Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 239 The First Golden Raspberry Award

"I was rated as the worst heroine, and I was so mad." Brooke Shields complained to Ronald on the phone.

It's been a few days since awards night, and Ronald is back home in New York.

Life is back to normal again.Attend class in the middle of the week, eat at my aunt's house on weekends, watch pirate club movies in my spare time, and wait for Universal's decision on the director.

But some things seem to be irreversible.For example, people from the showbiz who I knew before, those I didn’t know, those I’m familiar with, and those I’m not familiar with, will call to “say hello” intentionally or unintentionally.

For example, Boji now calls to chat with herself.Maybe her mom, Terry, had put herself on her daughter's "allowed calls" list?But Ronald wasn't quite sure which of Terry's list he was on, the "just friends" list or the "potential boyfriend" list.

Diane, on the other hand, was more carefree. After moving back to her home, she had more contact with Donna, and she didn't call her when she had nothing to do.

"Wait a minute, what is Worst Actress? Oscar doesn't have this award, right?" Ronald answered with the handset clamped around his neck while putting on his suit.

"There's a guy named John Wilson, in his living room. It's all in the media right now, and I don't know why."

"Forget about that, who cares who is the worst movie, worst director, I have to get out, hang up first."

Brooke said on the phone, "The hair stylist is going to do my hair soon, and I hung up too. You can read the newspapers yourself. They are bad. They rated Laurence Oliver as the worst supporting actor. Said that his acting skills are rapidly declining."

Ronald put on his suit and set off with Donna and Aunt Karen to see the leg warmer factory in Staten Island.Today is Ronald's first visit.

"Ronnie, I think Ego has grown a lot since you won the Oscar." Cousin Donna looked at Ronald and said, "You wouldn't hang up on Brooke Shields before."

"What is an Ego? Being bigger is good or bad for me."

"It's the id in Freud's psychological theory. Ego is a little more confident and easy to succeed. But it's not good if it's too big." Donna explained.

"She told me all these gossips. I'm busy. It has nothing to do with Ego." Ronald replied.

Of course Ronald has become more confident. The biggest benefit of the Oscars is not the award-winning original songwriter, because he asked his agent to reject all lyric invitations, but the nomination for the best screenplay .

Many people are beginning to believe that his $35 script sale price was not a fluke.

Of course Ronald really had something to do this time.After getting Jane Fonda's order, he discussed with his high school friend Douglas Hansen Jr. for a long time, and decided to rent an old factory building in Doug Jr.'s house to open a small factory.

The scale of the factory is small, employing about ten workers.Aunt Karen personally chose Dongying's Brother brand sweater knitting machine instead of the better quality Swiss brand.Although the function of the Brother brand is not as good as that of Switzerland, it is much more cost-effective, and the price of maintenance parts is also cheaper.

Ronald invested more money in the purchase of machinery and equipment, and rented the old factory building of the Douglas Jr. family.Theresa Kate and her husband David didn't have as much money to put in proportionately, their stake dropped to 20%, as did Aunt Karen and his comrade's widow.

Ronald tried to get Douglas Jr. to take a stake, but he refused.This kind of small business didn't mean much to him, but he used his influence to give the leg warmer factory a slightly lower rental price.Because Douglas Sr.'s granddaughter is in ballet and loves leg warmers.

"Hi, Ronnie. Thank you for everything you have done for us. Little Bud sent me a letter in Hawaii." Little Bud's mother, Mrs. Davis, also moved with a few families of black military widows who worked hard. When I arrived in the black area in the northern part of Staten Island, I came to work in the factory every day.

Some of the widows of soldiers who were doing labor settlement in RTKD were not so serious, and none of them were hired this time.Those who are willing to follow to the factory will be given a little settling allowance, as a chance for my uncle's comrade-in-arms family.

The factory is running well, and the efficiency is more than 10 times higher than the original manual production.What is even more satisfying is that the quality is now more stable, unlike the quality made by different people in the past, which fluctuated greatly, and Aunt Karen had to choose one by one.

"Jane Fonda has a large order volume, and we are now working at full capacity to meet the needs there first, and put the excess in the warehouse. Gradually, distributors in cities other than Los Angeles and San Francisco on the west coast are calling to order... ..."

Teresa Kate, the partner I met on the ferry, is now in high spirits, and she is completely different from the downcast look I saw at the time.Tereza is pregnant, and her husband David is now mainly watching the production of the factory, persuading her to go back and rest.

Of course Ronald came to the factory for the first time today, and Tereza insisted on coming.

"Thanks, Theresa, David, you've done a great job."

"This is also our common cause, Ronald." Tereza talked to Ronald in the office, "Orders on the east coast have also increased. In short, with the factory, we can not only guarantee the quantity of shipments, but also the quality. Stability is also guaranteed.”

