read full inpatreon
belamy20
"Hope everything this guy said is true..." Leon's appetite was fully whetted. As long as the price was right, he wouldn't refuse Whitney Houston.
The copyright business now seems to be the most inconspicuous small piece of his business map, and the revenue cycle cannot be compared with records and movies.
But in the long run, it is very likely to be his most important investment.
The digital age is coming comprehensively. In the future, even a digital picture will have its copyright mark, and users must pay for it. This trend has become increasingly obvious under the bragging of Silicon Valley elites.
A rich copyright library is an important bargaining chip for negotiating with streaming platforms in the future. Holding the copyrights of heavyweight works makes it easier to gain advantages in licensing negotiations.
After recovering his vitality with a cup of coffee, Leon drove the white Bugatti, escorted all the way by the convoy composed of bodyguards like Jorge, across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Traffic jams are a daily routine in New York, especially on the Brooklyn Bridge during the morning rush hour.
A brand-new Bugatti is an eye-catching existence even in Dubai where tycoons are everywhere, let alone in New York where the gap between rich and poor is huge.
The exaggerated car body attracted the attention of the traffic flow as soon as it appeared. Both men and women stuck their heads out of car windows to look at this white beast.
"Sht, this car is indeed a bit too flashy."
Leon shook his head while laughing. Although he doesn't like being overly conspicuous, as a man, no one dislikes the feeling of being surrounded by stars like the moon.
Buying a luxury car is spending money to buy respect, enjoying the power desire of being worshipped.
He can fully understand why Davis bought a sports car even at the cost of a loan, even though this thing will never appreciate in value.
If forced to talk about economic benefits, at least it saves a lot of expenses for dating girls.
Girls would rather sleep with a miser who drives a sports car but won't spend a cent than sleep with a man who drives a Charade to send her flowers.
Soon someone recognized Leon through the car window. The girl was excited like a baboon in heat. "Oh my God! Is that Leon?"
"I won't be mistaken; it's really him!"
With the girl's screams, more and more people stuck their heads out of the window, staring at his car.
Some girls even ignored the slowly moving traffic, left their cars and ran over. "Street Jesus, we love you! Can you sign for me?!"
Seeing the girl's love-struck eyes filled with tears, Leon really couldn't bear to refuse, waving to signal the bodyguards in the rear car to back off.
"No problem, girls." He took the lipstick from the girl and signed an exaggerated signature on her T-shirt.
"I simply love you to death. I don't know how to describe my feelings now. Maybe I will do some excessive things to this T-shirt tonight!"
"..." Leon was speechless. A horn sounded behind him.
A bearded redneck driver stuck his head out of the pickup truck and shouted loudly.
"I have to go; good luck, girls."
Leon started the car and left slowly. The fanatical fans were still shouting at him on the spot: "You are the best, Leon! The real King of Brooklyn!"
Because of the traffic jam on the road and the episode with fanatical fans, it was already past nine o'clock when he arrived at the company.
Just as he was about to push the door into the office, Phil followed from his office with his head poked out, holding a copy of The Hollywood Reporter.
"Your complexion is getting worse and worse. Maybe one day you will really drink yourself to death."
"God will only attack real scum." Phil spread his hands. His ears were calloused from hearing Leon's death curse. "I got you some good endorsements these days. You are simply red-hot now. Even KFC wants to cooperate with you... I selected some quality clients for you."
"Tell me about it."
He has always been cautious about endorsement activities. Although the workload is small and the profit is rich, it is easy to incur legal risks.
Brands usually bury mines everywhere in contracts. Artists with a bad track record like Leon can easily trigger breach clauses and pay several times the compensation.
"Talk about this later. Let's look at some gossip about you first." Phil sneered twice and threw The Hollywood Reporter on the desk. "That girl you support vigorously is controversial in Hollywood recently. I advise you to control your lower body in the future. Don't provoke women like Heard. Under her beautiful face is a crazy soul."
Leon took the newspaper and flipped through a few pages casually, seeing a striking headline on a large section: Street Jesus Leon Smith Obsessed with 15-Year-Old British Girl.
He didn't read the content carefully at all, throwing the newspaper aside casually. "This kind of gossip is uninterrupted every day; I'm already numb."
"You think this is nothing? Oh God, this is the entertainment newspaper with the largest circulation, and you don't care at all?" Phil slapped his butt on the sofa and said angrily: "Even if you don't care, Anya is affected a lot by this. She is just a little girl... Her will is very depressed on the set of The Witch."
"Okay, I understand."
Leon sighed. Since deceiving Anya from London to America, the responsibilities he exercised have far exceeded the scope of a boss.
Calling him Dad wouldn't be excessive.
For a 15-year-old girl who is inexperienced and has a simple social circle, bearing public opinion attacks for the first time, the pressure is imaginable.
