These two magazines, "Variety" focuses on wealth, while "People" focuses on sex appeal.
What's crucial here is the combination of both money and sex appeal, amassing wealth and allure!
They're dying to peek under Martin's underwear to let all Americans see that this bastard is hung, not as his misery-inducing publicity would have you believe, with only Ultraman's two and a half centimeters.
However, Martin wasn't embarrassed or uneasy about his secrets being exposed because he never hid them. He's always had the persona of a playboy.
Unlike Leonardo, who prides himself on fidelity.
Martin remained composed, while Leonardo was furious.
Slamming his hand onto the desk with a bang, his round, wide face was filled with anger and frustration.
Jessica took a peek and thought to herself, could it be jealousy?
But in Hollywood, it was others who envied Leonardo, and since '98, he had no idea what those feelings even were.
"Fuck, these damn magazines!" Leonardo picked up his fist and pounded it into the magazines, fuming, "Exposing your billionaire status like this, how the hell am I supposed to make you look pitiful now!"
Nickelson said, "Doesn't seem like much of a problem to me."
"The plan was to look pitiful, man! Do you get it?" Leonardo picked up the issue of "People" and threw it at Nickelson, " Martin's been fucked over by so many women, how pitiful! Martin's been simultaneously fucked by many of them, how pitiful! Martin's lost billions on them, truly fucking pitiful!"
He slouched back and plopped down on the couch, which flattened a bit under his weight due to his significant girth.
He looked as if he had been struck, deflated for the moment.
Nickelson shook his head repeatedly.
Leonardo tried to summon a bit of spirit: "All the nights I've spent on this pitiful act, now forced to stop."
He learned a few phrases from Martin: "These assholes have no sense of decency, uncovering someone's past like that!"
Seeing Leonardo so affected, Martin quickly reassured him: "It's not a big deal, really."
But Leonardo didn't see it that way, "An Oscar for Best Actor! Martin, with the pity-act gone, there goes your Oscar for Best Actor!"
Martin thought to himself that he had known this damn pity-act was unreliable, luckily he was prepared.
He said, "Surely not?"
"No, no, there's a negative impact," said Leonardo. "You have the looks, the body, the wealth, the women, and the fame and business pull. You are hogging all the good stuff!"
Drawing Nickelson closer, he continued, "These old bastards like Jack, won't they feel bitter? And if they do, wouldn't they do anything to take something away from you? They can't interfere much, but they have a say at the Oscars, right?"
Martin felt this description strangely familiar and after a thought, he said, "Leo, you're not talking about me, that's clearly yourself."
At this point, Nickelson added, "You and Martin are different. Martin cozied up to the Academy as soon as he got famous. And you? Do I need to repeat how arrogant you were back then?"
Leonardo, avoiding that topic, rubbed his chubby face: "My pitiful act failed, what should I do now?"
"Simple, make another plan, a dirtier one," Martin said seriously. "You've seen the media slandering us, it's a mess right now."
Even for someone as seasoned as Nickelson, he had to admit, "This is the messiest Oscar PR campaign I've ever seen."
Every contending crew was rolling up their sleeves to join the fight, with attacks expanding rapidly; currently, at least around ten films were flying high in a mix of smear and praise.
Leonardo looked at Martin, feeling somehow that he was involved, especially since he had been talking about a dirtier plan.
He urged, "How specifically should we approach this?"
Martin roughly laid it out, "Like we discussed a few days ago, hit our main competitors hard. We don't have to be better than them; as long as they're worse than us, that's enough."
Nickelson named the key player: "Matt Damon!"
"Exactly," Martin concurred, "He's the biggest threat for Best Actor. If he's bad enough, the threat disappears, and we win on the Oscar stage fair and square."
Leonardo said, "What are we waiting for, let's start!"
Glancing at the wall clock, Martin instructed Jessica to turn on the TV and said, "Pulitzer Prize winner, Mrs. Helen, is about to interview some of the Weinstein scandal survivors…"
At noon, "The Helen Show" aired on schedule, with several girls seated in the broadcast room.
Those familiar with the Weinstein scandal might recognize them; they were victims of Harvey Weinstein.
The topic Helen started with was focused on how these girls, after the Weinstein trial, resumed normal life and how they healed from the physical and emotional damage. It all seemed to be a review of past events.
"After the abuse, did Harvey send anyone to pressure you?" Helen shifted her questioning to the target subject: "Who were these people?"
The blonde girl spoke up: "I've talked with many victims, and the ones who showed up the most were Ben Affleck and one of Weinstein's assistants."
Another girl with black hair took over: "Matt Damon was the one who warned and pressured me."
Helen asked, "Hollywood superstar Matt Damon?"
The black-haired girl said, "Yes, it's Matt Damon. He called me, warning not to talk nonsense, or else I couldn't become an actress and would encounter a lot of trouble."
