying on stars to drive audiences, to the beginning of the New Hollywood movement in the 70s, relying on the control ability of famous directors.

But every principle fails at times.The "Heaven's Gate" rumored in Hollywood is going to make a big splash, and all the cash of United Artists has been put into this big hole.Even the masterpiece "Raging Bull" by Martin Scorsese and others has no money for Oscar PR.

Only Robert De Niro, relying on his own connections and his Italian-American connection, can hope to get a best actor nomination.

Burt took his daughter to a party thrown by Michael Douglas last week while promoting the western.Most of the parties at the party are directors and actors with strong artistic qualities, and they are the types traditionally invested by United Artists.

Including Milos Forman (director of Leaping Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Faye Dunaway (starring in Chinatown), Jack Nicholson and others, they all cursed Cimino, wasting the crew and filling their own pockets.

The pasture used for filming was bought by Cimino in advance, and then rented to United Artists at a high price.Made millions out of it.All the money has been invested in Heaven's Gate, and now United Artists' top executives are stuck, they can only succeed and not fail.

If the final result of Heaven's Gate is not good, and the management does not need to do anything, United Artists' other production crews who stopped work and stopped marketing because of Fatty Cimino's waste of embezzled money can eat him alive and guarantee that he will never be in Hollywood again. Get any chance to direct a movie.

United Artists struggled to find any established director to replace Michael Cimino.However, through their lawyers, they found a loophole in the contract.They counted Fat Cimino as an employee of United Artists, and if he couldn't shoot and cut Heaven's Gate within the stipulated time, he would have to pawn his pants and lose money.

In this way, the indefinitely protracted shooting cycle was limited, and subsequent shootings were successfully completed according to the schedule.This also proves one thing: it's not that Michael Cimino can't shoot normally, it's just that United Artists' new management doesn't know how to limit the director's power.

"Daddy, I need to go to more parties and social occasions so that I can find more opportunities to act. Are there any movie premieres in New York recently?"

"Both Fame and Blue Lagoon have premiere invites, which one do you want to attend?"

(End of this chapter)