Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The preparations for "Working Girl" were slowly approaching. In late January, Ronald had no choice but to pause his busy work in New York and fly to Los Angeles to attend the Golden Globe Awards ceremony.

The Golden Globe Awards are voted by less than 100 members of the Hollywood Foreign Correspondents Association. Many of these members are just nominal journalists, working part-time in some tabloids, translating American news and sending them back.

Therefore, this award is the easiest to operate among all the Hollywood acting awards. Ronald's "Moonlight" crew specially allocated a sum of money, which was managed by marketing director Michael Gray, and gave dozens of judges vacation vouchers for luxury hotels in Palm Springs and accommodation and breakfast vouchers for five-star hotels in Hollywood.

Ronald himself also agreed to attend the awards ceremony. The Golden Globe Awards is an organization that makes money by TV broadcasting. As long as celebrities agree to attend, they will generally give you the award.

Because of the Golden Globe Awards scandal in previous years, many real big stars do not want to attend the awards ceremony to avoid being accused of buying the award.

In addition, Michael Gray's public relations work was too good. The Golden Globe Awards were eager to recruit talents, and they were very fond of Ronald, who gave gifts and face. They overdid it and gave Ronald's two works last year, "Dirty Dancing" and "Moonlight", several nominations.

Both films were nominated for "Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical (Golden Globe Awards' performance awards are divided into two categories: drama and comedy musical)". Cher and Jennifer Grey were also nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy Musical, and Olympia Dukakis was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. John Patrick Shanley was nominated for Best Screenplay for "Moonlight", and "The Time of My Life", the theme song of "Dirty Dancing", was nominated for Best Interlude.

Ronald's own nomination for Best Director was obtained through "Moonlight". This made him very happy. The Golden Globe Awards ceremony was in late January, and the Oscars announced the nominations a week later in early February. The close time of the two has a very hidden benefit.

Many Academy members who have the right to vote for nominations are actually very old. They may not have the energy to watch the movies every year. Many people actually vote based on their impressions. The list of nominees for the Golden Globe Awards is reported in the media and will be mentioned repeatedly in the live evening party.

These members may have some impression of Ronald's movies because of the awards a few days before the deadline. When they don't have enough nominations, they just write his name on it.

Every year, there are people who don't know the reason and use the Golden Globe Awards as a weather vane for the Oscars in the media. The secret lies here. In the end, the union awards with a higher degree of overlap are not known to outsiders because they don't have the broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards.

Ronald stood in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the venue of the awards ceremony, for a long time. People who knew him from two movies all wanted to say hello.

The Golden Globe Awards are getting worse every year. A few years ago, a scandal in which a rich man openly bribed voters for his girlfriend greatly damaged the credibility of the Golden Globe Awards, and the TV station stopped broadcasting it for three years. The important awards that were originally attended by first-line stars became a gathering of outdated stars after the broadcast was resumed. The biggest star was only the old western film star Clint Innsterwood. This year, the Golden Globe Awards will give him the honorary "DeMille Award (named after Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille)".

Among the stars who came tonight, the audience's favorites are probably those in Ronald's two crews. Patrick Schweitzer tied his long hair into a ponytail and thanked Ronald with his wife. Then the heroine Jennifer Grey and her father, and the supporting actor Cynthia Rhodes and her boyfriend Richard Max, etc. They all hugged Ronald for a long time and thanked him. For a while, the stars around were surprised at the deep friendship between the crew members of "Dirty Dancing".

The male and female protagonists were in high spirits, and their mental state was not on the same level as other stars.

Ronald took a photo with them and invited them to sit in the round table of the crew. He smiled and continued to wait for the crew of "Moonlight" at the door.

Many outdated stars, such as last year's best actress, the deaf-mute Marlene Matlin, and Ally Sheedy from Brad Pitt, came over to greet Ronald, and even Sybil Shepherd, who had just given birth, came over to take a photo with Ronald.

Ronald accepted all the invitations and chatted with them. His sense of humor made all the beauties laugh.

