Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The first case of the newly established 101st Congress was the "Star-Spangled Banner Protection Act". This is because senators are elected according to two per state, and the House of Representatives is allocated according to population ratio, and each state must have at least one.

The design of the American political system by the founding fathers is to check and balance each other. As a legislative body, the Congress generally tends to protect the power of small states.

The Supreme Court, which belongs to the judiciary, rejected the case filed by Texas for burning the national flag on the grounds of violating the First Amendment. It was restrained by the Congress with legislative power.

The legislative threshold for adding an amendment is too high, but the legislative threshold for passing a law can be reached. Whether it is to explain to the voters or the new Congress wants to show its presence, this law that is obviously contrary to the Supreme Court was quickly passed with an overwhelming two-thirds vote by public opinion.

This saved the President George Sr. a trouble. The Supreme Court's decision was challenged, and the legislative and judicial powers were in opposition. As the third party in the system design, the head of the executive power, the President, was supposed to come out and express his position.

If a two-thirds majority is passed, the president will no longer have the veto power (if a general majority is passed, the president can still veto and send it back for reconsideration. The two houses need two-thirds of the votes to veto the president's veto again and force it through), which made George Sr. feel relieved and he didn't have to express his position when public opinion was opposed.

"These are two artists from the League Against Art Censorship, Dred Scott and Sean Aikman... The other person who burned the Stars and Stripes on the steps of Capitol Hill was Vietnam War veteran David Blaylock.

They chose to burn the Stars and Stripes again in front of a group of reporters and photographers while Congress was reviewing and passing the bill. It happened to violate the bill that had just been passed, and they were immediately arrested by the MPDC (Special District Police).

Before they were sent to the police car, the three suspects also distributed a statement to reporters, calling on others to express their opposition to "forced patriotism" by burning the Stars and Stripes."

George Sr. was in the White House and saw this scene on the news during dinner. He turned around and called his assistant, gave a few instructions, and continued to have dinner with Barbara and his family.

"Hey, the President wants to know the background of these three people, especially whether they are related to the alliance?"

...

"These people are professional criminals. They were all selected to deliberately cause lawsuits in order to oppose specific bills."

In the apartment on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, Ronald and Helen, who were lying on the super king-sized bed in Ronald's bedroom, were also involved in this matter.

"You seem to know their details very well?" Ronald fiddled with Helen's calves with his toes while watching the news absent-mindedly.

"Well, when my mother was young, she often participated in such activities and was arrested by the NYPD. Every time, my father went to bail her out."

"Are you talking about the two artists from the alliance? That one doesn't seem to be?" Ronald found that the news media called several perpetrators differently. They said Aikman was an artist, and Blaylock was a Vietnam War veteran. He was wearing a US military M65 windbreaker, and Ronald's dead uncle also had one.

"Are you going back tomorrow?" Helen's feet were itchy because of Ronald's hook, so she simply put her legs on his waist.

"Well, I have three small productions that need to be released urgently." Ronald's eyes were full of Helen's eyes, and he couldn't help but rub her waist.

"What are you waiting for?" Helen turned over and sat on him.

...

"Huh... Huh...", the next morning, Ronald, who flew back to Los Angeles on a business plane, fell asleep with a blanket and snored a little.

"My boss usually rests on the plane. He always sleeps very well. If you want autographs, I have a few boxes of signed Top Gun videotapes here. If you want them, you can take them."

The assistant, the fat girl Richie Lake, is already very skilled in dealing with these stewardesses on business planes.

Lake looked back at Ronald and made a face. As a personal assistant, she certainly knew why Ronald was so sleepy when traveling between the east and west coasts.

Then she took out a Uta Hagen acting textbook from her bag and started reading it. Although she was not good-looking and had a fat body, Lake's acting dream that grew and expanded because of "Hairspray" had not been extinguished.

Whoopi Goldberg of the crew, perhaps because he saw that Lake and she had similar appearance conditions, gave her a textbook for learning acting and gave her the phone number of Uta Hagen's acting training class.

...

"Dong...Dongdong..."

Ronald dreamed of a very cheerful piece of music on the plane.

"I will follow him,

Follow him wherever he goes."

Ronald was very familiar with this song, with a brisk rhythm and humorous lyrics. Ronald felt that it could be interpreted as a stalker girl pursuing a male star and following him everywhere, no matter where the star went, she would follow.

"I will follow him,

I will always be,

Because nothing can keep me away,

He is my destiny..."

However, this version of the song is a chorus version, and the camera flashed and gave a medium shot.

"Hey?" Ronald was surprised, why is it a group of nuns?

This group of nuns also performed various dance moves, unlike the traditional choir, which was serious. Two nuns, one fat and one thin, could also stand out separately and make provocative movements of "come come come".

