Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"These are the cookies I baked. Ronald said you'll be working out soon to build muscle so you can play Supergirl. You won't be afraid of getting fat." After dinner, Aunt Karen handed over a box of cookies she baked, tied with a red ribbon, to Helen Slater.

"Thank you, Karen," Helen took the cookies, thanked him, and put the box away.

"Give me more. Aunt Karen's cookies are delicious." Ronald grabbed another handful of cookies, wrapped them in paper and put them in Helen's pocket.

"It's okay, Helen. My mother's cookies are low in calories, unlike other people's families that have sugar and butter. Diane eats them often, so she won't get fat." Donna said.

"I'll take Helen back to her father's house first." Ronald got up and put on his coat. The winter in New York is colder than in Los Angeles.

"Don't drive. Call a taxi." Seeing that Ronald had drunk a lot of red wine, Auntie got up and called a yellow taxi.

Helen wrapped herself in a scarf and kissed Karen and Donna goodbye.

"This little box looks good, but I can't eat too much." Helen put the box into her bag in the car, then took a loose biscuit from her pocket and carefully bit off half of it.

"It's okay, anyway, you go to London to exercise, and you have to eat a lot of high-protein, high-starch foods." Ronald advised Helen to eat a few more pieces.

"You don't know, it's very troublesome to control your body shape as an actor. I get fat no matter what I eat now." Helen pinched the flesh on her face in distress.

"I think you are even a little thin, even if you use the standard of widescreen anamorphic lens."

"Hahaha...you are so bad."

Nowadays, the general medium-sized movies produced in Hollywood are all 1.85:1 widescreen, while large-scale blockbusters often use 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. That kind of lens stretches the actors more horizontally, and there are many strange distortions. Very thin people will also look fat on the anamorphic widescreen.

Ronald deliberately said that Helen was not fat enough on the anamorphic fastscreen, so that she could eat healthier.

"Your aunt's baked cookies are quite delicious, and the box she made is also very beautiful." Helen finally ate another small cookie, very satisfied.

"She originally wanted to give you the cookies as a Christmas gift, but knowing that you are Jewish, she simply wrapped it."

"Well, then I will take this as a Christmas gift. When I was a child, I went to a mixed school in Long Island. My classmates all had Christmas gifts, but I didn't. I have always been envious."

"Well, I will give you a double Christmas gift to make up for the ones I didn't receive before." Ronald took out a small box and handed it to Helen.

"So beautiful." Helen opened the box and saw a pair of sparkling earrings. She took out the makeup box, put them on in front of the mirror and looked at them for a while.

"Ronnie, thank you." Helen hugged Ronald's shoulders, feeling very happy.

"Helen, you are so beautiful today." Ronald hugged Helen and kissed her lips.

The two kissed quickly. Helen was afraid that the driver in front would see it, so she gently pushed Ronald away.

"Beautiful lady, are you an actress? I know a lot of people and can introduce you to them. The most important thing in this circle is relationships."

Maybe he heard what Ronald said about the movie scene before, and Helen said that actors should diet or something like that, the South Asian taxi driver who was driving the car suddenly interrupted and chatted with Helen.

"Hmm?" Ronald was surprised. He didn't expect that the driver with a curry accent felt so good.

"She is already an actress. You don't have to worry about her." Ronald put his arm around Helen's shoulders and kissed her again, declaring his sovereignty.

"Then you must be an actor who is not doing well. What movies and TV series have you acted in? Tell me two of them."

"..."

"Can't tell? You are an unsuccessful actor at first glance. Let me tell you, the most important thing for an actor is relationships. Without relationships, you can't play any role. With relationships, you can play the leading role."

Ronald frowned, a little impatient. This driver was too tactless. He flirted with his girlfriend Helen in front of him.

Helen pulled Ronald's arm, signaling him not to get angry for boring people.

"Why don't you go out with me on Christmas? I know a lot of big names in the entertainment industry. I'll introduce you to the heroine of a TV series."

"Hey, are you blind? I'm his boyfriend. Do you want to compete with me?" Ronald patted the front seat and then pinched his fingers.

"There's no need to resort to violence, my friend. Mahatma Gandhi taught us that violence is bad, whether it's for individuals or countries."

The driver, who spoke with a curry accent, immediately changed the subject, "I just think your girlfriend can play the heroine. I really know a lot of people in the industry."

