America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 615 Sugar-coated bullets
The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Sculpture Basel opens.

In the public exhibition area, the three assholes, along with the main creative staff including Mene, Chad, Marina and Spravina, came together to support Lily.

A dozen reporters followed and kept taking pictures.

Martin whispered to Leonardo, "You are the most famous art collector in Hollywood. Choose one and I'll pay for it."

“No need.” Leonardo walked towards a display case and said as he walked, “I really like Lily’s work.”

Martin didn't bother to be polite with him and whispered, "I'm going to cast all my votes for you this year."

Leonardo DiCaprio said: "Congratulations in advance on winning the Oscar?"

Martin said very seriously: "Of course not. Popping champagne at halftime usually leads to painful lessons."

Because of the arrival of the Asshole Trio, more and more reporters and passers-by came over.

When the crowd reached a certain size, Leonardo pointed to the marble sculpture in front of him and said to the staff, "How much is this artwork? I want it."

It is common to encounter high-profile customers at exhibitions, so the staff will immediately contact the creators and exhibition organizers to handle the relevant transactions.

Leonardo then gave a joint interview to reporters.

"I have been collecting art for more than ten years. All my collections are exquisite, including many works by Lily Carter." He boasted without hesitation: "Take this marble sculpture for example, an ordinary piece of stone, after Lily's careful polishing and carving, it presents a unique beauty and artistic charm, which makes me fall for it and willingly open my wallet..."

Martin and Nicholson stood on the periphery, admiring Leonardo's performance and said, "Leo, is he worthy of the Best Actor award?"

Nicholson said, “If there weren’t many good choices, a lot of people would have chosen him.” He added, “Wasn’t your movie ‘Gone Girl’ released on the holiday?”

Martin said: "I might be nominated for this role, but I'm just short of winning. Our trio now has four Oscars for acting, but Leo is the one with zero. It's too embarrassing to say it out loud."

Nicholson was heartbroken: "As the boss, I am ashamed."

Ever since he talked about Leonardo's award-winning efforts a few days ago, Martin has been thinking about it carefully, and gradually remembered Harvey's last few glorious films at the Oscars. In addition to the two films in which Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep won the Best Actress awards, there were also two Best Picture awards.

It seemed to be a black-and-white silent film that focused on nostalgia. He had no interest in it at all, so he didn't even watch the trailer, let alone the main film. He couldn't even remember the name of the film.

The other one is the story of the British king’s speech, it should be called "The King's Speech" or something like that.

Martin specifically asked someone to check and found that these two films were not among all the films released in theaters this year.

If the film was planned by Weinstein Company, the project might have been lost if Harvey had joined early.

If it was purchased from overseas and repackaged, the copyright of the film might not have been sold to the United States.

Not long after, Lily came over and said, "Help me greet your friends. The instructor brought some friends to show his support, and I need to go over to entertain them."

Martin waved his hand: "Just do your thing, don't worry about us."

“She’s grown up,” Nicholson said.

The exhibition hall was crowded and a bit chaotic. Martin was worried and called Bruce over: "Let the bodyguard stay with Lily."

Bruce nodded, picked up his phone and made a call, saying, "I've been following you."

On the second floor of the exhibition hall, Allison Mack, Catherine Oxenberg, mother and daughter, surrounded Keith Raniere and came to the guardrail.

From here, you can see the entire exhibition hall below.

Lanier looked for a moment and asked, "The man Lily Carter was talking to was Martin Davis?"

Allison Mack said: "Yes, Martin Davis, the person next to him is Jack Nicholson, and the one walking over is Leonardo DiCaprio. They are collectively known as the three bad guys in Hollywood."

Lanier nodded. “I’ve heard that.” He asked, “Is that why you’re not making any progress?”

Allison Mack quickly denied: "No, Lily Carter has been preparing for this exhibition recently and is very busy at work. She is also a little wary of me..."

Lanier took a step forward, grabbed the railing with both hands, and stared at Lily in the hall below. Her swaying graceful figure made him eager to turn her into a slave girl.

Allison Mack reminded her leader: "I recently checked and found that Lily Carter and Martin Davis have a complicated relationship. I heard from people in the circle that Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck fell to the point where they are now because of Martin Davis."

Lanier smiled elegantly, confident to the point of arrogance: "Do you think these obstacles can stop your leader?"

Allison Mack bowed her head reverently.

"What do you think of Martin Davis compared to the Seagram Liquor Group?" Lanier said lightly, "He made friends with many social elites through the Coca-Cola Cult. Don't we have enough social elites, government officials and billionaires in Nxivm?"

