Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Ronnie," Meg picked up the ice cream in her hand and stuffed it into Ronald's mouth.

Ronald licked it and took his cone.

The two were waiting for the boat at the Battery Park Pier at the southern end of Manhattan.

This is the southernmost tip of Manhattan Island, and the Statue of Liberty is not far away on Liberty Island.

Unlike the orange passenger and cargo ferry to Staten Island. The Circle Line's ferry is for tourists, pure individual passengers, and painted sky blue.

Soon Ronald and Meg got in line, and the two got on the boat to see the scenery on the deck.

The Statue of Liberty belongs to a federally administered national park, and it is free to visit the goddess. However, the ferry to the island costs money, and American capitalists can always find loopholes.

The first place the ship docked was another small island, Ellis Island. This was the quarantine point for new immigrants to land in the early years. Since the beginning of the last century, millions of immigrants have been quarantined on the island in batches, looking at the new world of their dreams.

The only tall building that new immigrants can see on the island is the statue of the goddess on Liberty Island next door. They looked at the Statue of Liberty through the window pane, looking forward to their future American dream.

This is reflected in many Hollywood movies.

Ronald and Meg were also looking at the Statue of Liberty, thinking about their American dreams.

The ferry continued to move forward. On the boat, Ronald was a little disappointed as he watched the statue getting closer and closer. The statue had been in disrepair for a long time and was a little old and dirty.

After landing on the island at the pier, there was a long trail. Meg was very excited to see the Statue of Liberty for the first time.

Ronald also kept looking up at the goddess, and the two walked slowly forward.

A gust of wind blew, and Ronald seemed to see the goddess' right arm holding the torch shaking slightly for a few times, "Meg, look at the goddess' hand holding the torch, am I dazzled?"

"Ah, it seems to be shaking." Meg also found it.

In 1886, the gift given by the American people to the Americans was nearly 100 years old, and it was really a bit scary to be so old. Just like the land under our feet, many businesses are also trembling, and if you are not careful...

Ronald and Meg were a little scared and did not dare to climb up to visit. The two walked around the island and took many group photos.

Taking the ferry back to downtown Manhattan, the two walked into a movie theater and chose a movie called "The Syndro".

In addition to the name being somewhat related to the two and the actress being Jane Fonda, this movie has a little magic.

The meaning of "The Syndro" actually has nothing to do with China.

It is about an accident at a nuclear power plant in America, where the core melted and leaked. Harmful substances have no obstacles and can burn a hole through the earth, directly to China on the back of the earth, and leak nuclear waste to China on the opposite side of the earth.

So this serious nuclear accident is called the Syndro.

A dozen days after the movie was released, an accident occurred at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant, and the whole country was in an uproar. The movie became a prophet. It became famous all of a sudden and had a good box office.

Ronald went to buy Coke and popcorn, and when he came back, Meg was gone.

He looked around and found Meg Tilly staring at a poster at the door.

He quietly walked behind her and found that Meg was looking at the performance poster of the New York City Ballet. In late April, the spring performance season of the ballet was about to begin.

This year, the New York City Ballet recruited the principal dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov, from the American Ballet, and his figure was on the poster.

In order to become famous overnight, the New York City Ballet spent a lot of money to post posters in major cinemas, shopping malls, and New York City Ballet.

"Baryshnikov, is he a good dancer?" Ronald asked.

"Ronnie," Meg saw that it was him, and simply leaned back on Ronald, letting Ronald cross his arms around her and bring popcorn and Coke to her.

"Mikhail is a talented ballet dancer. He was originally in the Leningrad Ballet of the Soviet Union. A few years ago, he took the opportunity of visiting Canada to defect to America."

"If you have seen him dance, you will know that he is very talented. In the ballet school, he is the idol of all the girls, and everyone wants to be paired with him."

It turned out to be him. No wonder Ronald felt familiar.

The Christmas of the year before last, Ronald watched Baryshnikov's "Nutcracker" on CBS TV with Aunt Karen and Donna.