"Who do you know?" Helen interrupted to stop Ronald from getting angry.

"George Hamilton, do you know him? The star of the TV series "Roots". He was filming in New York last time. The crew was short of drivers, so they hired me as a temporary driver. I tell you, he's a very good person. I beg him, your girlfriend will definitely have a chance to be a TV actor."

"Puff..." Ronald couldn't help laughing. He was a fool after talking for a long time. That's right, not all New York taxi drivers are in the entertainment industry like Diane Lane's father.

"You really know Hamilton, the star of Roots? That's amazing." Helen also held back her laughter and patted Ronald's hand.

"That's right, I tell you, this TV series is very profound..." The driver boasted to himself.

Ronald remembered this TV series, which tells the story of black people being captured by slave traders from Africa to North America. He and his descendants have always hoped to find their roots. When it was released, it caused a wave of viewership and discussion.

"Don't know where your roots are?" Ronald thought.

The car finally drove to a high-end apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Ronald and Helen got off the car. Ronald deliberately gave the driver only the lowest tip, but the South Asian driver still thanked him happily and left.

"Hahaha..." Helen couldn't help laughing. She had been holding it in for a long time in the car.

In the lobby of the apartment, a figure was waiting for his daughter to arrive. Hearing Helen's voice, he walked out of the lobby.

"Mr. Slater." Ronald handed Helen's hand to her father.

"Helen is going to London soon. You can spend more time with her when you have time." Gerald Slater saw the earrings Helen was wearing, nodded to Ronald, and explained a few words.

"Bye!" Helen kissed Ronald, said goodbye to her boyfriend, and went into her father's house.

...

"Aunt, what ethnicity am I? What countries did my father and mother's families immigrate from?" After returning home, Ronald asked Aunt Karen.

"Why do you care about this?" Aunt Karen was a little surprised. She had just asked Donna to go to bed, and she was drinking black tea leisurely after cleaning the room.

"Helen told me she was Jewish, and I was surprised. I never thought she was Jewish. She didn't look like a typical Jew.

Then, I met a South Asian driver on the road, so I became interested in my origins."

"I don't know much about the history of your father's family. I only know that he was born near New Haven, Connecticut, in New England.

Your mother and I are both native New Yorkers. It is said that our ancestors can be traced back to English immigrants in the 18th century. But since your grandfather's father began to move to Staten Island, we have lost contact with our original relatives."

"Why? We were not originally from Staten Island?"

Aunt Karen shook her head, "No, your grandfather's family was originally from Manhattan. When he died, my sister, that is, your mother, went to the family in Manhattan to look for relatives, but she didn't know anyone with the surname Parker there."

"Oh, why did grandpa move to Staten Island back then?"

"I don't know about this. Your mother seems to know some reasons, but she doesn't want to tell me. I think it must be something unpleasant." Aunt Karen didn't know either.

"Your grandmother's family is from Staten Island. They are descendants of German and Irish people. It seems that there are also some ancestors of the United States. It's like this in America. People from all countries in the Old World have merged into a new nation in the New World.

In America, people should be evaluated for their excellence, not for their race. The governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, who will take office soon, is of Italian descent, and the mayor of New York, Koch, is of Jewish descent.

A person's birth does not represent their final evaluation, Ronnie, my dear."

Ronald nodded. Aunt Karen was still very open-minded about these things. It was estimated that it would be okay for him to bring back a black person, let alone a Jewish girlfriend.

Considering the relatively conservative atmosphere on Staten Island, this may have something to do with the family education of his grandfather's family.

"Are all the Parker family members so open-minded about race?"

"Yeah, we Parkers are Quakers. You know that the Quakers were the first to support racial equality. The state of Pennsylvania was originally named after a nobleman named Bin. They are Quakers, who advocate peace and equality.

It's all in Donna's high school history textbook."

Aunt Karen got up and poured Ronald a cup of tea. "I have to go to bed early, and you shouldn't stay up too late."

Ronald kissed his aunt on the cheek and sat on the sofa in the living room thinking about his worries.

He still couldn't help but want to know where his roots were.

My mother's side is a Quaker-win mixed race. I don't know what race my father is. Where did he come from in this life? Who was he in his previous life? Why is there a strange connection between the two?

"I will go to the New England area in the north to see what life is like in my father's place if I have the chance in the future."