"You think Bush will win?" Claude looked surprised.
The US election was divided into two stages. The first round of voting was held on the first Tuesday in November. Voters in each state would elect electors to represent their state. Then, on the third Monday in December, the electors would go to the state capital to vote for the new US president. Generally speaking, if a candidate could get more than half of the popular vote in a state — when voters nominated electors, they voted for the presidential candidate they supported — then all of the electoral votes in the state would belong to him, even if half of the electors did not support him.
This was called the winner takes all. Except for Maine and Nebraska, the other 48 states and Washington, DC, were like this. This was why, although Claude thought Gore did not have much of an advantage, he was surprised that Adriaan favored Xiao Bu. After all, Gore's support rate among the general public was higher than Bush's, and the electoral votes were basically clear after election day. Most of the voting in December was just a formality.
"You know, I don't know a lot of things very well." Adriaan spread his hands. "But because of this, I can often look at things from another angle and see things that others can't. Tell me, dear Krau, how much money did Gore and Bush raise? Or tell me, who raised more money? "
"It should be Bush." Claude thought for a while and gave the answer.
"I don't know if you've noticed, Krau, but since the end of the 1970s, when Jimmy Carter was elected, the presidential election has become a model where whoever spends more money wins," Adriaan said seriously.
"Oh?" Claude raised his eyebrows.
"Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton were all like this. Although there were only four people, it was enough to explain some things." Adriaan stood up. "Of course, if it was just this, we could take it as a coincidence. But let's look back at history. After the Civil War, except for Franklin Roosevelt, the Democratic Party has never been in power for 12 consecutive years, and it has happened more than once with the Republican Party."
"Clinton has been in power for two consecutive terms, so the chances of Democrat Gore being elected are slim. This is what you mean, right?" Claude asked.
Adriaan raised his hands. "Gore's support rate among the general public is indeed higher than Bush's, but it's never the voters who decide who becomes the president. Bush had been a member of the House of Representatives, the Director of the CIA, and the President of the United States. We had discussed this before. If the Red Empire disintegrated two to three months earlier, it would be very difficult for Clinton to defeat him. The political capital and connections that Bush has now accumulated are enough for him to push his son to the presidency. This is why I suggest that you send a personal representative to contact him instead of Bush, who is running for the election. "
"Isn't it a little late now?" Claude frowned. "It's less than a month before the election. Even if we lean towards them, it won't make much of a difference. Besides, we support the Democratic Party."
"Come on, Krau, can't you not be like this?" Adriaan couldn't help but roll his eyes.
That's right. Traditionally, the Ron Family had always been supporters of the Democratic Party. Of course, Uncle Anderson supported the Republican Party. He was a conservative. But for major corporations, betting on both sides was a common practice. For this year's election, whether it was Gore's team or Bush's team, AC Media donated a lot of money.
"Okay, okay." Claude laughed. "Anyway, Bush only needs more than half of the electoral votes. From the first Tuesday of November to the third Monday of December, there's at least a month's time. Anything can happen. I will arrange it immediately, but some things will take some time."
"Don't worry. Maybe in ten years, the political contribution limit will be lifted." Adriaan, who knew what he was talking about, replied with a smile.
Although American law stipulated that a campaign could accept a certain amount of political contributions from a certain person or a certain company, it was easy to circumvent this restriction. All they had to do was set up a few more funds. Since the law was useless, it was no wonder that the political contribution limit would be lifted ten years later.
This result was within Adriaan's expectations. Claude was very steady, but at the same time, he liked to do things that were challenging. That was why he helped him rob Japan's Black Empire. That was why he persuaded him to establish AC Media. That was why he tried to acquire TBS, ABC, etc. However, his achievements were huge. The phrase "young and promising" was tailor-made for him. How many people in their early thirties could take charge of a large corporation with assets of fifty or sixty billion? Not to mention, this corporation was built by him and his best friend.
Therefore, as long as he could successfully acquire AT&T Broadband, Claude didn't mind taking a gamble. Plus, he had a good chance of winning. Although investing in a senator was more cost-effective than investing in a president, sometimes investing in a president could also reap great benefits, such as now. At a critical moment, as long as George W. Bush could become the president of the United States, with the cooperation of McDonnell and others, they should be able to settle this matter in a short period of time. Sly old foxes might be sly old foxes, but they still had to do what they were paid to do. American politicians were relatively trustworthy in this regard.
What's more, AC Media wasn't without a backup plan. It wasn't hard to guess the plans of the other media groups. If the anti-trust agency intervened and banned the transaction on the grounds of suspected monopoly, it would be best. However, it didn't matter if they couldn't ban the transaction. Since they could use their connections in the government, AC Media could do the same, and they all had their own plans.
