Exploiting Hollywood 1980

In the largest Stern Hall in Carnegie Hall, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, which visited in the name of human peace, was playing Shostakovich's symphony, which was played by the two allies during World War II. Many listeners came here because of its reputation, and the seats were full.

However, the musicians of the Moscow Philharmonic no longer had the courage and ability to play for the soldiers on the Soviet-German battlefield. Except for the official performances in Moscow and Leningrad, they just played and left.

However, the performance in the United States made everyone break their heads. In addition to buying some fashionable goods here, many people came here to make money by connecting with the Western music industry. The female musicians dressed themselves up beautifully and almost fought with each other when they were interviewed by photographers.

Little George came to listen to the music together. After the show, he, Norio Ohga and Ronald went to the VIP lounge next to the smallest Weir Hall and talked about someone taking advantage of Sony's public acquisition of Columbia Pictures to bid up the price.

"This is normal business competition. Our American government cannot interfere with the competition in the free market..." George said some of the things his mother Barbara taught him. The general meaning was that Sony just had to follow our rules. As for other bidders, we would not help you suppress them.

"Next time, it would be better to go to a country music concert..." George was not interested in this kind of classical music. If he had not come to pass on the message without arousing suspicion, he would not have sat here for two hours.

"Ohga-san, let's find a place to talk..." After sending George away, Ronald invited Ohga Norio, who looked helpless, to get on his luxury car and drove all the way to the Peninsula Hotel.

"This is the sorrow of the defeated..." Ohga Norio was unhappy. He told Ronald some of his true thoughts.

Sony had no roots in the United States at all, and its connections with the political circles had just begun to be established. Many times, they did not receive key warnings, and no one was willing to speak a fair word for them.

They had already given in and agreed to CFIUS's request to acquire Columbia by acquiring Coca-Cola and other stocks of the major shareholder in the open market.

Sony had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for no reason. But in order to enter the American market, they decided to endure it. And this Australian businessman Christopher Scath intervened, and once the news was made public, Columbia's stock price went up again.

Sony was at a loss, and had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more helplessly, and there was no way to fight back. Because CFIUS had banned them from contacting small shareholders privately for acquisitions. That Scath could make a considerable profit from the stock price difference before and after the acquisition without doing anything.

This is the problem between Ohga and Sony, and it is also a problem that can be solved with money. Although there is no problem with money, Ohga still couldn't help but complain to Ronald about unfairness. Their money was earned by hard work one by one.

"Where did this Christopher Scars know about the acquisition? Is he here to be a thief who steals money, or is he really going to compete with you for Columbia Pictures?" Ronald did not respond to Da He's words. He turned on the TV and jumped to BC. Scars was just being interviewed, saying that after completing the acquisition of MGM, he would increase investment to revitalize this old film studio.

"Who knows?" Da He was unhappy. This Australian white man was treated as one of his own in America more often, while the Japanese, no matter how fluent in English and how much they loved high-end art such as Western symphony, would be treated as outsiders intentionally or unintentionally.

"Hmph..." Ronald touched his chin and looked at Scars. The more he looked, the more familiar he felt. The tone and expression of this man were very similar to an old acquaintance of his: Minahan Gran.

"Yes, last year I spent a million dollars to celebrate my 40th birthday. Another time, my wife forgot her coat in Brisbane, so I asked my private jet to fly over to get it. I have always been so careless..."

Christopher Scars shook his head and talked about his embarrassing things, actually showing off his wealth. This style of bragging about his assets first and then bargaining hard is very similar to the scam of the two Israelis.

"Do you think this person seems to be pretending to be fat?" Ronald looked at Ohga.

"Don't say it, it's a bit like..." Ohga Norio is the president of a large company with a long history of business. He paid attention to the expression of Scars and smelled something wrong.

"Alas, it's a pity that our Japanese company can find a media in America to speak for us fairly. It's a luxury, not to mention exposing our competitors. Maybe we will be attacked in return."

Ohga thought about it and shook his head. In this country ruled by white people, it's better to take steady steps. Sony's appeal is to take root first, and spend more money as tuition.

"Don't tell me, I do know an upright editor-in-chief."

"Ronald-san, do you really have a way?" Da He's eyes lit up again. It's not nice to be taken advantage of, and if they have a chance to fight back, they won't give up. Besides, Ronald is a white man. "Ronald-san can decide how much advertising and public relations fees he needs, and we fully support him."

"That's not the time yet. There will be times when we need Mr. Da He's support." Ronald wanted to give James Wells, the editor-in-chief of the New York Daily News, some time off.

...

"Boom..." In the New York Daily News building, the elevator to the newspaper floor was not of good quality, noisy, slow, and had a small capacity. Ronald felt very uncomfortable inside.