"What is this?" Ronald didn't understand. Although Hollywood is relatively free with various themes, it rarely pokes fun at religion for fear of causing unnecessary trouble.

"Oh..." As the camera turned, Ronald understood a little bit.

The man directing in front of the choir is undoubtedly Whoopi Goldberg. She has wavy hair and two big glittering earrings. She is much more advanced than the psychic she just photographed.

Next, she sang this part of the song solo. She dances and sings at the same time, with a relaxed demeanor, very much like a singer.

Ronald listened to the lyrics carefully, and therein lies the magic of this song. In addition to the magical and unforgettable melody, the lyrics can also be interpreted into various stories.

In addition to the stalker version that Ronald had in mind, it could also be interpreted as a girl's confession to the boy she loves, or as in this dream movie, an expression of love for Jesus.

Moreover, black choirs are inherently unrestrained. If Whoopi Goldberg's character were to transform the original serious church choir, then it would be a good show in terms of dramatic structure.

"Wow, wow, wow...", thunderous applause. After the song was sung, another nun in the audience also stood up and applauded.

Ronald recognized it. This was Maggie Smith, a British actress and a double Hollywood movie queen.

"Is it still a big production?" Ronald muttered.

…

"Ronald? Are you awake? We're almost there."

Ronald, who was dreaming about watching a movie, was gently pushed awake by his assistant Lake.

"Ah? We're here?" Ronald was a little regretful that he didn't dream more about it.

…

"Yesterday, there were also actions in Seattle that actively violated the Star-Spangled Banner Law. They also burned the flag under live broadcast by the media."

Coming to pick up Ronald were Daydream director Michelle Cannold and consultant Michael Gray. The two were talking about the release of the three quickly shot patriotic films about the Star-Spangled Banner.

The appeal of three people who actively violated the law in DC was circulated by the media, and as expected, someone responded. In Seattle, the famous city of freedom, the organization "Vietnam War Veterans Against Imperialism" organized group activities and proactively responded.

And as luck would have it, their activities were filmed by a Seattle TV station that was filming a news program nearby, and it was broadcast on the local TV station.

For a time, this news was widely disseminated by television networks across the country. Left-wing organizations and Vietnam War veterans in many places were preparing to take action.

All three films have been shot and are in the process of final editing. After discussing it with two colleagues, Ronald decided to release it urgently.

He called Lindsay Dolan at Paramount and asked her to coordinate the lab's overtime reprinting of the three Daydream films.

Some of the editing work that has not yet been completed, daydreams can no longer take care of so much. Catching up with this hot spot is much more important than meticulous editing.

500 copies of each film were produced, and development and printing began urgently.

Salespeople in Daydream's distribution department started picking up the phones and making sales calls to movie theater managers in the Midwest, Deep South states, and non-metropolitan cities on the East and West coasts.

"Are you Mr. XX, the manager of XX Cinema in Little Rock, Alabama? We are Daydream Pictures. Have you heard about the recent burning of the Stars and Stripes in big cities on the east and west coasts?

Yes, we are dissatisfied too. Here are three movies that reflect the patriotic fervor of the Star-Spangled Banner. Would you like a few copies? Yes, it's all patriotism under the Stars and Stripes, including beating up Japanese traitors and raising the Stars and Stripes in Little Japan in Los Angeles. There was also the victory of the Korean Taekwondo National Team in Korea and the raising of the Star-Spangled Banner. The last one represented American kickboxing, which defeated Thailand’s Muay Thai at the Global Martial Arts Conference, allowing the Stars and Stripes to appear at the top of the podium.

OK, how many copies do you want? Three? Do you want more? It is expected that there will be a strong movie-going craze, and openly burning the Stars and Stripes outside the Capitol is a provocation to the House of Representatives and the Senate..."

In short, the prints of three low-budget new films, "Kickboxer," "King Kong," and "Black Belt," have just come out of Paramount's lab, with fresh The taste was put on a FedEx plane and quickly distributed to the base of the Elephant Party in America.

All kinds of movies set in metropolitan life are not unattractive, but they are a bit incompatible with life in small towns with thousands or tens of thousands of people.

For example, in "Working Girl", Tess did not forgive her boyfriend who had a new love because she was busy at work, but instead pretended to be her boss and worked on her own projects. This attitude creates a natural gap between high school men and women in small towns. They yearn for life in the big city, but they don't fully understand the choices men and women make when faced with temptation.

Another example is "When Harry Met Sally". The two people clearly have a crush on each other, but they take all kinds of irrelevant things too seriously. For example, do men and women have friendship? Should you fall in love with your friends?

