New York, Tis Building.
Sharon Waxman, with her work badge clipped at the collar, waited for a file to finish downloading from her email and then copied it onto a USB drive. She hurried out of her cubicle and knocked on the office door of deputy editor Jonathan Landman.
When Jonathan saw soone enter, he took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, asking, "What's going on?"
"Boss, I just received an anonymous email from a paparazzo." Sharon placed the USB drive on the desk. "It contains so highly sensitive news material."
Jonathan took the USB drive, plugged it into his computer, and opened the video. After watching for barely ten seconds, his expression turned extrely grave, and he asked, "Where did these co from?"
Sharon told the truth: "Soone sent it anonymously to my news inbox, just ten minutes ago."
Realizing the value of the news, Jonathan brushed his graying hair with one hand, seemingly struggling to make a decision.
Sharon wanted to publish it: "This is big news, it could shake up all of Arica."
Jonathan didn't answer imdiately. He pondered carefully for a while before saying, "Harvey Weinstein is an important advertising client of ours. He spends over a seven-figure sum each year on advertising across Tis dia."
Sharon understood what her superior ant; The New York Tis might be one of Arica's top three newspapers, but making money wasn't easy.
An annual advertising spend in the seven figures, a truly significant client.
Jonathan pulled out the USB drive and locked it in a drawer, saying, "Harvey Weinstein is not an elected official, there is no news value in reporting this. Let's leave it at that."
He considered more, "You find the person who supplied these, talk to them, and get back every single piece of the original news material."
Sharon had no choice but to comply.
Not far from there, in the editorial office of "The New Yorker."
Brin sat at his desk, waiting for his boss Tina to watch the video material he had just received.
The more Tina watched, the wider her eyes opened, the better her mood beca, and toward the end, she couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Familiar with his boss's style, Brin knew the news would definitely be published, and he began drafting a secondary copy to complete it as soon as possible.
Tina looked away from the monitor and said to Brin, "Where did you get this?"
"Soone sent it to our email, anonymously." Brin carefully asked, "Editor-in-chief, are we publishing it?"
Tina waved her hand dismissively, "Publish! Of course, publish it, as quickly as possible on our website."
Brin asked for guidance, "To what extent should we go?"
"Post the original! Tina was a woman who had faced exceptional challenges to rise to her position, and the video resonated with her.
But the key issue was sothing else, "Weinstein Films still owes us $260,000 in advertising fees for 'Chicago' and 'Hour by Hour' to this day, forcing us to invest in high legal fees and hire lawyers to sue him and Weinstein Films!"
Brin understood, "Boss, I know what to do!"
Tina wasn't Jewish and had no hesitation, "Take him down, make Harvey Weinstein stink!"
It wasn't just New York; similar news segnts were received in editorial departnts of newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations with even a slight influence in major cities across Arica, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Martin's strategy was simple; it was necessary to cast a wide net to possibly catch several fish.
Among these dia outlets, many decided to hold the news temporarily, and so even contacted the subject.
However, out of the more than 500 dia outlets in total, there were always so with enough influence who, unconcerned about Harvey Weinstein, chose to publish the news.
The influence of Harvey Weinstein, after all, had its limits.
Following TMZ, websites like YouTube, "The New Yorker," HULU, and Yahoo News all published news related to Weinstein.
Internet users who viewed the related material were instantly ignited with enthusiasm.
In the comnts section of the TMZ news article, the rubbernecking masses left over a thousand ssages in less than half an hour.
"Shocking! In our civilized society, a seemingly honorable and successful person could commit such a disgusting act!"
"Harvey Weinstein is committing a cri!"
"Where's 911? Where's the FBI? There's a rapist here!"
"I'm keeping an eye on this, waiting for a follow-up. If this goes quietly, Arica might as well be done for."
Apart from first-tier websites like TMZ, hundreds of second-tier websites in Europe and Arica quickly attracted attention by uploading the video.
The fire of public opinion had been lit.
......
In a Beverly Hills mansion, a couple began arguing once again.
Georgina looked coldly at her husband Harvey and sharply asked, "There's soone other than Nicole Kidman, isn't there?"
Harvey spread his hands wide, "No, there's no one else."
"You still won't admit it at a ti like this?" Georgina appeared extrely angry. "You lured Nicole Kidman with a role, surely you've tempted others!"
Harvey argued defiantly, "After marrying you, Nicole Kidman was the first."
Georgina asked, "Before we got married, was this a common thing for you to do?"
"No." Harvey wasn't foolish enough to admit it, "Absolutely not. I'm an investor and a producer, and I am above such things..."
He was cut off when the sound of a car door being slamd shut ca from outside.
In a rush of footsteps, Harvey's assistant Lombardo ran in from outside, not caring about Georgina's presence, and blurted out, "There's trouble, take a look at the TMZ hopage news!"
Harvey asked, "What happened?"
"Soone recorded a video at the Four Seasons Hotel," Lombardo said urgently. "It's now on the TMZ website."
Upon hearing this, Harvey beca thoroughly enraged and confronted Georgina, "Did you record a video?"
Georgina was taken aback at first, but then quickly composed herself, stood tall with a defiant air, and proclaid, "Yes, I fild it."
Without a second thought, Harvey slapped her across the face, delivering a blow that was harsh enough to produce a crisp sound.
Georgina's head whipped to one side.
