I'm in Hollywood

Chapter 124 - The Oscar part 1

Chapter 124 - The Oscar part 1 (Sponsored Chapter)

(TL Note: Thank you, Mr. Robinson, for sponsoring this half chapter, 2.5 chapters coming soon.)

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The next day, "The Hollywood Reporter" used a full four pages, to published the full article Eric wrote, keeping the same title "CAA revelation: how the broker giant was formed". Eric also chose not to take the $1800 royalties they offered, what's more, because he was unable to explain the sources of the details in the article, he chose to anonymously publish it in the newspaper.

The publication of this article, immediately caused huge waves in the Hollywood circle, almost overshadowing the upcoming 61st Academy Awards that were gonna happen in a few days.

Most of the forces who were still immersed in smearing CAA reputation, suddenly calm down and focused them attention on the Article.

The next few days, the entire US media was boiling, this highly professional article was even reprinted a second time, and a large number of newspapers even followed the trend by publishing studies of the article.

After reading the article, the senior executives of other brokerage firms, finally found out why they couldn't stop the rise of CAA.

The majority of film companies also fully understand why their production costs kept rising, and why they couldn't stop it.

Michael Ovitz also saw the article a few hours after it was published in the newspaper, it took him half an hour to finish reading it, he was frowning the entire time he was reading the article. Even he couldn't help but be overwhelmed with admiration for the author of this masterpiece, the article discussed many things that coincide with his recent ideas, and some things even he didn't notice he was doing. It was precisely because of this idea that he tried to take part in SONY acquisition of Columbia.

But after thinking about what this article will do to his company, Ovitz was so angry he even started thinking about killing the author of the article. Because this article directly placed CAA business strategy in front of all his competitors, before CAA's rivals could only try imitating CAA Bundling Strategy, which involved many complex operation processes. But with this article as a reference, as long as those competitors are a little bit ambitious, they will certainly make a series of reforms to their business strategy, even if they didn't completely imitate CAA model, they will not be defenseless in front of CAA expansion.

Unfortunately, "The Hollywood Reporter" even made a special statement on the front page of the article, looking for the author of the article, but they didn't receive any response.

Two days after the article was published, William Morris Agency CEO publicly said that if the author of the article is willing, WMA will pay him five percent of the company shares in exchange for him joining WMA as a vice president. Although the scale of WMA now is below what it was in the past, but it is still a century-old brokerage firm, the difference between CAA and WMA is not much, five percent of the shares means getting tens of millions of dollars. The same day after the announcement, many people with fake "CAA Revelation" manuscript, went to WMA headquarters trying to swindle them.

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A few days later, Once again, another big star chose to leave CAA like Tom Cruise and several other big stars did, this star is Tom Hanks, except this time this superstar didn't transfer to a large brokerage firm like IMG and WMA, but instead he transferred to United Talent Agency (also known as UTA), Eric Willams personal brokerage firm.

Moreover, Tom Hanks didn't transfer alone, Eric didn't know what method he used, but Hanks was even able to convince his agent a CAA gold medal agent to jump companies with him.

This news caused a variety of speculation in the industry, stealing a gold broker from CAA isn't an easy thing, most of them start from the most basic job as a mail clerk. Then they climb the job ladder step by step, after more than ten years of work, when they prove their strength, they become brokers. Then several years later if they have enough qualifications they become gold brokers, with annual salaries of more than one million dollars.

Hanks's agent leaving, means giving up all the qualifications he accumulation, even if in the future he wanted to return to the CAA, he will have to start from the bottom.

Kapoor and hanks agent Simon Wilson were the witnesses to the secret contract between Eric and Hanks, the only other witness is a well-known notary public in Los Angeles. After signing the contract, Hanks was kind enough not to let Eric set the $100 million fund they talked about in the restaurant.

The only thing that CAA can do is make Tom Hanks pay a small amount of money as liquidated damages, as well as a cut of Hanks 《Running Out of Time》 paycheck.

After Hanks signed the contract with the Firefly, Tom Cruise learned about Hanks's paycheck conditions, and as Eric expected, Cruise lowered his demands. Finally, the day before the Oscar ceremony, that The two sides quickly signed the contracts, Cruise took a $5 million fee and 5% of 《Running Out of Time》 North American profits, those conditions were fully consistent with Eric's expectations. And Eric finally decided to start shooting 《Running Out of Time》 on the 5th of April.

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In March 29th, after more than a month of preparations, the 61st Oscar awards ceremony was officially held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

Eric will serve as the presenter of the best-supporting-actress award, it is said that the organizers originally intended to invite the newlyweds, Melanie Griffith and her husband, Don Johnson. Although Don Johnson isn't very famous, his wife Melanie Griffith has directly jumped to the frontline star position by virtue of her new film 《Working Girl》. But unfortunately, Melanie Griffith couldn't compete with Eric, who had the support of Columbia who had a lot of contacts with the Oscar organizers, who chose the more famous Eric, over Melanie Griffith and her husband,

"Eric, is my dress okay, there is no problem, right?" in a Lincoln car that was slowly moving toward the Oscar red carpet, Virginia nervously asked Eric, she has never dreamed that she would walk on the Oscar red carpet.

Eric patted her hand and said: "Vicky, relax, you look beautiful."

Still unsure of herself, Virginia gently touched her hair trying to find any loose hairs. Remembering another thing, she asked: "ah ... ... Eric, if 《Tin Toy》 won the prize, Are you really going to let me go up to receive the prize?"

"Of course," Eric nodded. "I don't want the first time I get on stage in the Oscar, to be for the best animated short film?"

John Lasseter, who should have been present at the awards ceremony, has become a complete workaholic after Eric put Pixar management in his hands, right now John wishes he could live in his office. If the Oscar organizers didn't send the invitation, John would certainly forget about the short film award.

But after receiving the invitation, John Lasseter directly called Eric, saying he was too busy and can't leave, and that if 《Tin Toy》 won the award, Eric should receive it.

Eric didn't need to be persuaded either, he was sure if Pixar walks on the same road Pixar did like in his past life, then winning the Academy Awards in the future will be easy, so he didn't feel bad about it. Originally John Lasseter and Steve Jobs wanted to win this award, mainly because they were hoping that by winning the award, they can bring more business to the company, but now that he has access to Eric money the Oscar is just a waste of time. At the same time, Eric didn't want to board the Oscar podium for the best animated short film award, so he was gonna take this opportunity to let Virginia show her face to the public.

Just then, the Lincoln stopped at the entrance of Oscar's red carpet, the screams, and calls fans could still be heard even though he was in the car and they were far away.

Eric got off the car first, then went to Virginia side, and very gentlemanly opened the car door for her and offered her his arm, then they slowly walked toward the red carpet.

Maybe all actresses are born to walk the red carpet, Virginia who was very nervous in the car, once her feet hit the red carpet, she relaxed as if all her fears just evaporated into the air, she gently took Eric's arm, and walked along with him on the red carpet, gently waving to the crowd from time to time, with a charming smile on her beautiful face.