Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Diane Lane wore a white fur headband with a fluffy head that looked very cute. She took off the warm down jacket she wore when she went skiing at Rockefeller Center and plopped down on the sofa in the living room.

"You guys go to the skating rink at Rockefeller Center. Is it fun there?"

In the afternoon a few days before Christmas, Diane Lane returned to New York after completing the filming of "The White House" in Canada, and walked into Aunt Karen's house, feeling depressed and silent.

Donna got Ronald to get VIP tickets for the Rockefeller Center skating rink through connections and go skating with her. Diane regained a little energy.

"The lights on the big Christmas tree in front of Rockefeller Center are very beautiful. Someone proposed in public at the ice rink today. The ice rink played the wedding march to match." Donna replied with a giggle.

Diane Lane changed her sitting position on the sofa, "Why do some people get divorced after getting married?"

Ronald and Donna exchanged glances. They knew the source of Diane's bad mood. Her mother had abandoned her since she was a child. This time, she and her new husband found the Canadian filming location. They argued with Bert that they should reconcile with Diane. " "Compensation" for the debt owed to my daughter over the past 15 years.

"Hey, everyone is like this. Laura Dern, who played the punk girl with me, her parents also divorced when she was very young."

"Hey, half of the couples in America... end up staying together until old age." Ronald said a cold joke.

"Hahaha..." Diane understood the dry and cold smile, "Ronald, can I ask you a personal question?"

"Just ask."

"Did your parents love you before what happened?"

Ronald thought Diane was going to ask him about his views on love, but he didn't expect it to be this question. He was speechless and didn't know how to answer.

"I'm sorry for the sad thoughts, Ronald. I can tell they must love you because you love them too."

"I just found out that my mother had a fight with my father and divorced when I was two weeks old, and now she says she loves me. I really don't know if I should believe her."

"Parents love their children. Maybe your mother has some compelling reasons?" It turned out that this was the reason for Diane. No one can let go of this kind of mother easily.

"Did you know? My mother was a singer who sang in clubs and was a Playboy center page girl in 1957."

"It seems you got a lot of your mother's inheritance," Ronald said.

"She said she took care of me when I was a child until I was three or four years old, but I can't remember it. Then she and her boyfriend moved to Georgia. New York state law does not support interstate custody transfers, so I stayed with Burt. Life.

My childhood memories are of sitting in the passenger seat of Burt's taxi and driving with him. "

"Looking at it this way, your mother didn't mean to leave you, but it was a legal issue. She must love you."

"You're right," Diane Lane said happily again, "so I decided to have Christmas dinner with Bert."

Ronald gave him a thumbs up.

"By the way, I heard from Donna that you were nominated for a Golden Globe Award?"

"Yes, will you go too?" Ronald became more energetic when he heard this. He was also an insider who could attend the Golden Globe Awards dinner.

"I'm not going. The Ballon d'Or is just a trophy I bought."

"How do you say this?" Ronald saw Diane's disdainful look. It seemed that Diane had entered the film and television industry much earlier than him, so he quickly asked for advice.

"Haven't you heard the saying? Buy a Golden Globe, win an Oscar. The Golden Globes will call the stars to ask if they will attend the awards show, and if the stars are willing to attend, give them the award.

If the star doesn't go, the second-ranked nominee will be chosen. This shady story was exposed before, and FTC was suspended from NBC's broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards for several years and has just been restored. "

"It seems that the Golden Globe Awards has less than 90 judges, which is still easier to operate than the Oscars." Ronald thought to himself.

"But I will go to next year's Oscar ceremony. If you can also be nominated for an Oscar, we can meet at the Dorothy Chandler Palace. I think the theme song fa is also pretty good. You have a good chance. "Diane Lane pretends to be old-fashioned.

"I'd like to give you a good word, Diane. Which movie do you hope to be nominated for an Oscar for?" Ronald asked.

"Hey, not even one. My agent arranged for me to be the female companion of other male stars."

…

“jglebells, jglebells,

jglealltheway.”

A few days later, on Christmas Eve, Ronald went to Aunt Karen's house for Christmas dinner, and there was jingle bell music all the way.

As expected, Diane went back to Bert's house to spend Christmas with her old father.

Aunt Karen prepared ham to replace the unpalatable turkey, then vanilla bread, and desserts with various fillings.

"Amen..." The three of them prayed, and Ronald opened the red wine bought at the grocery store and poured it for everyone.

"cheers!"

"Diane finally reconciled with Bert?" Ronald asked Donna.

"A temporary ceasefire. Just like the Soviet alliance in Afghanistan."

"Um, I thought she moved back home..." Ronald replied.

"Ring ring ring ring..." the doorbell remembered.

There won't be a falling out so soon, Ronald thought.

"Here it comes." Aunt Karen stood up and went to open the door.

It was not Diane who came in, but a middle-aged black woman. As soon as she came in, she hugged Aunt Karen and burst into tears.