She wasn't simple either; even as her head buzzed, she instinctively reacted—
Her legs went limp, her foot twisted, and she fell to one side.
Georgina crashed into the side rack with a loud bang, letting out a terrifying scream as her left forearm struck the wooden edge, quickly reddening visibly to the naked eye.
Lombardo was taken aback. What was this? But he quickly realized and said, "This is not about now, it's sothing from a few years ago."
Harvey also paused, furious enough to want to kick Lombardo, but sothing from a few years back was of such importance to him that he hurried to the computer room on the side of the living room.
The two n quickly left.
Georgina's face throbbed painfully, and she knew without looking in a mirror that it had swollen. Glaring at Harvey's fat and ugly retreating figure, her teeth clenched tightly together in hatred.
She hadn't noticed it before, but after getting together with Martin, she found Harvey increasingly repulsive.
Comparisons always tend to hurt.
Georgina got up from the ground and looked at a teddy bear on the cabinet.
It was placed quite high and in a special position where it could overlook the whole living room.
With her profile facing the teddy bear's eyes, Georgina also showed her arm, and because her skin was fair enough, the red mark on her arm was very obvious.
But that wasn't enough—she had co prepared and pulled out the Apple phone Martin had given her, taking fierce snapshots of her face and arm.
Georgina rembered Martin saying that a man hitting a woman only happens either zero tis or countless tis.
Once it starts for the first ti, it will often be repeated and will never stop!
Georgina thought it made a lot of sense.
After taking the photos, she stored away her phone thought about what Lombardo had just ntioned, and imdiately went upstairs to get her laptop and logged onto the TMZ website. As the page refreshed, she saw shocking new headlines.
Georgina clicked on it and the video inside made her slightly dumbfounded. Although she had heard so rumors about Harvey, she had always thought they were consensual bargains like the one with Nicole Kidman.
But the young actress in the video was completely coerced!
She cried out in refusal, yet was pinned down by Harvey.
Despite being calculating and having complex intentions in marrying Harvey, as well as having an affair with Martin, Georgina considered herself a good woman and despised Harvey's behavior imnsely!
That bastard Harvey had betrayed her, and in such a way!
Georgina scrolled down the video and saw those comnts, feeling that the identity of Harvey Weinstein's wife was embarrassingly shaful. Her face burned, not just from Harvey's slap but also from psychological hurt; Georgina, a normal woman, felt sickened to the point of wanting to vomit.
She didn't even want to have any contact with Harvey for a mont longer.
Her mind made up, she switched through several websites and discovered that most of them had news videos about Harvey with nurous victims.
Georgina touched her swollen, painful face and picked up her phone to dial 911, crying out, "Save ! Please save , I've suffered terrible dostic abuse! I'm about to be beaten to death... "
Downstairs, Harvey sensed sothing was amiss after seeing the TMZ video and imdiately took out his phone to call TMZ's boss, Harvey Levin.
As soon as the call connected, he said, "Are you and TMZ declaring war on ?"
Levin, who was at ho having dinner with his children, rose and left the dining room to ask, "What do you an, Harvey?"
Harvey said, "Your website has put out news to get in the hopage headlines! Don't tell you don't know..."
"Just wait a second; let check," Levin hung up the call and went to his study to check his computer, then imdiately dialed Jody's number: "Did you publish this news? Why would you publish sothing like this? Do you have any idea how serious the consequences are?"
Jody responded, "Boss, you gave the authority to release the news, and I still rember when you recruited to work at TMZ, you said we should be a news website daring to expose any scandal, and you told , regardless of who was involved, we have to be brave enough to reveal the truth!"
She was already prepared to leave: "It's because of your support, boss, that I persisted through severe personal threats when I worked on the news about Pitt and Ben Affleck."
Levin said, "This is different; Pitt and Big Ben are just celebrities."
Jody reminded him, "Boss, the person who provided the news to didn't just give it to our outlet; other dia got it too."
Levin opened several other websites in succession, seeing that it was indeed the case, and his thoughts imdiately changed.
This was no longer about him taking on the pressure alone. What was there to be afraid of? He said, "Jody, keep digging, but without my permission, don't just publish anything, wait until we have enough evidence!"
Jody replied, "I understand, boss."
Just as Levin hung up, Harvey's call ca through again, but he didn't answer, waiting until the ring ended before turning off his phone.
He was neither rejecting nor cooperating.
Levin returned to the dining room and said to his wife, "We haven't taken a vacation in a long ti. How about a road trip?"
His wife smiled, "Really? That's fantastic!"
Unable to get through to Levin, Harvey swore a few F-word expletives.
Lombardo answered a call, his face growing even uglier, and said to Harvey, "Boss, it's not just one website."
Harvey hastily switched through multiple websites to find that nearly half of them featured news about him.
"What do we do?" Lombardo asked.
"Don't panic; stay calm," Harvey picked up his phone and called Quentin, Matt Damon, and Robert Rodriguez, asking them to help him put pressure on the dia.
Then, he made personal calls to so dia heads.
But he had not made many calls when flashing police lights appeared at the front door!
Upstairs, Georgina pulled out a copied storage disk and handed it to her trusted assistant, saying, "Go and give this to Martin and tell him if he can't get in touch with by eight o'clock tonight, he needs to think of a way to save right away."
The assistant took note and stuffed the storage disk deep inside her cleavage.
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