Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 216 Christmas Eve

  Diane Lane wears a white fur-textured headband with a fluffy head, which looks very cute. She took off the warm down jacket she wore to skiing at Rockefeller Center and sat down on the sofa in the living room.

   "You guys go to the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center, is there any fun there?"

  On the afternoons a few days before Christmas, Diane Lane, after finishing filming in Canada, where she was filming "Washed the Lead", returned to New York and threw herself into Aunt Karen's house without speaking.

   Donna brought Ronald to come by relationship, and the Rockefeller Center ice rink booked VIP tickets and went skating with her. Diane regained a little energy.

   "The big Christmas tree lights in front of Rockefeller Center are very beautiful. Today, there are people at the ice rink who proposed marriage in public. The ice rink is playing a wedding march." Donna giggled and replied.

  Diane Lane changed his position on the sofa, "Why do some people get divorced after getting married?"

Ronald and Donna exchanged glances, knowing the source of Diane's bad mood, abandoning her mother since she was a child, and this time finding a Canadian filming location with her new husband, and Bert theorizing, to get along with Diane, " Compensation" for the debt owed to her daughter for 15 years.

   "Hey, everyone is like this. Laura Dern, who played punk girl with me, her parents divorced when she was very young."

   "Hey, half of America's husband and wife... they all stay together until they grow old." Ronald made a cold joke.

   "Hahaha..." Diane understood the dry and cold smile, "Ronald, can I ask you a personal question?"

"Just ask."

   "Did your parents love you before the accident?"

  Ronald thought Diane was going to ask his opinion about love, but he didn't expect to ask this, he was speechless and didn't know how to answer.

   "Sorry to remind you of the sadness, Ronald. I can feel they must love you because you love them too."

   "I just found out that my mother had a fight with my father and divorced when I was two weeks old, and now she says she loves me again, I really don't know if I should believe her."

   "Parents love their children. Maybe your mother has some hardships?" It turns out that Diane is because of this. No one can easily let go of this kind of mother.

   "You know what? My mom used to be a club singer and a Playboy middle-aged girl, 1957."

   "Looks like you got a lot of your mother's inheritance," Ronald said.

"She said she took care of me when I was a kid until I was three or four, but I can't remember. Then she moved to Georgia with her boyfriend, and New York state law doesn't support interstate custody transfers, so I went with Bert Life.

  My childhood memory is sitting in the passenger seat of Bert's taxi and getting out with him. "

   "If you look at it this way, your mother didn't mean to leave you, but a legal issue. She must love you."

   "You're right," Diane Lane cheered again, "so I decided to eat it with Bert for Christmas dinner."

   Ronald gave him a thumbs up.

   "By the way, I heard from Donna that you were nominated for the Golden Globes?"

   "Yeah, will you go too?" Ronald got excited when he heard this, and he was also an insider who could attend the Golden Globe Awards dinner.

   "I'm not going, the Golden Globe is a trophy bought."

   "How do you say this?" Ronald looked at Diane with disdain, saying that Diane entered the film and television industry much earlier than him, so he hurriedly asked for advice.

   "Haven't you heard a proverb? Buy the Golden Globes, win the Oscars. The Golden Globes will call stars to ask if they'll be at the awards dinner, and if the star wants to be there, give the award.

  If the star doesn't go, the second-ranked nominee will be called. This shady story was exposed before, and the FTC also suspended NBC's eligibility to broadcast the Golden Globes for several years, and has just resumed. "

   "It seems that the Golden Globes only have less than 90 judges, which is still easier to handle than the Oscars." Ronald thought to himself.

"But I'm going to the Oscars next year, and if you're nominated for an Oscar, we can meet at Dorothy Chandler Palace. I think that theme song, Fame, is pretty good, too, and you have a good chance. ." Diane Lane pretended to be old-fashioned.

   "Lend your auspicious words, Diane. Which movie are you hoping to be nominated for an Oscar?" Ronald asked.

   "Hey, I don't have any of them. The agent arranged for me to be the female companion of other male stars."

  …

   "Jinglebells, jinglebells,

  Jinglealltheway.”

   A few days later, on Christmas Eve, Ronald went to Aunt Karen's house for Christmas dinner, jingle bells all the way.

  Diane really went back to Bert's house to spend Christmas with his old father.

  Aunt Karen has ham ready in place of the bad turkey, then vanilla bread, and dessert with various fillings.

   "Amen..." The three of them finished their prayers, and Ronald opened the red wine bought at the grocery store and poured it for everyone.

"cheers!"

   "Diane finally reconciled with Bert?" Ronald asked Donna.

   "Temporary ceasefire. Like the Soviet Union in Afghanistan."

   "Uh, I thought she moved home..." Ronald replied.

   "Bell bell bell..." The doorbell remembered.

   Won't fall out so soon, Ronald thought.

   "Come on," Aunt Karen got up and went to open the door.

   It was not Diane who entered the door, but a middle-aged black woman. As soon as she entered, she hugged Aunt Karen and cried.