Ronald was certainly happy to be nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture and Best Director, but what really made him so happy was that the "Dirty Dancing" videotape was selling well across the country.

No one could have imagined that the "Dirty Dancing" videotape would be a great success in the market. Less than a month after it was launched, more than 600,000 copies had been sold. In the newly added monthly videotape rental rankings in Hollywood newspapers, "Dirty Dancing" also surpassed all movies and ranked first.

At the current sales rate, it is expected to exceed one million copies soon, and it is still growing. Ronald's daydream was to start renting all the videotape manufacturers he could find at high prices and devote all his energy to producing videotapes.

The video tape, which eventually retailed for less than $40, brought in astonishing revenue. "Dirty Dancing" was shown in theaters for more than five months and just came off the screen, with a total box office revenue of more than 100 million. But it seems that the video tape may not even take two months to achieve the same sales. Not to mention that Blockbuster has to pay Ronald a long-term dividend in the long-term rental of the video tapes purchased.

In short, the Hollywood stars are most happy about a fat check. Ronald has already sent checks to the creators of "Dirty Dancing" in advance, and the evening dresses they wore to the banquet today are also the most expensive among all the stars.

The crew of "Moonlight" arrived later, and Olympia Dukakis, John Patrick Shanley, and Cher were all dressed very elegantly. Compared with "Dirty Dancing", they have a much greater chance of being nominated for an Oscar. Especially Dukakis, who basically won all the best actress awards from the union and film critics.

So this Golden Globe Awards ceremony was actually a preview of the Oscars. Even Cher, who always likes to wear see-through clothes, changed into a high-end custom evening gown, which was very elegant.

Sure enough, "Moonlight" was the big winner in the end. Cher and Dukakis both received the nominated awards. The people who presented the awards to them were still familiar people, Cynthia Rhodes and Marlene Matlin.

Olympia Dukakis was very moved. She thanked Ronald for a long time for giving her a chance to start again on the road of acting. For an actress of her age, being able to have a movie win the Golden Globe Award brings her not only fame, but also an invitation with a salary that is more than ten times higher.

Cher's thank-you speech was more interesting. She thanked Ronald, screenwriter Shanley, and the fans who never left her. After all, in recent years, being a fan of Cher, a see-through lover, still requires the courage to withstand social pressure.

Of course, Ronald himself lost the two major awards nominated, Best Film and Best Director, to Bertolucci of "The Last Emperor".

Watching Bertolucci thank the Chinese people on stage, Ronald was still a little emotional. The shock that "The Last Emperor" brought to the Western people was beyond the reach of other movies. After nine weeks of silence, the box office of the movie also began to gain momentum, breaking the one million weekend box office figure with less than 100 theaters.

The producers began to mobilize copies and expand the scale of screening. Today, it won the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Soundtrack and other awards. It can be imagined that there will be a wave of curious audiences.

Although Ronald did not win the award, he was not too disappointed to lose to an epic film like "The Last Emperor". It may also be related to the fact that he was toasted too much in the two crews during the awards ceremony. Ronald was in high spirits and chatted with his old friend, director Adrian Ryan, who he met when filming "Flashdance".

Today he was also nominated for Best Director, and Michael Douglas, the leading actor of the movie "Fatal Attraction", won the Best Actor Award.

"Do you have a chance of being nominated for an Oscar?" Ronald asked Adrian Ryan.

"As much as you hope..." Ryan is a very gentlemanly actor in the British actor circle. He grew up in Cambridge and studied at Oxford University. Ronald and he get along very well.

He and Ronald have similar status in Hollywood. They have made box office hits, but they are not respected in the industry and they still need a movie to establish their status as directors.

This "famous attraction" is actually similar to "Love You 9 1/2 Weeks" two years ago. They are both erotic films. But this time, Michael Douglas, a Jewish star, was invited. The plot also adds respect for traditional values, and the wife shoots and kills the third party who interferes with the family. The role is played by Glenn Gross.

