America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 416 If you are poor, you will want to change.
"It's a beautiful house, Martin. You have excellent taste."

Standing on the highest terrace of the villa, Nicholson took off his sunglasses and looked around: "Whenever we move, we must hold a grand party and invite less than 50 supermodels. You can jump right out of here."

Martin pretended not to have heard the last sentence and said, "The interior needs to be renovated. The plan has just been finalized. The move will take until summer at least."

Instead, he remembered the first sentence: "Jack, you have good taste, you can tell that I have extraordinary taste."

Leonardo couldn't stand it any longer: "I remember that this house was newly built by Pete, right? I'm very curious, why is Pete willing to sell the house to you at such a low price?"

Martin said, "Because Pete and I are good friends."

Leonardo felt something was wrong and asked, "Does Pete know that you have this house?"

Martin waved his hand: "Don't worry about these trivial matters."

"I understand." Leonardo began to think of a bad idea: "Aren't you going to tell Pete? If he doesn't know and doesn't thank you properly, don't you think something is missing? This thing is incomplete!"

Nicholson patted Martin on the shoulder and said, "How can you do good things without leaving your name behind?" He took out his cell phone and called his daughter, "Lorraine, bring your camera and come to the North Side of Sunset Boulevard. Aren't you short of pocket money? Shoot some videos and sell them to TMZ for money."

Martin looked at the two idiots and said, "You are really my good brothers!"

He had no intention of stopping it, and he didn't care.

"Who are your neighbors? Let's say hello." Nicholson pointed to the left and right and said, "I have a rocket launcher and special fireworks on my car. If you say hello to them, they will definitely remember you."

Martin quickly said, "I haven't asked who the neighbor is yet. Don't mess around. Not everyone can mess around like you and Warren Beatty."

Nicholson said, "Man, if it's a beautiful neighbor, you'll hit the jackpot."

Leonardo replied: "Martin's grand prize is not a beautiful neighbor, but a beautiful neighbor who is married and has a husband."

Not long after, Lorraine drove into the yard, followed her father's instructions, took a DV and filmed everywhere, called the TMZ reporter, and rushed over to sell the video.

Martin Davis' new home is somewhat newsworthy.

Nicholson said, "Let's go to the Night Club. It's time to wash your face. I've made an appointment with Warren Beatty and Scorsese to go with us."

Martin got into Leonardo's car and rushed to the night club together.

After waiting for a while, Scorsese and Warren Beatty also arrived.

A few people went backstage to select people and entered the VIP room to enjoy the facial cleanser service.

As the facial cleanser rolled over his old face, Scorsese felt hale and hearty. He suddenly looked more than ten years younger and felt like he was good again. He said, "I took a break for more than a year. I'm really bored. I'm going to make a new movie."

Martin joked, "Are you going to earn money for milk powder?"

Nicholson, however, told a cruel truth: "Alimony."

Martin knew this. His first four marriages gave Scorsese tremendous artistic motivation.

Warren Beatty, who hangs out at the Academy, said, "They're not going to give you another Best Director statuette easily."

"It doesn't matter. One is enough." Scorsese has let go of his Oscar complex and will not dwell on it any more. He looks at Leonardo and says, "Give me the schedule from the second half of this year to the first half of next year."

Leonardo responded without thinking: "I'll be there when you call."

Nicholson asked Martin, "What are you going to do?"

Martin's answer was simple and direct: "Of course it's about making money, a shootout action movie."

Leonardo said: "Only when you have enough money can you have enough capital to pursue art."

Warren Beatty agrees: “Without money, it’s hard to even get artistic recognition.”

Although he didn't say it explicitly, several people knew that he was talking about the Oscar statuette.

Martin asked, "Is there a good chance that I'll get the nomination this time?"

"You are one of five nominees for the Best Actor Award announced by the Screen Actors Guild." Warren Beatty said directly: "If you don't get a nomination, you can throw all the fireworks from Jack's house at my house."

Martin and the others laughed.

Warren Beatty reminded: "Don't even think about winning the award. Ninety percent of the Best Actor award will go to Daniel Day-Lewis."

Afterwards, the five people came for a second round of facial cleanser.

When they left, each one was more energetic than the other.

Martin also knew about Scorsese's next project, called "Shutter Island".

Leonardo found a new investor from Asia who could easily solve the production funding problem.

Martin kept his boundaries and had no intention of getting involved from the beginning to the end.

…………

New York, Lily came out of the elevator, took out the key, and opened the door of the luxury apartment.

She had never lived in a house like this before.

When the Carter family was poor, they also had an independent, dilapidated wooden house in the Clayton community.

