Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Isn't this an Ingrid Bergman-style witch hunt? Why is this still going on now?" Ronald was a little surprised after listening to the description of Brooke's mother Terry.

It turned out that the public service advertisement for teenagers to stop smoking shot by Brooke Shields was banned by the US Department of Public Health some time ago. The reason was that Brooke's previous movies were exposed and indecent. As a teenage idol, she did not have a positive influence on teenagers and should not appear in the public service advertisement for smoking cessation.

This incident caused some waves in the media, with people supporting and opposing the Ministry of Health. However, some conservatives have long been dissatisfied with the controversial plots of Brooke Shields in the two movies "Beautiful Baby" and "The Blue Lagoon".

Now they found a handle and finally started a full-scale attack to ban all her movies in the United States.

Some conservative congressmen from southern states on Capitol Hill also took the opportunity to launch an investigation into whether Brooke Shields violated the law during the filming and whether she shot shots that were inappropriate for her age.

Fortunately, it is 1981, not 1951.

After years of education in Hollywood, the public knows that the scenes on the screen are not necessarily real. It is now almost impossible to get a majority in the congressional vote to pass a resolution condemning Ingrid Bergman's moral corruption again.

Even so, Brooke Shields was summoned to testify in Congress. She was questioned by members of both houses of Congress on Capitol Hill whether she had any improper behavior when filming the movie.

It was difficult for them to find any technical violations in the CK jeans advertisement. Because this advertisement uses puns to stimulate the hidden desires of teenagers. It is not easy to catch them.

So several conservative congressmen focused their investigation on Brooke's first two movies and the unreleased "Endless Love", especially the latter, which has been rated X by the PAA four times.

Terry hired a lawyer and tried every means to obtain written testimony from witnesses of the crews of "Pretty Baby" and "The Blue Lagoon", and also found the director of "Endless Love" to testify. Ronald was also asked to provide testimony this time.

"I, Ronald Lee, swear in the name of God that the following written statement is true and is the whole truth. There is no lie except the truth.

As a temporary assistant in the crew of "Endless Love", I assisted director Frank Zeffirelli in filming... During this period, all the nude scenes of Miss Brooke Shields' character Jed were completed by a double..."

Ronald signed the testimony and asked lawyer Lindsay, "Is this all right?"

"It's okay. Brooke is fine. The current youth atmosphere is open. It has become a psychological burden for high school students to remain innocent. It seems that they are not attractive enough.

Except for those particularly conservative states, most legislators are just doing routine work. Maybe they just want to see the most popular girl idol in person and ask for an autographed photo for their granddaughter."

It seems that Brooke was crying on the phone because she was afraid for a while. After her mother found a famous lawyer, she should not be so panicked.

"What is this?" Lindsay found the outline of "The Golden Jade Alliance" written by Ronald on the table.

"That's the synopsis of an old movie I wrote, The Golden Alliance."

"Oh, CBS played it a few days ago. I like it the most. Every time I see Cary Grant not waiting for Deborah Kerr on the top of the Empire State Building, Helen and I cry our eyes out."

"How come you lawyer elites also like to watch this kind of love drama?" Ronald didn't expect it, "I thought only housewives liked to watch it."

"Who doesn't like to watch Cary Grant? He just got married again, for the fifth time, this time to a hotel public relations woman 47 years younger than him."

"Actually, I like to watch his movies too." But they are just those suspense movies shot by Hitchcock, Ronald added in his heart.

After thanking the lawyer lady who came to help look at the written testimony, Ronald began to prepare for his sales speech.

"I want to make 'Fast Pace' into a movie about the growth of teenagers, reflecting the living conditions of California high school students. When the audience sees it, they will feel that these high school students are so real, as if they are attending the high school next door to them.

Therefore, the background of the movie is realistic, and the tone is a light comedy with a slightly exaggerated tone. The five main student characters represent the five typical types of students now...

This will be a group portrait of modern high school students..."

After a few days, after practicing in front of the mirror, Ronald specifically called his agent Nicita to do some telephone rehearsals and asked the experienced Nicita for advice.

"No, no, don't say group portrait." Nicita was still very satisfied when she heard Ronald's self-narration on the phone, but this group portrait was a bit taboo.

"Don't say group portrait. In the ears of studio executives, group portrait is equal to box office failure. There is only one person in Hollywood who can sell group portraits, and that is Robert Altman."

Altman is the director of the low-cost movies "The Nurse and the Nashville". Both are group portraits, and not only are they box office hits, but they have also been nominated for the Oscar for Best Director.

"But this is an ensemble drama, right? It's almost the same as Famous." Ronald certainly can't be compared with Ultraman, but he doesn't understand why he can't mention this term.

