Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"My dear, help me choose. Which ones do you think are more suitable?"

Back in the temporary office in the small apartment, Helen Slater suppressed her laughter and showed Ronald a lot of audition photos she had obtained from the actor group, asking him to choose the man she would be paired with in the movie. Protagonist selection.

Ronald made a big mistake, and the news reached Helen's ears. She was a little angry and a little happy. During this time, she also had a strong sense of crisis.

Ronald gets married and Diane soon becomes pregnant, which is a moment of crisis for Helen's own charm. Back then, Katharine Hepburn's life with Spencer Tracy was not always smooth sailing. Tracy once had the idea of ​​completely severing ties with Hepburn and returning to his family... In the end, it was because of their common interest in drama that they experienced a long companionship.

Ronald's crazy performance today proves that his jealousy is still very full. Helen was also relieved. Ronald was very similar to the old-school Hollywood directors. He was much more nostalgic than the new Hollywood people...

"Well, you found Patrick Dempsey?" Ronald turned over and saw a handsome face, the male protagonist of the movie "Love Is Not For Sale" jointly produced by him and Bannon.

"Yes, we felt that his image in that movie was very nerdy. And he is very handsome in person, so the difference before and after the transformation is convincing." Nora Ephron commented.

"Very good..." Ronald smiled, which was also a sign of respect for him. Helen is the heroine, and in a romantic drama, the male lead must be approved by her boyfriend.

Patrick Dempsey is also a relatively well-behaved person in life. He would not be too worried when filming some intimate scenes with Helen.

After looking at a few more photos, Nora Ephron suddenly pulled out an audition photo from underneath and said, "How about Ssh, who plays Alex's ex-boyfriend? He looks like he has violent tendencies. Look at this chin, it's strong. Like a criminal... one punch could break Dempsey's arm."

"Huh? Anyone can consider it, but he can't." When Ronald saw that it was Brad Pitt, he immediately threw his photo to the other side of the table.

Ronald's face turned a little red. He lowered his head and continued to flip through the pile of photos. One by one, he pretended to carefully flip through the resumes of the actors behind them. This incident made him a little embarrassed, and he had to pretend that nothing happened.

"Why? I think he's good at playing a villain. He's stupid and handsome." Nora Ephron suppressed a smile in her heart and pretended to go get the photo.

"Ahem, this guy once asked out my cousin Donna for a role. As a result, he brought other actresses to the party when he got a new role. I don't want to see him in any of my crews." Ronald had to ask his cousin Donna moved out as a shield.

"When are we leaving? Are you all ready?"

At this time, Donna and Douglas Jr. walked in outside the door. They were dressed very formally today and were attending the premiere of "When Harry Met Sally" as relatives and friends of Ronald.

"We were discussing the casting of the new movie, and Ronald said this actor was terrible and couldn't be cast. He also dated you and let you go..." Nora Ephron suppressed a laugh.

"Ah, it's him. He's a bastard, but I've forgotten about him a long time ago. The characters in the movie are completely different from the real person. I didn't know, and I thought that what a star looks like on the screen is what he looks like in life. You want to If you use it, just use it.”

"Pfft..." Nora Ephron couldn't bear it any longer, picked up the photo of Brad Pitt, and burst into laughter.

Then, Ronald's old friend Julia Taylor in New York, who came specially to help, also laughed. In the end, Helen couldn't hold back her laughter and burst out laughing. Only Donna was a little confused and didn't know where the laughter was.

"You bastards..." Ronald also reacted. They had already known the details of his own embarrassment. He cursed and laughed himself.

Anyway, there was no one else in this room. The director Ephron, the heroine Helen, and Julia Taylor who came to help with the casting. Several female artists were all old friends of Ronald. These Hollywood women have seen too many scandals of handsome men, and they will comment on all kinds of men when they are together, and they are very tough. Ronald also had nothing to do with them.

…

"Thank you. Miss Meg Ryan went to Hawaii for the filming of her new movie. However, I will record your praises for her and send them to her by FedEx. When she left, she specifically asked me to listen to the fans. First hand review.”

The New York premiere was, of course, hosted by actor Billy Crystal. He himself is very humorous, and he can handle such small scenes easily. Think of it as fitness training for the Oscars.

