America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 284 Beauty Trap

Outside the studio, in Martin's rest trailer, Aniston outlined the situation on her end.

"This matter involves not only you, but also me." Martin is a responsible person: "Don't make things too awkward with CAA and put all the blame on me. Just tell them that I absolutely don't agree!"

He hugged Aniston and patted her back comfortingly: "I have nothing to do with CAA. It doesn't matter if we have a falling out."

Aniston was touched by the little dog's words. She shook her head and said, "It's okay..."

Her cell phone rang, she took it out and answered it, her expression becoming more tense.

After a few minutes, Aniston hung up the phone.

Martin asked, "What's wrong?"

"Brian Lord is CAA's biggest partner," Aniston said simply. "He called me and told me that CAA has contacted me with several popular projects where the female characters are very suitable for awards. CAA is going to make a plan to help me win the Oscar for Best Actress."

Martin sensed that there was something wrong, but he couldn't say it out loud. Aniston and Oscar were even more epic than Leonardo's.

The other party didn't say it explicitly, but Aniston saw clearly: "Brian wants me to think about the company a little bit about Heath Ledger."

Martin asked, "What do they think?"

"I signed an offline profit-sharing agreement for Friends not only with the producers, but also with CAA, and they can only get 1.5% of it as an economic commission." Aniston has a clear understanding of her own situation: "After Friends ended, my film career was not going well, and my age could not be ignored, so I became a dying yellow flower of CAA."

She sighed: "Perhaps I overestimated my weight in CAA, or perhaps the senior partners of CAA regard themselves as the masters of the stars. Michael Ovitz has expressed similar views more than once."

Martin understood that no matter how sweet the honeymoon period between Aniston and CAA was, the daily relationship would be difficult after the passion faded.

Aniston earns over 2000 million offline per year, but CAA can only take over 30...

"Jane, they are laying out bait." It was not pleasant to say, but he still reminded her directly: "Waiting for you to take the bait. They may have other intentions."

There are many cases where brokerage companies secretly cheat their clients.

"Nothing." Aniston didn't seem to be joking: "At worst, I can fire CAA."

There was a knock on the door, Martin opened it, and outside stood Aniston's agent Steve.

The latter asked: "Did Brian Lord call you? Jen, if the company pushes you hard, you can be nominated for Best Actress..."

Aniston's face changed.

Steve immediately shut up and changed his words: "I don't mean anything else, Jen. We have worked together for more than ten years. You know, I am always on your side."

Martin took the initiative to step aside: "You guys chat."

Once Steve was on the trailer, he closed the door from the outside.

Martin walked towards a deserted place, thinking about his current situation in light of Aniston's words, and after a few minutes he took out his cell phone and called Thomas.

Thomas arrived soon.

Martin asked, "How did the talk go?"

Thomas looked around to see if there was anyone around and said, "Everything else is easy, but those bastards at CAA are hard to deal with."

Martin said directly: "Don't bother with them. Let Attorney Ward go to the Brooklyn police station to put pressure on them. Let the crew release the news. I'm going to hold a press conference."

CAA's business declined in the 21st century, from its heyday in the 1990s, not only because other companies caught up, but also because of internal problems.

It seems that the arrogance of Michael Ovitz's CAA career at the end of his career was contagious to other partners.

Rise and fall seems to be a common problem for many companies.

Thomas nodded: "I'll arrange it right away."

Martin suddenly asked, "Is WMA interested in Aniston?"

Thomas was stunned for a moment, then quickly came to his senses: "Of course I'm interested!" His hands were shaking with excitement: "Can we recruit Aniston?"

Martin glanced at Thomas, as if looking at a scumbag: "You want to be Aniston's agent?"

Thomas responded quickly: "That's not what I meant."

"Aniston started working with Steve when she was still a young actress, and they had a special relationship." Martin studied Aniston from head to toe and learned a lot: "Aniston never thought of ending her collaboration with him."

At this point, Martin still did not forget to act as a CPU: "If another agency comes to recruit me, but the premise is to kick you out, I will definitely scold him and tell him to get out of here as far as possible!"

Thomas' heart was shaken, thinking to himself, I'm so important to Martin! I'll never leave him!

He believed that a man like Martin could do it, and said, "What do you want to do?"

Martin walked forward again: "The two of us can't represent WMA. We are not important enough. I am going to call Ari Emmanuel and ask him to come over."

Thomas followed up: "I'll cooperate with you." He suddenly remembered something: "Why are you so enthusiastic?"

"By the end of this year, I want the company to devote more resources to fully support me, but my status is not high enough..." Martin said briefly.

“They absolutely would,” Thomas said.

Martin pulled out his cell phone and called Ari Emmanuel.

Ali put down his phone and shouted to his assistant: "Contact the private jet company immediately. I want a business jet that can fly directly to New York within an hour and a half! Also, my itinerary is confidential!" On that day, the drug driving incident of Heath Ledger, which was originally reported by only one gossip media, was forwarded by many online media, and other media followed up.

