Chapter three hundred and ninety fifth accidental encounter
"She is indeed in financial trouble. I have spoken with her agent team and David Letterman's agent to confirm that this matter is true."
Niceta had been on the phone with her wife Paula for a long time and confirmed the news through several channels. Cher was a little short of money.
"I remember very early on, Cher was a singer, so how could she be short of hotel room fees?" Ronald was a little puzzled.
"Her financial situation is indeed a bit problematic. Her most popular songs were all released before the 1980s. At that time, her producer and manager were both her ex-husband Sonny Bono.
You know, the best way for a man to control a popular female singer is to marry her. So when Cher was very popular, she received very limited income from those songs.
Most of Cher's new songs released in the late 1970s were commercially unsuccessful. She has not had a new song in the top ten of the charts for seven or eight years."
"But even if most of the dividends were taken away by her ex-husband, she shouldn't be unable to pay tens of thousands of yuan for the house, right? Is it tens of thousands of yuan?"
"Twenty-eight thousand dollars," Niceta got the exact figure from David Letterman. "You don't know the luxury of female celebrities. Ronald Cher has a very large exclusive team to support.
Personal makeup artist, personal hairstylist, and a bunch of assistants.”
"I don't really believe it. Even so, she is a big star." Ronald's calculation was wrong. "If Cher doesn't say anything else, it's not difficult at all to go to a concert somewhere and get tens of thousands of dollars."
Bar?"
"Of course, she once stayed at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and was paid $300,000 a week."
As an agent, Niceta is very sensitive to this kind of remuneration.
"But you may underestimate how quickly a female star spends her money. Here she invests in a friend's restaurant, there she buys a little stock recommended by the singer, and boom! Six months later, with a single spell, the wealth is quickly gone.
Besides, Cher's efforts to switch to disco and rock music failed in the end. After that, she chose to be an actress. However, the studios were not willing to pay much, so she was sitting on nothing in the past few years.
In addition, she is a single mother of two children and has a difficult mother who is counting on her. She also has several young and ambitious boyfriends who want to make a career in Hollywood, except of course Tom.
I’m afraid it’s possible that I may not have enough cash at the moment.”
"Well, I didn't know her financial situation was so bad. The salary MGM gave her was not very high, only over 100,000 US dollars."
Then Ronald asked Niceta, "What's going on with Letterman? Why didn't he give Cher this reward? Twenty-eight thousand dollars is not very expensive compared to asking Cher to come and support her, right?"
"
"You may not know much about stand-up shows. In this kind of show, you can discuss remuneration or exchange some benefits in private, but this cannot be said publicly on the show. When Cher said this, Letterman had only one way to deny it. He has already had many
This is the first time I hinted at Xueer, but the other party didn't pick up the hint."
It turns out that Letterman's team, in order to hire star Cher to boost ratings, actually agreed to the other party's request and promised to pay her a room fee of US$28,000, plus reimbursement of air tickets.
But for some unknown reason, Cher had a strong objection to David Letterman himself, and the two had no good words for each other. Letterman first asked Cher why she had declined invitations so many times in the past. Cher seemed to lose control for a moment and put the truth behind her.
The reason is stated.
This creates a vicious cycle. David Letterman cannot admit that he paid in front of all the live viewers, otherwise it will cause other guests to follow suit and cause the budget to get out of control.
On the other hand, when Cher saw Letterman denying it to his face, she thought he was really unwilling to pay, so she went back on his promise and further deepened her prejudice against him until she said, "You are a big asshole."
The subsequent conversation between the two was like a disaster scene. Letterman quickly ended the conversation, and Cher went back to the hotel without taking the check.
"Ring ring ring ring..."
This was the phone call that suddenly came to mind. Niceta answered it and said a few words, then handed it to Ronald, "It's David Letterman."
"Hello David, what's wrong with you today?" Ronald picked up the phone and comforted poor Letterman.
"Ronald, I won't say much. Your agent called me just now and told me that you are about to let Cher star in your movie.
I urgently need you to give me a message and explain my difficulties to Xueer. If I publicly admit that I paid for her room on the show, it is impossible for my show budget to support the guests I want to invite.
.”
"What do you want, David?" Ronald covered the phone and gave Niceta a look for advice. Niceta looked strange, and he didn't understand why Letterman wanted to see him.