"I feel like the characters in the play, getting married is a difficult process. It's hard to find the right person. Sometimes you have to dare to take risks, just like jumping off a cliff. If the two of you are suitable, you will be safe. Net in

Playing the supporting role of Sally's best friend is Star Wars' Princess Leia - Carrie Fisher. Her appearance and figure have lost a lot in recent years, but she doesn't go for plastic surgery or skin care, she just does it like this. At the New York premiere, as a representative of female actors, she also answered many questions from the audience.

This movie is based on Nora Ephron's own and many of her friends in New York, and uses many real love stories that happened in New York as materials. Therefore, the premiere in New York, where the story took place, was particularly recognized by the audience.

The Yankee baseball team's game, the red leaves in Central Park in late autumn, and the museum, the New Year's countdown in Times Square and other scenes were shown on the screen one by one. The story of Harry and Sally is also very real, just like the story of their friends around them.

Moreover, this movie is also particularly suitable for New York audiences.

Last year, the average age of first marriage in America was 26.1 years old for men and 23.9 years old for women. But in New York City, especially Manhattan, these two ages are about 3-5 years higher than the national average.

So Harry and Sally wasted many years. Harry got married and divorced, and Sally canceled her engagement. Finally, they got married when Harry was 35 and Sally was 32 years old.

This phenomenon of delayed marriage did not resonate much with many small town audiences. Only in a big city like New York, there are so many women who are still unmarried after the age of 30 due to career development, financial situation and other reasons.

Like the female audience tonight, many are career elites, and single, divorced, or single mothers account for a large proportion.

They are particularly satisfied with the fairy-tale happy ending of the story of older urban men and women like "When Harry Met Sally". After all, which single man or woman does not look forward to such an ideal situation happening to themselves?

A man and a woman who have had each other in their hearts for many years finally broke through various realistic obstacles and bravely jumped into marriage. How many Manhattan women dream of this at night?

In a big city like New York, if a man kneels down to propose in public, bystanders will also send their blessings. This is a true reflection of this common emotion.

…

After the audience meeting after the premiere, Ronald continued to communicate with a large number of film critics from New York media. These film critics have high hopes for him as a New York director and are also very partial to him.

This "When Harry Met Sally", like the previous "Working Girl" directed by Ronald, is a story about New York. Moreover, he made the working women in New York so independent, smart, beautiful and romantic, and finally gave the heroine a good man.

This really captured the wildest dreams of the film critics, who were mainly female. The film critic who said that Ronald was a younger, more romantic and more optimistic Woody Allen wanted to praise Ronald to the sky.

Ronald did not dare to neglect it and asked his assistant to present a lot of coupons, including family tickets for Yankee games suitable for family and children to watch, and beauty, manicure, massage, and hot spring SPA one-stop package coupons suitable for film critics to enjoy alone.

These are the gods of wealth that can further amplify the good reputation of the movie. In addition to material rewards, Ronald also had to appropriately praise their contributions to New York movies.

This was done until very late, and the main creative staff went home. Ronald and Helen, who was still waiting for him, felt a little hungry, so they had dinner together in the mall where the premiere cinema was located.

"I haven't had pizza and Coke for a long time." Helen smiled and ate a small piece of pizza with only tomatoes and other vegetarian ingredients, and then took a sip of Diet Coke.

This cinema with the oasis palm tree as its logo is invested by Saudis. It is near the busiest Midtown in Manhattan. The land here was rezoned during the tenure of the previous president, and a new shopping mall was built.

There happened to be a chain of high-end pizza restaurants on the top floor of the shopping mall. Ronald had a meal here.

"Well, it feels right to eat here." Ronald ate much more fiercely, stuffing a slice of pizza into his mouth and drinking traditional cane sugar cola. We New Yorkers eat with this energy...

"Well, hurry up, we have to catch the midnight show, which will start in a quarter of an hour. It's hard to buy tickets for this movie."

"It's a romance movie. There are only a dozen theaters in Manhattan showing it now. It was made by the director of Working Girl last time... Of course it's in great demand. I had to find Linda, the secretary of the marketing director, to get the tickets. Right, Linda?"

