"The 84th Academy Awards are about to begin, and anyone with a keen eye should realize one thing: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and other Hollywood heartthrobs are actually secondary figures. The real big boss is the man hiding behind the scenes—the overweight Harvey Weinstein!"
"Because a very serious fact is: from last year's 'The King's Speech' crushing 'The Social Network,' sweeping up Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture, to this year's 'The Artist' almost perfectly replicating the 'King's' successful Oscar journey, it's bound to win accolades galore!"
"The outcome of the Oscars is being manipulated by the unseen hand of Harvey Weinstein. It's become a well-known yet unspoken rule, one that could be published as a manual. Every Hollywood actor should consider 'following Harvey Weinstein to get a piece of the pie' as a life motto!"
Howard Rodman put down the newspaper, shaking his head, and said to his old friend, "The Oscars are almost becoming the Weinstein Awards."
"Is it that exaggerated?" His old friend seemed somewhat indifferent.
"Isn't it?" Howard Rodman reminded him, "Think back to how many controversies Harvey Weinstein has created at the Oscars since 'The English Patient.'"
His friend sat there thinking for a while and eventually nodded, "A few times they've turned the Oscars into a joke."
Howard Rodman placed the newspaper on the table, "The Oscars don't belong to the Weinsteins, and they never belong to anyone!"
After a moment of thought, Howard Rodman told his friend, "The Oscars can't go on like this. If this continues, the Weinstein brothers will become the spokespersons for the Oscars. I'll mobilize my contacts to ensure as few votes as possible go to Weinstein films."
His old friend took the newspaper and glanced through it, saying, "It makes a lot of sense. Many actors have no limits in flattering the Weinstein brothers to win an Oscar, while the Academy's authority is never considered. If the Oscars aren't the Academy's, are they really becoming the Weinsteins'?"
With a snort, he added, "I should go. I need to discuss this with some people."
"Alright." Howard Rodman nodded, "I won't see you out. I need to make some calls."
Since 1989, Howard Rodman had been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, with voting rights. As the Vice President of the Writers Guild of America and a representative of screenwriters' rights within the Academy, he was one of the influential core members.
Behind-the-scenes activities aside, Murphy, in collaboration with 20th Century Fox, initiated this wave of media coverage. However, unlike Harvey Weinstein's smear campaign against him and "Diego Ross," the media reports about the Weinstein brothers were filled with praise, listing his past achievements at the Oscars, reminding Academy members, especially the older ones who cherished their reputations, that the Oscars were no longer theirs but had become Weinstein's.
Some media outlets, under Murphy and 20th Century Fox's influence, praised Harvey Weinstein to a significant extent.
"Harvey Weinstein, the man who truly decides the Oscars!"
"What makes a film an Oscar winner? Looking back at the past twenty years, it's clear: follow Harvey Weinstein, and you'll win an Oscar!"
"The Oscars have become Weinstein's. Who can unravel this unspeakable secret?"
These traditional media opinions undoubtedly influenced the Academy voters, especially the conservative old guard who cherished the Oscar's legacy.
Besides print media, ABC, a subsidiary of Walt Disney and the broadcaster of this year's Oscars, aired a two-night special on the highest-rated channel during prime time, focusing on Weinstein's illustrious Oscar history, further proving that the Oscars were becoming Weinstein's.
"Harvey Weinstein's unfailing Oscar PR strategies have led global movie fans, increasingly knowledgeable about the Oscars, to mistakenly believe that 'Oscar voters are a bunch of fools.' From 'The English Patient' sweeping the Oscars, to 'Shakespeare in Love' defeating 'Saving Private Ryan' at the turn of the century, and 'Chicago' dazzling everyone, Harvey Weinstein has been manipulating the Oscars all along!"
