[Chapter 374: Uncovering the Puppet Master]
"Shockingly, Heath Ledger's pursuit of Michelle Williams was a cover; he did it simply to hide the fact that he was gay!"
"Heath Ledger joined the largest gay organization in Los Angeles, the Mattachine Society, three years ago!"
"According to insiders from Brokeback Mountain, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were seen entering and exiting the sa hotel room multiple tis during filming!"
Entertainnt dia suddenly erupted with nurous stories regarding Heath Ledger being gay. Once these stories hit the stands, platforms like Twitter and Yahoo imdiately began to share them, exaggerating them in the process.
Particularly, this mix included so individuals with malicious intent.
...
Half the morning passed, and the news on the internet shifted rapidly. A user posted cited a photo of Heath Ledger embracing Jake Gyllenhaal, captioning, "Heath Ledger cos out as gay!"
In Oscar's nearly eighty-year history, no acting or directing award had ever been given to anyone who had co out publicly. In fact, Hawke rembered that even until 2020s, the Oscars still hadn't awarded any openly gay actor or director; there had been only 2 awards, both for Best Screenplay, one in each category.
Hollywood's representation of LGBT thes stood in stark contrast to the highest awards in the North Arican film industry, the Oscars.
Caroline knocked and entered the chairman's office, glancing at Hawke with a sowhat odd expression, saying, "The marketing departnt just received a new business opportunity."
Hawke noticed her expression and responded, "Is there a wolf trying to eat you?"
Caroline craned her neck, striking a pose that suggested she was prepared for slaughter, "Where is the wolf?"
Hawke asked, "What kind of business?"
"Well, it goes like this," Caroline hurriedly explained, "The head of Jamie Foxx's Oscar team approached us to buy news space for attacking Brokeback Mountain."
This news indeed caught Hawke off guard. "They approached us?"
Caroline elaborated, "As we moved into December, I had soone compile statistics, revealing that more than 2,000 Academy mbers are active users of Twitter."
Paying for headlines was a common practice across the dia, and Hawke decided to comply, stating, "As long as there's nothing wrong with the PR materials, we can collaborate."
Caroline responded, "Sasha has reviewed it."
Minutes later, a press release appeared on major online dia platforms like Twitter and Yahoo.
"Brokeback Mountain seriously contravenes traditional societal values; its promotion of the decadent values of cowboy homosexuality does not align with the Arican spirit!"
Not only did online dia report this, but Hawke heard from Fox Television's Channel 11's Midnight Entertainnt that Jamie Foxx's team also purchased considerable ad space in conservative dia to counter Heath Ledger's 'attack.'
It was clear that both sides were gearing up for a fight.
---
At the heart of the Los Angeles gay community, the headquarters of the Mattachine Society in North Hollywood saw Vice President Lawrence, sporting a goatee and wearing a vest, sit in front of his computer screen scrolling through news on Heath Ledger.
He twirled his finger on his chin and pressed the intercom, directing his assistant Christine, "Check if Hollywood star Heath Ledger is a mber of the society?"
Minutes later, Christine entered, speaking loudly, "Heath Ledger is not a mber of our society."
"I see," Lawrence contemplated montarily before stating, "Extend a formal invitation for Heath Ledger to join."
Christine moved to prepare the invitation.
Yet, Lawrence stopped her, "Wait, don't send a private invite, make it a public one!"
Christine looked confused, asking, "Publish it publicly?"
Annoyed by his less than savvy assistant, Lawrence explained, "The news is hot right now. We need to capitalize on it, you understand?"
Christine shook her head.
Lawrence continued, "We stand on the fringes of society and are continually marginalized. Do you want that to be the case forever? We shouldn't be discriminated against; we should beco mainstream, and no one can overlook us! Increasing our visibility is a good way to achieve that."
"I understand; I'll get to it now," Christine hurriedly left to prepare.
...
Lawrence thought further; issuing a public invite would be more effective than waiting for traditional dia, which always reacted too slowly. Online dia was most suitable and held the highest freedom; networks like Twitter placed no restrictions on LGBT statents, allowing for free expression.
The Mattachine Society also registered an official Twitter account. Once Christine had the invitation prepared, Lawrence personally sent a formal statent inviting Heath Ledger to join the society, posting it on Twitter and tagging Heath Ledger.
Fearing that other dia would miss the story, Lawrence also tagged Entertainnt Weekly, Variety, the Los Angeles Tis, and Hollywood Reporter, along with NBC and CBS.
