Hollywood: From Razzie to Legend

"We obviously watched CNN's news!" Brad clearly didn't understand the meaning behind Hugo's words. He looked at Hugo with a disbelieving expression, speaking in a firm and angry tone as he challenged Hugo. "It's precisely because we watched the news that we learned the truth of the matter. A white police officer took advantage of his position to arbitrarily beat up an ordinary citizen and it was a Black man, no less. That is absolutely unforgivable."

Hugo noticed that Brad's gaze, whether intentionally or not, kept flickering to the side at Robert. This made it clear that Brad's righteous condemnation of Hugo in this setting likely wasn't entirely unaffected by today's audition.

From Brad's words, it was evident that he still placed great emphasis on the distinction between Black and white people, particularly stressing that it was a white man beating up a Black man not just saying a police officer beat up a citizen. This too was inseparably linked with the trajectory of American history.

Racial discrimination in the United States has a long-standing history. However, with the development of modern history, economy, and culture, the adversarial relationship between races has been gradually progressing. A major breakthrough came during the 62nd Academy Awards in 1990, when the film Driving Miss Daisy, which depicted racial relations, won the award for Best Picture. This marked the first time the predominantly white American cultural system extended an olive branch to the Black community.

Of course, it was just a movie. Even though Driving Miss Daisy won an Oscar, the status of Black people remained fundamentally unchanged. Yet the fact that the Oscars favored Driving Miss Daisy at all showed that at least the white-dominated cultural society had begun to realize: racial discrimination must be changed. Therefore, over the following twenty years or perhaps an even longer period starting with Driving Miss Daisy, the tension between whites, Blacks, and Jews began to shift in a subtle but continual way.

So, in such an era, once the Rodney King incident was imbued with racial meaning, the explosive energy it unleashed was indeed terrifying. Brad's viewpoint, then, reflected the general values of white Americans in that cultural context, including people like Robert, Martin, and Joseph none of whom were exceptions.

Faced with Brad's aggressive questioning, Robert also cast a cold, detached glance at Hugo, clearly displeased with Hugo's earlier behavior. This made Joseph, seated nearby, rather anxious. He wanted to speak up on Hugo's behalf, but seeing Martin across the table ready to act, Joseph understood that this was a confrontation between actors. If he, as the agent, stepped in, Martin would do the same, which would only escalate the chaos. So Joseph swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue and looked at Hugo with concern.

Hugo, however, remained composed. He didn't panic under Brad's pressure or Robert's cold stare. Instead, his voice grew steadier, resonating with full confidence as he said, "What I mean is, didn't you see the later broadcast on CNN? The eighty-one-second one, not the sixty-eight-second one!"

Hugo's words stunned everyone present. For a moment, no one reacted.

KTLA had edited the video before releasing it and provided the shortened version to major U.S. television networks, making the footage of Rodney King being beaten headline news across the country. But notably, three weeks after the video aired, CNN the Cable News Network discovered that the tape KTLA had provided had crucial parts cut out. CNN's vice president, Ed Turner, immediately ordered that the missing segments be restored in any future broadcasts of the footage.

Although the eighty-one-second version was only thirteen seconds longer than the sixty-eight-second one, the extra footage contained fewer than six seconds of the actual arrest of Rodney King. Still, that was enough to reveal the truth: the police were carrying out legitimate law enforcement, not merely acting as the aggressors shown in the original sixty-eight-second clip.

However, the three major networks ABC, NBC, and CBS along with local Los Angeles station KTLA, continued broadcasting the sixty-eight-second version. In the U.S., the major networks' news programs were free, and KTLA was also free to watch in the Los Angeles area. CNN, by contrast, was a paid cable network, and ordinary Americans, with their fast-paced lifestyles, typically subscribed to cable not for news, but for sports, entertainment, and movie replays. As a result, few people watched CNN for news, and even fewer noticed the slight difference between the two versions of the video.

This was 1992, an era before the internet was widespread. People's sources of information were relatively limited. Mainstream media were the gatekeepers of public opinion and wielded absolute power in steering narratives. With CNN's limited viewership, the three commercial networks effectively controlled the narrative of this incident even U.S. President George Bush had been kept in the dark.