"James..." After finally getting out of the elevator, the lights in the editor-in-chief's office flickered.

"Ronald, you're here? Mary, Mary, bring Mr. Li a cup of coffee, good coffee." James Wells shouted to the secretary. In the narrow passage, the female secretary Mary was very agile in moving between various manuscripts and faxes.

"Why don't you fix it?" Ronald found a relatively good chair and sat down.

"We haven't paid the property fee yet. Although it's a company's property,... this is New York. Without money, there's no service..." Although the building is also an industry of the Daily News Group, many shareholders have long wanted to drive away the newspaper office that occupies several floors, and then sell it, and concentrate on the office leasing business.

"Little Doug told me that you have used up half of our sponsorship in two weeks. I came to ask what happened." Ronald said with a smile. It seems that the sponsorship of 500,000 US dollars they allocated will not last long.

"Hey, this is the result of the low-price strategy of the circulation department..." James Wells said very dissatisfiedly.

The subsidy strategy adopted by the board of directors last year was actually a failure. Although the increase in color printing pages and the reduction in prices did increase the circulation a lot. But the cheapest price among the four major daily newspapers in New York made them lose more the more they published.

The original strategy was to increase the circulation and bring more advertising. But this idea was proved to be a fantasy.

It makes sense that the four major daily newspapers do not like to increase the circulation in Brooklyn and Harlem, north of Manhattan Island. The new subscribers of the Daily News are mainly lower-class families in Brooklyn and poor blacks and Latinos in Harlem.

These people can generally only afford one newspaper, and rely on the "Daily News" to bring them daily gossip. A newspaper is usually read by two or three families of children. Moreover, many people would recycle the newspaper after reading it, use it to wrap food, or put it next to the toilet.

It can be imagined that the advertising commercial value of these new readers is extremely low, if not negative (many middle-class families would think that this is a newspaper for poor people to read, and give up subscription). But James Wells, who is in charge of the editorial department, has no choice. All he can do is to do his best to make good news so that more readers with advertising value can read the daily news.

"With such a strategy, I think you will fall into financial difficulties again, and I am afraid it will take a few days." Ronald bluntly pointed out the absurdity of the newspaper's business strategy.

"Can you bring us some news?" James Wells smiled bitterly. He also agreed with Ronald's opinion, but this was not something he could solve, and it would take time. He had to ask Ronald if there was any entertainment news recently.

"News? I'm not a well-informed person. I only found out about Spielberg's prenuptial agreement after reading The Hollywood Reporter."

"Well, this is indeed a hot topic. We don't have first-hand sources, so we have to do an in-depth report to talk about the similarities and differences in divorce laws in various states to make readers happy."

Although Ronald, as a witness, testified in the presence of two witnesses and the court clerk, supporting Spielberg's statement. But the judge once again made a big news.

Originally, Amy Irving's lawyer proposed compensation for her acting career, but there was no precedent or logic to support her request. The income of actresses is extremely unstable, and no one can guarantee that Amy Irving will continue to be popular if she doesn't marry Spielberg. There are many cases like Michelle Pfeiffer who was affected by scandals while she was popular.

The lawyers of Spielberg and Amy Irving have tended to reach a consensus to give Amy Irving a one-time compensation of tens of millions and living expenses, and the two parties jointly custody to end the lawsuit.

Who knew that the Jewish judge suddenly used the rarely used independent discretion of the judge to reject the legality of the prenuptial agreement between the two.

According to California law, all California residents, even if they get married in other states, must accept the provisions of California law in their prenuptial agreements. Only agreements signed with lawyers present or drafted by lawyers are valid.

Spielberg's prenuptial agreement was written by him on a napkin temporarily. Therefore, according to California law, the judge can initiate a judicial review on the grounds that the signing of the prenuptial agreement is not in compliance with the law without objection from both parties.

The result of the review is that the prenuptial agreement is illegal, and the prenuptial agreement proposed and drafted by Spielberg on the napkin was revoked. The divorce of the two is still subject to the jurisdiction of California law. The wealth earned by Spielberg after marriage (worth more than 200 million US dollars) is common property, that is, all the property accumulated by the couple during the marriage, and Amy Irving is entitled to half.

As soon as the news came out, the whole of Hollywood was in an uproar. The two major newspapers, Hollywood Reporter and Variety, began to report this napkin worth $100 million with all their strength.

Divorce lawyers in Hollywood also saw a surge in business inquiries. Many people want to know how much money they can get after a divorce, or how to sign a prenuptial agreement before getting married to minimize losses.

"This is a good idea. If you can't grab the headlines, doing some in-depth reporting is also a good idea." Ronald looked at the newspaper proofs, which compared the divorce laws of various states. It was relatively simple and easy to understand. He made a copy and put it in his pocket.

