Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1523 Detective Henry Lee helps investigate the case
Diane's first episode of The Rosie O'Donnell Show was very successful. The two chatted a lot, and the audience got to know some gossip about how she and Ronald fell in love. They also heard about how ambitious Tom Cruise was (so ambitious that sometimes others couldn't stand it), and some of his love history.

Most of the audience at the event and on TV were fans of Tom Cruise, and they found sufficient reasons not to believe the rumor started by Quentin Tarantino.

In turn, Tom Cruise's business partner Paula Wagner is also digging deep into the McCall's magazine revelations to find out who is behind them.

This magazine has a historical reputation, but no sales. If a piece of gossip is published in this magazine, the victim is often unable to file a lawsuit due to the other party's circulation. Because American law, defamation is calculated based on the reputation loss caused.

Stars have no worries when suing big gossip media like the National Enquirer because they can afford the compensation. But if they go after a magazine with a long history, they often can’t get much money even if they win the case, and they also ruin their relationship with the entire media industry.

But Tom Cruise is not one of the ordinary stars. For him, the damage caused by rumors that tarnished his reputation is far greater than the damage caused by suing a magazine.

In addition, there is no such thing as being able to guard against thieves for a thousand days, so it is of utmost importance to uncover the mastermind behind this and prevent Tom Cruise's film company from using this to target others in the future.

Therefore, Paula Wagner, as the voice of CW production, began to sue McCall's magazine and claimed a sky-high amount of compensation. Since many tabloids also reprinted the report of McCall's magazine, the circulation of these newspapers scattered across the country, multiplied by the number of readers of each newspaper, was used as the basis for calculating their reputation damage to Tom Cruise, plus the lost film projects, this number far exceeded the value of McCall's magazine...

The other party's lawyer proposed a settlement. As long as CW Films was willing to withdraw the lawsuit, they were willing to give the magazine to the other party. Coincidentally, the magazine's owner, the New York Times, was also seeking to sell the magazine due to operating losses.

However, Paula Wagner did not want to take the magazine for nothing. She actually wanted to put pressure on the editor-in-chief of the magazine to hand over the person who gave him the news.

If McCall's magazine goes bankrupt, the editorial team will not be able to find a job in the industry because they have ruined the longest-running women's magazine in America. So the editor-in-chief is still negotiating with CW Films, hoping not to force him to give up the tradition of keeping informants confidential in the news industry.

But Paula Wagner didn't care about that. She just wanted to expose the black hand behind it. Under her threats and continuous pressure, someone in the editorial team finally couldn't stand it anymore and took the initiative to come forward to confess that they had received an anonymous express package from Los Angeles, which contained all the historical speeches and video materials of Tom Cruise that could be associated with sexual issues. It was like someone helped them choose the topic and verify the source.

What's more serious is that in addition to the issue of orientation, this package also includes some things about Tom Cruise in the Church of Scientology, such as him agreeing with the teachings of Scientology and doing a lot of propaganda that is very different from the general public's cognition.

For example, mentally ill people are caused by bad guys in the Scientology Church being thrown into the crater by the universe, and all kinds of bad genes enter the human brain, so they don’t need to take prescription drugs prescribed by doctors. They just need to go to the Scientology Church every week and use a multimeter to do an audit to temporarily clear up...

The negative impact of this thunder on Tom Cruise is on the same level as the issue of sexual orientation, and will cause serious damage to his acting career.

Paula Wagner used this opportunity to persuade Tom Cruise not to represent Scientology in the future and to specify the use of expensive Scientology-certified recording microphones in the crew he was in, so that he could repay the friendship of Scientology.

There is no need to be at the forefront of promoting Scientology. John Travolta and Kelly Preston, another couple in Hollywood who believe in Scientology, have mentioned Scientology in public, but at most they have talked about how Scientology helped them get through the lows in their lives...

On the other hand, she came to Ronald for help with the anonymous package that appeared unsolicited at McCall's magazine.

