Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Honey, why did you change a hotel again? Did something happen this afternoon? Director Penny Marshall is a little worried. She is afraid that you have other ideas about the project."

Diane received Ronald's notice and went directly to the Wilshire Hotel to meet Ronald. When the production cost of a movie exceeds tens of millions, there is great pressure to recoup the capital. Many times a senior executive's change of mind or a change in the market situation will cause a lot of changes, and it is not uncommon for projects to be suspended or even canceled.

Diane thought Ronald was producing several movies at the same time and was afraid that he would be under financial pressure, so he took the initiative to ask. Penny Marshall had told herself that she would go forward and back with Diane.

"There is no problem. This is not what I am worried about... Diane, I have something to tell you, don't be nervous..." Ronald held Diane's shoulders, asked her to sit down on the sofa, and then He told Diane about being bugged.

"Who would do this? Is it to eavesdrop on me?" Diane was a child star and had heard many rumors in the industry. He was not surprised when he heard this, but asked Ronald calmly.

"I don't know, there are a few suspects, they should be targeting me." Ronald continued to explain the situation. The wiretapping line was the hotel suite that Ronald rented for a long time, but there was no problem with Diane's apartment.

"Who could that be? I heard my father say that in Hollywood in the past, there would be some producers who were connected to gangs who would do this. I didn't expect that someone would actually want to deal with you like this..." Diane gently touched Rona. De's neck was visibly tense.

Ronald smelled Diane's perfume and felt inexplicably relaxed, "I should know who wants to know my business secrets tomorrow morning."

…

Ronald got up early in the morning, waiting for news. He ate breakfast absent-mindedly when Diane called him, and poured the sugar cubes in his coffee into the orange juice without even realizing it.

Finally, at ten o'clock in the morning, the bodyguard Daniel called.

"We caught someone..."

"Great, who is it?"

"Somewhat unexpectedly, this person is from the Beverly Hills Police Department."

"ah?"

What really happened was unexpected. Daniel's team set up an ambush at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. In the warehouse where the eavesdropping tape recorders were placed, the man they captured to exchange the tapes turned out to be a civilian from the Beverly Hills Police Department. agent.

This man showed his police badge to the staff when he entered the hotel. Without much hindrance, he went to the warehouse behind the telephone exchange room. He opened the door to replace the old tapes on the recorder, and he happened to be caught with the stolen goods.

His name was Craig Stevens, and after he was caught, he fiercely told Daniel's team to stay out of their own business. After seeing them calling the police, they didn't show any nervousness. When the uniformed patrol officers (a lower level than plainclothes detectives) arrived after hearing the news, they proudly showed their police badges and said that they were carrying out police duties. service.

Only when Daniel revealed that according to the law enforcement rules of the LAPD, if someone reports a serious crime to the police, regardless of whether the person arrested is a person from the law enforcement department, he needs to go to the police station to report, did this Craig Stevens reveal himself? He looked surprised, he didn't expect the person coming to be an expert.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I have to remind you that although you have this power, if you do this, your boss will encounter a lot of inconveniences in the future." Craig Stevens is a very capable bluffer. An old policeman, he just wanted to scare Daniel.

"You can talk to your lawyer about this." Daniel pushed him and indicated that he would follow him to supervise the law enforcement process of the Beverly Police Department.

The group had already gone to the Beverly Police Department with Craig Stevens and the uniformed patrol officers with the evidence obtained at the scene, and reported the matter to the Internal Affairs Department (a department that specializes in investigating police professional misconduct or criminal behavior). department) complaints.

Ronald made a quick decision and couldn't let the suspect get away easily. He immediately called a familiar lawyer in Los Angeles, gray-eyed Mickey Kent, and asked him to go to the police station to put pressure on him immediately and call his personal information immediately. Lawyer Lindsay Dole asked her to come over and keep an eye on this troublesome matter.

As a victim, Ronald also came to the Beverly Hills Police Department. Accompanied by Mickey Kent, he made an investigation request to the sergeant of the Beverly Hills Police Department and informed his superior police officer. bureau.

The Beverly Hills Police Department is just like what was depicted in the famous blockbuster movie "Beverly Hills Cop". The entire police department is over-staffed, but they only deal with trivial cases. They often help noble ladies find cases. pet.

Craig Stevens is a relatively senior police detective. He started as a street patrolman and has reached his current position. He is considered an experienced old man. His partner is still a newcomer and listens to him in everything, otherwise he would not be allowed to act alone without his partner.

Therefore, when the entire police department found out that a Hollywood director had complained about Craig Stevens' eavesdropping, their first reaction was that it was impossible. The Beverly Hills Police Department has abundant funding sources, and the property taxes here are among the highest in the United States. In the zip code area of ​​​​five, normal police detectives can do well without doing such dirty work.