Lily put on her shoes and walked through the entrance hall into the living room. The house had never been lived in and everything was brand new.

She came to the huge floor-to-ceiling window in the living room, overlooking the entire Central Park.

"Pete has a really good eye for buying houses." Lily admired him: "Much better than Martin." But then she thought, Martin doesn't need to have a good eye, as long as he keeps an eye on Pete, he will reap the rewards.

After all, Martin is still the best.

Lily decided to stay here tonight. She wanted to be the first person to move into this luxurious apartment of more than 300 square meters.

Two streets away, in an apartment nearly half the size, Pete lay alone in bed, unable to sleep all night.

Because he lacked sufficient cash to pay compensation and legal fees, he had to sell fixed assets at low prices to raise funds.

Pete felt the financial crisis. It was difficult for him to enjoy life with only spending and no income.

It is almost impossible for Hollywood to go back to the past, and he was kicked out by the board of directors of Plan B. It is not known when Jennifer Aniston will deduct the corresponding dividends, and it may be delayed until legal action is taken.

When he was paid $2000 million for a film, Pitt felt that money was just a number to him.

After encountering all these bad things, the economic crisis caused the almost complete loss of the liquid funds he invested in Fannie Mae, and he was constantly attacked by public opinion led by women such as MiTu.

Pete truly felt how difficult it is to make money.

He stayed awake all night, analyzing what capital he still had that could be used to make money.

Naturally, Pete thought of his fame.

Even if he stinks, he's still a celebrity.

Even a so-called socialite like Kim Kardashian can sell tens of millions of dollars for a video tape, so he would definitely make more.

Pete just had an idea for now.

…………

The Ritz-Carlton, Beverly Hills, press room.

The Oscar Nominees Luncheon is underway.

Academy President Sidney Ganis and famous Hollywood sweetheart Jessica Alba hosted the luncheon.

Martin sat at the same table with Kate and Sam Mendes.

Jessica Alba announced the nominations one by one, and soon it came to the Best Actor and Best Actress.

Both Martin and Kate are relatively calm about the nominations, because the nominations from the Screen Actors Guild are, in most cases, a replica of the nominations for the Oscars for acting.

Sure enough, along with Jessica Alba's introduction, the names of Martin and Kate appeared on the big screen in the press room.

"The nominees for Best Actor are George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Martin Davis... The nominees for Best Actress are Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page..."

Cheers continued to be heard all around, especially from the table next door where the "Juno" crew was sitting, where the celebrations were the loudest.

It is indeed worth celebrating that low-budget films can achieve success in both artistic and commercial fields.

Martin stood up and opened his arms: "Congratulations, Kate."

"Congratulations to you too, Martin." Kate hugged Martin.

It's just a nomination after all.

Sam Mendes was then nominated for Best Director.

"The Reader" received six Oscar nominations for best picture, best director, best actor or actress, best adapted screenplay and best cinematography.

A group photo of the nominees, with Ellen Page standing in front of Martin.

The latter turned around and saw him, and quickly greeted him: "Hello, Martin, congratulations on your nomination for Best Actor."

Martin smiled and responded: "Congratulations to you as well, you played a very good role."

Ellen Page looked surprised: "Really? Did you see it?"

Martin had never seen the movie she starred in, so he changed the subject slightly: "My favorite parts are still Cats and Hard Candy. Hard Candy is especially impressive."

Ellen Page added: "I really like your performance and hope to have the opportunity to work with you."

When the group photo started, Martin said no more and took photos with hundreds of people.

In addition to being nominated for an Oscar, he will continue to serve as an award presenter.

Stimulated by the positive news from the Oscars, "The Reader", which had been rapidly declining in North American screenings, has made a comeback and achieved a box office climax.

That weekend after the nomination luncheon, the film expanded its screening scale in North America to 1457 theaters and maintained it for two weekends, earning another $874 million in North America, bringing the total North American box office to $6811 million.

The final North American box office will definitely exceed 7000 million US dollars, but that’s it. The type of film determines that the North American box office will not exceed million US dollars.

Although both are about Nazis and the Holocaust, "The Reader" is far inferior to "Schindler's List" in terms of entertainment value. It doesn't even have the kind of sensational happy ending that North American audiences like so much.

In addition, the film has been released in Germany and the United Kingdom. Thanks to the story background and the appeal of the actors, the combined box office in the two countries has now exceeded 10 million US dollars.

Other overseas markets will also be released gradually.

After the Oscars, it’s a carnival time for the DVD market.

While Martin was preparing for the Oscars, Louise, who had gone to New York to promote "John Wick", rushed back to Los Angeles and brought back new sponsors.

(End of this chapter)