America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 551 It’s so hard to be a good person
In Los Angeles, at the headquarters of Martin's fan club, Phoebe is counting the promotional materials that Jessica had sent over.

Rachel brought a large group of fans to pick up the activity items to be used in the afternoon.

The crew of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" has a promotional event and they are going to support it on site.

Phoebe passed out posters and banners.

A male fan asked: "Some media reported that Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck and Brad Pitt were the three who instructed Toni Fairman to frame Martin. Is that true?"

Rachel nodded: "Yes, what was reported in the newspaper is true, the LAPD has arrested these three bastards!"

Someone immediately shouted: "They are going too far!"

"I have said before that Martin must have been wrongly accused, but many people on the Internet still don't believe it. They can find any excuse to slander Martin."

"With Martin's charm, does he need to force him? As long as he wants, there is no woman he can't get."

"My friend is a photographer in the fashion industry. I heard that the favorite male star of Victoria's Secret supermodels now is not Leonardo, but Martin. It is said that Martin is also the certification threshold for supermodels!"

“How do I authenticate it?”

Listening to these people's discussions going down three roads, Rachel quickly spoke out to stop them and said loudly: "For this afternoon's event, we must not only support Martin, but also call on all parties to pay attention to this incident and severely punish the culprit who framed Martin!"

Phoebe continued, "If we don't punish them severely, next time someone like Bonnie or Jenny might pop up and claim that a baby is Martin's. Martin won't have to work and provide us with high-quality films. We can't handle this."

Others spoke out in support.

"Yes, the murderer must be severely punished!"

"They must pay!"

"We're going to put pressure on the Los Angeles judicial system!"

Rachel opened a box, took out various posters and banners that she had prepared in advance, and distributed them to the leaders of each fan group.

Rachel and Phoebe organized hundreds of people to participate in today's interaction.

…………

At Los Angeles International Airport, Martin saw Elizabeth and Lily off and headed to the Hollywood Bowl to attend a promotional event for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

The Olsen sisters' fashion promotion activities in Milan have not yet ended. After making sure that Martin is okay, Elizabeth returned to Europe and continued to be busy with brand promotion work. After all, she is the third largest individual shareholder of the brand.

Lily was going to visit and study in Rome and Florence, so she went to Italy along the way.

When Martin arrived near the Hollywood Bowl, he saw that the place was already packed with people.

The crowd wearing red T-shirts almost occupied North Highland Boulevard in Hollywood.

Seeing the black Cadillac Escalade, the men realized that Martin had arrived.

An almost uniform voice rang out.

“Martin! Martin!”

All the red T-shirts shouted in unison: "Martin! Martin!"

Martin didn't dare to open the car window, so he asked Bruce to open the sunroof. He stood up, waved to both sides, smiled and nodded to express his gratitude to the supporters.

Security personnel from the event organizer formed a human wall to block off a path for the Escalade to drive through the back door of the theater.

As he approached the door, Martin picked up the electronic megaphone that he always kept in his car and shouted, "Thank you for your support!"

There was a sudden roar outside.

Even until the back door of the theater closed, thousands of people outside were still shouting "Martin".

The main entrance opened, and groups of people wearing red T-shirts entered the venue one after another. The cameras of hundreds of reporters in the media seats turned to the audience seats.

Banners and posters were held high.

"Support Martin and severely punish the real murderer!"

"Let those who break the law receive the punishment they deserve!"

"The law should protect our heroes!"

I didn't know where it started, but soon everyone in the audience started shouting.

"Protect the hero and severely punish the real murderer! Protect the hero..."

The media's cameras recorded all of this with great fidelity, and this subsequently created enormous public pressure.

The voice reached the backstage, and Thomas was a little worried: "Will this affect your relationship with the Los Angeles authorities?"

Martin smiled and said, "This was done after communication."

Bruce whispered to Thomas, "Big Ben is not unrelated. McClane asked to create some public pressure."

Thomas understood and said no more.

David Fincher came in at this time, hugged Martin and said, "I was a little worried. I'm glad to see you're okay."

Martin laughed and said, "A little trouble."

He will hold on to this matter and deal with it with a tough attitude.

As long as he is a little weak, similar troubles will definitely emerge one after another. His subordinates don't have to do anything else. Just dealing with these will be annoying. As for ordinary collaborators such as David Fincher, Martin can't ask too much. It is normal for him to see the wind direction before expressing his opinions.

In addition to David Fincher, Kathleen Kennedy also came over to chat with Martin.