From the perspective of the young people in the small town, they don’t understand why they have been struggling with this kind of thing for so long.

What also confused them were those who burned the Stars and Stripes in protest. The Stars and Stripes is the flag of the Yankees in the North. They have no respect for the Stars and Stripes. How do you expect them to confront the Seville Union people head-on?

Or are our southerners more patriotic, and you ask them to burn a southern Confederate flag?

So, the popularity of the three patriotic movies such as Daydream in the small-town-dominated South was beyond the expectations of the cinema.

Is this the only interesting thing about Hollywood movies? Good guys are good guys, bad guys are bad guys, good guys beat bad guys, kill the Japanese, kill the Koreans, this is what we American small-town youth like to watch.

What Bruce Lee, what Master Miyagi, our American national quintessence kickboxing is the best! These foreigners are not fair, they can't box but use their feet.

But we Americans are smart and strong, whether we play our kickboxing, or their taekwondo, Muay Thai, we can become world champions.

In short, these three movies have achieved a small box office success in a manner that mainstream Hollywood manufacturers don't understand.

Taking advantage of the lack of masterpieces in the traditional gap after the summer vacation, coupled with the confrontation between the Star-Spangled Banner Act and the First Amendment, the first weekend was very good.

Ronald thinks that it is not a big problem for these three movies to recover their costs through domestic box office. If the videotapes are released while they are hot, they will all make a net profit.

…

Just in time, Ronald’s new home in Beverly Park had been completed. He opened the windows for ventilation for two months, and hired people to use instruments to test it every day. Finally, there were no harmful substances exceeding the standard.

Ronald consulted Diane’s opinion and decided to move in first, and then slowly buy things. Then he moved some of their private collections and things in and sorted them out.

Diane’s pregnancy was getting longer and longer, and she always felt tired. She couldn’t manage those things and the purchase of internal furniture for a few times, and she would easily get emotional and lose her temper.

Ronald only stayed in the post-production visual effects studio for six hours a day and went home on time to accompany the pregnant woman.

“I understand that when Angie and I had our first child, Angie was also very worried. It’s better to spend more time with her.” Walter Murch, who was responsible for the entire image and sound editing, understood Ronald very well and reminded Ronald not to ignore Diane’s psychological needs.

There was a lot of visual effects work to be done. The three special effects directors all had their own studio teams, and they lacked a unified talent. Ronald asked Walter Murch to monitor the daily progress of each studio. If there were any problems or contradictions, he would notify Ronald to attend a meeting.

…

"Hello, it's you!" Diane, who was next to the phone, held the microphone towards Ronald and glanced at him.

Today Diane wanted to eat blueberries again, but the blueberries that were about to go off the market were not available in the nearby supermarkets and markets. Ronald had no choice but to ask Richard to take care of this matter.

Diane thought the blueberries were coming when she heard the call...

"Ah, Niceta, I thought it was Richard. Oh, what?"

Ronald listened to Niceta for more than a minute, and his brows furrowed more and more.

Jim Cameron's new film "The Abyss" performed well in the box office market, but there were some discordant voices among the top executives of 20th Century Fox. They accused Cameron of using Fox's money to test submersibles and visual effects for himself, and some executives implicitly pointed the finger at Ronald, who was the one who insisted on additional investment for Cameron and editing a longer version.

"I know. I'll call Mr. Barry Diller." Ronald didn't feel good. How can every movie be a big hit? Jim's box office was worthy of his investment. At most, he didn't make as much as his previous movies.

The video tape market is so hot now, Fox will not make less money.

"It's you again..." Diane received a second call, and it was not Blueberry. She pointed the receiver to Ronald again.

"It's me, Ronald." The person on the phone was Joel Silver, the producer of Die Hard.

"Twentieth Century Fox started complaining that our crew spent too much money. This is the sequel to a hit action movie. They said this in the middle of filming. What does it mean?"

"You didn't make additional investment? Did you? Okay, I'll call them."

Joel Silver's hands and feet are not too clean. This time Fox accused him of spending too much money. I wonder if it has anything to do with Cameron's matter? More importantly, is it related to himself.

Ronald, who was thinking about his own things, heard the phone ring again.

"Diane?" Ronald pointed at the phone.

"It must be your job again..." Diane pouted, not wanting to answer the phone again. She said she was going home, but in fact, she still had a lot of work to do.

"Aha, thank you for your concern. I just said that, and Mr. Ohga personally airlifted the best Nordic blueberries."

Richard called the office of Sony's President Ohga, and the freshest blueberries airlifted from Northern Europe were immediately delivered to the new home.

"Hehe, that's better." In the evening, Diane ate fresh blueberries, and turned a blind eye to Ronald's constant calls.