America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 796 Upholding the Truthfulness of News

Beverly Hills, Davis Estate.

After finishing their intense exercise and taking a shower, Martin, Lily, and Elizabeth went to the large balcony in their bedroom for a drink.

Elizabeth scrolled through her phone, looking at the news about "Life of Pi," and a strange sense of familiarity washed over her. She asked, "I remember 'Life of Pi' was a competitor to 'Argo,' right?"

Martin saw no need to deny it, saying, "I also want things to be calm, but other production teams are unwilling and insist on creating competition, so I have no choice but to face it head-on."

Lily sidled up to Elizabeth, looked at the news on her phone, and said, "Kill them!"

Elizabeth pondered and said, "When I was in school, I also thought about becoming an actress. Back then, I thought the Oscars were prestigious, but in recent years I've found that there are always some messy things happening during the Oscars competition."

Lily chimed in, "The presidential election is more prestigious than the Oscars, and it's always full of drama."

She looked at Martin and asked, "I've noticed that, starting with Harvey Weinstein, they all like to use the tactic of belittling their competitors."

Elizabeth nodded: "While praising yourself, you also need to suppress your opponents."

"Actually, there's no fundamental difference between this year and last year; it's still a competition of who's worse," Martin said simply. "A film like last year's 'The Martian' and this year's 'Argo' are both of good quality, but they can't possibly crush their competitors. It's too difficult for a film that's already at this level to improve itself further."

Lily agreed: "Like my sculpting, going from 1 to 90 isn't difficult, but every step above 90 requires not only talent and a lot of time to practice, but also a huge financial investment. It's incredibly difficult."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at Lily on purpose: "Are you bragging?"

Martin continued, "To improve yourself, the effort and reward are disproportionate; you might put in 10 and get less than 1 in return. But belittling your competitors is much easier, especially in the Oscar race, where the investment is low and the results are quick."

Elizabeth grasped the key point: "As long as our opponents are worse than us, we can defeat them with our superior experience!"

Martin snapped his fingers: "So, we're debunking rumors while making our opponents worse than us."

It's also quite interesting to use lies to refute the facts presented by your opponent.

…………

The film academy is a very old, conservative, and slow-paced non-governmental organization. Its main members are on average over 60 years old. They do things step by step, with very average efficiency, and they believe in responding to all changes by remaining unchanged.

Just like the Academy's flagship Oscars, its viewership and influence have been declining every year. The Academy claims to reform and innovate before each year's Oscars, but when the ceremony takes place, everyone finds that it's still the same old thing.

The email scandal erupted online and in the media, becoming a trending topic across the entire internet, before the college finally responded with a slow, belated response.

College President Tom Sherak gave an interview to the media, stating that the college would thoroughly investigate the matter.

Subsequently, members of the Academy's executive committee contacted Ralph and the other recipients of the email, as well as the Life of Pi production team.

If the incident hadn't been exposed, even if the college had heard about it, they would have turned a blind eye.

But now it has become a hot topic of national concern, involving dozens of academy members, and the academy must consider its own reputation.

Meanwhile, countless eyes turned to the cast and crew of "Life of Pi".

This film immediately became the target of public criticism.

The media and public opinion are not about to let go of fresh and interesting news that they have finally managed to get their hands on.

North America has a mature media market, and without prior discussion, the media automatically splits into two factions.

One side defended the production team of "Growing Pain".

"The anonymous forwarding of the email may not necessarily have been done by the 'Growing Pain' production team."

The other side of the media automatically refuted this.

"The Oscar ballots have just been mailed out, and many voters have suddenly received campaign emails. This is definitely not a coincidence. In recent years, the Oscars' public relations efforts have become increasingly aggressive, almost equating winning with winning. Is it strange to send such emails in the face of such enormous honor and benefits?"

Supporters are urging: "The 'Growing Pain' production team must declare themselves innocent!"

The opposition loudly proclaimed, "For the sake of fairness and justice at the Oscars, the Academy must severely punish 'Life of Pi'!"

In terms of public opinion, the opposition has gained an absolute upper hand, especially on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, where influence is growing.

The online onlookers didn't care whether the email was anonymous or not; all they knew was that if the email hadn't been leaked, the "Growing Pain" production team would have been the biggest beneficiary.

"Life of Pi must be banned from this year's Oscars!"

"Disqualify Ang Lee and his film crew from winning awards!"

"The judges shouldn't have voted for this film anymore; they crossed the line!"

"If 'Life of Pi' wins this year's Oscars, I will boycott the Oscars forever and hate them for life!"

"Yes, boycott!"

"Boycott +1!"

