Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"The Beverly Hills police announced that after careful comparison, it has been confirmed that the deceased is Miss Dorothy Stratten, a Canadian citizen. Her husband Paul Schneider shot Stratten in the head with a pump-action shotgun, causing the latter to die on the spot. Schneider then used the same gun to commit suicide..."

"I can't believe such a beauty has passed away." Ronald's high school wrestling teammate, Douglas Hansen Jr., a big landlord on Staten Island, sighed while watching the NBC Evening News.

"Yeah, it's a pity. I heard that the movie she starred in, 'They All Laughed (they all laughed) has been filmed and packaged. It was directed by Peter Bogdanovich. She was almost famous, just a little bit away."

Ronald went to a friend's rented house to chat, mainly wanting to ask about the business of leg warmers. But Douglas Jr. was more interested in the entertainment industry, and pulled Ronald to talk about his experience in Hollywood.

"Besides, this movie stars Audrey Hepburn, so the box office should be guaranteed. Bogdanovich's comedies are always popular, even better than his art films. As long as Dorothy Stratten escapes this disaster, she will become a big star. The market is currently lacking blonde bombshells like Monroe." Little Douglas commented.

"How come you are more familiar with her than I am?" Ronald asked in surprise.

"To be honest, Patty Hansen, who plays the main supporting role in this movie, is my cousin." Little Doug smiled and said,

"My cousin is very powerful. She was my idol when I was a child. When my group of brothers and I were still playing in the mud, she was on the cover of the American version of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. I am interested in the entertainment industry because of her influence."

"Do you remember the Volkswagen Hare I sold you when you graduated? It was when she came to the graduation ceremony and laughed at me for driving a girl's car, which made me so angry that I asked my mother for money to buy a Ford Mustang." Little Douglas nudged Ronald with his elbow.

"I see. I was wondering why you were willing to sell me such a great car with low mileage at such a low price."

"She moved to Manhattan not long after she became a professional model. To the kids in the countryside of Stanton, she was a big shot from the big city. We brothers all admired her. Recently, she has been with Keith Richards, the guitarist of the Rolling Stones, and is going to tour all over the United States with the band next year."

The Rolling Stones are very popular in America and Britain, and every high school girl wants to get close to the band members.

"Is the appeal of rock bands so great? Even your cousin, a model and actress, is chasing after their guitarist?"

"You don't know their momentum. They can fill venues with tens of thousands of people at concerts. Both sides of the Atlantic have top five singles one after another. And Keith is not only a guitarist, he and Mick Jagger are both lead singers."

It seems that these singers are the celebrities with the largest fan base now. Singers have a greater influence than movie stars. It's a pity that I don't have talent in this area and can only play the acoustic guitar. Ronald felt like he had chosen the wrong line of work.

"Let's get down to business. Do you really think you can't open a factory for the leg warmers business?" Ronald turned the topic back to business.

"Yes, the significance of a factory is to reduce the cost of your single product. Machines are always cheaper than handmade ones." Speaking of business, Douglas Jr. became shrewd again, "But your market is so big. If you increase production, you can't sell more. So what's the point of reducing costs?"

"But I think San Francisco is creating a trend."

"Many businesses fail in this way. If the machines are not moved and are just depreciation and maintenance costs, you see the trend coming, you produce at full capacity, but what if the trend eventually goes down? What about the goods you have piled up in the warehouse?

Reduce the price? The brand will not be able to sell at a high price in the future. If you don't reduce the price, when will you sell it? Although leg warmers have no shelf life, they are not products that can be left there forever without problems."

Ronald nodded. For now, it's better to maintain piecework, let the wives of veterans weave and send them to the warehouse, and control the quality when receiving the goods.

"So did you hire Brooke Shields for the jeans ad you took last time? Can I go to the scene to see it?" Douglas Jr. turned the topic back to the entertainment industry.

"It doesn't matter if you take a look, but you can't harass Brooke Shields, especially don't talk to her, her mother will be unhappy. I'll ask for an autographed photo for you."

"Forget it, can you bring me an autographed photo? It's even more disappointing to just look at it without chatting. Why is her mother like a hen watching her chicks?"

...

"Really like a hen protecting her chicks." Agent Eddie whispered quietly beside Ronald.

The strike of the two major Hollywood actor unions has not yet ended. Brooke Shields' mother and manager Terry did not want her daughter's exposure to the public to decline because of the lack of film and television works. After repeated consideration, she agreed to Calvin Klein's offer to shoot the CK skinny jeans advertisement.

"That's normal," Ronald responded quietly. "The most popular sweet girl in America can't be given to a bad boy. I heard that in Fiji Island, where the filming of "The Blue Lagoon" was taking place, her mother got drunk and fell at the door of her daughter's room to prevent the male lead Atkins from sneaking in."

Ronald told a piece of gossip that Diane Lane had heard from the actor of The Blue Lagoon, Christopher Atkins, and relayed it to him.

Terry Shields took out a bottle of liquor from his bag, opened the bottle and took a sip while his daughter was doing her makeup, then picked up a bottle of mineral water and drank it hard to eliminate the smell of alcohol.