This approach of actively moving closer to mainstream values ​​is also very close to Ronald's film philosophy, solving the box office problem first, and then adding some profound themes.

"Hi, Adrian, Ronald, what are you talking about?" Michael Douglas came over and greeted them.

"It's a great trophy. Where are you going to put it?" Ronald greeted him with a smile.

"Oh, I have to keep it well. My last Oscar was as a producer. This is my first acting award, I hope it won't be the last..."

"Hahaha, I see you won the Best Actor Award from the Screen Actors Guild and the Society of Film Critics, so you will get your Oscar this time too." Ronald said to Douglas with a smile.

"You have a good chance too," Michael Douglas responded with a hat. He is in the limelight this year, and the winner is Gekko in "Wall Street". Both movies are big sellers and are well received by critics.

"I am lucky to be nominated," Ronald knew that being nominated for an Oscar was his mission, and he didn't expect Douglas to be so powerful this year. For the Best Actor, only John Lone, who was also nominated for the Golden Globe, and Nicolas Cage can be compared with him. But these two are both nominated for the Golden Globe for the first time, and the Oscars value the history of actors very much. Douglas has almost no rivals this year.

"Hey, the Golden Globe Awards are... you know, if I'm willing to come, the possibility of winning is very high. The Oscars are decided by votes." Michael Douglas was still very nervous when talking about the Oscars.

He had previously won the Oscar for Best Picture as a producer of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". But that was his Jewish father who bought the adaptation rights and gave them to his son. He will have to wait and see if he can really win with his acting skills this year.

"Yeah..." The three of them fell into silence. Everyone wants an Oscar, but it's really hard to say. For example, Glenn Gross, who played opposite Douglas, has first-class acting skills and has been nominated many times, but he has never won an Oscar.

"Sean...Sean...don't be like this" The three of them suddenly heard a familiar voice speaking from the other side.

"I don't have any objection to you, Michael, but he didn't come today. Am I not qualified to meet and talk with him?" A man with a strong Scottish accent answered.

Ronald turned his head and saw that it was Michael Ovitz, the president of CAA, talking to Sean Connery, the first actor to play 007. Both of them were a little excited, and when they found something wrong, they immediately returned to their amiable appearance.

Ronald and the other two pretended not to see anything and turned to ask their agents about the situation.

】

"It's Spielberg," Nicita quickly found out, got into the back seat of the luxury car, and whispered to Ronald.

It turned out that Michael Ovitz was still trying to promote his first celebrity client under CAA, the long-outdated Sean Connery. At today's Golden Globe Awards, he won the Best Supporting Actor for the gangster thriller "The Untouchables" directed by Brian De Palma with Ovitz's operation.

This movie is Kevin Costner, and Robert De Niro play the two protagonists of good and evil. The box office is very good, exceeding 75 million. In the end, Sean Connery won the Golden Globe Award, which was entirely the result of Ovitz's promotion behind the scenes.

The specific reason is very interesting. Sean Connery was the most important signing during Ovitz's CAA transformation into the film business. He was the first star to sign an agency contract with CAA and was also Ovitz's client.

But Connery's luck was bad afterwards, and it seemed that no one in Hollywood would want him to make a movie. For the sake of his own and CAA's face, this number one client could not just let him fall. Ovitz spent a lot of energy and resources to get Connery back on top.

In addition to the Golden Globe Awards this time, the most important part of his plan was to let Spielberg consider writing Sean Connery into Dr. Indiana Jones' latest adventure movie as the main supporting role.

But Spielberg has always refused. The Golden Globe Awards was originally a good opportunity for the two to meet, but who knew that Spielberg did not come to the awards ceremony this time.

"Why? He doesn't want to use Sean Connery, the old man?" Ronald was a little surprised to hear that it was a supporting role. Spielberg is not the kind of director who is unsympathetic for the role.

"You may not have noticed that his Empire of the Sun was only nominated for Best Picture tonight, not Best Director."

"Ah?" Ronald flipped through the award list. Sure enough, "Empire of the Sun", for which Spielberg had put a lot of effort, did not even get a nomination for Best Director.

