America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 795 Violation of the Ban and Email Scandal

In Santa Monica, in the house Martin gave Bruce, Jody had prepared dinner and called Bruce over to eat.

Bruce wore a pair of tight-fitting swim trunks that looked rather comical, covered with a dozen or so heat patches, making him look quite bizarre.

Jody was confused: "What's wrong with you?"

"My pelvis hurts." Bruce has been to Chinatown many times to buy things like Tiger Balm: "Someone told me that I should keep warm when my bones hurt."

Hearing this again, Jody subconsciously touched her backside, furious, and said angrily, "This time you took the initiative!"

Bruce, that scoundrel, spouts nothing but nonsense: "I'm worried you'll do something to Martin."

Jody finally understood why she had fallen for Bruce and thought he was her soulmate—because he was just as shameless as she was.

Bruce sat down to eat, saying as he ate, "When we were doing this, you were only focused on enjoying yourself and didn't give me any answers to what I said."

Jody tidied her golden-brown hair and tied it into a high ponytail. Sitting opposite Bruce, she said, "I've been in this business for over ten years. I might not remember some of the small things, but I always remember the big things very clearly. I've never fabricated important news."

Bruce believed these words because he knew Jody: "I didn't ask you to report fake news, but to do it the way you do best."

Jody's fiery eyes, bloodshot, stared at Bruce: "Do you know what I'm best at?"

Bruce didn't answer and continued eating.

"You have to pay the price to get something." Jody suddenly laughed. "Old Brooks, don't you want to see news favorable to Martin appear on TMZ?"

Bruce stood up and walked around the table to Jody's side.

He made his nth sacrifice for Martin.

When all that was over, Bruce and Jody got down to business.

As a journalist and editor-in-chief with professional ethics and journalistic principles, Jody absolutely disagrees with TMZ reporting fake news, as this goes against her principles!

Reports that fabricate events that did not happen are called fake news.

When something happens and is reported, it naturally becomes real news.

Therefore, before reporting, you must first create news.

Both Bruce and Jody had done this many times before, so they had no psychological barriers and performed it with exceptional skill.

On the very morning of the day the Academy mailed out Oscar ballots, someone used hacking techniques and unregulated public devices to send a significant email to numerous Academy members.

The content wasn't meant to discredit other Oscar competitors, but rather to highly praise Ang Lee and "Life of Pi".

…………

Ralph, who lives in North Hollywood, joined the Art Directors Guild as early as 1999. A few years later, he received an invitation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to become an Academy member and gain the right to vote for an Oscar.

In the beginning, Ralph would carefully watch the nominated films before each Oscars, have serious discussions with public relations personnel or relevant filmmakers, and finally solemnly cast his crucial vote.

After several consecutive Oscars, Ralph noticed that none of the films he favored won any major awards, and his enthusiasm gradually waned.

He became a model of fair voting, frequently demonstrating responsible voting methods such as throwing stones with his eyes closed and writing on the second floor.

He also frequently publishes articles in the media and on blogs, criticizing the Academy for letting publicity and public relations run rampant, leading to a chaotic situation at the Oscars.

Although he's not young, Ralph can be considered a radical youth at the film academy.

Neither the film academy nor the art directors' union really welcomed him.

After breakfast, Ralph went to his study, turned on his computer, and prepared to post a blog entry. This year's Oscars were at a crucial moment, and the media reports were in complete chaos, making it another terrible year.

As he opened his blog, he also logged into his work email, which showed three new unread emails.

The first two emails were work-related communications, which Ralph deleted immediately after reading them. However, the third email piqued his interest because it was related to Oscar's public relations.

The email was sent anonymously.

"Dear Mr. Ralph Jackson, we apologize for the intrusion and hope to receive your understanding."

We're writing to you hoping you'll enjoy the film *Life of Pi*. If you do and want us to win, please vote for us and forward this to your Oscar voting friends, actors, directors, crew, art directors, and special effects artists. If everyone forwards it to one or two friends, we can win the Oscar…”

This is clearly a vote-soliciting email!

Ralph's face turned extremely ugly, because according to the Academy's rules, any film crew participating in the Oscar competition is strictly prohibited from sending emails to any judges to solicit votes.

Just like public relations activities such as film analysis meetings and breakfast meetings, you can send out various materials, launch various indirect lobbying efforts, and even give small gifts to the judges, but you are strictly prohibited from directly soliciting votes from the academy members.

You can say how good the movie is, but you can't say, "Give me your vote."

