America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 540 A Huge Sacrifice

Over the weekend, leveraging Coca-Cola's channels and resources, Martin held the first informal gathering of the Coca-Cola Cult at the Los Angeles Country Club. Many well-known figures who had registered on the official website received his handwritten invitations.

Besides Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicholson, many other heavyweights from the industry also participated, such as Jolie and Aniston, two opinion leaders of the #MeToo movement, Robert Downey Jr. and his wife, Daniel, who has long collaborated with Martin and Louise, and so on.

Many people from outside the industry also came from other places, and all related expenses were covered by the proceeds from Martin's portrait in the commemorative Coca-Cola.

For example, Neves of the FBI, and McLean of the LAPD, etc.

These people may have joined such a obviously playful organization out of curiosity or because of Martin.

But upon arriving at the scene, he discovered that it was a great networking platform, with fashion and film company owners, well-known critics, Hollywood stars, directors and producers, powerful figures from official American violent organizations, liberal opinion leaders, and even state legislators.

Some people even approached Martin, the leader of the Cola Cult, asking him to hold more of these kinds of gatherings across the United States in the future.

During this time, Martin also received a call from White House Chief of Staff Ram Emmanuel.

Ram expressed his interest in the gathering and invited Martin to Washington to host the next Cult of Cola meeting.

During the gathering, Martin made a point of chatting with his two old friends, Neves and McLean.

Together they orchestrated the infamous Russian spy case and profited immensely from it; McLean is now preparing to run for the next Los Angeles Police Chief.

The loosely organized Cola Cult has begun to platformize.

After the party, Martin kept Daniel from Warner Bros. behind for a private talk about the Inception production team and the copyright of The Hobbit.

The former should feel free to blame Harvey.

The latter's copyright issues generate huge profits, which Martin doesn't need to elaborate on.

"If he had any sense, he should have relinquished the copyright," Daniel said directly, "instead of trying to steal Warner's rights."

Martin chimed in, "Unfortunately, Harvey was never a sensible man."

Daniel smiled. "Not only is he ungrateful, but he also presumptuously tries to control everything."

Martin knew it wasn't that they were being tactless, but rather that the interests involved were too great.

If he were in a different position, facing the huge royalties from The Hobbit, would he give it up so easily?

Daniel then said to Martin, "Harvey has offended all the top executives at Warner Bros. I was the producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and he gave me a lot of flak back then. Not to mention Barry Mayer and Alan Horn. If murder wasn't illegal, Harvey would have been killed a hundred times over by them."

Martin was blunt: "Harvey has had a smooth ride all these years, but he's too domineering, and there's bound to be a day when he falls."

Daniel understood what Martin meant: "He better fall down and never get up again! Believe me, Martin, Warner, this fast-moving car, will definitely run him over."

Before he left, he said to Martin, "I forgot to tell you, Warner Bros. plans to adapt The Hobbit into a trilogy, and I'll still be the distributor."

Martin already knew this, which is why he approached Daniel and said, "Congratulations."

Daniel said, "If the copyright issue can't be resolved, all the preparations could be wasted."

Martin said, "There's always a way to solve it."

…………

Outside a hotel in New York.

Lukaku sat in a car, pressed the listen button, and started recording.

Courtois asked, "Any big news?"

Lukaku slowly shook his head: "Sienna Miller invited a group of female models to a party, there's no big news... They mentioned Martin Davis, and it seems Angela Lindwall said that there's a test you have to pass to join the supermodel group."

The car door opened from the outside, and Hazard got in carrying a hamburger, asking, "What are the conditions?"

Lukaku said, "The only condition for joining the supermodel group is sleeping with Martin Davis. That's what Carolina said, and everyone else agrees. These sluts have opened betting on whether Georgina Chapman can achieve this condition this year."

Courtois was disappointed: "Why didn't their offer be to sleep with me? I'm so easy to sleep with!"

Hazard shoved a hamburger at him and said, "Isn't Georgina Chapman Harvey Weinstein's wife, the one we investigated a while back?"

“Yes, that’s her,” Lukaku added. “She’s also a fashion brand designer. According to Sienna Miller and Angela Lindwall, Martin introduced her to the American fashion industry…”

Courtois said, "I remember Harvey and Martin didn't get along, but Harvey's wife and Martin had a good relationship. The entertainment and fashion industries are really messed up."

Hazard took a big bite of his hamburger: "Think about all the data we've collected. Compared to what Harvey did, this is nothing."

There was a sudden knock on the car door. Courtois looked up and saw a strange man. He rolled down the window and asked, "What's up?"

Ivanise handed him a business card: "I'm a reporter for TMZ, and I'd like to buy something from you."

The other party wanted to close the window completely, so Ivan stretched the check in his other hand halfway through the window.