If they couldn't ban the transaction, then they could drag it out. The FCC's informal review period could be up to 180 days, and the formal review period wouldn't be much shorter. If they dragged it out for a year, the funds needed to acquire AT&T Broadband would greatly increase. The media moguls who wanted to stop them couldn't see the future of AT&T Broadband. They just couldn't or were unwilling to acquire it for one reason or another. As time dragged on, AT&T Broadband's performance would skyrocket. By that time, they would only need to spend ten billion a year to acquire it. A year later, they would need to spend 20 billion or even 30 billion. Moreover, Comcast would be competing to raise the price.
Their plan wasn't bad. Under normal circumstances, if they really dragged it out for so long, they might fail. However, if there was an oversight in key information, then no matter how they calculated, they wouldn't get anywhere. At that point, AC Media might not have enough funds, but Adriaan and Claude had plenty. Moreover, Adriaan had already decided that it didn't matter if they invested all of their money in the acquisition.
As the saying went in his previous life, in the face of absolute power, all schemes were useless. In the absence of government intervention, the acquisition would ultimately be decided by the amount of funds the company had. Even so, if that really happened in the end, the loss would inevitably outweigh the gain. Therefore, it was necessary to invest in Bush.
The matter was decided. Just like before, Adriaan made the decision, and Claude carried out the execution. Therefore, Adriaan did what he had to do. For example, he accompanied Jessica to the cinema to watch One Last Dance.
As a song-and-dance film, it was already a minority in the current film market. Although song-and-dance films were an indispensable film genre in Hollywood, there was almost no memorable song-and-dance film in the entire 1990s. Even Woody Allen failed because of it.
Therefore, there was no premiere for One Last Dance. Of course, there was still plenty of promotion — compared to a low-budget film — so Adriaan and Jessica disguised themselves and went to the cinema to watch it.
This was actually the second time that Jessica watched her first movie as the lead. The first time was on the day of the release with her family. After all, she hadn't been home for a long time. Fortunately, her figure had recovered, so her parents wouldn't notice anything wrong. Even if her mother had doubts, she just said that she had gained some weight because of the pregnancy scene in Doomsday Black Angel.
Adriaan didn't stop her from doing body-shaping exercises immediately after the delivery. In any case, Jessica was still very young. Coupled with her low self-esteem when she was a child, it was completely understandable that she still valued her appearance and figure more. As long as she could enjoy the most basic breastfeeding, it would be fine.
There were many people in the theater, and most of them were young people. They were all in high spirits and seemed to be full of interest in the film. It wasn't surprising. This was already the second week of the release of "Keep the Last Dance". Because it was the off-season, it managed to obtain almost 2,000 cinemas. Then, it achieved a box office of 25 million in North America in the first week. Many people gave it a good review.
"Full of youthful vitality and inspiring power," a film critic wrote in a column in the Chicago Tribune.
Indeed, in the past, most musical films showed the world of adults. They were either gorgeous and extravagant, or fresh and simple. Although there were some youth musical films that were completely played by young people, they were not good, and the audience was very small. As for "Keep the Last Dance", it first mixed inspirational and love in the story, and then mixed ballet and blues in the dance, so it became a somewhat different youth song and dance film.
"Look, you are very charming, aren't you?" Looking at the big screen, Adriaan blew into Jessica's ear ambiguously.
Although Jessica didn't speak, there was a trace of a proud smile at the corner of her mouth. Obviously, her family and friends had praised her a lot before. Although Jessica's acting skills were relatively weak, she looked very charming through those simple and gorgeous dances. It had to be said that the choreography was very beautiful.
One of the biggest attractions of musical films was the carefully choreographed dances. For example, the plot of "One Last Dance" was relatively cliché and simple. Because of the death of her mother, the female lead moved in with her father. Then, she met the male lead, and slowly got together because of the dance. Along the way, they had to go through all kinds of tests.
Without the dance, this would at best be a very popular love film, but with the dance, it was different. The choreography put a lot of effort in this aspect, combining as much as possible the blues and ballet, and using different styles of dance to show the difference in skin color and identity. There was no doubt that no matter what the position of ballet was in the past, and how much time it had taken to evolve to its current state, it was now indeed an elegant art. As for the blues, it had been popular among black people for decades. Many people once considered it vulgar or even gaudy, but it was very similar to the identity of the male and female lead.
The director also had a good grasp of the plot arrangement, and the choreographer was also very cooperative. For example, when the male and female leads first met, they were like ballet and blues, who were incompatible, but in essence, they were attracted to each other. Then, after they touched each other, they started to feel something, and the choreographer arranged for the blues to integrate into the ballet for the first time. Of course, some bumps were inevitable. As the relationship between the male and female lead warmed up, the two kinds of dance merged very smoothly, and as they exchanged ideas about dance, the relationship between the male and female lead continued to warm up, until all kinds of difficulties began to come.
