American fame and fortune

The van stopped at the door of the villa, and several workers carefully moved the wooden boxes into the living room and unpacked them. Under Bruce's command, they placed the snow-white marble statue on the base.

Lily took a check and went to settle the bill with the worker.

Martin called Leonardo, who had just returned from New York on vacation: "Come and see your statue."

Leonardo and Nicholson both followed, and the former said, "I haven't paid for it yet. It's not mine yet."

Nicholson said: "You'd better pay the money, otherwise you won't be able to leave Martin's house."

Martin looked at Nicholson: "What do you think I am? A devil's cave?"

Leonardo ignored the two sand sculptures and quickly came to the white marble statue and carefully examined the figure, which was about 50 centimeters high.

The statue has smooth lines, superb craftsmanship and lifelike appearance.

With his years of experience in purchasing art, his vision is not much worse than those of modern artists.

Martin didn't care about that, and asked him to discuss with Lily's agent how much money Leonardo wanted.

Nicholson answered the phone at this time, and without avoiding Martin, he directly put the speakerphone on: "Hi, honey, how are you?"

"The house is very beautiful." Lorraine was quite excited: "It's very spacious and I haven't lived in it much since it was renovated. The main thing is that it's cheap enough. I like it very much."

This is a small villa in Brentwood purchased by the former Daben couple. After their divorce, the villa was assigned to Daben. Daben quickly sold it at a low price in order to exchange it for cash and end the troubles as soon as possible.

Martin kept people watching Big Ben's side and notified Nicholson immediately.

Nicholson said: "Very good, the original owner spent 7 million U.S. dollars to buy the house, and now he bought it for only 4 million U.S. dollars. The house now belongs to you, just think of it as an adult gift I gave you in advance. When you are 21 years old, don’t come to me again asking for gifts.”

Lorraine is also a top performer: "Jack, won't you reimburse me for the $3 million difference?"

Nicholson was so angry that he hung up the phone and said to Martin: "It's better for you and Leo not to worry about these family affairs."

Martin pointed to the statue. A carving knife was flying up and down between Lily's fingers. He said: "Without me watching and suppressing her from time to time, she would be much more difficult to deal with than Lorraine."

Nicholson nodded repeatedly: "Lorraine will not think about stabbing people with a knife, nor will she study human medicine specifically to avoid stabbing people seriously."

Lily's ears kept pricking, and she faintly heard Nicholson's words, and said loudly: "I study human medicine for the purpose of carving, okay!"

Neither Martin nor Nicholson paid her any attention, and all that flashed in their eyes were words like 'Believe it or not'.

Leonardo said at this time: "The statue is very good, I want it." He said to Lily: "Ask your agent to go to my investment manager to negotiate the price."

Lily laughed happily: "Okay, I'll make a call right now."

Not only can this make a small amount of money, but if the agent promotes it and Leonardo buys Lily Carter's sculptures at a high price, his net worth will go up.

Leonardo went to the wine cabinet in the living room to get a bottle of wine and three wine glasses, came over and filled them, and asked: "You two are not interesting enough, you don't even call me when you do trouble!"

Martin raised his hand: "I'm just an errand boy." He pointed to the side: "This is the planner and commander!"

Nicholson was very bossy: "There is no place for you to play in this matter."

Leonardo said: "The foot gang has hit our face gang, where is our RPG?"

"We haven't started a full-scale war yet, so we can't use RPG." Martin said seriously: "If we really want to start a full-scale war, you, the core of the Face Gang, will be indispensable."

Leonardo was very motivated: "Give all the blond, long-legged and unmarried young and beautiful women to me, the married women to Martin, and the other men to Jack."

Nicholson and Martin simultaneously raised their middle fingers.

Martin's cell phone rang. After answering, he hung up and said, "Ben is selling his house in Santa Monica. Which of you is interested?"

Leonardo shook his head: "I have too many houses to count, and it's not good to have too many fixed assets." Both Pete and Ben reminded him: "You still have to keep enough cash on hand."

Nicholson thought of Lorraine: "I bought a set."

"It seems I can only take over." Martin sighed: "It's not easy to be a good person to take over. It also costs millions of dollars."

He happened to see Lily coming in from the outside and said directly: "Go and buy me another house."

Lily mentally mourned two seconds of silence for the Affleck brothers, and suddenly became happy and asked: "Martin, when the house is bought, can you rent it to me as a studio?"

Martin didn't take it to heart at all and responded casually: "Okay, you can pay the rent as you like."

Lily asked for the real estate agent's contact information and quickly went to work.

No complaints this time, very positive.

Lily contacted the real estate agent, went to see the house again, negotiated with the real estate agent, and cut off another $200,000 from the low price, and went through the relevant procedures as soon as possible.

In the afternoon, Martin and Bruce went to the Angel Club to practice shooting and maintain their skills.