Mickey Kent's gray eyes stared at the police sergeant who came over to explain to Ronald. The sergeant's lips chattered as he tried to explain that this was probably a misunderstanding. The last thing he wanted was for this matter to become a big deal. People from the Beverly Hills Police Department were eavesdropping on Hollywood stars?

Celebrities are the bread and butter of their police stations. If he arouses resentment from this group, his position will not last long.

"You know, my client's bodyguard took action after discovering the leak and being bugged. That Craig came straight to the place where the tape recorder was placed in the morning. He obviously knew where the tape recorder was." Kent was impatient. Interrupting the Sheriff's speech, he stated Ronald's request directly.

"This is not what a citizen should do. If you find out that someone is eavesdropping, you should call the police as soon as possible..."

"Then what? Call the police so that your internal people can handle it easily?" Ronald stabbed angrily.

"Mr. Li, I have to say that this is a very baseless accusation..."

"What my client said is that your police station is not efficient in handling alarms..." Mickey must have stopped Ronald a little and signaled that he would handle it.

"In any case, this matter should be handed over to the police." The police chief also wanted to quibble. Then the phone rang.

"I think that's a call for you." Attorney Mickey Kent narrowed his eyes and said to the police chief.

"Ah?" Sure enough, the subordinate turned the phone over and said, "Hello, I'm John."

"John, this is Ira Reiner, the prosecutor of Los Angeles County. I received a complaint from a citizen. Your police officers are conducting eavesdropping activities on a famous Hollywood director?"

In Los Angeles, unlike New York, the county district attorney's office has a large jurisdiction, including the area where Beverly Hills is located.

The prosecutor (DA) is an elected position, and he will not miss this opportunity to establish his upright image.

Early in the morning, Ella Reiner received a call from Mickey Kent, a lawyer with whom she had dealt with many times. This time, instead of standing across from her to cause trouble, he sent him a favor.

"Yes, sir, we will handle this matter according to standard procedures and initiate an internal investigation. Yes, I will send regular investigation progress reports to my superiors and the District Attorney's Office..."

The Sheriff put down the phone, rubbed his fat face, changed his face, smiled at Ronald, "Don't worry, no matter if it is done by someone inside us or someone outside, we are very concerned about this kind of intrusion on celebrities' privacy." We will investigate everything according to standard procedures and we will definitely give you the truth."

Ronald got a satisfactory result, stood up, shook hands with the police chief, said a few polite words, and then walked out with his lawyer and bodyguard.

"Hey, these big Hollywood celebrities always feel like someone is interested in their private lives. You know, I'm just there to investigate another case."

Craig Stevens is a veteran. The person in charge of guarding him this time was a female police officer, and he was not handcuffed. He was still showing off his seniority, drinking coffee and chatting with the policewoman.

"Really? Have you met a lot of celebrities, Craig?" The policewoman didn't know the seriousness and thought it was another case of a Hollywood star bullying others. Many residents of Beverly Hills are movie stars, and it can be said that they have little respect for these little police officers.

Just as Ronald and his group walked out and passed the detention room, Ronald saw Craig who was still sitting with his legs crossed and drinking coffee. He stopped and looked at the police chief. As if to ask, "Is this your standard procedure?"

The old police chief had no expression on his face. He just waved to the police officers from the Internal Investigation Department who came with him. Two police officers with different signs came forward. One put handcuffs on Craig, and the other read out his powers. and internal investigation process.

"John, is this necessary?" Craig Stevens motioned to the sergeant.

"The police union will arrange a lawyer for you, if you can't hire a lawyer yourself..." the police chief replied expressionlessly.

"I have a lawyer and I want to call him." Craig Stevens, an old bastard, finally realized something was wrong and immediately asked to call a lawyer, then kept silent.

Ronald smiled slightly, didn't say much, and rushed to CAA with everyone. There was another ambush.

"Nothing was discovered, no wiretaps, no tape recorders, no bugs in the office."

The team that came to CAA thoroughly inspected multiple agents' offices and their phone lines. Nothing was found.

"Is it really not there, or are we making too much noise and being discovered?" There is a fountain outside the CAA Building designed by I.M. Pei, where Ronald talks to Niceta and others.

"The two situations you mentioned are possible. In addition, it is also possible that two groups of people did it." Daniel communicated with the team here for a long time and came over to report the technical findings to Ronald.

"It seems that there are no traces on the lines in Mr. Niceta's and Richard's offices. This shows that they may not be using the same method as the hotel eavesdropping. There is no doubt about the leak, and we have to continue to look for it. What went wrong.”

"What do you think the problem will be?" Niceta was very annoyed that his office was bugged. He didn't find out the reason and didn't want to appear in the new office until he took action.

