Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1545: The Ochre Traitor
"Boss, this is your express delivery..." As an employee that Ronald trusted the most, Yang Yanzi made a special trip to Connecticut for him to deliver a donation check and a thick envelope to Dr. Henry Lee.

Then she waited another night at Dr. Li's research center until Dr. Li personally performed the identification. She then flew back to Los Angeles without stopping, carrying the results sealed in an envelope.

"Thank you. Would you like to sleep in the guest room for a while? You've worked so hard..." Ronald held the thick envelope and placed it on the table calmly.

"What is this? Boss, is it a script?" Yang Yanzi asked suddenly. She had flown a long distance and perhaps unable to suppress her curiosity, she asked a personal question that she shouldn't have asked.

"Did you ask Dr. Li for some plot points? Boss, are you going to make a suspense film? Is it a courtroom drama like Lawyer Mason?"

"Almost. I need his help to check the key plot twist in one of my scripts." Ronald smiled. Yang Yanzi was indeed a smart person. Although this question seemed abrupt, she was actually telling herself that I had not opened it to see what was inside.

"Oh. Is the court really going to overturn the verdict on the spot? I can't wait. You know I'm a fan of Lawyer Mason? Is the lawyer in this script also a white-haired lawyer like him, who can point to the audience seats at the back of the courtroom and that's the real murderer?"

"Well, you guessed the plot, that's not good, I have to change it, maybe change it to a beautiful lawyer like you..."

"Oh hahaha, boss, you are really amazing. I'm leaving now. Please show me what you have written when the time comes, okay?"

"boom……"

After Yang Yanzi left, there was a loud noise from the study upstairs, and then Ronald cried out in pain. Chinese furniture is made of hardwood, and he hit it hard with his palm. The desk was fine, but Ronald cried out in pain.

In the envelope that Yang Yanzi brought back, Dr. Henry Lee clearly stated that several pages in this script were printed by the same printer as the revelations that had been secretly sent out before.

Looking at the pages of the script that Dr. Li had marked, it turned out that the paper used was all the same color, ochre yellow. This showed that these pages of the revised script were put in at the same time...

Ronald looked at the pages of the ochre-yellow script and felt very disgusted. It was not 100% certain that Michael Ovitz had done it, but all the evidence pointed to him, and even God seemed to have given Ronald a hint...

In art history, Judas, the traitor who betrayed Jesus, often wore ochre yellow. At least in Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting "The Last Supper", Judas, who was holding a bag of silver coins, was wearing ochre yellow clothes.

Taking some ice cubes from the refrigerator and applying them to his hands, Ronald decided to make sure first. He called Barbra Streisand and said that there was a conversation between a mother and her daughter at home in those pages of the script that needed further revision.

Barbara Streisand was puzzled. It was the plot where the heroine discovered the source of her unhappiness in the first half of her life, mainly because her mother had been accusing her of not being pretty. This time when her mother lived in her house, the two of them had another conflict. The heroine realized that this was all her mother's harsh criticism of her daughter, and thus she rediscovered herself.

Ronald replied that no mother would verbally attack her daughter just because she was not pretty enough or not as pretty as herself. On the contrary, women of the older generation would urge their daughters to dress up more, because at that time, the only way out for women was to marry a husband.

"Oh..." Barbra Streisand is a soft-hearted person. She really has no talent in directing and screenwriting, but with her many years of acting experience, she can still recognize what is a good idea.

As soon as Ronald pointed out this point, she immediately understood that what she had thought before was wrong. Those senior consultants had advised her to revise the script to highlight the heroine played by herself, but Ronald's idea was the real drama.

In the history of the bad relationship between mother and daughter, this sentence suddenly revealed the truth. The mother and daughter just had different views on the world and women, which led to a lack of communication, and both of them had a deep love for each other.

"You're right, Ronald, I'll change it right away..."