Back in the heyday of the Oscars, the old guard at the Academy could have simply ignored all of this.

No matter how much the media and audiences clamor, when the awards ceremony is held, they still have to come and watch. Even if the winning films cause huge controversy, the subsequent sales of videotapes and DVDs, as well as the television broadcasts, are still incredibly popular.

But the Oscars are no longer the top three shows in North American ratings.

The college cannot ignore public opinion.

The same applies to the production team of "Growing Pain".

Fox Tower in Century City.

In the producer's office, Ang Lee looked at the newspaper report with a worried expression.

Jill-Nate put down her phone and said, "Public opinion on the internet is far more intense than in traditional media."

Ang Lee looked up and asked, "Can you find out who's behind this?"

"It's impossible to find out exactly who it is." Jill Nate has already had an investigation conducted: "It's just one of our competitors during awards season."

This was obvious, so Ang Lee asked again, "Was the email sent by one of our people and then leaked, or was it done by someone else?"

Jill Nate couldn't confirm this: "Since the film's release in North America, I had the production team's publicity department and PR team send materials, invitations, and reviews to many judges' email addresses, mostly anonymously, just like most Hollywood production teams."

He had a headache: "Now that something's happened, I've questioned my subordinates carefully, and they all say they haven't sent out any direct vote-soliciting messages. But you should know how low the bar has been for Oscar PR in recent years. I can't guarantee that the publicity department and PR team haven't done such things behind the scenes."

Ang Lee was somewhat angry: "Many film crews have done this before..."

Jill-Nate said, "The problem is that they haven't been exposed. Regardless of whether our people sent the email or not, the beneficiaries are us, and we are the ones who are most affected."

"I originally thought that if our competitors were to target us, they would start with the film itself." Ang Lee never expected that someone would resort to such despicable and shameless tactics: "None of the preventative measures we had prepared were needed."

Jill Nate said, "The Argo crew is the most likely culprit. Keep messing with them! And get the crisis management in order!"

Ang Lee said, "I contacted Fox executives, and Fox's media outlets will speak for us, but the most important thing is TMZ. TMZ is constantly breaking news."

Gil Nate said, "You handle the communication with Fox, I'll talk to TMZ. If TMZ calms down a bit, the pressure on us will be less."

Ang Lee nodded: "Let's get moving."

This wasn't the first time either of them had been vying for an Oscar, and they were well aware that if the public outcry continued, many judges would give up voting for "Life of Pi".

Jill Nate managed to contact Jody, the business editor of TMZ, through a friend, and asked her to meet to discuss the "email scandal" caused by TMZ.

Out of consideration for their friendship, Jody and Gil Nate arranged to meet at a coffee shop next to TMZ.

The two ordered coffee at a booth, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then Jill Nate's expression turned serious as she got down to business: "Editor-in-Chief Jody, recently 'Life of Pi' has been facing a lot of criticism in the media, all stemming from TMZ's inaccurate reporting..."

"False report?" Jody was no longer the paparazzi she once was, and she interrupted him directly: "I cannot agree with Mr. Nate's point of view. TMZ is a media outlet with principles and rules. Since its inception, it has always insisted on the authenticity of news reports. Any news will be reviewed and verified by us before it is published."

Jill Nate understood that the entertainment media were like stray dogs; if you showed the slightest weakness, they would dare to ride on you and urinate on you. She immediately adopted a tough stance: "Regarding the series of news reports about the 'Life of Pi' email incident, has TMZ conducted any genuine investigation? I am the producer of the 'Life of Pi' project, and I can tell you responsibly that the production team, producers, and distributors never sent those emails, yet you have been reporting and disseminating them extensively!"

He couldn't help but scoff: "This is what you call pursuing journalistic truth? The production team reserves the right to pursue legal action against you..."

Jody interrupted him again: "No TMZ report on this email scandal has accused, implied, or given any indication that this was your doing."

She is a principled person, and truthful reporting has always been her principle: "All the emails we have published and all the people we have interviewed are first-hand, truthful information, without any falsehoods. If you have any doubts, you are welcome to file a lawsuit."

This reminded Gilnett of something, and he carefully recalled the TMZ reports he had read, as if TMZ's news articles did not have any specific indication.

TMZ seems to be just a news aggregator when it comes to all the content related to the email scandal; it simply puts the emails and interview videos of people who received the emails and were willing to be interviewed on its website.

As for anything else, there's no need. The news report clearly shows the actual email content and screenshots, which prominently display the title "Life of Pi".

The events are real, the emails are real, even the interviews are real...

The meeting ended badly, with Gil Nate making a threat before leaving: "You'd better wait for a lawyer's letter!"

(End of this chapter)