"The switches in the new office building are unified in one place. The lines were arranged before the decoration. If you want to know the reason, you have to go there to investigate. Another possibility is your telephone recording system. I noticed You are still using a simple six-digit password, which can be easily cracked or manipulated on the switch end."

"You mean, our phone messages were eavesdropped?" Paula Wagner's expression changed.

"This possibility cannot be ruled out. In fact, we think it is the most likely possibility. Your answering machine is very busy..."

"Shxt!", even Richard's expression changed now. Agents are usually very busy at work, and they are not like Ovitz. They have several secretaries to serve them. Many times they cannot answer the phone, so they rely on the answering machine to record the customer's message.

Every day, no matter where they are, they have to call the office regularly and enter the password to listen to which customers have left messages during this period. If their password is cracked, all customer messages can be seamlessly listened to.

Moreover, the six-digit password is not much more complicated. For example, Niceta and Paula Wagner used their son's birthday as the password.

"Actually, this brand's telephone answering system can retrieve the access records of your phone calls from the background. As long as you get all the calls made in the past three days, especially those phone numbers where messages are received, you can roughly guess Find out who did it." Daniel suggested from a technical perspective.

"I will ask for access to the answering machine logs, and you must cooperate with me." Niceta understood that this was the moment of truth, and he said to his wife and Richard.

"Of course," Richard and the others said, if this kind of thing was true, it would be a big problem. No matter who it was, with their recording records, it would be easy to pry away their customers.

That night, the request jointly put forward by Niceta and the others was approved by Ovitz at a meeting of directors and partners. All the agents were shocked when they heard the news. They all agreed to a thorough investigation without any objection.

By the next morning, each partner's phone log records were sent to their respective offices. Technical experts from Daniel's team helped Niceta and the others analyze the logs, and concluded that... there were no suspicious calls coming in.

"However, there is something wrong with the phone record here. You see, this is a record of calls that were dialed repeatedly in just one minute. Normally, this is the busy signal on the first call, and then through the call back, After your first call is completed, it will be automatically redialed.

But there is no call record of the other phone in the log of the first phone call. Do you remember that there was no phone you pressed because you were busy? "

Daniel asked Niceta to recall that this log was very similar to the phone record when the first call came in and was busy. It had been deleted, so it was contradictory to the subsequent redialing behavior.

"I remember, this was a call from one of my clients, and I just answered it when I returned to the office." Niceta said, pointing to the redialed number. There was no one in the office before I came back. "

After confirming that someone was deliberately concealing the truth, Niceta and the others had nothing to say, so they filed an application to separate their telephone answering system from the company's system, and then bought an independent answering machine for their own use.

Daniel helped them complete the security review and would review it again every month. This behavior was quickly noticed by interested people, including another founder, Ron Meyer, who also began to handle the phone system on his own.

"The suspect has been caught. He is a bad policeman. I have asked Attorney Kanter to keep an eye on him. Your task is to help me keep an eye on him and put my interests first. The same goes for the Los Angeles County DA's office. I I don’t want them to bypass my interests and reach some private exchange. I want to dig out the person behind Craig Stevens.”

The next day, lawyer Lindsay Dole arrived, and Ronald immediately gave him a brief summary of the case.

"Do you want to consider getting the FBI involved?" Lindsay looked at the file quickly and then asked.

"Is it okay?" Ronald didn't expect to ask this, because generally the FBI can only have jurisdiction over interstate crimes.

"Okay, you said that the eavesdropping equipment here is an old model retired by the CIA. This kind of sensitive equipment must be involved in illegal cross-state transactions. I just happened to help you apply for shooting at the FBI headquarters with Director Claire of the FBI New York Office. , she will help.”

"Okay, you help me get this done." After Ronald heard this, he could do both. He didn't care what the LAPD would complain about. Anyway, it would be better to find more departments that are eager to make contributions and keep an eye on you.

"Michael, how about the newspaper exposure plan you prepared for me?" Ronald asked Michael Gray, a public relations expert who dropped all business and rushed over to publicize the newspaper that Ronald wanted to cooperate with.

"I suggest you not expose your name. This kind of thing is not very good for you. It is easy for some people to get involved in whether the recording has any risqué news, especially when the Rob Lowe video tape was exposed. People are not interested in big shots. When privacy is exposed, the first reaction is scandal."

"Yeah, okay."

"Then we have the angle of an anonymous Hollywood celebrity being bugged and trying to pry away from his roles and projects. Just do some publicity, the Hollywood Reporter here in Hollywood, and Variety coverage. As long as it can arouse the resentment of the stars, you're on your side. On the side of the majority." Michael Gray believes that in this kind of thing, it is most important to maintain Ronald's image as a victim.