"Of course, you must also admit that Harvey Weinstein's manipulation methods have evolved with the times. During 'The English Patient,' he liked to tout his film as 'the greatest moving work in years,' but by the time he was promoting 'The King's Speech,' he openly expressed his disgust for such taglines, indirectly criticizing 'The Social Network' for its self-promoting arrogance. During 'Chicago,' he was keen on subtly attacking competitors, and his gift-giving during voting was somewhat unsightly. But after witnessing the backlash from 'The Hurt Locker's' producer's email campaign, he scaled down his ambitions, focusing only on Best Supporting Actor."
"By the time 'The King's Speech' came around, he knew critics were a disliked bunch, so he publicly stated, 'Oscar voters have their own aesthetic judgment and will not be swayed by critics.' This both flattered the Academy members and allowed him to focus on securing the three major guild awards, ultimately achieving the film's turnaround."
"And this year with 'The Artist,' you can see an even more calculating Harvey Weinstein, executing a more perfect plan than ever before: not promoting the film as a tribute; claiming he never attacks competitors to elevate his own film, while making people forget about the critic-praised 'Diego Ross' and 'The Tree of Life' during the guild awards, and continually stating through the media that he is a 'respecter of film art.'"
Just as the media said Murphy had ties to the drug cartel, this was true, and Murphy couldn't refute it. Even if he had no financial transactions or exchanges of interest with Ross, he couldn't explain it. Similarly, exposing all of Harvey Weinstein's past actions made it impossible for him to explain. The more Weinstein tried to clarify, the more the Academy members saw his abnormal influence over the Oscars.
This influence might be fine in the shadows, but bringing it to light would surely displease the conservative, self-respecting old members of the Academy.
Among the senior Academy members Murphy contacted, some even wondered if they were just a bunch of old fools manipulated by the Weinstein brothers.
Seeing the effect of this, Murphy didn't stop. The media's praise for Harvey Weinstein continued throughout the voting period.
Especially in the influential "The Hollywood Reporter," as the voting period reached its midpoint, Murphy spent a fortune buying key sections to continue reporting on Harvey Weinstein's Oscar career.
"'The Artist,' a gift tailor-made for the Oscars by Harvey Weinstein!"
The core Academy members might differ on what they disliked most, and it's hard to speculate, but one commonality was their aversion to films that overtly seemed made solely to win Oscars.
"Back in May at the Cannes Film Festival, Harvey Weinstein realized that this film was a tailor-made gift for the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters, whose average age is 56: black-and-white, silent, mimicking classic Hollywood stars, with a simple yet fitting 100-minute runtime, all perfectly suited for his Oscar operations."
"More importantly, the gap between its screening and release dates was just like 'The King's Speech': 'The King's Speech' garnered praise from the Toronto Film Festival in September the previous year but was widely released just before the Oscars, while its competitor 'The Social Network' had long been dried out. 'The Artist' also had a long period of media hype before gradually expanding its release before the awards. Even though some viewers felt tricked into watching a silent film and demanded refunds, the news itself became a selling point, further convincing voters that the Oscars should emphasize quality, not what the uneducated general public liked."
"Harvey Weinstein has now become the manipulator behind the Oscars. If you want to know the Oscar front-runners in advance, it's simple: check Weinstein Company's project schedule."
Meanwhile, Murphy didn't overlook the influence of critics on the Oscars.
Renowned critic Stephen Colbert raged on his show "Colbert Time," denouncing "The Artist" as "disgustingly sycophantic," a film that altered its original vision to cater to the Academy, and "despicably" edited into a black-and-white silent film!
Following suit, professional critics like Todd McCarthy and Kenneth Turan from the Los Angeles area attacked "The Artist" in their columns.
"'The Artist' is full of pandering to the Hollywood Academy throughout its campaign, and its work doesn't meet the usual Oscar standards!"
"If I had to pay to watch a black-and-white art film, I'd rather read 'The New York Times.' If the Oscars award 'The Artist,' they might as well give it to 'Transformers'—at least it's more entertaining."
Various kinds of promotional tactics continued until mid-February. As the Academy's voting deadline approached, the media and Hollywood suddenly fell silent, with everyone waiting for the Oscars ceremony to begin.
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