Ronald looked and found that it was Aunt Karen's good friend, the widow of his uncle's comrade-in-arms, and a partner in the leg warmer business, Mrs. Davis. She was also the salesman and security guard of the leg warmer company, and the mother of Bud Davis Jr.

"I don't know what to do. Bud Jr. was arrested. They said they would charge him with a federal felony. He is still a child..."

"What happened to Bud Jr.? Isn't he working for the leg warmer company?" Ronald was surprised. He always thought that the child of his uncle's comrade-in-arms worked in the company and was on the right track.

Mrs. Davis cried and told Aunt Karen about Bud Jr.'s arrest.

It turned out that Bud Jr. helped sell leg warmers in the rtkd store and was ridiculed by a group of "brothers" for doing women's business. Bud Jr., who was hot-headed in adolescence, gave up this well-paid job and went to sell pirated tapes to his "brothers".

With the help of some high school girls he met while selling leg warmers in the store, his pirated tape business was actually doing well, and he soon became one of the top "salesmen".

But he didn't expect that he would be caught red-handed in the cleanup operation organized by New York before Christmas. In addition to his few goods, the so-called "brothers" also framed all the inventory in the warehouse that was confiscated on Little Bud's head. The prosecutors, who had all the evidence, were ready to charge him with felony crimes such as piracy, illegal organization and sale of unlicensed goods, infringement, etc.

"Why didn't you come to me earlier?" Aunt Karen blamed Mrs. Davis.

"We black people are often arrested innocently, and usually we are released without any problems. But this time, Little Bud's so-called friends framed him and put all the blame on him. The priest of the church said that he might not be able to escape from the felony this time unless he had a good lawyer..."

Well, it turned out that Mrs. Davis thought that at most he would be arrested and detained for a few days, beaten up and released.

Seeing Aunt Karen's eyes asking for help, Ronald had to pick up the phone. After all, my uncle and Bud Davis were comrades who had been through life and death together. They died together in Vietnam, and old Bud was seriously injured while rescuing my uncle. The two widows have a deep affection for each other.

It was not easy to let the lawyer work on Christmas Eve. Ronald told the situation to lawyer Lindsay Doll, and she promised to ask about it tomorrow.

"The matter of your aunt's friend's son is very troublesome," Lindsay Doll called Ronald back the next day, "If a lawyer could intervene early, then his case would be at most a misdemeanor, and the value of the goods is not high.

But now the accomplices in charge of manufacturing and wholesale have pinned all the blame and evidence on Little Bud. They also fabricated the so-called witness, saying that Little Bud was the one in charge of wholesale.

Although the accusation of this witness is ridiculous, the value of the pirated tapes seized has exceeded the upper limit of the misdemeanor, and the prosecutor must prosecute him for a felony. Even if there is a good result in court and he can be suspended.

But the felony will follow him for life, and there will be great obstacles to his future work and school. New York State employers have the right to investigate whether employees have felony records before hiring."

"No way, how many tapes can he sell?"

"We found a warehouse in a public housing unit next to the Harlem subway station, and the value of the goods is tens of thousands of dollars."

"Why don't you like working for me, Little Bud." A few days later, Ronald and Lindsay's colleague, a big black lawyer named Eugene, met Little Bud.

Little Bud pretended to be strong at first, but after Eugene explained to him the meaning of felony and the impact on his future, he also withered.

It seems that Mrs. Davis taught him well. Little Bud did not become like the black people in the real violent neighborhoods, who looked at social order in reverse and became a supporter of gangs.

"I'm sorry... It's just that they always laugh at me for being a woman and selling things for girls, I..."

"So our best result is to fight for probation and then appeal to cancel the felony record?" Ronald asked Lindsay and the black lawyer Eugene in the law firm.

"I'm afraid so," the lawyer replied while reading the copy of the case materials.

"Okay, at most let him come to the leg warmer company and continue to be a salesperson." Ronald thought that Little Bud seemed to be unable to find other jobs and could not continue to attend public high school. He continued to take goods to sell, and he had Mrs. Davis to restrain him, so there would be no problem for the time being.

After this incident, he should know what the so-called brothers are like. They just treat him as a free channel and a qualified scapegoat.

"You are not black, so you don't understand, Lindsay." Eugene smiled and interrupted. Ronald hired him to handle this case because he valued his experience in handling black cases.

"We can let him plead guilty to a felony, and then..." Eugene whispered his opinion in Lindsay's ear.

"This? I have only seen this operation in Harvard's law textbooks. Can it still be done in New York now?" Lindsay asked with wide eyes.

"Of course, this requires the cooperation of the assistant prosecutor in charge of the case. I remember that your roommate Helen Gable is the assistant prosecutor of the Manhattan Judicial District?"

"Yes." Lindsay glanced at Ronald and said, "Let me ask Helen..."