"Yes, Ronald. It's an ensemble drama. But don't say it's an ensemble drama. You can say it's a teenage neurotic comedy, it can be a romantic comedy, but it can't be an ensemble drama."

"I don't understand..."

"It's easy to understand, Ronald. Studio executives are extremely busy people. They have 15-20 theatrical movies to produce each year and an equal number of potential scripts to prepare for next year. In order to achieve this Numbers, the same number of scripts must be put in the circulation warehouse, and three times the number of scripts that are not produced must be thrown away.

So they simply can't remember the specific plot of each movie. They can only put a label on each movie, this one is a Star Wars knock-off, this one is a new version of The Wizard of Oz, this one is a group movie - it doesn't make money.

If the movie you are striving for as a director is labeled as an ensemble drama, and your name is not Robert Altman, there is only one outcome: you have to find your script in the trash and find a producer. Let’s talk. "

"Okay, I get it, this is a teen romantic comedy..."

Brooke Shields' hearing was held as scheduled, and sure enough, several conservative lawmakers' questions focused on whether there was any nudity during the filming of the movie.

Brooke and Terry, who were well prepared, told them many protective measures during filming. For example, during the filming of Blue Coral Reef, Brooke would wear a long wig and fix it on her chest with glue, so there would be no suspicion of exposure.

During the filming of the passionate scenes of endless love, all nude scenes were shot using body doubles. Pieced together through post-production editing, Brooke actually only shot a few reaction shots. Ronald served as a temporary filming assistant at the scene, and his written testimony was also presented as evidence.

The stills and schematics from the filming scene left conservative congressmen speechless. They could only issue a statement condemning the increasing number of morally corrupt scenes in American movies and calling for stricter classification standards and cinemas. Censorship of teenage audiences, young people watching R-rated movies must show identification.

There was another uproar in the media about the results. The New York Times mainly called for better self-regulation in the industry, while the New York Daily News did an in-depth analysis of the situation of teenage actors. Of course, the best seller was the New York Post, which published the stills of Brooke Shields in The Blue Lagoon again.

The happiest person I have ever seen with a congressional investigation is "Endless Love" director Zeffirelli.

Brooke Shields suddenly became the focus of the media again. Guber, the president of the producer PolyGram, saw the potential of the movie and could ride on Brooke's news.

He immediately approved a multi-million dollar marketing budget. Taking advantage of Congress's opportunity to clear Bogie's innocence, the revised film was submitted for PAA classification for the fifth time, and finally received the desired R rating.

"When they are together, it's like the outside world doesn't exist." Zeffirelli read the title of the poster prepared by PolyGram to Ronald on the phone. "Listen, this line is so Shakespearean."

"So you decided to use love words between couples for marketing?"

"Yes, we are mainly targeting teenage couples. PolyGram has also made an agreement with the distributor Universal. At the ticket office of the cinema, there will be a discount for watching 'Endless Love' and enjoying popcorn packages for couples."

Ronald felt something was wrong and quickly said, "Franco, during the last test screening, I clearly saw that the teenage couple's perception of the movie was not as good as that of the junior high school girls who came with their best friends.

The high school students laughed a lot, but a few junior high school girls cried. "

"No, no, Ronald. I underestimated the literary and artistic accomplishments of the younger generation of ordinary people in America. They can indeed feel the lingering and pathos of endless love, and they are not disgusted with Shakespeare..."

Ronald felt that Zeffirelli was full of fighting spirit again, and he might not be able to listen to some of his own observations.

However, when this movie was previewed, little girls who had never been in love liked it more. But this has nothing to do with me anymore. Maybe the test screening may not accurately reflect the audience's preferences.

Ronald is more concerned about the establishment of the "fast-paced Richmond High School" project. A few weeks have passed since the Oscars, and there is still no definite news from Universal as to whether David Lynch will be replaced and another suitable director will be found.

This afternoon, Ronald was helping Spike Lee, who had received another grant from the Black Human Rights Organization, to shoot his graduation film. Filming has stopped, and two years have passed, and the film about barbershops in black neighborhoods has not yet been completed.

Ronald also brought Li Ang over. Tisch College encourages students to help each other make films and work on other people's crews, which can also be counted as credits for professional courses.

After shooting a scene, Ronald went to look at the pager in his bag. In order to prevent it from interfering with the crew's live broadcast, Ronald put it in his bag and turned it into silent mode.

There is a pager.

Taking the coins, Ronald found the phone booth, called the paging station and asked if it was Niceta.

Ronald then stuffed the coins one by one and made the long-distance call to Los Angeles.

"Ronald, you can leave for Los Angeles. We will find time to meet with Tom Mount, the president of Universal Pictures."

"What, he finally fired David Lynch?" Ronald said happily while continuing to insert coins.

"No, Lynch fired Universal."