"Brokeback Mountain" was very popular during the award season, and the film also attracted a lot of attention because of its homosexuality. Heath Ledger was very likely to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, which was a hot topic in itself.

Of course the media would not let it go.

At the end of the afternoon, the crew's deputy producer Damian found Martin and director Boyle and said, "Something unexpected happened. The Central Park shoot we applied for has been temporarily postponed in New York due to weather and environmental protection reasons."

Boyle frowned: "The shooting plan needs to be changed again? We changed it once because of heavy snow." He reminded: "After a while, the ice in Central Park will melt!"

Martin said, "Let Warner Bros. make the contact, and the crew should not show up again."

Boyle looked at Martin and made a rough guess, but he was just the director of the crew and didn't want to get involved in unnecessary fights, so he didn't say anything.

Damian said: "I called Daniel and Warner Bros. is in contact. Even if it can be resolved, the filming will be postponed."

Martin, like the previous crew, also listed the production manager and said, "Let's change the shooting plan and continue shooting the indoor scenes in the studio."

Boyle nodded. "That's the only way."

Martin didn't want to involve the director in this mess, so he focused on filming the movie. After Boyle left, he asked, "Is Weinstein involved in this?"

Damian is Louise's subordinate and speaks without restraint: "I can't tell. It's hard for us to find out about this kind of thing. The Weinstein brothers made their fortune in New York and have extensive connections."

Martin, as always, took the same car back to the hotel with Aniston.

Aniston was not happy: "CAA didn't dare to do anything to me, but they put pressure on Steve. It turns out that in their eyes, I have become outdated."

Martin once again said, "Put it all on me and I'll deal with them."

Aniston reached out and stroked Martin's face, saying, "This happened to both of us. How could I let you face it alone? If it weren't for you, I might have been hit by a car."

Martin was more direct: "In the trailer, you said you were leaving CAA?"

Aniston said: "When I became famous, I was at CAA. I have been at CAA for many years, but everything has changed since the end of Friends."

"Maybe in the eyes of those veteran agents at CAA, it was CAA that made you famous." Martin also made a wild guess: "I have never been an entertainment agent, so I don't know much about it, but many commercial companies pay far less attention to their own employees than to those who worked hard to recruit from outside."

Aniston smiled and said, "Why, you want to poach me?"

Martin teased her: "I have dug up all the important places in your body."

Aniston bit Martin's ear, leaving two rows of teeth marks, and then said, "It's my turn to dig you tonight?"

Martin quickly changed the subject: "Ari Emmanuel is coming to New York to help me with matters related to Heath Ledger. How about you meet with him?"

Aniston felt better and said with a smile, "So WMA wanted to poach me, but was afraid they couldn't, so they sent you here to use their beauty to lure me."

Martin asked, "Did my beauty trick work?"

Aniston stopped laughing and thought carefully for a while: "I will discuss it with Steve, you talk to Ali first."

Martin nodded: "No problem."

There's no rush for this kind of thing.

Back at the hotel, the two had dinner together and talked about CAA and WMA. Aniston called her agent Steve to talk about the future.

Martin received a call from Thomas that Ari-Emanuel had arrived.

In a business suite of the hotel, Martin met with WMA's leading agent and co-partner.

Seeing Martin, Ali came up to him eagerly and said, "I know about the difficulties the crew encountered. Don't worry, I have already contacted someone to deal with it."

Martin heard from Thomas that Ali's brother is very powerful in the political circle and is currently a member of the Democratic Party's Black Carbon Team preparing to participate in the next election.

"Whenever I encounter difficulties, I feel at ease having WMA as my support." Martin sat on the sofa and said, "Ali, I feel relieved when I see you."

Ali smiled and said, "It's the company's job." He got to the point: "Are you sure Aniston wants to leave CAA?"

Martin said: "I have some ideas about this."

Ali understood: "Mainly you?"

Martin doesn't deny it: "I can keep WMA ahead of other companies."

Ali flew over immediately to keep it secret: "Don't tell anyone about this for now. Also, I'm not in New York right now."

He knew that if he wanted Martin to contribute, he had to give him enough benefits, so he said directly: "Martin, we are old friends, tell me your request."

Martin was not polite either: "The Departed was released during this year's award season. I think I performed well. Director Scorsese spoke very highly of me. The quality of his gangster films has never been a problem. I want an Oscar nomination."

Ali nodded, motioning for him to continue.

Martin added: "The role and the quality of the film are only the most basic factors for the Oscars. Money, marketing, connections and public relations are more important. I hope the company can pay enough resources to help me operate."

Ali only thought about it for a moment before saying, "Assisting clients in winning awards is part of the job of the agency. I promise that the company will give 100% of its effort."

Today's third update

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(End of this chapter)