"It's very simple. I want to ask her to come back to my evening show again after the impact has passed. As long as she doesn't mention this matter, let us finish the show normally, so that everyone will remember her last night."
I said it as a little joke."
"I'll see what I can do." Ronald didn't fully agree and spoke vaguely.
"Let me be blunt, the ratings of the show just now skyrocketed after Cher scolded me. I don't hate her, but what she did made me a little confused. I don't feel hard for her, right? I
Treating some other guests a bit more 'badly' is just a common practice on late-night talk shows."
"I will bring you what you mean."
"Very good. Besides, she hasn't taken the check I gave her yet. We will give a reasonable price next time."
Ronald put down the phone with a funny look on his face. David Letterman, who was humiliated in public, almost got angry during the live broadcast. Now that the ratings have increased, he took the initiative to make up for the money and invited him to come again.
programme.
It seems that the pressure of these TV guys' careers is no less than that of working in movies.
Over there, Niceta had already found Xueer's hotel phone number. After connecting it, she handed the phone to Ronald.
"Cher, this is Ronald. I just watched your performance on Letterman..."
"Oh, everyone seems to know it? I don't care. That bad guy really deserves it. Someone should have scolded him long ago."
"So he really didn't reimburse you for the room fee?"
"Yes, the manager of the hotel has also watched the show now. He is trying to persuade me to leave by myself. The existing debts will be temporarily suspended. Listen to the faces of these people."
After she finished speaking, Xueer pointed the microphone at the manager on site.
"Hello, are you the manager of the hotel? I'm the director of Cher's next movie, Ronald Lee.
Does she need to move away? You don’t have to be in such a hurry, I’ll come over and I’ll take care of her debt.”
Ronald put on his coat, called Little Bud, and first went to NBC Letterman to pick up Cher's check. Then he drove it to the door of Cher's hotel room.
The manager politely told Cher that there was nothing he could do and that she had to leave the hotel.
"Ronald, you are here. Looking at these people, you think I will not be able to pay for the room."
"Don't bother, yes, I will take care of her debt." Ronald took out the check and handed it to Xueer, asking him to endorse it to pay for the room later.
"That's great. Ms. Xueer can stay here forever. I'm sorry for the inconvenience caused."
"No, she doesn't want to live in your place anymore." Ronald directed Little Bud, together with Cher's assistant, to start packing her things.
"Hey, Ronald, what are you doing?"
"Rehearsals are about to start, and I hope you can prepare in a better environment. Resting during rehearsals is very important, and there must also be good service. I think the service here is really terrible, if nothing else.
Already."
Xueer heard that the place she was going to had better conditions, so she stopped talking and even took the initiative to help collect some of her clothes.
Soon, Ronald took Xueer and her first batch of luggage to a fifty-eight-story high-rise building on Fifth Avenue.
The lower eight floors here are shopping malls, the upper floors are offices, and the thirty-ninth floor at the top are hotel apartment rooms.
Meeting with Niceta, who had come to prepare in advance, Ronald went to the hotel lobby in the middle of this golden building and opened an apartment for Cher for a month.
"Ten thousand dollars, thank you." The front desk quoted a price, and Ronald signed to confirm. The money was part of the treatment that the crew should pay to star Cher according to the contract.
“It’s really nice here, but the colors are a bit too tacky.”
Xueer was received with great respect here. Her room was on a high floor close to the attic. As she walked in, she felt that the privacy was good.
When he was about to reach his room, a handsome young man knocked on the door of another suite at the corner, "Demi, listen to me, I want to know what is going on between us and who am I to you?"
?”
The two looked sideways, and Ronald felt that the boy looked familiar. He seemed to be the male protagonist in John Hughes's "Pretty in Pink". He paired up with Molly Ringwald's character at the end, but because of the audience
A tragic actor whose ending was cut out due to poor response.
Ronald ignored him and sent Xueer into her room with a large group of people.
“I like it very much. You are right. It is much better than the hotel I used to stay in. The facilities inside are also very new.”
She was very satisfied with the large executive suite and spacious clothing room.
"I heard that the occupancy rate here is very high. A friend of mine used to live here for US$8,000 a month," Ronald said.
After tipping the waiters, Ronald asked them to bring some drinks.