The host Charlie Rose also briefly introduced his story of running to the "free world" in order to realize his "American dream".

"Since he is so talented, he should also be the principal dancer in the Leningrad Ballet. Why did he defect?" Ronald looked at the poster and felt a little strange about this dancer who was once Meg's idol.

"I heard that he wanted to dance innovative modern ballet, but Leningrad only let him dance classical ballet."

"But some people say that he is too short, only 5 feet 4 (1.65 meters), and he is not a good match for the female dancers of the Soviet Union, so he can only dance supporting roles."

Meg told some gossip and giggled.

Ronald knew that she still regretted missing out on a professional ballet career, so he joked:

"Ha, yes, you are taller than him. He can't dance the prince and princess in the Nutcracker with you."

"And my height, hehe... is more suitable for playing a prince."

"Hahaha...", Meg was amused by him and reached out to hit Ronald.

“But even if I wasn’t injured, I wouldn’t go to the New York City Ballet.” Meg felt better and took the initiative to talk about her ballet dream.

“Why? Aren’t they the best ballet company in New York?” Ronald asked.

“The dance director of the New York City Ballet, Balanchine, is also Russian. He went into exile in America after World War I. More than a decade ago, he received $8 million in funding from the Ford Foundation, mainly to create new ballets. He arranged waltzes, jazz, and even The Star-Spangled Banner into ballets.”

“So many dancers who go to the New York City Ballet are second-generation rich people who bought their way in with money. They don’t have the ability to rehearse real classical ballet dramas, so they can only dance these…” Meg lip-synced “garbage”.

"My dream is to dance all the classical ballet roles before I turn 24, including Giselle, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, and Black Swan..."

"I hope to hear the audience shouting Bravo to me on the stages of New York, Leningrad, London, and Paris!"

"I want to be famous! I want to be famous all over the world!"

Meg got out of Ronald's body, stood on tiptoe, raised her arms, made a ballet pose, and spoke out her dream loudly in front of Baryshnikov's poster.

Ronald saw the burning fire of ambition in the girl's eyes.

...

The movie is very good, and various coincidences and arrangements make the audience nervous about the nuclear leak. Jane Fonda is as outstanding as ever, and Michael Douglas, who plays with her, also plays well.

Now is the time when everyone is afraid of nuclear weapons. The shadow of the Cold War hangs over everyone's head. Some people have begun to oppose nuclear weapons crazily. Anything related to nuclear weapons, including nuclear missiles, nuclear submarines, nuclear tests, and nuclear power plants, are in the sequence of opposition.

I guess this movie will do well at the box office.

After watching the movie, the two went shopping in Chinatown in downtown Manhattan. Ronald had just moved in for a day, and many daily necessities were not prepared yet. He relied on Meg Tilly to help with the shopping.

Meg has a very high taste. The things she chooses are always inexpensive, but the combination enhances the aesthetic quality.

For example, the snow-white tablecloth is matched with scarlet napkins. Another example is the translucent lampshade for the floor lamp in the bedroom.

Ronald, carrying a lot of things, went to the porcelain shop with Meg again.

Meg went to buy red wine glasses and porcelain tableware, and Ronald was chatting with the boss boredly.

The boss's English level is as bad as Ronald's Cantonese level. He can only communicate with sporadic words and gestures.

When asked if the boss had good black tea, the boss quietly took out a bag of tea wrapped in paper from under the counter: "Domestic, good tea." Ronald only understood a few words.

Put it under your nose and smell it, it really smells fresh.

"Qimen or Wuyi Mountain?"

"Qimen," the boss turned the tea bag over and pointed to the label.

As expected, the words "Qimen State-owned Tea Factory" were written on it in Fangsong font. Ronald threw down a "heavy sum" of $10 to buy two bags to try.

"I'll buy another candlestick, and you'll give me two candles so we can have a candlelight dinner tonight." Ronald pointed to the candles on the counter.

The shop owner took out the candlestick and raised his thumb, indicating that Ronald was very romantic.