"I heard that it was Kirk Douglas's group of old-fashioned Jews who were dissatisfied with his failure to follow Jewish traditions, especially not educating his children according to Jewish traditions."

"Does it matter whether this child goes to the synagogue? Are these people still living before World War I?" Ronald thought to himself, I don't usually go to church, at most I donate some money to the church where my aunt is.

"The Jews are a nation that relies on religion..." Niceta also chuckled.

And Italians all believe in Catholicism, but they can be distinguished mainly by skin color, hair color, and other obvious DNA characteristics. In fact, after years of separation, it is difficult to verify who is the original inhabitant of the Middle East in terms of bloodline.

For many years, the Ashkenazi Jews, who are particularly powerful in America, are actually people who converted to Judaism in some Eastern European countries. It is hard to say how much blood relationship there is between the ancestors and the Jews of the Old Testament period who first settled in Jerusalem.

Therefore, the only common point that this nation can find to maintain is Judaism and the Hebrew language that was revived after the founding of Israel.

Spielberg publicly said in the media that he would not raise his children in the traditional Jewish way. For many Jews who have already turned to secularism, it is undoubtedly a bad example for celebrities to say such things. It is no wonder that these conservative Jewish elders want to find a way to teach Spielberg a lesson.

Thinking that this time, Spielberg might even lose the Oscar nomination for Best Director, Ronald's ambition began to grow. Although his age and qualifications make it unlikely that he will win the award for the first time, but...what if?

With this in mind, and wanting to make the nomination foolproof, Ronald himself wrote a check to Michael Gray, who was responsible for the marketing of "Moonlight", to increase public relations investment. Many brokers received generous rewards and launched an offensive against the children of old directors from the golden age of Hollywood.

These children and grandchildren, holding various coupons provided by the public relations company, went to Beverly Hills to visit their lovely grandparents. In the conversation, they also accidentally mentioned that Ronald director "Moonlight" was good.

However, when the experienced grandfathers asked them which part was better, the grandchildren were exposed. After all, they really thought that "Dirty Dancing" was the best.

The money was paid by Ronald himself. After all, the dividends from the "Dirty Dancing" videotape had been received, and Ronald's account had a huge amount of money. In the foreseeable future, such dividends would be deposited into his account every month.

Fortunately, the deputy commander he supported had promised the "Continued Promotion of Jobs and Prosperity Action" Committee to continue to exempt or postpone the collection of personal income tax on investment income for rich people like Ronald.

Ronald was very happy and continued to increase his holdings of Coca-Cola and Sony stocks. Anyway, it was still the old investment philosophy, buying some stocks of big companies, at least the dividends were much higher than inflation and the interest on large bank deposits, and they were tax-free.

Ronald saved some cash and started buying gifts for himself and his friends. Ronald bought two apartments on the boutique shopping street at the foot of Beverly Hills. Although it is not as good as the loft on Fifth Avenue in New York, it is also a top-floor building for a short break. There are also service staff to clean and keep it clean.

You can also park your Ferrari sports car and motorcycle here. There is a special person in the apartment to start the car every week to prevent the battery from running out of power.

In addition, Ronald is a little envious of Sony's president Norio Ohga, who flies his own plane. He began to look for a suitable private coach, hoping to get a pilot's license after practicing the test.

Miss Lindsay, a private lawyer who flew here specially, and Lawrence, a private accountant, helped Ronald to get the documents. After signing a lot of documents, he successfully processed the income brought by "Dirty Dancing".

"If you are not busy, come with me to the wedding tomorrow?" Ronald said to the two lawyers and accountants who are now mainly serving him privately.

"Is it the wedding of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore? We saw it in the Hollywood report." Lindsay Doll herself is not married, but she has a son with her partner, but she is very interested in other people's weddings. She has recently been thinking about whether to make up for this ceremony.

"Yes, it was a small ceremony attended by people in the industry. The groom is still filming a new movie, but the bride doesn't want to postpone it any further in case she can't fit into her wedding dress."