"Why don't you like David Letterman? What did he do to make you so dissatisfied with him?" After Ronald calmed down, he asked Cher what happened at the scene.
"Huh, actually I don't hate Letterman. He has a good sense of humor. Sometimes I can't sleep in the middle of the night, waiting to watch his late show." Cher took a sip of wine and said to Ronald.
"Then why..."
"Because I don't like Letterman's attitude towards certain vulnerable guests. He sometimes treats guests very poorly on TV. He often attacks the other person's weaknesses, makes jokes that make the other person very disgraceful, and even makes fun of the other person's sad things.
."
"Hey, this won't mean..." Ronald shook his head. When these artists' emotions get...
"He denied agreeing to my conditions, and the way he used to bully those less famous guests came to my mind. I felt that he would do the same to me next..."
"So, you just want to strike first, right?"
Ronald knew that artists are always full of emotions, and sometimes their emotions get the best of them, and they don't think things through very carefully.
"He just called me and asked me to give you the check you forgot to pick up. He also said that your on-the-spot reaction was first-rate and that you were a very good guest for his talk show. He hopes that you can pass it for a while.
Go on his show again, and this time he won't ask you why you agreed."
"Hahaha, actually now it seems that he is not so bad."
"If you want, why don't you warm up our movie on your last late night show before it's released next year."
"As you wish, hahaha." Xueer was in a good mood. She had a good house to live in and someone paid for it. She hugged Ronald tightly and expressed her gratitude.
"No wonder so many young celebrities are captured by her. She still has such a good figure at this age." Ronald said goodbye, still thinking about Cher's ageless figure and a special perfume smell. I heard it was her own.
Designed and ready to find someone to produce and put on the market if possible.
"Jon, I've said it before. We were just playing for fun. I fell in love with you. To put it simply, that's it. I already have a boyfriend."
Turning the corner, Ronald was about to go to the elevator when he heard a familiar hoarse voice again.
He turned around and saw the boy, in a humble and begging posture, begging a beautiful woman to change her mind.
"Oh, what should I tell you? We just find each other attractive. I am a woman who is easily tempted. Do you understand? Emilio and I are already engaged."
"But you have obviously postponed your wedding ceremony with Emilio Estevez? I saw it in the Hollywood Reporter."
"That's just because of the extended run of my Broadway show 'Morning Girl.' Last week I was with Emilio, his brother Carlos, for his father Martin and mother Janet to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.
Please stop pestering me, I don’t want to cause misunderstanding. You also don’t want to mess up my wedding, right?”
"Oh no! I hate you Demi."
The handsome young man who was finally dumped by Molly Ringwald's character in "Pretty in Pink", Jon Cryer, was also tricked around by beautiful women in real life. Looking back sadly, he changed from Ronald
He passed by and rushed into the elevator.
"Oh," Ronald saw that it was indeed Demi Moore whom he hadn't seen for a long time. Was he subconsciously still thinking about reuniting with Demi who lived in this building?
But when he heard that she was going to marry that annoying Emilio, Ronald felt unhappy and wanted to leave.
"Ronald", Demi watched Jon Clare get off the elevator, rushed up, grabbed Ronald, and dragged him into the room.
Demi Moore motioned to Ronald's followers to leave first, as she wanted to "reminisce" with Ronald.
"Bang!" After closing the door, Demi immediately hugged Ronald and began to confess.
"I did it just to get rid of his nonsense quickly. The boy and I acted in a movie and he has been pestering me for several years. I have terminated our engagement with Emilio Estevez and I am free.
of."
Demi knew that Ronald didn't like to be with a married man or a woman who had a long-term relationship, so she made it clear that she was single.
"Aren't you engaged to Emilio? I also read variety shows." Ronald laughed and moved Demi's arm away from his body.
"Then I did it for his movie 'Wisdom'. Although Emilio is a fool, his talent is not even one-tenth of yours. But after all, it was a movie that related to the future of many people. I know it was
Even if it’s a bad movie, you still have to do your best to market it.
I don’t want those actors and staff behind the scenes to lose further opportunities because of my lack of effort in publicity.”
Demi Moore really knows Ronald.
Hearing what she said, Ronald was impressed by this actress who, although her private life was exaggerated, was very dedicated to her film career.