Her newly opened Blue Bird (Twitter) account has only a few thousand followers, but there are thousands of personal attack comments in the comment area, mostly from Leon's haters and Taylor's die-hard fans.
The wording is mostly extremely obscene, full of slut-shaming and death threats.
"I will have a good talk with her. It doesn't matter. Although she is young, I can see she is a strong girl." Leon said.
"You say that to every woman." Phil spread his hands. "You met Weinstein in Los Angeles? Heard you had a quarrel? Tell me what exactly happened. This matter has spread."
Leon looked indifferent, long accustomed to the speed of rumor spreading in the entertainment industry. "Not a fierce conflict. That bastard wanted to intervene in SLW Apocalypse's film business, but I didn't give him a chance."
"Okay, listen, it's best not to provoke him. Offending that guy means you miss out on the Oscars." Phil reminded with a solemn expression.
Straight Outta Compton performed well both critically and commercially. As a black biopic, under the halo of "political correctness," unless some "black swan event" occurs, it has a high probability of harvesting a few nominations at the Oscars next year.
If he can really win an Oscar with his first movie, it will be a huge boost to Leon's fame, achieving both fame and fortune.
"I'm too lazy to pay attention to that guy. He'd better not have any bad ideas about me. His current situation is not good. Offending Geffen and Arthur Sulzberger Jr., plus huge mortgages, The Weinstein Company is like a crumbling broken house that will collapse with a light push." Leon said.
"Hopefully. With that guy's influence, it might not be that simple." Phil shrugged. "Before, I always thought your buying radio stations and magazines was a stupid investment. Now I don't think so. Without Lion's Den Media posting articles to whitewash for you, overwhelming smears and abuse could drown you. Maybe you should buy a newspaper office."
"Do you think I don't want to?" Leon rolled his eyes.
Whoever controls the media controls absolute discourse power. This is experience summarized from hundreds of years of modern history.
After the financial crisis, the traditional publishing industry withered, wailing everywhere. Second only to The New York Times and The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, known as the third-largest newspaper in the US, announced a reduction in layout starting from 2010. One page was reduced by ten square centimeters, and the economic section was scattered into various important news sections. Its value is less than half of its peak.
If one wants to make a move on the media industry, now is the best time.
David Geffen saw this and launched a fierce pursuit of the Los Angeles Times. The plan for a wholly-owned acquisition of $2 billion was once close to success, but he withdrew at the critical moment.
The sole purpose of this move was to test whether Tronc, the parent company behind the Los Angeles Times, had the intention to sell.
With the intensification of the decline of traditional print media, it was Tronc who couldn't sit still first. They took the initiative to contact Geffen willing to sell the Los Angeles Times for $1.5 billion, but were rejected.
Currently, the two sides are still in a tug-of-war. It is rumored online that Geffen's real psychological price is $1 billion.
In fact, he is very close to owning this newspaper office. A considerable number of editors-in-chief and management have contacted him in advance to establish a good relationship with this future boss.
Besides Phil, Jeff also reminded him repeatedly to beware of Geffen.
He also wanted to take the initiative to occupy the public opinion position, but facing transactions involving billions of dollars, he could only sigh at the money.
Just when he was briefly lost in thought, Phil suddenly changed the subject. "I brought you two excellent endorsement jobs, Gillette razors and Coca-Cola. How about it? No man can refuse Cola and razors."
When choosing endorsements, first-line stars must consider not only remuneration but, more importantly, whether the brand temperament matches themselves.
No manufacturer would be stupid enough to ask Cardi B to endorse maternal and infant products.
Gillette razors have always been the leading brand in this track. Tough, sporty, and successful people have always been their standard for selecting spokespersons...
Beckham, Tiger Woods, tennis king Federer, and many sports superstars have been the image spokespersons of this brand.
In the past 2010, Federer raked in more than $90 million just by endorsement fees, of which Gillette alone contributed a five-year contract of $13 million.
And Coca-Cola needless to say, a world-class national brand. Leon's preference for burgers and cola is known to every music fan.
This is a match made in heaven.
"Excellent work. How much these endorsements are worth depends on you, especially Gillette. They are never stingy about spending heavily on endorsement fees."
Thinking of posing a few times in front of the camera and easily earning millions of dollars, Leon couldn't stop grinning.
"Leave it to me; this is my strength." Phil also laughed out loud. "In fact, there is another car company very interested in you, Tesla. I mentioned it to you, a group of cyberpunk lunatics selling big toys..."
"And then? You rejected them?" Leon immediately sat up straight, showing a very interested look.
"Otherwise?" Phil spread his hands. "Although those big toys have been released on the road, who can guarantee how long this thing can drive? This is not technological innovation; this is just a very new Ponzi scheme."