"We also need to get more gossip news like this. You can't always live on donations... A newspaper can become a profitable business if it is well managed."

"Hey, you're right. I'm also thinking about it. Recently, our circulation in Manhattan and Queens has improved, and advertising has increased. Everything will be fine."

"We still need to get more gossip news. Have you seen the recent news about the Australian tycoon Scath? He flew a private jet back and forth for his wife's coat, and found a large number of bikini models to celebrate his birthday. Many people in Hollywood are envious..." Ronald led the topic to Scath.

"I know, this is actually a news topic. I feel that this person has a problem..." James Wells' professional ability is very good. He immediately got Ronald a videotape and played it on TV.

"Look, this person's expression and body posture are similar to our real estate developer in New York State. I suspect that his financial situation in Australia is worrying."

"No way, why do you want to show off so much when you have no money, and come to America to acquire MGM." Ronald asked deliberately.

"This is a way of thinking for rich people. The more financial problems you have, the more you have to show that you are rich and powerful. Otherwise, if the creditors find that your cash flow is problematic, they will come together to ask you to pay back the money. This kind of enterprise can still hold on for a while, but it will soon go bankrupt and liquidate.

And if he wants to acquire MGM, it may be a financial operation. He wants to get in and out quickly and sell it to other investors at a higher price to ease his financial situation." James Wells is a top student at Yale. He used to go to Wall Street frequently. He has a good sense of this kind of thing.

"This is a good news material. It would be great if we could get an exclusive report." Ronald pretended to say. One of the characteristics of reporters is that they like to express themselves. If they have any opinions, letting them keep silent is the greatest psychological destruction to them.

So Ronald didn't need to remind them to go to Chaskas. As long as he asked the right questions, they would say what Ronald wanted to say and arrange what he wanted them to do.

"What are we waiting for? We are going to turn over." Ronald looked at James Wells, as if wondering why he didn't stand up and arrange the interview tasks immediately.

"It's a pity that we have no money and can't afford the cost of flying to Australia for the interview. We have to prepare the printing cost for next month." James Wells sighed. This kind of revealing report is the favorite of journalists.

"Do we have to go to Australia for the interview? That's a lot of money." Ronald pretended to be unwilling to pay.

"In fact, it would be fine if we could collect the news reports about him in Australia before, but unfortunately we don't have a press station in Australia, so we can only let the guys from the Wall Street Journal get ahead." James Wells said while sneaking a glance at Ronald's expression. Does the Hollywood director want his name to appear in a news article as a sponsor and Pulitzer Prize?

"I can help you with this. I have a friend in Australia. You make a list of newspapers and I'll ask her to find someone to collect them, send them to you, or fax them to you."

"Thank you so much, Ronald." James Wells couldn't hold it in any longer. He took out a pen and paper and started writing down newspapers and magazines in Australia that might involve Scars.

"Rachel? I'm Ronald. Yes, I have a friend who wants to know about Christopher Scars, the rich man in Australia." Ronald got the list of Australian media and called actress Rachel Ward.

"Ha, he's a pighead. We all hate him. He likes to invite actresses to dinner, and when they get there, he touches them in front of his wife."

"Ah? Do you have information? Great, I'll ask someone to get it." Ronald covered the receiver and pretended to have found a clue.

"Okay, Rachel, you've helped me a lot." Ronald took the receiver away again and thanked Ward.

"You're welcome. Mission Impossible has given many of our actors regular jobs. We have to thank you for that."

"How is it?" James Wells asked.

"She said there are some rumors about his financial situation in Australia, and some media have covered it. She will fax all the copies to New York..."

"Great, Mary, Mary, let all the financial and entertainment reporters come to the meeting."

"Hello, Ronald-san, what do you want?" The head of Sony's New York office, who received Ronald's call, immediately put on an attitude to deal with his superiors. Ohga Norio had instructed that Ronald's request should be treated like his own request.

"Ask your Australian office to fax the report about Scars to the newspaper. The phone number is..."

Ronald was asked about the newspaper users' views on the Australian tycoon, and he said that this person was a typical short-selling tycoon. Due to lack of money, they could not send reporters to Australia to interview the situation. Ronald decided to contact his contacts in Australia and fax the media reports there to the Daily News newspaper. There was also a report about creditors suing him.

"Squeak..." Soon, the report of the Sydney Morning Herald was slowly printed out from the fax machine of the Daily News...

Tear, James Wells tore off the first page, which was a sensational headline:

"Scars, who owns five resorts, the Seven Network, and the Brisbane Bears Football Club, is he a master of financial operations or a liar?"