Seeing Ronald looking over, he greeted him sheepishly, "I need a drink to cheer me up. Don't tell my daughter, she will cry again when she sees me drinking."

"No, Ms. Shields." Ronald agreed. The first item is biology class. I'm afraid it will be a bigger challenge for Brooke, so why don't we discuss how to get her into the role first.

"It's okay. My daughter has been filming commercials in front of the camera since she was a few months old. This is a small case for her. She will handle it."

"Our commercial was shot on film. I wanted to do two rehearsals before starting the filming to make Brooke more familiar with her performance. You may not have read the script, but this biology class commercial is a one-minute long shot."

"Oh yeah, okay. I'll read it now." Terry took the script and read it carefully, "Sorry, I usually read Brooke's script in advance, but this strike, you know, I drank a little too much."

Ronald felt that she seemed to have some signs of alcoholism recently, and she looked completely different from the shrewd woman he saw at the premiere of Famous.

"This one minute is mainly Brooke's monologue, telling everyone about some of her views on Darwin's theory of evolution in biology class." Ronald explained to Terry, pointing to the script drawn up by Calvin Klein himself.

"Then the next line is Brooke talking about her understanding of history class, then social studies, politics, and finally her social life at school. We want these ads to be inserted in the cinema before the main film, so they are all based on movies. Shot on film.”

"Okay, okay, this isn't too much of a challenge for Brooke. We recently moved to a new house in New Jersey, and she went to the prestigious Englewood High School in New Jersey. She got top marks in biology and wrote His understanding of Darwin's theory of evolution was also used as a model essay by the teacher.

Her French is also very good... Do you speak French? Then you can say a few words to Bo Ji, and the teacher praises her uvular pronunciation as being very standard. "

It seems that Terry didn't just take a sip. This woman also became more talkative after drinking too much.

Ronald saw that Brooke Shields had changed her clothes and came out, and quickly gave Eddie instructions to deal with this drunk star mother.

Today Brooke Shields put on CK tight jeans, a pair of high-top leather shoes, and a dark brown shirt. The whole outfit looked very girl-next-door. But Brooke's appearance and figure make her not as mediocre as the girl next door, and she is still an American sweetheart.

This kind of dress just makes the teenagers who are the audience of the advertisement feel that as long as I wear CK jeans, I can be as sexy as Brooke Shields.

"Hello, Brooke. I'm Ronald, the director of this shoot. Let me introduce you to the members of the crew." Ronald said hello to Brooke Shields, and then introduced her one by one.

"This is Spike Lee, the first assistant director on a small crew like ours. I assume you're already familiar with this character's duties on set."

"Hello, Spike" Brooke Shields greeted Spike, and then glanced at her mother a little worriedly.

"This is Kathryn Bigelow. She will serve as the second assistant director and also serve as the scene recorder." Ronald continued to introduce... This is an opportunity to show his face, and he will use a movie camera and film stock.

With a greeting, several friends who have worked together came to help. There were not many opportunities for them to practice with enough film, so Spike and Bigelow were very proactive and helped think through all the storyboarding and lighting.

"Mr. Calvin Klein was watching the production process from above. Pointing to the aisle on the second floor of Ronald Studio, a man wearing a white T-shirt and jeans stood by the railing and looked down.

"Hello, Calvin." Brooke Shields greeted him.

"This is the line for our first shot. Tell us about your understanding of Darwin's theory of evolution. This is a long shot. We need you to finish it in one breath. There will be no camera changes in the middle." Ronald handed over two sheets filled with The lines of paper were given to Brooke Shields to memorize.

"Where is my mother?" Brooke Shields looked a little more sad compared to the last time they met. She didn't see her mother for a while, so she asked Ronald.

"She's there with your..." Ronald pointed to a middle-aged woman and a girl who came with Brooke Shields' mother.

"It's my godmother." Brooke breathed a sigh of relief.

"Is that your godmother's daughter? You can talk about this line with her." Ronald thought Brooke Shields was worried that she wouldn't be able to memorize her lines, so she was anxious.

"It doesn't matter, I can memorize it, director." Brooke Shields was actually worried that her mother's alcoholism would happen again. She often got drunk on Fiji Island. After returning to New York, Brooke and her godmother took her I was sent to an alcohol treatment hospital and underwent alcohol treatment for a month before I recovered.

But recently, because of the actors' strike, my mother became anxious again and secretly started drinking again.

"Okay, take your time here, don't worry. We will rehearse twice before the official shooting. There is plenty of time today."

Ronald thumped up the stairs to report the situation to Calvin Klein.

"Terry seems to have some problems. I'll let Eddie watch her."

"You're doing great. I'll watch you shoot from here."

"Okay, call me if you have any questions. Just don't interrupt during the shooting, otherwise it will waste film." Ronald was a little surprised at Calvin Klein's habit of standing high and looking down. He ran down again.

"Spike, Catherine, is the lighting okay?" Ronald confirmed with the two assistants.

"Everything is ok. We checked it." Kathryn Bigelow replied. Unlike Spike Lee, who had already shot his own short film, she was still very excited that her storyboard could be shot on the spot.

"Well, let's rehearse it after Brooke has memorized the lines."