The brown-haired woman beside her added, "I was also pressured by Matt Damon. By the way, I am a reporter for 'California Entertainment'. I had obtained a recording at that time, but Matt Damon called the editor-in-chief of the publishing house and then called me, telling us we couldn't report on the matter..."
Helen said, "When the Harvey Weinstein case was first heard, I also heard these rumors, but the rumors soon disappeared. Are the rumors true?"
The brown-haired woman showed a helpless smile, "The rumors disappeared because of the efforts of Matt Damon and his public relations manager, as well as the PR from the talent agency. At that time, the media's attention was focused on Weinstein, the Affleck brothers, and Brad Pitt, all overlooking Matt Damon. Because I insisted on reporting, the newspaper fired me..."
Helen asked, "Can you prove any of this?"
"We have evidence!"
"I have a recording of the call with Matt Damon!"
"When Matt Damon and Ben Affleck pressured me, I secretly recorded the conversation."
Helen timely asked, "Did you bring it?"
"Of course!"
This chapt𝙚r is updated by freeωebnovēl.c૦m.
What followed was naturally the playback on the spot.
Matt Damon had appeared in so many movies, his voice was too recognizable. As soon as the recording was played, those who heard it could almost certainly confirm that the speaker was Matt Damon himself.
There was also a video clip, not long, just over twenty seconds, but it clearly captured the faces of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
Helen rose to fame with the Burbank Middle School incident and quickly won herself a Pulitzer, before founding "The Helen Show."
Today, "The Helen Show" is one of America's most-watched talk shows, with viewers from all walks of life.
As the show aired, Matt Damon finally stood out from the various Oscar hopefuls and grabbed the headlines!
Almost at the same time, TMZ also released several recordings related to Matt Damon.
Other media outlets got their hands on related news and, initially hesitant, now released it without hesitation.
This wasn't like during the Harvey Weinstein case when public and media attention was all on Harvey.
Matt Damon became a super hot topic.
The biggest difference between him and Harvey was that he didn't have to face legal punishment.
It was time for the two leading figures of the Mitu movement, Jolie and Aniston, to maintain prominence, saying that someone like Matt Damon, if he had any conscience and self-respect, should voluntarily withdraw from the public eye.
The wave of public opinion that erupted overnight nearly overwhelmed Matt Damon.
America's entertainment media no longer saw the Oscar nominees attacking each other; all the space and heat were stolen by Matt Damon.
The media's reporting was biased, how could those Oscar nominees with limited audience draw more attention than the scandal of Matt Damon?
Moreover, there was evidence to show that Matt Damon was an accomplice to Harvey Weinstein; how could anyone miss the opportunity to join the frenzy of condemnation?
In Malibu, in the living room of a luxurious mansion, Matt Damon sat on the sofa, somewhat dazed.
Hadn't all these things passed? Why were they being dragged out by the media again and reported so frantically?
The agent then said, "It must be the Oscars! Now is a critical moment for the Oscar voting."
Matt Damon's face was still simple and honest, as if he had never known about the things Harvey had done: "Weren't they attacking each other before? Why are they singling me out for a beating?"
He raised his voice, "I bloody well didn't break the law, and they want to sentence me!"
The agent reminded him, "What matters now is not important, we must issue a statement in response, it relates to the upcoming Oscar campaign."
Although this incident would damage Matt Damon's reputation, in the eyes of these veterans with traditional notions, it really wasn't that big of a deal.
Not wanting to give up on this opportunity to compete for awards, Matt Damon said, "Get the PR manager here, we need to draft a strategy quickly."
The talent agency responded very quickly with a video of Matt Damon accepting an interview, which soon appeared on YouTube, Twitter, and television.
Similar to what Martin had seen in previous reports, Matt Damon, like many powerful stars in Hollywood, was quite arrogant, deflecting all responsibility.
"I didn't know the specifics of what Harvey did; actually, I am also a victim. He used power to oppress me; I thought it was just a common conflict, so I went with Ben to mediate."
No one knew what Matt Damon was thinking; his subsequent words were even more outrageous: "This is a common situation in Hollywood, when two people have a dispute, there always needs to be a mediator to resolve it. I thought I was just mediating the dispute as a go-between."
This video created a sensation both inside and outside of the industry.
"Hollywood Reporter" took a stance against Matt Damon, publishing a column: "Matt Damon's interview is truly a car crash scene. The arrogance of Hollywood's powerful male stars is again laid bare for all to see, and no wonder so many have committed these atrocities in the past!"
Even Martin, Leonardo, and Nicholson, the three bastards, didn't expect Matt Damon to respond in this way.
In this round of Oscar competition, Martin didn't dare say his role and performance were great, but he could be certain, his main competitors were worse than him.