   Ronald saw that he was Aunt Karen's good friend, the widow of his uncle's comrade-in-arms, and a partner in the leg warmer business, Mrs. Davis. Also a salesman and security guard for the leg warmer company, mother of Bud Davis Jr.

   "I don't know what to do, Bud Jr. was arrested and they said they would charge him with a federal felony. He was a kid..."

   "What happened to little Bud? Isn't he working for the leg warmer company?" Ronald was surprised. He always thought that the children of his uncle and comrade-in-arms were working in the company and were on the right track.

   Mrs. Davis cried to Aunt Karen about the arrest of Bud.

  It turned out that Little Bud helped sell leg warmers in the RTKD store, and was mocked by a group of "brothers" for doing business with women. Young Bud, a hot-headed teenager, gave up his well-paying job to sell pirated tapes to his "brothers".

   With some high school girls he met in the store selling leg warmers, his business of pirated tapes was actually doing well, and he soon became some of the highest-selling "sales".

   But I didn't expect that the cleaning operation organized in New York before Christmas was caught on the spot and everyone got all the stolen goods. In addition to his stock, the so-called "brothers" also planted all the inventory in the warehouse that was inspected on the head of Little Bud, and the prosecutor who got all the evidence was going to sell him as pirated copies and illegal organizations. Unlicensed goods, infringement, etc., are prosecuted as felony.

   "Why didn't you come to me sooner?" Aunt Karen blamed Mrs. Davis.

"We black people are often arrested innocently, and usually they are released without any problems. But this time, little Bud's so-called friends framed him and put everything on his head. The priest of the church said that this time his felony was very serious. Probably can't escape unless there is a good lawyer..."

   Well, it turns out that Mrs. Davis thought that she would be arrested and locked up for a few days at most, and then she would be released after a beat.

   Seeing Aunt Karen's help, Ronald had no choice but to pick up the phone. Who made my uncle and Bud Davis a comrade-in-arms from birth to death? The two died together in Vietnam. Old Bud was still trying to rescue his uncle from being seriously injured. The two widows had a very deep bond.

   Christmas Eve is not easy for lawyers to work, Ronald told lawyer Lindsay Dole about the situation, and she promised to go and ask tomorrow.

   "The matter of your aunt's friend's son is very troublesome", Lindsay Dole called Ronald back the next day, "If a lawyer can get up early to intervene, then his case is at best a misdemeanor, and the value is not high.

   But now the accomplices in charge of manufacturing and wholesale put all the guilt and evidence on Budd Jr. They also concocted so-called witnesses to testify that Bard Jr. was the one in charge of wholesale.

  Although this witness's accusation is ridiculous, the value of the pirated tapes seized has exceeded the upper limit of misdemeanor, and the prosecutor must charge him with a felony. Even if there is a good result in court, the sentence can be suspended.

   But the felony will follow him throughout his life, and there will be great obstacles to work and school in the future. New York State employers have the right to investigate employees for felony convictions prior to hiring. "

   "No way, how many tapes can he sell?"

   "I found a warehouse in a public housing next to the Harlem subway station. The goods are worth tens of thousands of dollars."

   "Why don't you like working with me? Bud Jr." A few days later, Ronald and a colleague of Attorney Lindsay, Eugene, a **** lawyer, met Bud Jr.

   Little Bud pretended to be very strong at first, but after Eugene explained to him the meaning of a felony and the impact on him in the future, he also wilted.

   It seems that Mrs. Davis taught him well. Little Bud did not become a black man in a real violent block. He looked at the social order in reverse and became a supporter of the gang.

   "Sorry... it's just that they keep laughing at me for being a **** and selling things for girls, I..."

   "So our best outcome is to get probation and then appeal to have the felony record cancelled?" Ronald asked Lindsay and Eugene, a black lawyer, at the law firm.

   "I'm afraid that's the case," the lawyer replied while holding a copy of the case materials.

   "Okay, at most, let him come to the leg warmer company in the future, and then do a sales." Ronald thought that Bud Jr. seemed to be unable to find other jobs, and the public high school could not continue. Continue to sell the goods, he has Mrs. Davis to restrain him, and there will be no problem for the time being.

   After this incident, he should know what happened to the so-called brother, he is nothing more than a free channel and a qualified scapegoat.

   "You're not black, don't understand, Lindsay." Eugene laughed and interjected. Ronald hired him to work on the case, also valuing his experience with black cases.

   "We can get him to plead guilty and then..." Eugene whispered his opinion in Lindsay's ear.

   "This? I've only seen this kind of operation in Harvard's law textbooks, how can it be done in New York now?" Lindsay asked with wide-eyed eyes.

   "Of course, this requires the cooperation of the assistant prosecutor in charge of the case. I remember your roommate Helen Gable is the assistant prosecutor in the Manhattan Judicial District?"

"Yes". Lindsay glanced at Ronald and said, "I'll ask Helen..."

   I have a family dinner today, I didn't add more updates, sorry.

   (end of this chapter)