There is a decade-long complex grudge between Silicon Valley golden finger Reid Hoffman and Tesla founder Elon Musk, foreshadowed as early as the PayPal startup period.
A few days ago, Jeff sent a long list of Silicon Valley startup projects via email. This list is the investment plan Reid opened for him. Half of the more than fifty projects are social software.
This lottery-style investment method is pure speculation. Musk already pointed this out in the war of words with Reid: "Never believe a single word from Reid Hoffman!"
The two accused each other of being "lunatic" and "liar." Their war of words can be seen in Silicon Valley magazine every now and then.
Phil lit a cigarette and sized up Leon with suspicious eyes. "Are you really interested? I have to remind you that their endorsement fees won't be too high, and you have to bear considerable potential risks. You know the boss of this company is busy building rockets. One firework explosion is tens of millions of dollars... Reusable rockets? This is the most bullsht thing I've heard in the 21st century. If this thing really succeeds, I'm willing to run to Manhattan Beach to sell my butt!"
"Whatever, it's a car endorsement anyway, isn't it?"
In the eyes of public figures, endorsements are also divided into grades. The one at the top of the pyramid, recognized as the hardest to get, is car company endorsement.
Most car brands cherish their feathers very much. For such large commodities costing tens of thousands of dollars, it is hard to say how much sales star effect can bring.
Car companies also often need to worry about the spokesperson's black material destroying the brand image built for many years. Therefore, when signing contracts, there will be many restrictive clauses.
For a notorious celebrity with endless bad deeds like Leon, even if he possesses the legendary status of MJ one day, major manufacturers like BBA (Benz, BMW, Audi) will not consider asking him to endorse.
"Okay~ Since you said so." Phil's expression revealed a trace of dissatisfaction. "If Tesla is willing to leave a little room on endorsement fees and reduce those damn rules and regulations on the contract, I will fight for you."
"Then leave it to you~"
It was close to noon when Phil left. Employees either lay on their workstations to rest or chatted in nearby cafes.
Leon put on large sunglasses, covered half of his face with a hoodie, and came fully armed to a fairly authentic restaurant on Fulton Street.
Ordered a table full of Huaiyang cuisine to improve the food.
During the meal, his phone rang non-stop. Taylor's messages came one after another.
Obviously, she was also affected by the false report in Entertainment Weekly, but she chose not to believe these rumors.
Having had close contact with Anya at Leon's home before, she firmly believed that this girl was not the kind of btch girl common in New York, and instead cared about Anya's state.
[Anya won't be affected, right? She is only fifteen. When I first debuted, even music critics' criticism made me mad, and she has to bear so many attacks...]
[Don't worry, I'll find time to visit her on the set in Vermont. That girl is much stronger than she looks.]
Originally Taylor was out of pure concern, but after getting Leon's reply, a wave of jealousy rose in her heart. The text messaging flirting between the two stopped here.
After the meal, Leon returned to the company. Just walking upstairs, he saw Ariana's assistant and Frankie leaning against the door of the Luna recording studio.
Seeing him, Frankie was like a mouse seeing a cat, quickly straightening up, with a shy and flattering smile on his face.
"Is Little A recording a song?"
"Yes, my sister wrote a great song." Frankie said, "It was you who gave her the inspiration for this song."
"Me?" Leon felt a bit surprised. It seems not only Taylor regards him as a source of inspiration.
"That's right. Since you bast... hurt my sister, she fell into a fanatical working state." Frankie swallowed the dirty word on his lips back into his stomach. "Sometimes she can write three songs a day."
"Her head never lacks interesting ideas." Leon praised sincerely.
Ariana's new album started later than Cardi B's, but has left the other party far behind in production progress.
Seven songs of the new album have completed the recording stage work, and three MVs have been completed.
According to the promotion plan, Apocalypse Music will release the first promotional song for her new album next month.
Frankie suddenly showed a proud smile, eyebrows almost raised to the sky. "This new song will be very different... It will completely overturn my sister's previous style. In the new song, she shines like a queen!"
Hearing this, Leon's heart skipped a beat immediately. Ariana's sweet girl image is a public relations strategy that cannot be changed.
He was worried that the other party really opened her brain hole and wrote a Spice Girls work composed of "Pussy" and "Dick."
Frankie seemed to see the doubt on his face and said arrogantly pinching his throat: "My sister has awakened. After the baptism of scumbags, she has seen through the essence of men! I am sincerely happy for her. She finally understood that men are never as important as sisters~"
Saying that, Frankie showed off the big shiny diamond ring on his finger. "Look, this is the Tiffany my sister gave me. Last week when we were shopping on Seventh Avenue, she bought one such ring for each of the six sisters in the bestie group. I simply love her to death~"