It’s been a while since I last saw Demi Moore’s development momentum, which is vaguely surpassing that of her boyfriend Emilio. When it comes to accepting interviews, protecting her boyfriend’s movie reputation, etc., Demi’s behavior in front of the media is a mature one.
Star posture.
"I'm very happy. I watched your last movie, "How I Lived" starring Rob Lowe, and your acting skills improved a lot."
"Haha, your praise makes me happier than all the film critics' praise for me." Demi looked at Ronald with almond-shaped eyes, and a romantic charm flowed out.
This woman has gone through rigorous training on Broadway and Hollywood, and when her acting skills are revealed naturally, she has indeed grown a lot compared to the little actress she was before.
"Broadway does change you..."
"Yes, this is a different world. Although I have a bit of a false reputation, if I don't rehearse well here and my dialogues are not proficient enough to be natural, I will be looked down upon by my peers.
They are full of hostility towards actors from Hollywood, and they don’t want us to make any jokes. In addition, there is a B character who has been eyeing us."
Demi touched her hair. She just wanted to find topics that interested Ronald and talk more.
"Don't you ask me why I broke up with Emilio?" Demi opened the collar on her chest.
"This is your private matter." Ronald didn't want to be too fussy, so he replied. But in his heart, Ronald had other thoughts:
In fact, everyone knows that the movie that Emilio wrote, directed and starred in, with Demi Moore as the protagonist and Dino De Laurentiis as the cast, was very bad.
For Demi, Emilio's use value has come to an end. If she continues to be an engaged couple with him, Demi Moore will no longer be able to reap any benefits.
The reason why the two have not officially announced the cancellation of their engagement is because Demi doesn't want to bear the bad reputation of kicking her fiancé away. Maybe in a few months...
"Let me tell you, Emilio did not regard me as his real girlfriend at all. During the period when he was confirming his relationship with me, he was still in constant contact with a Latina woman and had two children with her."
"Oh," Ronald exclaimed in his heart, "It won't take a few more months. Emilio made a fool of himself and handed this kind of information into Demi's hands. It seems that he will be exposed in the gossip media soon.
See Emilio’s secret lover revealed.”
"You really don't want to stay and catch up with me?" Demi drank some wine and her face became more and more rosy.
"I'm sorry, I'm about to start rehearsals for a new film, so I have to leave first."
"I know, I know, the old woman Cher you sent is the starring role. I often collect information about you in the media. It is a movie similar to a Broadway play. You are going to make the kind of movie that Oscar likes.
"
"Well, this is a romance movie for middle-aged people."
"I know that this is Mr. Shanley's first screenwriting work from Broadway to Hollywood. We are all waiting to see it."
Demi came up and gave Ronald a deep, Western-style kiss.
"Well... it's so nice. I thought I would forget that your kiss is so intoxicating." Demi's hand touched Ronald's... and she was very satisfied with her charm.
"I really have to go..." Ronald didn't have much confidence in his own willpower to resist the charm of this beauty. Demi's demeanor and temperament have now matured. Combined with her figure and face, it makes people...
It's easy to fall into it.
"When you finish this period of work and we are both free..." Demi smiled. As long as you have the intention, it is actually better to leave it in your mind.
"Bye...Ronald", Demi let Ronald out of the room. After opening the door, she saw Niceta guarding outside. She pulled Ronald's collar mischievously, kissed him deeply, and then
Smiled at Niceta who was behind Ronald.
"Very good. You have indeed remembered what I have repeatedly emphasized. Whatever happens with a beautiful female star must be something you can control."
Niceta and Ronald got off the elevator together, and it wasn't until they got in the car that she told Ronald what was in her heart.
Today's Japanese video recorders, tape recorders, etc. are all small in size. As a famous director, Ronald had to be careful not to hunt wild food outside.
"Ah...what..." Ronald was thinking about something and was awakened by Niceta's words.
"Demi is a smart girl. I just kept up with her and asked her about the current situation."
Ronald explained a few things to his agent.
He was still thinking about what Demi Moore had just said about a pervasive hostility among Broadway actors toward Hollywood.
They always feel that Hollywood actors have no acting skills but earn much higher wages than themselves.
Ronald thought to himself that he had to be prepared for the upcoming rehearsal, and he would have to convince those Broadway gold medal supporting actors.