The three women said in unison: "The master is the sun in the sky, and the others are just dust in the sun."

Lanier stood with his hands behind his back, with a confident look and elegant demeanor, worthy of a handsome middle-aged man.

His self-confidence and arrogance come from repeated successes and from being a social elite among his many believers.

Sisters Claire and Sasha Bronfman, heirs to the Seagram Wine Group, are Raniere's most loyal followers. After joining NXIVM, they contributed more than $1.5 million to Raniere's wealth, not to mention their strong social influence.

Nxivm is not a loose organization with pan-beliefs like the Coca-Cola Cult. It has only 1.7 loyal believers. However, the high membership fees of Nxivm mean that none of these believers are ordinary people, but all are social elites.

Among them are the daughter of the former Mexican president, the second generation of rich people, the first generation of rich people, officials from Washington authorities and various states, and ordinary middle-class people cannot even reach the threshold of joining the organization. These followers enthusiastically devote their money and time, and more importantly, they use their social influence to endorse Nxivm and put a protective shell on Raniere.

Raniere was caught kidnapping and keeping female slaves several times, but he always got away with it easily.

Those who reported him got into huge trouble.

Lanier looked at Catherine and India, mother and daughter, and said, "You will come down with me later."

He instructed Alison again: "Observe carefully here and notify me if anything happens."

Alison responded, "Yes."

Lanier took Catherine and India downstairs, and the three of them walked together, looking like a family of three.

No matter who saw it, it would be hard to imagine that there was a monster living inside this elegant middle-aged man, and that mother and daughter were just his star wrath.

The three of them went down to the exhibition hall on the first floor like normal people visiting an exhibition and carefully admired Lily's works.

Lily's work this time is more abstract, while Lanier's is similar to Martin's, thinking it is just some shaped stones, plaster and wood.

The leader boasted to his followers that he could communicate normally with others at the age of one, could read and write at the age of two, and had completed a high school curriculum in 1 hours before he was ten.

In fact, he was a poor student who dropped out of a third-rate university because of failing his courses.

Catherine came over and pointed quietly: "The person is over there."

Lanier followed the direction of her finger and saw Lily talking to several people.

Looking closer, he found that the girl was really beautiful. Not only did she have a delicate face, but she was also tall and slender with a perfect curve from front to back.

Lanier had seen many women, so it was not difficult for him to discover that beneath Lily's seemingly quiet appearance, there was a wildness hidden.

If such a girl could be tamed into a slave, what an achievement...

Lanier knew that he had to take it step by step and leave a deep impression first, so he told Catherine: "Go and tell the organizers here that I want to buy all of Lily Carter's works."

Catherine hurried to find the man in the work vest.

After her mother left, India stood beside Ranil, trembling like a chick facing an eagle alone.

Lanier said, “When we get back to Los Angeles, I will brand you.”

India was even more frightened, because she had seen the mark on her mother's waist, which was branded there by a living person.

…………

Martin was chatting with Leonardo and Nicholson, Bruce came over quickly and whispered: "Someone wants to buy all of Lily's exhibits."

Leonardo was a little surprised: "Where did this wealthy man come from to be so generous?"

Martin asked, "Where are the people?"

Bruce said, "Lily, her agent, and her bodyguard are going to meet him in the VIP room next to the exhibition hall."

When Nicholson turned his head, the light shone on his sunglasses, causing the lenses to gleam.

He pinched his chin and said, "Based on my many years of experience, this person has bad intentions."

Leonardo gave him a disdainful look: "Well, great detective, I don't need years of experience to figure this out."

Martin said, "Let's go and take a look."

The four of them left the exhibition hall and entered the office area of ​​the art gallery, where they happened to meet Lily and her agent.

Lily walked quickly to Martin and said, "Here are more than a dozen of my exhibits. They want to buy them all according to the marked price, which is more than 300,000 US dollars. Am I so lucky that I met another Casey Affleck?"

Leonardo said: "It's mainly because I helped you get off to a good start."

Lily said: "Thank you, Leo."

Nicholson reminded: "Be careful to test the other party's true intentions."

"I will." Lily nodded and asked Martin, "Should I sell them all?"

Martin laughed. “Why not? Remember the sugar-coated bullet I told you about?”

Back in Atlanta, Lily had heard Martin say, "Eat all the sugar and then shoot the shells back?"

Martin nodded slightly.

Nicholson said directly: "What are you afraid of? With the three of us here, we can shoot him back with missiles, not to mention artillery shells!"

(End of this chapter)