"It's just that there are a lot of counterfeits now. Can we talk to Mr. Da Silva about the right to use the Fame brand?" Her husband David usually doesn't talk much, but he always has something to say when he says it.

"I was careless, and Ms. Lindsay Dole didn't remind me. Now that Fame's song has become a hit single on the charts, Mr. Da Silva is not willing to license it cheaply. Of course, we may not have to pay at that time. Afford the licensing fee."

After all, Ronald is not a businessman, so it would be nice to have someone to help manage and share these matters.

"Beep...beep..." the pager rang.

Ronald called and asked the paging station, and it was Paula Wagner from CAA who was looking for him.

"Hi, Paula. Long time no see, what can I do?" Ronald called from his office phone.

"Tom Cruise is looking for you. He has something to tell you."

"Hi, Ronald. I'm Tom. I auditioned for a supporting role in a movie starring Timothy Hutton, and I just heard from Paula about your conflict, and I told her not to sign. You gave I can only enter the industry when I have the opportunity.”

"Ronald, this is a great opportunity for Tom. Hutton is just acting with him. The project is run by Shirley Lansing of 20th Century Fox. She was only 35 years old and became a Fox movie. The production president of the factory, the background is self-evident." Paula interjected.

"Don't worry, Paula. Tom's a good friend of mine, and I don't mind him being on 'Lights Out,' but you're also my manager, remember?" Ronald had nothing against Tom Cruise, but Paula Wagner put Cruise's interests first, which made him a little uncomfortable.

"I..." Paula was also a little unaccustomed to the tough Ronald.

"Tom, don't worry. Hutton's acting skills are nothing special. You are so serious about every role, play well, and steal his scene." Ronald didn't care much about these, and it was not a project invested by Hutton .

"No problem, Ronald."

"The list of the first Golden Raspberry Awards", Ronald put down the phone, and saw a newspaper in the office, which published the list of the so-called worst acting awards.Can't help picking up the newspaper and reading it.

"Worst Actress, Brooke Shields. Blue Lagoon." That's far from the worst performance, is it?Ronald was puzzled, maybe for the sake of sensational effect, he deliberately chose a well-known one?
Looking down, sure enough.

"Worst Supporting Actor is Laurence Olivier, Worst Director is Olivia Newton-John's 'Xanadu,' Worst Actor nominations go to Kirk Douglas, Richard De Dreyfus, these are all Oscar winners.

The most outrageous thing is that among the nominations for worst actor, there is also a former decathlon Olympic champion Bruce Jenner. Anyway, whoever is famous will be nominated.

"Beep...beep..." The pager rang again.This time it was Matt Dillon.

Matt Dillon came here to inform that he has officially signed a contract with Disney to star in the movie "DZ Guy" adapted from SE Hinton's novel.Disney spent a lot of money and finally beat Warner Bros. to buy the rights to adapt Hinton's novel.

"The heroine is Meg Tilly."

With Ronald on the receiver side, he could imagine Dillon's smirk.

"Axxhole" laughed and cursed, and hung up the phone.

Meg Tilly finally got her wish as the heroine of the movie.The great director's son Kinneman also spared no effort to praise her.

But after going through so many things since entering the industry, Ronald can deal with this kind of thing calmly.It is not easy for an actress to be in the top position, and it is her own choice to exchange an opportunity.

Ronald, who returned to his apartment after seeing the factory, began to practice daily again.Today CBS is showing the classic romance film "Jin Yu Meng".Cary Grant, and Deborah Kerr starred in the classic romance.

"A famous playboy met a beautiful woman on a cruise ship. Both of them had a marriage contract and were about to get married after disembarking. But love happened on the cruise ship..."

Ronald began to write the outline of the story. This is a very effective training that can write the outline attractively. It may also be helpful when finding investment for his own script.

At the same time, it is a good way to sort out my own understanding of the original screenwriter's thinking.The screenwriters of classic old films are all very good, and it is good to learn from them.

"Before parting, the two agreed that if both parties could successfully end their respective engagements and start a new career, they would reunite on the top floor of the Empire State Building in New York six months later.

But on that day, the playboy came to the top of the Empire State Building and waited for a day, and the beauty did not show up..."

"Ring ring ring ring..."

"Hey, who is it?" Ronald was still watching old movies and didn't want to be disturbed, so his voice was a little fierce.

"It's me, Brooke... woo woo woo..."

"Boji, what's the matter?" Ronald said perfunctorily while still watching the TV. Is it some gossip about high school girls?
"Ronald, it's Terry." Brooke's mother took the receiver, "Boggie is in big trouble this time, she's being investigated by Congress, you must help her."

"Oh, congressional investigations... that's good." Ronald's attention was still on the TV.

"Wait a minute, what? A congressional investigation? Why?"

(End of this chapter)