Of course, the college's regulations are one thing, but in practice, it's quite another.

For example, in private, friends like the trio of jerks can say whatever they want to each other.

For example, the academy stipulated that gifts from film crews could not exceed $35, so film crews started "renting" their gifts to the judges...

According to the academy's regulations, materials or reviews related to the film, as well as various promotional articles, can be sent to academy members via email, as long as they do not contain any voting-related content, there will be no problem.

Even if it occurs, it is generally not a problem under normal circumstances.

If you don't want to say it, I won't say it either.

But Ralph, whom Nicholson specifically chose, was different. He was a cynical old man who had been dissatisfied with the chaotic Oscar PR team for years.

In the past, Ralph would turn a blind eye unless he offended him.

Ralph can't stand it when someone sends campaign emails directly to his work email address.

"These bastards are going too far!" After a moment's thought, he had an idea. He immediately took a screenshot of the email and logged into his blog to quickly write a post.

"Some film crews and films are blatantly violating Oscar rules in their public relations efforts. Is the Academy doing anything about it?"

Ralph then posted a blog entry containing screenshots of the email content.

That wasn't all. Ralph then tagged the official blog of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak, forwarding his recent post with accompanying pictures to them, and also posted another article.

"I, Ralph Jackson, am reporting someone for misconduct in their Oscars public relations!"

After posting the blog entry, Ralph felt much better, but looking at the completely silent blog, he frowned again.

Are the academy's bigwigs really unaware of these behind-the-scenes events? The current president of the academy, Tom Sherac, is a producer, the vice president, Tom Hanks, is a superstar, and the female vice president, Kathleen Kennedy, has been Spielberg's assistant for many years.

These people have all been through the Oscar race, so they must know what's going on.

Suddenly, a message notification sounded on the blog.

Ralph thought the academy had replied, so he quickly opened the message, only to find that it wasn't.

A media outlet sent him a message.

"Hello, Mr. Jackson, I'm a reporter from TMZ. I just saw your blog post and accompanying pictures. Could you spare a few minutes to tell me if these were received by you personally?"

Ralph's heart skipped a beat, and he replied, "That's right, this is an email I just received this morning. The other party has clearly violated the academy's ban by directly soliciting my votes via email."

The reporter waited a while before replying: "I checked the college's regulations and called the college. It's true that the ban was violated. Mr. Jackson, can TMZ interview you about this? We won't take up too much of your time."

Ralph didn't reply immediately, but instead checked the blog; Tom Sherak and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' official blog remained silent.

Although he knew that since it involved the college's official authorities, it was impossible to give him a clear answer so quickly, Ralph carefully considered it and replied to the reporter: "Okay, come to Moon Bay Cafe on Laurel Valley Boulevard in North Hollywood at ten o'clock."

The reply came immediately: "Okay, I'll set off right now."

Ralph waited for more than ten minutes but still didn't receive a reply. He turned off his computer, put on his coat, and drove to the agreed-upon place.

This will certainly draw some criticism, but he doesn't care.

Ralph is about to retire, and with his pension and royalties from his previous works, he'll be able to live very comfortably.

As for the film academy, what can they do about it?

Ralph holds no official position within the academy; he is simply a member, and academy membership is for life, meaning it is not easily revoked.

To be precise, in the nearly 100 years since the founding of the Hollywood Film Academy, only one person has been expelled from the academy.

That man's name is Harvey Weinstein!

Ralph arrived at the agreed location on time and was interviewed by a TMZ reporter.

After obtaining the former's consent, the latter conducted a video interview with Ralph about the matter.

That same afternoon, TMZ broadcast an interview with Ralph and included screenshots of his emails and blog in the news report.

In addition, the college's strict regulations on this matter were noted to avoid confusion among onlookers.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had just mailed out the ballots, right at the time when the Oscars voting was the most watched event in the United States. This event immediately went viral, with Twitter, Instagram and YouTube all sharing it, and it climbed to the top of the trending list that day.

Subsequently, a member of the academy from the port city and another member from South Korea also posted pictures on Twitter, revealing that they had received similar emails.

Although the emails were all sent anonymously, and TMZ's report did not mention the production team or the film's name, the beneficiaries were clearly visible.

When such things are hidden beneath the surface, all is calm.

But as soon as someone popped up, the water immediately began to boil.

Once the first person to speak out was identified, dozens of other members of the academy also revealed the same emails through various means.

Media outlets eager for breaking news rushed to follow suit, and the Oscar "email scandal" erupted!

(End of this chapter)