First, the "Los Angeles Metropolis Daily", as Eric expected, once again exposed the photos of Julia leaving Eric's house, and specifically mentioned the carnival party held by Eric at home, but it was "Home Alone". "The events that the crew members participated in are briefly mentioned, but the language is ambiguous, focusing on describing the group of young and beautiful beauties.
Then some newspapers followed suit, finding some plausible revelations from nowhere to criticize Eric's personal conduct. Eric also gradually changed from an inspirational young man to a famous one who abandoned his girlfriend and had sex with underage girls. Relationships, lingering party life extravagant playboy.
"... Maybe Eric Williams is indeed a talented young man, but after obtaining huge wealth too easily, this young man obviously began to degenerate at an incomprehensible speed..."
"... After just abandoning his late girlfriend and spending the spring night with Drew Barrymore, Eric Williams immediately changed to a new woman. According to the investigation, the big-mouthed beauty in the photo is currently showing The heroine in "Modern Cinderella"…”
"...It's hard to imagine that Eric Williams would attack Drew, who is only 13 years old. I personally think that there must be something unknown in it. In any case, Eric Williams' behavior Both touch the California law. I seem to see a second Roman Polanski, the same talented director, but committed the same unforgivable crime, in order to prevent Eric Williams from being like Roman Polanski By absconding like that to escape the responsibility of the law, I think the Los Angeles police should take timely measures against Eric Williams... ”
Even some bottomless entertainment gossip newspapers, after finding no more revelations, began to fabricate them out of thin air without any basis. For a while, Eric's original good public image was crumbling.
After Fox found that the turmoil was slightly expanding, it immediately reacted. "Return to Seventeen" produced by the other party is still in hot theaters, and has just bought out the overseas distribution rights of "Home Alone". If Eric's image as the leading actor and director is allowed to be damaged, he will suffer direct economic losses. Obviously they.
As for Colombia, apart from continuing to perform the contract in accordance with the VAM agreement, it is almost completely on the sidelines. Some employees in Columbia's negative publicity department also mentioned doing PR for Eric to their bosses, but none of the proposals were approved. Blount Cohen was disgraced by Eric last time, and the senior management of the Propaganda Department even suspected that there would be Brent Cohen's inspiration behind these turmoil, so they were unwilling to take the risk of standing up for Eric.
News Corporation started out as a paper media company, and has played many tricks to increase sales by smearing public figures. Correspondingly, it is also easy to deal with when its own side is smeared.
Soon, under the negotiation between Fox and Eric himself, the counterattack was launched quickly. While reversing Eric's image through various media, Fox picked out a few recently released movies with less than clean background. Actors and directors followed suit, and for a while, North American newspapers appeared to be in a mess, and the attention focused on Eric was quickly distracted.
The people are gradually smelling something unusual from the gossip flying all over the sky. Although the media is good at manipulating people's hearts, if they really blindly treat the people as fools, the only one who will be fooled in the end will be themselves.
Soon, a lesser-known "Hollywood Information" published a special commentary article on the front page, completely exposing the undercurrent buried under the turmoil.
"Christmas farce: it's all to blame at the box office"
"When the annual film Christmas is approaching, the film company that has tried its best to promote its own works in the past years is using a series of despicable methods of discrediting to suppress competitors. It all started with a famous The miraculous rise of a teenager named Eric Williams."
"After the new week's box office was released, the total box office of the two films related to Eric Williams has exceeded 100 million US dollars, especially the low-cost comedy "Home Alone", after the box office rose against the trend in the second week, the third Zhou still only had a slight drop of 20% in the box office, and got 23.15 million US dollars at the box office, and the total box office in three weeks was close to 80 million US dollars, directly squeezing into the sixth place in the annual box office list, and the trend of miracles is already unstoppable."
"As we all know, the total box office and the number of movie viewers during the Christmas period are limited, and major film companies will gradually withdraw from a series of annual blockbusters. Therefore, in order to compete for box office share, recently Eric Williams himself suffered from various All kinds of criticism and scandals seem logical."