"You mean, this is a proactive attack against us?" Ronald didn't reach out to take the package, but his words still revealed that this attack was aimed at both him and Tom Cruise.

Obviously, "Interview with the Vampire" is more likely to make people think wrongly about Tom Cruise's orientation than "Top Gun", because the character he plays in the former is a bi-directional one...

But the starting point of all the rumors was the movie "Top Gun" that he filmed many years ago. If you didn't vividly describe how the Lone Ranger played by Tom Cruise took too many showers and sweated profusely while playing volleyball, the audience would have forgotten the details of the movie long ago.

In addition, in Top Gun, Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis actually had intimate scenes, but they deliberately did not mention this at all, and tried hard to distort the movie in that direction.

Instead of using the ready-made Interview with the Vampire that everyone still remembers, he chose to bring up Top Gun, simply because he was the director back then.

"Yes, these are all well-organized materials, deliberately hinting at certain predetermined directions..." Paula Wagner wanted to show them to Ronald.

"Don't move..." Ronald stopped her. Although it was very likely that no fingerprints could be found, Ronald still wanted to try his luck. He found Detective Claire of the FBI's counterintelligence department, told her about the incident in detail, and hoped that she could recommend an expert to help him.

"Why do you need me to recommend him? The most famous trace examination expert in the United States is in Los Angeles?" Detective Claire replied to Ronald with a smile, don't seek far away.

"Ah, who is that?" Ronald also became interested. America is a country with a large number of experts and masters. It is very difficult to be recognized as the best in any field.

"Henry C. Lee... He was invited by OJ Simpson's team to serve as a trace examination expert for the case..."

……

"Is this guy any good?" Paula Wagner looked at Henry Lee's resume and was a little unsure. This expert looked like an ordinary Chinese American with an unremarkable appearance.

"OJ Simpson's defense dream team found him..." Ronald dispelled the other party's suspicion with just one sentence. In order to escape the crime, Simpson recruited many nationally renowned lawyers to form a defense team known as the dream team.

In addition to debate experts like Johnnie Cochrane and cross-examination experts like F. Lee Bailey... they also found Henry Lee, the most authoritative person in the United States on trace examination, under the leadership of Robert Shapiro, to question the procedural deficiencies of the prosecution in handling evidence, hoping to use his fame to weaken the effectiveness of the prosecution's evidence.

……

"Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come here. I know you are busy with the OJ Simpson case. You happen to be in Los Angeles, and I have a difficult problem here. I need your help..."

Ronald met this expert at home. He was a well-dressed Chinese man, giving people a sense of trust. Henry also spoke in a logical manner, and it was obvious that he was an expert who had been immersed in the field of criminal investigation, which emphasizes logic and facts, for many years.

"In fact, the price you offer is higher than OJ's, and my help to you is a way of punishing evil and promoting good, unlike when I helped OJ, there were accusations from within the system."

Paula Wagner was immediately impressed when she saw the real person. Speaking the truth like this would indeed make the other party feel like they want to believe him. He came to testify in the OJ case, and no matter how he argued that he wanted to promote the testing laboratories to comply with the rules, the core reason must be for the high appearance fee.

Ronald offered a higher salary and there was no burden on his conscience, so Henry Lee said that he would give it 100%, which made him feel at ease.

Paula also heard him talk about some of his own famous cases, a woman was killed by her husband who was an FBI agent, and the body was chopped up with a wood chipper and sprayed into the lake. It was such a perfect crime, and he even found his murdered wife's DNA in the wood chipper that was fished out of the lake...

"So, please help my partner Mr. Tom Cruise find out who is framing him..." Paula Wagner had high hopes for Henry Lee, and after signing the contract and confidentiality agreement, she told him everything.

"I have to say that the preservation of these documents is not very good. They have been handled by many people and are no longer in the same state as when they were originally sent to the magazine. In addition, these documents were printed out by a printer and delivered by the courier company. They were very careful not to leave any clues about the sender. Have you asked the courier company?"

"I have asked, but since it has been so long, no one remembers what happened..."