"Of course, someone sent tickets to my boss Larry, and he happened to be on a business trip to Miami, so we got them all at a bargain price."

Ronald, who was wolfing down his food, heard several women rushing into the pizza shop and asking the clerk to speed up... not to delay them from watching the movie.

He turned around and saw five or six women wearing exaggerated big earrings, relatively cheap work clothes, with their hair combed high and heavy makeup, stamping their feet and urging them.

"If you don't mind, I can give you the pizza I want first." Ronald was touched when he saw that they were here to watch his movie, and gave them the pizza with sausage and cheese fillings that he had ordered.

"Oh, you are such a nice guy. Did you just finish watching When Harry Met Sally with your girlfriend?" The woman who led the group was very outgoing. She came over and sat at the next table with Ronald, and then asked him about the plot.

"Is it a happy ending this time? Did Harry and Sally end up together? I saw the ad in the New Yorker, and it didn't say whether it was a comedy or a tragedy."

"It's a good ending. It was a bit tragic at first, but they finally got together. When you see Sally crying, don't think it's a tragic ending. Just keep reading. I won't say more to avoid spoilers."

"Okay, thank you." The audience ate the pizza Ronald gave up and thanked him.

"Why did you come to watch such a late show?" Ronald asked them. It was almost midnight. There were no restaurants open in the mall except pizza, McDonald's and Burger King.

"We are all classmates in the night school of business. Let me tell you, we all watched the director of today's movie, the previous movie, Working Girl, and then went to study business. We are all secretaries, the same as the heroine Tess. Now Tess is the most successful idol in the hearts of our secretaries.

We all want to watch the movies he directed as soon as possible."

"Then do you know the director's name?" Helen glanced at Ronald. She didn't expect him to have such a great influence in New York.

"Ronald Lee, um, what's the middle name? We can't remember his middle name, but we all watched all his movies. My boyfriend also likes his Top Gun, and I like Dirty Dancing more. We both bought the videotape and watch it every weekend."

"Haha, why do you want to watch this movie?"

"Hey, we female secretaries, besides getting promoted, what we want most is to have a boyfriend who loves us..." This secretary named Linda was very direct. "Working Girl" helped them realize their dreams of beating their bosses and getting promoted and getting a raise. "When Harry Met Sally" was to create dreams for their desire for love.

"Linda, let's go quickly, we're going to be late." The remaining secretaries shouted to Linda, asking her to bring the pizza and go to check the tickets first.

"Thank you for your kindness, I wish you happiness." Linda hurriedly said goodbye to Ronald and the others and ran to the cinema opposite. The secretaries were all wearing sneakers and ran very fast.

"I didn't expect these secretaries to really believe the dream you created for them and go to night school?" Helen covered her mouth and was shocked. Movies affect the lives of Americans in turn, and there are not many such movies in the history of Hollywood.

"My movies have always been like this," Ronald laughed. He was in a good mood today because he met his die-hard fans. He began to brag to Helen.

From the earliest breakdancing that caused a trend (breakdancing has the widest influence, in addition to China, Europe and Asia have also set off a trend of breakdancing), to the Karate Kid that made karate clubs do a lot of business, to the many Latin dance studios in the United States after Dirty Dancing, to the Navy's recruitment of soldiers after Top Gun...

Ronald may not be the most artistic director, but when it comes to leading social trends, he must be the most accomplished one in contemporary times.

"Your pizza..." The clerk who came to work brought Ronald a new pizza.

"Thank you." Ronald ate two pieces quickly, drank the Coke, put the rest of the pizza back into the box, and then took Helen's hand. The two of them were like young high school students, happily holding hands and going home after a date...

It was another passionate night. The next day, Ronald slept until he woke up naturally. He got up and had breakfast, and then he received a call from Ed Bastian, an accountant at Pricewaterhouse.

"The New York Daily News is now increasingly dependent on your financial support. For many things other than money, Editor-in-Chief James Wells has also begun to consult our team more. It seems that your entry into the newspaper will not be hindered by them too much.

However, they called me again today and asked for our opinions on a matter. This matter is of great importance, and we still need your opinions."