Just after finishing an AR magazine, Thomas called, and Martin simply asked him to come to the club.

More than half an hour later, Thomas came over with his shiny forehead.

Martin handed the gun to Bruce, went to the rest area with Thomas, and asked, "What's so urgent?"

Thomas said: "The endorsement deal with Cartier Men's Watch has been reached. We will sign a contract in October with an annual endorsement fee of US$10 million."

These were within Martin's expectations, and he asked: "What about the others?"

"I have negotiated several additional terms." Thomas said in detail: "For awards such as Oscars or the three major European film festivals, Cartier will assist you in winning awards, including bearing part of the public relations costs and contacting relevant media resources. If you can obtain One of the grand prizes will award an additional US$2 million."

Martin nodded: "Okay."

He thought for a while and asked: "Coca-Cola and Cadillac have similar terms, plus Cartier men's watches, as well as the support of the crew and the agency, it seems that there are not many places where I really need to spend my own money to compete for the Olympics, right?"

Thomas said: "That's right. Take this year as an example, I have reached an agreement with the crew of The Dark Knight. They will fully assist you in winning the Oscar for acting. I have also been in contact with several brands you endorse. They said it would never be any worse than Fuck Your Reader."

Martin made some calculations secretly. Not only was there not much he actually needed to spend money on, but once he could win a performance award, not to mention the increase in his net worth, the sponsorship rewards from just a few sponsoring brands would exceed 5 million US dollars.

Such an Oscar award is full of motivation, both honor and money.

Thomas said: "With the huge success of The Dark Knight and an Oscar for acting, when negotiating with Nolan for a new project, a salary of US$15 million is just the starting point. We can also strive for US$20 million. I think we can get US$10 million plus post-production." Shared remuneration is more appropriate.”

"Okay." Martin asked: "How far am I from becoming a 20+20 superstar?"

Thomas told the truth: "There are only a few actors in Hollywood who can get such treatment, and not every film can get it."

He also hopes that Martin can become a superstar as soon as possible, but the road to becoming a superstar must be taken step by step: "Let's get this Oscar first."

Martin said: "If it were not a comic book movie adaptation, I would be confident that I would win the best actor award this time."

Thomas, the agent, is more realistic: "Winning the Best Supporting Actor is a victory. I heard that Sean Penn's new film has been very well received in the test screenings, and his goal is the Best Actor. As you know, Daniel Day -Lewis and Sean Penn are both super darlings of the old white boys in the academy.”

Martin asked: "What's Sean Penn's new movie?"

"Milk." Thomas briefly introduced: "In the biographical film, the gay Milk entered politics in order to fight for the legal rights of homosexuals, and was eventually assassinated to death."

Martin knew as soon as he heard that the Joker was not competitive enough for this role.

Thomas continued: "Since Brokeback Mountain won the award, the atmosphere in the industry has changed. Homosexuality is no longer a taboo, but has become a major help in competing for awards."

Martin said: “The help will be greater and greater in the future.”

Thomas asked tentatively: "Do you want to try this subject?"

Martin's eyes fell on Thomas' face, he didn't say anything, he just looked at him quietly.

Thomas has figured out how to get along with Martin in the past few years, so he quickly changed his mind: "I reject all subjects like this when they come to me."

Martin said: "Your next work will revolve around Oscar competition. The studio has hired a professional public relations team and you will fully cooperate."

Thomas said: "The brokerage company will also fully cooperate. I have talked with Ali and he will personally come forward to canvass votes for you."

He mentioned another thing: "The general election is about to begin. Ali's brother is a member of Guanhai's team. Ali would like to invite you to attend Guanhai's canvassing event in Los Angeles."

Martin's stance has been on the left since he was in Atlanta. Including Kelly and Louise, the stance of his friends and partners is also on the left. He thought about it for a while and agreed: "The time and place have been decided, let me know. "

Thomas nodded and finished talking about some insider matters that Martin was concerned about: "Pete has reached an out-of-court settlement with Cadillac, Breitling and several other endorsement brands."

Martin was very interested and asked: "How much is the compensation?"

Thomas shook his head: "The specific amount was not disclosed by both parties, but the total amount of liquidated damages must be 50 million US dollars. Originally, Pitt had a net worth of hundreds of millions, but a large part of it was invested in real estate after he broke up with Jolie. Li Mei’s stock is now no different than waste paper.”

He continued: "Except for a self-occupied house, other fixed assets such as real estate and cars, Pete has almost sold it. Now he is in contact with several small producers, hoping to return to the screen and regain his glory."

Martin asked: "Dare to use him for big projects?"

"Not to mention big projects, film projects with small and medium-sized investments dare not take the risk of using him." Thomas learned in detail: "No insurance company is willing to insure Pitt."