"You have to think about it. I don't want to hear Richard LaGravenese (the screenwriter of this film) complain to me in two days that you are going to change it back after listening to some senior consultant."

"Hahaha, you already know it. That won't happen. That won't happen. I've acted in many movies directed by famous directors and read many scripts that won an Oscar for Best Screenplay. What you said is the key to this story. It will make the image of the protagonist Ross, played by me, more three-dimensional."

"Well, I hope so. I'm curious, who is giving you the advice, Jon Peters? He's not so short-sighted, is he?"

Ronald deliberately mentioned a person's name. Peters was Gubel's partner and Barbra Streisand's former boyfriend. He started out as a hairdresser and it was with Streisand that he began to rise rapidly in Hollywood...

After that, Barbra Streisand had a new love, Richard Gere... Peters and her broke up amicably and they still remained friends.

"Hey, no, no, Jon has always been encouraging me. I listened to Michael O...Oh, no..." Barbara remembered the rumors in the industry that Ronald and Ovitz were not on good terms.

"Ovitz? I guess it's him. He's a very good producer and the most successful agent in the industry. But, Barbara, I think we artists still have to be persistent. Their maximization of commercial interests is not consistent with ours."

What Ronald meant was that directors and actors want the film to be excellent and well-received by critics. But businessmen like Ovitz want to cram in as many actors as possible. There will definitely be disagreements between the two in casting and scripts, and as a director, you have to stick to it.

"Well, you're right. No wonder he invited me to his house and persuaded me to change the story. You know, he can be very persuasive sometimes..."

"Bingo..." Ronald got the information he wanted and was about to hang up the phone.

"Ronald, who do you think would be a better choice to play my mother?" The more Barbra Streisand thought about it, the more she felt that what Ronald said made sense. There could be more sparks between the mother and her daughter, Rose.

"I do think of a candidate, but it might be better if you don't use her..." Ronald thought for a while, and a supporting role in the Golden Globe-nominated movie "The Storm Riders" jumped out.

"Who?"

"Lauren Bacall..."

Ronald was talking about Lauren Bacall, the leading actor in "Casablanca," Humphrey Bogart's widow, and a star at the end of Hollywood's golden age. She was famous for her beauty and had starred in movies like "How to Marry a Millionaire." In the minds of the audience, she was very similar to the image of Ross's mother.

Lauren Bacall's acting is also very good, especially in the recent movies. She is more mature as she gets older, and often a few lines can make other actors feel stimulated. However, because of this, Ronald actually feels that compared with Lauren Bacall, Barbra Streisand's acting skills will be exposed.

"Your idea is great. I'll contact her agent right away..." Who knows if Barbara Streisand didn't understand... Or maybe she understood, but was just mysteriously confident in her acting skills. She won an Oscar and shared the Best Actress crown with Katharine Hepburn...

Lauren Bacall, on the other hand, has never received an Oscar. Whose acting skills do you think are better? Perhaps in Streisand's eyes, her own acting skills are indeed outstanding, right?
Regardless of all this, Ronald hung up the phone and summoned Ed Bastian to fly to Los Angeles. Together with Richard, Rick Nicita, Paula Wagner, and his lawyer Lindsay Doll, they held an emergency meeting in the conference room at home.

"Everyone, please leave your cell phones and other communication tools here..." Bodyguard Daniel, along with a team of security personnel, collected the cell phones of all participants at the door and scanned their bodies from top to bottom with detectors to confirm that there were no eavesdropping devices before letting them in.

Everyone looked at Ronald, who still had an ice pack on his hand, and they were all confused about what was going on. They exchanged glances with each other, and only Bastian had some guesses in his mind.

"Everyone, you are all the people I trust the most. Now someone wants to mess with me, my Daydream Pictures, the business we founded and developed together... What do you think I should do?"

"Of course Fuxk went back... whoever he is..." Richard was the first to speak out.