The promotional event then kicked off, with Martin, David Fincher, Cate Blanchett and other main creative staff taking the stage together. According to the process plan, they told some interesting behind-the-scenes stories and answered questions from the media and fans on the spot.

When it got dark, the crew also screened some clips from the film.

Compared to David Fincher's other works, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is more sunny and positive.

At the end of the event, David Fincher and Martin had a special chat.

The two talked about their next collaborative work, "The Vanishing Lover".

David Fincher focused on the casting: "Gillian Flynn and I have reviewed all the information about the leading actresses, Martin, there is one thing I need to tell you in advance."

Martin said, "Just tell me."

"Natalie Portman, the actress you and WMA jointly recommended, is not suitable for this role." David Fincher said directly, and gave the reason: "Her acting skills are fine, but her appearance does not match the magical Amy. Amy is described as a very beautiful girl in the original book, and after her disappearance, she has a cold and cruel temperament..."

He was more straightforward: "In short, Natalie Portman is not pretty enough and her appearance is too ordinary."

Martin agreed with him. The recommendation was originally made on Ali's behalf. He said, "You and Gillian decide the details. I won't interfere."

David Fincher was relieved to see that he had no objection, but he still had to take care of Martin and WMA's reputation: "I will notify her to participate in the third audition. I will see if she is suitable for the role of Amazing Amy after seeing the results of the audition."

Martin said, "Okay."

That being said, Martin knew very well that Natalie Portman would most likely be eliminated because of her plain looks.

If it weren't for the appearance issue, David Fincher would have chosen his longtime friend Reese Witherspoon long ago.

The two chatted for a while about the movie that was being promoted.

Neither of them is too worried about the box office and market of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". The Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival has somewhat helped. Martin is now very popular and has great appeal. Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures are jointly distributing the film, so there are no problems with publicity and promotion.

Of course, this kind of movie can't compare with purely commercial movies at the box office.

It was dark outside and Martin got into the Escalade and went home.

Bruce reminded him, "Don't forget, you have an appointment with Harvey Weinstein tomorrow. You have to meet with him."

Martin said, "Let me ask about the situation over there first."

He took out his cell phone and called Georgina. The scumbag and the playboy knew everything about Harvey's situation in the past few days.

Georgina even told Martin a room number and asked him to come to her tomorrow after talking to Harvey. She wanted to be tested again.

The other party even sold her husband, so how could a good man like Martin refuse? It would be too bad to refuse, so he had to bite the bullet and agree.

Bruce turned his head and saw Martin hanging up the phone. He said, "You are really in trouble. You sold yourself just to get someone."

Martin sighed, "Old Bull, it's not easy for you either, Jody...do you have any pelvic pain?"

Bruce thought of Jody, who was safe and sound, and couldn't help crying: "It doesn't hurt anymore."

The two rotten guys complained together, telling about their respective difficulties.

The car entered the North District of Sunset Boulevard. When almost reaching home, Martin noticed that a van drove out from Charlize Theron's house next door, followed by a black Mercedes.

The two cars were coming towards each other, and under the light of the Escalade, Martin could see clearly that the person driving the Mercedes was Stuart Townsend.

There were several bags piled on the passenger seat on his side.

It seemed like the back seat was completely full.

As the two cars were about to cross each other, Stuart recognized Martin's Escalade, lowered the driver's window, stretched out his hand, and raised his middle finger towards Martin.

Bruce saw it and said, "How about I run over to him? I can knock him over."

Martin shook his head: "Why bump into him? Soon he will go for a paternity test and face even bigger troubles."

Bruce thought of a question: "Does the man need to be responsible for doing what Toni did?"

“Not sure.” Martin didn’t remember any similar cases. “Perhaps this will become a typical precedent in the American judicial community.”

Bruce pointed back: "He won't be driven away by Charlize Theron?"

"Let me ask." Martin called Charlize and waited for the call to be connected. He said in a very concerned tone: "Hi, Sally, I noticed something. A van full of things drove out of your house. Did you know about it? If you didn't know, I would have called the police."

"Don't call the police, I know what's going on." Charlize still remembered Stewart's slanderous words to her, and added: "I broke up with Stewart Townsend and asked him to move out today."

Martin said: "I'm so sorry..."

Charlize said: "It has nothing to do with you. I know all the bad things he did. I actually stuck with such a scumbag for so many years."

Martin comforted: "Everything will be fine."

She sighed deeply: "Do you have time this weekend? Let's have a drink together."

Martin responded, "Weekends are fine. You decide the time and place, and call me anytime."

When Martin hung up the phone, Bruce said, "Leo and Jack are right. This is what you like best."

(End of this chapter)