America Tycoon: The Wolf of Showbiz

Chapter 441 The Diary Gate

Leaving the Warner Television Network, Nicholson didn't go home but headed straight to Martin's place. He found Martin, Elizabeth, and Lily Carter leisurely drinking tea in the yard, discussing when to move.

Martin greeted Nicholson to take a seat wherever, and Elizabeth poured him a cup of black tea.

With a pen in her hand spinning like a carving knife on her fingertips, Lily said, "The renovation is all finished, we can move anytime."

"Let's air it out for a while first," Martin said, reflecting his habitual thinking, "We'll talk about it in a couple of months."

Elizabeth nodded, "That sounds good too."

Lily didn't retort, to avoid attracting the iron fist of concern, "Whatever you say."

Nicholson, knowing that Martin had bought Pitt's mansion in the Beverly Hills Sunset Boulevard North Area, took a sip of his black tea and said, "It seems we're not too far apart. I could set up a cannon on my rooftop and fire celebratory shells into your new house."

Elizabeth almost choked on her tea; sometimes Martin's friends left her speechless.

"Jack, it seems like the terrain on my new house's side is higher," Martin rebutted with an equally unreliable proposition. "Old Cloth served as a gunner and even used mortar shells against the British. Do you think if we set up cannons to bombard each other, whose house would get more celebratory shells?"

Thinking of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, who were regularly tormented by him, Nicholson put down the porcelain teacup and said, "We'll discuss this matter later."

For some reason, when it came to bombarding Martin's new house with celebratory shells, he always felt that Martin's neighbor, the little sister from Atlanta, gave him a strange look—the pen twirling at her fingertips even stopped and poked a few holes in the paper.

Lily wasn't too thrilled; based on the current situation, if that time came, the estate would be in chaos, and she was the one who would suffer!

Elizabeth? A pampered lady who would only go along with Martin.

Nicholson asked, "Did you lose something?"

After taking a sip of tea, Martin spoke in a leisurely tone, "A very important diary?"

"A diary? You keep a diary? You really do have a problem," Nicholson shook his head, "Who in their right mind keeps a diary."

Martin said, "When I locked myself in the hotel, I wrote a diary and insights while pondering over the Joker character."

"You really lost it? How?" Nicholson thought it normal for Martin to write that, considering he really was a dedicated actor, but losing it sounded like a tall tale.

Martin started laughing, "Don't worry about how it got lost, it really is missing."

Nicholson understood what to expect next, "So I'll be seeing it in the media soon, right?"

Martin gave a thumbs-up, "You truly are the boss of our trio and the Face Gang."

Lily, curious, whispered to Elizabeth who was her age, "What's the Face Gang?"

Sometimes Elizabeth played the face wash and old boys game with Martin, so of course she wouldn't tell Lily these secrets, "I'm not too clear myself."

Nicholson then said to Martin, "Is this the little act you were talking about?"

Martin nodded, "Could be considered an appetizer, right?"

"Boring," Nicholson waved dismissively. "Come on, let's go out for dinner, I'm buying."

Martin and Elizabeth got ready to leave.

However, Lily said, "I need to stop by the dorm later. I have to rush a piece for tomorrow."

Martin asked, "Selling that fast?"

Lily was quite helpless, "If someone insists on paying a lot of money, I can't not sell it, right? That would be too disrespectful to the customer."

Martin reminded, "Just don't push it, know when to stop."

Lily nodded, "I guess after two more times, he'll lose patience."

Martin went to the garage to get the car.

Elizabeth asked Lily, "What happened?"

Just like before, Lily smiled, "A trivial matter, nothing important."

Elizabeth didn't press further.

When Martin drove out of the garage, she got into the car and they left home together.

Lily looked at the unattended teapot, cups, and furniture; she had no choice but to go over alone and start cleaning up.

Meanwhile, Ivan, disguised as a hotel waiter, had sold a found diary to another editor-in-chief at TMZ for a high price.

This male editor treasured it like a prized possession, worked overnight to take photos and videos, and made a news story that went up on the website early Sunday morning.

The Dark Knight and news about Martin were already hot topics, and once the diary news was uploaded, it immediately sparked a lot of interest.

Benefiting from Pitt, TMZ had become the number one entertainment gossip and scoop site in the U.S., boasting tens of millions of registered users.

Gawkers on both sides of the Pacific are fundamentally the same, with millions scouring the TMZ website daily for the juiciest, sweetest gossip.

Martin's Joker diary instantly became a hot topic online.

Intruding into celebrity privacy is something the gossip-hungry public never tires of.