The idea was to make sure that they noticed him, to jump right into their faces.
...
Once the tweet went out, it imdiately triggered Twitter's algorithm, quickly landing it on the news hopage.
Brokeback Mountain had already begun its limited release in North Arica, stirring up plenty of controversy, with many comnts flooding the section.
"Heath Ledger has a girlfriend, he isn't gay!"
"The Mattachine Society issued a public invitation; he is not gay? Did you see today's news? The entire internet knows Heath Ledger is gay now."
"Gay? That's hard to watch; I don't want to see him in any movies anymore."
"I'm not watching any gay films; I'm boycotting Brokeback Mountain!"
"Boycott Brokeback Mountain!"
The discourse online was easily influenced, especially with tools like Twitter; a little push could lead to a massive backlash.
---
At Universal Studios, Focus Features.
Ang Lee hurried down from his car and quickly entered the office building, knocking on the door of the president's office, where he t producer Jas Schamus, whom he had worked with for years.
Jas was the founder and CEO of Focus Features, as well as the producer of Brokeback Mountain.
Ang pulled out several newspapers from the briefcase he had brought, placing them on the desk, "Nurous dia outlets dropped negative stories about us today."
Jas replied, "I know; I've already set people to investigate it; we'll have news shortly."
Ang thought about those stories, "I called Heath Ledger; he will be here soon."
Minutes later, Heath Ledger entered the office quickly, imdiately explaining, "Sorry, I don't understand what's happening; why are the dia attacking like this? I assure you, I'm not gay!"
Ever since Brokeback Mountain won the Golden Lion at Venice, Ang dreamt of winning the Oscar for Best Director. He remarked, "If you were, it would fit the role better..."
Jas countered, "No, that viewpoint is entirely wrong."
Another knock on the door sounded. The project leader from the BlackRock Film Foundation, Anderson, entered and remarked, "I've contacted various dia outlets and have clarified; Jamie Foxx's Oscar PR team has invested heavily to instigate this dia assault!"
Jas, having been aware of this year's Oscar contenders, noted, "Jamie Foxx's production company invested in his film Ray; both hope to make splashes at this year's Oscars!"
Ang understood, "He views us as the main competition?"
Among everyone present, Heath Ledger held the lowest status and quietly asked, "What should we do now?"
"The enemy has already fired on us; we can't remain passive defenders," Jas stated without hesitation, "We must strike back."
He directed his Vice President, "Find the weaknesses of Ray and Jamie Foxx for us to attack directly!"
Anderson, who had been monitoring the competition, said, "Jamie Foxx has recently been embroiled in a scandal; a girl nad Alice Carson reported to the LAPD that Jamie Foxx raped her two years ago."
Jas nodded, "Good; let's leverage that and circulate that Jamie Foxx is a rapist."
As soon as he spoke, he frowned, "No, wait; this doesn't seem quite right! Who is this Alice Carson?"
Anderson instructed his assistant, "Go check it out."
The assistant quickly searched online and pulled up news about Alice's press conference organized by the activist group, as well as a Twitter story about Alice eting Heath Ledger.
Jas pointed at the pictured screen of Alice, asking Heath Ledger, "Do you know her?"
"I... I did et her, but she said she was Jake Gyllenhaal's cousin," Heath replied, quickly recounting what happened that day, "We did not talk for even ten minutes."
Ang remarked, "I sll a conspiracy."
Anderson agreed, "This resembles a huge sche, intentionally stirring conflict between us and the Ray crew for profit; we can basically confirm it's aid at the Oscars!"
Jas quickly connected the dots in his mind, saying, "The crux of the problem lies with Alice Carson."
The assistant chid in, "Just now, the news stated that the FMF's lawyer and two leaders accompanied Alice to file a civil lawsuit in a Los Angeles court."
"A feminist organization! Alice is a mber of the feminist organization," Jas asked rigidly, "Is there an Oscar contender promoting feminism?"
Ang added, "Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby has begun its limited release; it's a classic feminist film."
Jas nodded slowly, "That's it, it all ties together; soone intends to spark conflict between competitors to secure an advantage in the Oscars."
Everyone in the room found it reasonable; what was Alice's purpose in intervening?
Over the past two years, she could have reported it at any ti but deliberately chose a critical ti in the Hollywood awards season.
The answer was clear!
*****
/Sayonara816.
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