In this week's opinion polls, ninety-two percent of the public believed the white police officers were guilty. That was the current state of affairs. Clearly, Robert, Brad, Martin, and the others in front of Hugo were part of that ninety-two percent.

Hugo and Joseph had only seen the CNN report by chance. While filming in New York, they happened to catch the news in a hotel room. At the time, Hugo didn't know much about the situation. It was Joseph's shocked expression that clued him into the gravity of the Rodney King case. Before his transmigration, Hugo had been born in 1989, so early 1990s news events in the U.S. didn't leave a strong impression on him. But now that he was living in this society, he couldn't help but reflect he used to struggle with accepting the fact that he had woken up in a white man's body. Now, he was at least grateful he hadn't become a Black man instead.

After Hugo briefly explained CNN's coverage, Robert fell into deep thought, clearly shaken by the shocking truth. Brad's peripheral vision caught Robert's change in expression, and he sensed trouble Hugo had silently gained the upper hand.

Brad couldn't help but look toward his agent, Martin. Martin remained composed. After a moment's thought, he whispered a cue to Brad using mouth movements, "Media, media." Brad didn't catch it at first, but he wasn't stupid in fact, he was quite sharp. After thinking it over, he understood.

So Brad organized his thoughts and looked up at Hugo again. Wearing a serious expression, he asked, "So what you're saying is, the American news media which has always prided itself on pursuing the truth actually fabricated a story? And this was a judicial news item that emphasized facts above all else? Isn't KTLA afraid of triggering a civil uprising?"

Hugo was a bit surprised Brad was actually… this naïve? But then he quickly realized: this was the 1990s, a time when public trust in the media was unmatched. It wasn't like the 21st century, where fake news ran rampant. For Hugo, questioning the media was a habitual reflex, because in the internet-driven age he came from, "truth as the first principle of journalism" had already become obsolete. Instead, profit was king. And for the sake of profit, fabricating news and manufacturing sensationalism had become common practice.

The uncrowned king this phrase was quite foreign to Hugo, but for the few people before him who lived through the '80s and '90s, it was a most genuine way of life. That's why Brad could say what he said with such righteousness because he believed in it wholeheartedly.

Hugo didn't speak. Instead, he stretched out his right hand and made a slapping gesture toward Joseph's face. This stunned both Rob and Brad, and even Martin who had always held Hugo in contempt looked rather shocked. Joseph was a bit nervous at first, thinking Hugo might actually hit him, but then relaxed. Strangely enough, he was willing to believe Hugo had everything under control.

"If this scene were captured by a reporter, what are the possibilities? One is that only Joseph and I appear, and the other is that all of us are in the shot. How do you think the media would interpret it?" Hugo met Brad's accusatory gaze head-on without dodging in the slightest and spoke with complete composure. "I can tell you, Vanity Fair might use the photo of just Joseph and me and say I had a conflict with my agent. The Los Angeles Times might use a photo of all five of us and write that Rob chose you, and I got angry and clashed with my agent. So, what do you think National Enquirer would report?"

National Enquirer America's tabloid paper. The U.S. has a bunch of so-called "supermarket gossip tabloids," biweekly publications sold primarily at supermarkets. Their format is small, easy to carry, and usually tossed aside after reading but they're not cheap. Often used as placemats or scrap paper, people might glance at them accidentally and momentarily stop what they're doing to read. Their front pages were often filled with chaotic, sensational headlines and rumors, pulling out all the stops to catch attention. National Enquirer was the undisputed leader among them.

Faced with Hugo's question, Brad froze. He already understood what Hugo was trying to say, but he had no way to refute it.

Hugo didn't wait for an answer and went on directly, "I think National Enquirer might say Joseph and I got into a fight over you, Brad, out of jealousy." As soon as he said this, Rob couldn't help but burst out laughing. The tense atmosphere from earlier instantly dissolved, and both Brad and Joseph showed strange expressions, completely thrown off by Hugo both amused and exasperated.

As for Martin, he began to observe Hugo with a meaningful look. Though he had always shown disdain for Hugo, at this moment, Hugo demonstrated remarkable wit and composure. Regardless of his ability as an actor, as a man, his personal charisma was genuinely impressive. From the standpoint of an agent, Martin now saw in Hugo the potential to become a real cash cow.

...

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