"Well, such a meticulous person might not leave any fingerprints or clues that can be traced back to him..." Henry Lee said, wearing gloves and looking at the folders of documents and packages with a magnifying glass.

"So there is no way?" Paula Wagner was a little disappointed.

"I shook hands with you when I came in. With this kind of contact, there must be traces of substances on my hands that were transferred to you, and vice versa. This is determined by scientific theory, so nothing can be done without leaving any traces. We can still find some clues, at least to provide some directions for further investigation."

Watching Henry Lee's explanation, Ronald and Paula Wagner also felt that they had found the right person. Although they didn't know what he could find out, if he couldn't find it, it might be difficult to find someone else who could.

Dr. Henry Lee collected all the evidence and had dinner at Ronald's house. This Chinese habit, coupled with the best Cantonese chef in Los Angeles, made him very satisfied. After the meal, Henry Lee smiled and said:
"Since I accepted the invitation from OJ, you are the first person to meet me without asking me my opinion on the case."

"Dr. Lee, did OJ do it or not?" Diane couldn't help but ask a question that any ordinary American would ask.

Because Henry Lee is now a nationally renowned criminal investigation expert. Last year, President William Foster, the personal lawyer and deputy director of the White House travel department, committed suicide. In order to quell the controversy, the White House invited him to investigate.

The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Sherlock Holmes-like cartoons of him holding a magnifying glass and searching for clues in the White House. Having seen highly publicized cases, Henry Lee assumed that everyone would be interested in this.

"I speculate that some individual police officers may have made mistakes due to preconceived bias or other reasons. However, once the physical evidence is contaminated, the day when the truth comes out becomes a distant prospect for the victim..."

Henry Lee is also a very talkative person when the occasion is right. He mainly talked about the procedural errors in the LAPD's case handling and the various philosophies of American law that do not accept illegal evidence...

"Ronald, you don't seem to be very interested in this case." Henry Lee received a lot of admiring looks from Diane and Paula Wagner, but Ronald, on the other hand, seemed a little absent-minded.

"Ah? Oh, actually, I completely agree with you, Doctor. If the police officers in charge of this case could collect evidence in full accordance with the law and did not intentionally want to convict OJ, then the criminal might be less likely to escape punishment than in the current situation..."

Henry Lee looked at Ronald, not quite believing what he said. A famous Hollywood self-made billionaire might have some unique insights. He repeatedly asked Ronald to tell him his opinion.

"The judge in this case is the Japanese-American judge Ito, who was chosen by lottery, rather than other judges with more authority and experience. This shows that this is definitely not an ordinary case. The court also wants to use the ethnic background of the candidate to block the possibility of using ethnic bias to attack the judicial system.

In addition, except for those moot court reality shows in New York, basically no court in this country allows live broadcasts. However, Judge Ito allows the media to broadcast some trials live every week.

Finally..."

Ronald hesitated to speak.

"What do you mean?" Henry Lee's expression also became serious.

"Jury selection..." Ronald whispered...

The jury for OJ's wife-killing case has been confirmed. Among the 12 jurors selected in the city center, 9 are black...

……

Henry Lee was mainly present as an expert witness in the OJ case. After getting inspiration from Ronald, he did not devote much time to preparing for the testimony. Instead, he spent a lot of time every day with his assistants in the laboratory prepared by Ronald to do a lot of tests on the package of documents and videotapes. However, there was no breakthrough for a while...

That day, Ronald had not yet waited for the mystery of who was attacking him and Cruise to be revealed, but he did receive news from another player in the industry.

Crédit Lyonnais, the interim trustee of MGM, approached him and asked if he was interested in acquiring what was formerly the most powerful film studio in Hollywood.

"Why are you asking me if I'm interested? I don't think I've ever mentioned any intention to acquire a traditional studio?" Ronald was a little unsure of what the other party meant. He had no choice but to call in Ed Bastian, Michelle Cannold, David Simkins and other executives to discuss whether this was an opportunity or a trap.