Just like Kim Kardashian's tape scandal, many other Sacred Valley videos had clearer, higher quality and the lead actresses outshone Kim, but Kim's tape remained a hot seller.

Thus, TMZ gave birth to Martin's "Diary Gate."

Martin was truly a bona fide "gate affair" creator.

The entire diary chronicled what Martin felt and thought when he shut himself away in a hotel for over a month, experiencing the Joker's perspective and world view, and his own analysis and feelings regarding the Joker, progressively letting himself merge into the character.

He even fantasized about throwing himself into the same hellish Gotham.

The release of "Diary Gate" caused a strong reaction.

The comment section on TMZ's related news columns was almost paralyzed by the frenzy of messages.

"One thing is clear, Martin Davis did not just play the role of the Joker, he became the Joker!"

"I completely agree with Nicholson's words, Martin is interpreting the Joker with his life."

"To what extent can an actor be dedicated, be mad, and go all out, come and see Martin Davis!"

"Although I've only seen the trailer and I'm not that interested in Batman, for Martin Davis's sake, I'm going to buy a ticket in support!"

"Just the preparation work that Martin has done seems to be worth the price of admission."

Large numbers of general audiences were gradually attracted by the news about Martin and The Dark Knight, and their desire to buy tickets was quickly accumulating.

Since the commencement of the summer blockbuster promotional campaign, Martin and his portrayal of the Joker had completely overshadowed Bale and Batman.

This was promoted by Nolan and his crew too, as they all believed Martin was more likely to stir up eye-catching news.

As "Diary Gate" gained momentum, Martin made multiple calls with Nolan, and the promotion stepped up further.

When a fire ignites, of course, you pour oil on it to make it blaze higher.

With Martin not conveniencing to make public appearances, Thomas took charge of the frontline, and it was not an issue.

In an interview, Thomas spoke on behalf of Martin, seeking to recover the original diary from TMZ, even if it cost a large sum of money.

"This diary has special significance for Martin; it contains his blood, sweat, and tears."

In front of WMA headquarters, surrounded by a swarm of media microphones and cameras, Thomas used a somber voice to recount what Martin had done: "During the preparation period, Martin did some crazy things.

He locked himself in a hotel room for almost 50 days, refusing to meet anyone, I couldn't even get in touch with him, and his close friends Nicholson and Leonardo even thought about calling the police!"

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This had all been reported last year, and the journalists present easily revived those memories.

Thomas continued, "Martin stayed off the internet, didn't watch movies, and cut off contact with the outside world. All his thoughts are recorded in that lost diary. Now he's eager to get it back, and I'm sure everyone understands. We're willing to pay a significant amount of money."

TMZ was still considering it; as the site's scale had grown, some changes in response time were unavoidably slower.

For TMZ, the news had been reported and the traffic had come. Keeping the diary was no longer significant.

But by then, Nolan had already become a hype-oriented director, and with constant communications with Martin, he was much quicker to respond than TMZ.

During a promotional event for The Dark Knight, Nolan stated in an interview with journalists that the production team would help Martin retrieve the diary and would pay all associated costs.

"This diary is of great importance to both Martin and the production team, and we'll do everything we can to buy it back."

Discussing Martin, Nolan also emphasized the background in which the diary emerged: "During the last week of Martin's self-imposed isolation to explore the Joker, I visited him at the hotel. He didn't turn on the lights and had drawn the thick black curtains.

He was darting around like a madman, searching for the Joker's expressions and voice, completely immersing himself in the dark solitude to feel the inner world of the Joker character."

He spoke gravely, "Martin understood the Joker inside and out because he threw himself into hell just the same."

As Nolan spoke out, "Diary Gate" further fermented, with the news remaining hot and, for a time, it occupied the top spot on Google's keyword search trend list.

Online, many posts quickly appeared, calling for TMZ to return Martin's diary.

In the conference room at TMZ headquarters, site founder and CEO Harvey Levin put down Martin's diary and asked, "What are your thoughts?"

James, the main editor who got the diary, said, "The news has been reported, the diary's no use to us now. We can return it to Martin and Warner, maybe we'll get a new news channel in return."

Jody, who was James's competitor, didn't fully agree, "I think we should hold onto the diary for a few more days."

Harvey Levin looked at Jody, "Why?"

Jody explained, "The longer we keep the diary, the more public attention we get. The pressure isn't bad for TMZ, we have high resilience. This issue has already gained heat, what we need to do is turn that heat into attention for TMZ."

James wanted to respond, but was stopped by Harvey Levin raising his hand, "Do as Jody says, hold the diary for three days, then let TMZ host a return ceremony... Yes, broadcast it live on the website, and give the diary back to Martin Davis's side for free."