In the end, the two had to separate, and the integration of the dance also stopped. The female lead could not concentrate on practicing, and the male lead could not face himself. In the end, the male lead finally made up his mind to break up with his previous life, and then went to find his lover. At that moment, she was in a theater, preparing to perform for a dance teacher at a dance academy. Without the male lead by her side, although the female lead practiced the dance that they had created together desperately, there was still a big problem in her first performance.
"Are you really ready?" asked a male teacher with glasses, a ponytail, and a beard.
The female lead took a few deep breaths, but could not answer until the male lead's voice came from the door, "Yes, she is ready."
As mentioned before, the plot was very cliché. What followed was a scene that could be seen in all love and inspirational movies, where the male lead rushed to the stage to encourage his lover: You can do it, you can do it, you can do it. Finally, the female lead performed the dance perfectly. Here, the director and the choreographer arranged the dance very well. Although there were ballet or blues dances from time to time in the whole movie, and they were all performed very well, and there were also dances that combined ballet and blues, which were also eye-catching. However, basically, the whole dance was not fully displayed until the last part.
In the fast editing, the female lead fully displayed the dance with her body. There was the elegance of ballet, and the rhythm of blues, which were perfectly integrated without any gap. Sometimes, it was soft and beautiful, and sometimes, it was sexy. It was so passionate and full of vitality that the teachers under the stage could not help but nod along with the rhythm. The whole movie was foreshadowed for the climax of these few minutes. The accumulated emotions of the whole movie were completely released at this moment. When the dance was over, the young people in the theater could not help but cheer and applaud loudly.
"Very perfect." Adriaan also could not help but applaud and praise.
Sitting next to him, although Jessica had heard such praise many times, she still could not help but smile. However, when the movie was over and they were walking out, she sighed because she thought of something.
"What's wrong?" Adriaan asked curiously.
"Nothing, it's just …" Jessica pursed her lips and said, "It would be great if I really danced all of this."
Adriaan could not help but laugh. He reached out and scratched her nose. "Don't think so much. After all, you are not a professional dancer. It's already very good to be able to train to that level in such a short time."
As mentioned before, ballet was different from ordinary dance. As long as the dancers were given enough time to practice, most of the movements of ordinary dance could be performed infinitely close to that of professional dancers. For example, in the movie Adriaan prepared for Nicole, this was also one of the reasons why he asked Nicole to practice dancing more. However, ballet was different. Generally, ballet dancers started dancing from a young age, and there were strict requirements for their body shape. Therefore, they had to start shaping before their bones were fully developed. It was fine for adults to practice ballet for fun, but it was almost impossible for them to perform on a professional stage.
Ballet troupes were also the most competitive place in the entertainment industry, even more so than the modeling industry. Many excellent ballet dancers had to work as backup dancers for their entire lives. It was impossible to be as good as a professional ballet dancer after practicing for half a year to a year. Therefore, in all the movies related to ballet, unless the actors were young or they were ballet dancers themselves, most of the dances had to be stand-ins. There were no exceptions.
Even though there weren't many ballet parts in "One Last Dance", jESSICA still used a lot of body doubles, especially in the last dance, which was extremely outstanding. Therefore, whenever there was a scene of Jessica's front face spinning on the screen, the camera would not shoot her feet. When she spun her whole body, the speed was very fast, and her face could not be seen clearly. Soon, the camera would switch to a close-up of her upper body.
"Wait for me here, okay?" Outside, Adriaan patted Jessica's arm and then went to get the car. But when he came back, he saw a very unexpected scene.
The fans who were still outside the theater were gathering towards jESSICA. Those at the very front were rushing towards her in waves, frantically looking for something to ask for her autograph. jESSICA, whose hat had already fallen off, could only smile bitterly, but she couldn't refuse. Needless to say, she was accidentally recognized by the fans while she was waiting. Of course, the fans who had just watched the movie she starred in and were happy to see her.
Adriaan shook his head with a smile, pulled down his hat, and turned the steering wheel to the front of the theater. He poked his head out of the window and shouted, "Jessica! Here! "
Hearing the voice, Jessica looked around, hurriedly ran over, opened the door and jumped in. As the car stepped on the gas, she did not forget to apologize to the fans, "Sorry."
"How popular," Adriaan joked after driving the car on the street.
Jessica smiled embarrassedly, but the satisfaction and contentment on her face could not be concealed. Although "Doomsday Black Angel" had made her a little famous, when had she ever encountered such a scene? This was the influence of the movie.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