"Of course, we will fight back mercilessly against anyone who tries to do this..." Paula Wagner also understood something. When she spoke out, she was not only speaking on behalf of her husband Rick Niceta, but also on behalf of Cruise, who now runs a company with her.

Ed Bastian looked at Ronald firmly and nodded. His interests were highly similar to Ronald's, so there was no need to say more.

"Of course, I support you, Ronald. But I seem to be the only one here who doesn't know what happened." Lindsay Doll looked around and asked the question in her heart.

"That's why I asked you to come, Lindsay." Ronald handed out copies of the appraisal conclusion, several pages of samples of the negative material on Ronald and Cruise that had been sent to the media, and the two ochre-yellow pages of the script to everyone.

After everyone read it, they all understood the root of the problem. These people's interests were closely tied to Ronald's, and it was impossible for Ovitz to buy them out. Ronald wanted to consult with them to gather their wisdom.

Ovitz has been in Hollywood for more than a decade longer than Ronald. He also built a big business with nothing. In addition, Ovitz himself is also a billionaire, so he is basically immune to the means of using money to hit him.

In order to completely eliminate this threat, Ronald thought about it and decided that they would have a better chance of success if they combined everyone's strength.

"Expose this matter?" Niceta whispered.

"That's not right. We don't actually have very solid evidence..." His wife Paula Wagner was the first to object.

The evidence Ronald showed them was actually quite complicated, and it was not easy to explain it to an ordinary citizen. If it was directly exposed, Ovitz actually had quite a few ways to deny it.

For example, the printer was not his, someone was secretly printing on it, Ronald framed him, etc. Moreover, Paula Wagner was also worried that the scandal of Tom Cruise, which had been suppressed with great difficulty, would be hyped up again.

"That's not a good option, Rick."

Ronald also understood that he had to unite the majority to defeat an opponent who was equally powerful as him. This was also the original intention of inviting Paula.

"I understand. I just want to propose an option that is easy to think of first." Niceta and Paula looked at each other. Ronald is still a wise man who will take into account the interests of his allies. Such a person is worth following, and he is much more willing to cooperate with Ovitz, who earns 99.5 yuan for himself and only leaves a nickel for his opponent.

"Ovitz also has a strong influence in the media, no less than us." Bastian understands Ovitz's strength better, and he also has allies in the media industry.

"Ronald, what do you think revenge would be like? To take him to court or to destroy his reputation?" Lindsay Doll read the documents over and over again. She was good at thinking about things from a legal perspective.

Although this case is weak, it is not impossible to gain some benefits in court. However, first she needs to understand what Ronald wants.

"First of all, I don't want another powerful person to always hide in the dark and attack me..." Ronald picked up the ochre-yellow scripts. "I'm not a saint like Jesus. I hope this traitor will no longer have the ability to betray me."

"So, you want him to leave CAA, or retire voluntarily?" Lindsay Doll frowned. This matter was not easy. There was little hope through legal means.

"Not only that, I hope he won't have enough power in Hollywood to mess with us in the future." Ronald wasn't just thinking about CAA.

"This is a long-term plan, Ronald. It's unlikely that we can knock out a man of Ovitz's weight with a single punch." Rick Niceta became steady. His history in the brokerage industry was no shorter than Ovitz's, and he knew very well that it was not so easy to ban a person in this industry.

After all, an agent doesn't need any particularly monopolistic capital. As long as there is an actor willing to entrust the contract signing matter to you, you have an agent business.

"I think maybe we don't need to drive him out, Ovitz himself wants to leave this industry." Richard Levitt suddenly spoke up. Among these people, he wanted Ovitz to go away the most.

"Hmm?" Ronald looked at Richard.

"It's like this. Ovitz has expressed his dissatisfaction with agents not being able to legally participate in the production business several times in the office. He is often out of sight now, which is very similar to the situation when he was bringing together Sony Columbia and Panasonic Universal...

We need to contact Ron Meyer, the only remaining founding partner of CAA besides him... His views on Ovitz are highly consistent with ours..."