With his money activated, the three men immediately ushered him into the car.

Ivan stated directly, "I received information from your newspaper that you investigated Harvey Weinstein and have some explosive news about him."

For the sake of money, Hazard said, "You managed to find out such confidential information, TMZ is really damn amazing! We did find out quite a lot. The editor-in-chief originally wanted to publish it, but a Jewish guy at headquarters suppressed it, and all the bombshells were deleted."

Ivan said, "Didn't you keep a backup?"

Hazard shrugged and spread his hands.

Ivan then took out the check and placed it on his lap.

Upon seeing the number on the check, Courtois was about to speak when Hazard preemptively said, "Really, there isn't."

Ivan nodded and pulled out another check: "You're keeping it in your possession so you can sell it for a good price, aren't you?"

The three men exchanged glances, reaching a tacit understanding. Hazard put down his hamburger and said, "Double the price. Not only will we have juicy videos and recordings, but we'll also provide you with the phone numbers and contact information of several victims willing to come forward."

Ivan held out his hand: "Okay."

Hazard shook hands with him: "Deal!"

These three journalists were very professional; even while Hazard was negotiating with someone, Lukaku remained seated, continuing to eavesdrop and record Sienna Miller's party.

He heard Georgina Chapman say, "I'm getting ready to go back to Los Angeles and throw a fashion party, and I'm inviting Martin to come."

Lukaku couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "Martin is in danger!"

…………

Just after Ivan bought their data and returned to Los Angeles, Bruce, having been notified, called Jody.

The two met in Bruce's car, just like before.

Jody had applied exquisite makeup and looked exceptionally beautiful. If you ignored the fact that she was a bit flat-chested, she could definitely be called a beauty.

"You haven't come to see me in ages, Old Bu." She had a strange resentment in her voice: "Now that you're rich, have you forgotten about your old friend?"

Bruce said, "How could that be? I've always remembered you. There's some big news, so I came to find you right away."

Jody, who had taken over a lot of news and business from Bruce, said, "You guys are going to start hyping things up again."

"No hype this time." Bruce handed her a USB drive. "Old friend, I've given you a great opportunity to win the Pulitzer Prize."

Jody said, "It could be a huge pitfall."

Bruce pointed to the USB drive: "Take a look first."

Jody opened her laptop and played a video from a USB drive. It contained a monologue by an unknown actress describing how Harvey Weinstein had assaulted her.

Her expression turned serious: "That's it? The Pulitzer Prize? Old Brooks, you're kidding!"

Bruce reminded him, "Watch it all."

Jody opened another video, which was less than two minutes long. It was a video of Harvey Weinstein assaulting a girl, and the process made her, as a woman, feel extremely uncomfortable watching it.

Then there was another recording, and the voice sounded a lot like Harvey.

After listening, Jody asked, "Is that all?"

Bruce held up his little finger: "These are only a small fraction."

Jody was fearless and daring in her pursuit of news; her first instinct was to rush forward and expose him. But reason told her that things weren't that simple, and she said, "That's Harvey Weinstein! I could ruin my career!"

Bruce said, "If your future is ruined, I'll give you a large sum of money so you can live a life of luxury without having to work hard."

This dispelled some of Jody's doubts, since many issues ultimately boil down to money.

"Think about it, the Pulitzer Prize, the highest honor for a journalist. With your current career trajectory, you'll likely never even get a chance to win it in your lifetime!" Bruce knew Jody; she was a woman willing to take huge risks. "Indeed, Harvey Weinstein is very powerful, but precisely because of that, once his true colors are revealed, the rewards will be extremely substantial. The risk and the reward are directly proportional."

He specifically mentioned someone: "I saw firsthand how Helen from WarnerMedia succeeded. Even when bullets were flying, she was always following Martin and me."

Jody still had doubts: "TMZ might be holding back from releasing it."

Bruce had already figured out that Jody had no intention of refusing: "If your boss Harvey Levin doesn't want to report it, I'll sell it to someone else. And one more thing, these are things I got by bribing the paparazzi at the News of the World. The Sun's headquarters are in England; if no one reports on it for a long time, they'll leak it too. Do you think they care about Weinstein?"

Jody closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "Okay, give me everything. I'm the deputy editor-in-chief now, and I have the independent authority to publish news and pin it to the top of the TMZ homepage. But I won't publish it immediately. This is too crazy. I need to watch the video, meet the person involved in person, and make sure it's a fatal blow!"

Bruce said, "No problem."

"I have one more condition," Jody said, staring at Bruce. "Old Bruce, you have to spend the night with me!"

For the sake of the future, both Martin and Old Brooks made huge physical sacrifices.

(End of this chapter)