"Let's not talk about the character of Eric Williams himself, and let's not talk about what a series of other film and television stars have recently been attacked by public opinion. We are just calling on the major film companies to remain calm. Come back to the normal track of competition. Suppressing opponents through abnormal means will only lead to self-destructive consequences in the end."
The "Hollywood Information" article seems to be a signal. While the famous newspapers are reprinting it one after another, the big bosses behind the manipulation of this public opinion turmoil to knock Eric out of the dust have to restrain themselves. As they discovered that Eric was no longer alone, News Corp.'s quick and furious counterattack made it clear that Eric Williams had formed a stable alliance of interests with Fox.
Although some tabloids who were unwilling to give up the topic were entangled one after another, most of the more influential newspapers tacitly stopped attacking their competitors.
The turmoil seems to be over.
A few days later, Eric, who was chased by the paparazzi and was a little crazy, finally moved into the Beverly Hills mansion and closed the door tightly. Eric no longer had to look up through the window like he did in the North Hollywood apartment. I saw a long row of paparazzi cars parked outside.
Jeffrey Hansen looked at the high walls outside the mansion, and rang the doorbell enviously. After a few minutes, Eric opened the door and welcomed Jeffrey Hansen in.
After parking the car in front of the villa, Jeffrey Hansen asked, "Eric, what are you doing at home recently, have you not gone out for several days?"
Eric was very depressed when he mentioned this matter. After the procedures of the Firefly Film Company were completed, there were not many things that required him to come forward in person. In addition, he would be chased and intercepted by paparazzi when he went out. Eric basically stayed at home these days. at home. Compared with the happy life of the otakus in the previous life, this era without the Internet and smartphones really made Eric, a traveler, so boring that he went crazy.
"Writing novels, writing scripts, watching TV... Anyway, it's boring. Now I don't even dare to leave the door. Last time I just passed by a convenience store to buy a bottle of drink. The next day, the tabloids reported that I asked that supermarket It was reported that the cashier's little girl stretched out her claws."
Jeffrey couldn't help but gloated and laughed.
Eric led Jeffrey Hansen into the study on the second floor of the villa. As soon as he entered, Jeffrey saw an oversized wooden writing board hanging on one wall of the study. Dense newspaper clippings and scribbled manuscript paper are nailed to the writing board with H-pins.
"What are these for?" Jeffrey walked in curiously and asked.
"It's useless." Eric stepped forward, tore off a newspaper clipping, and said with a smile: "I'm bored at home, so I try to analyze who is tossing me behind my back from the information in these gossip newspapers. , and settle accounts after the fall."
Jeffrey joked: "You think you are Sherlock Holmes. If you can tell from these, those old fritters will be in vain."
Eric shrugged. Speaking of which, he was actually quite lucky, because of the temporary interest alliance of Fox, he was pulled back from the brink of this turmoil. Compared to Michael Jackson, who touched the interests of too many people in his previous life, but was tortured alone, Eric did not dare to ask for anything more.
Putting aside these thoughts, Eric asked, "By the way, Jeffrey, how are things going?"
Hearing this, Jeffrey took out a large stack of documents from his briefcase with some complaints and said, "You are such a laid-back boss, you leave me to do everything. I am already renovating the company's office building." Yes, it will take about half a month. Also, this is the information of some brokerage companies you asked me to find, Eric, have you really decided to buy a brokerage company? "
Eric took the information and said: "Of course, you have also seen the matter of Stuart Ronker, caa is now holding him tightly in his hand and waiting to knock me down. I can't always cultivate stars for others Bar."
"However, the federal monopoly law stipulates that a film company cannot also own an agent company."
Eric flipped through the materials in his hand and replied: "Of course I know this, and I don't intend to merge the two companies together. In my vision, the film company and the brokerage company are completely independent, and there is no legal agreement. question."
"Forget it, you can figure it out for yourself. By the way, is the script of the new movie you mentioned finished?"
Eric found a stack of manuscripts on a desk full of newspapers and handed them to Jeffrey: "It's finished, can you read it first?"