Diva syndrome

The first to take the lead was Entertainment Weekly. This newly established entertainment magazine, in its third year of publication, was the fastest-growing subscription magazine in the entire market and now wielded considerable influence in Los Angeles.

Entertainment Weekly compiled a collection of Hugo's high-profile incidents, pointing out that Hugo's arrogant behavior was not something that happened overnight; it was evident that he had a history of such behavior. With the rising popularity of "Scent of a Woman", Hugo's attitude towards fans gradually changed during the promotional period. He went from being diligent and earnest to repeatedly refusing fans' requests for autographs and photoshoots, even handshake requests. One particular testimony from a fan named Bob Word provided concrete evidence.

Bob Word, a fan from Chicago, encountered Hugo during the taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show. He stated that at the time, Hugo was idle while shopping, dressed formally and displaying proper etiquette. However, he refused Bob's request for a photo and autograph and even declined to shake hands, which left Bob greatly disappointed and even angry.

Entertainment Weekly stated that the occurrence of the Bob incident coincided closely with the Sunset Boulevard blockade event. Regardless of what happened on Sunset Boulevard that night, it was an undeniable fact that Hugo no longer showed warm responses to his fans' support. The magazine also specifically pointed out that Hugo's reaction became increasingly apparent as his movies achieved success. This kind of behavior, synchronized with the speed of his rising popularity, was indeed quite evident and raised concerns: if Hugo achieves even greater success in the future, will his behavior become more exaggerated and demanding?

Regarding this article from Entertainment Weekly, it was actually quite normal. Similar news appears almost regularly. How artists interact with their fans has always been a question, especially in a country like the United States that advocates individuality and protects personal rights. Fans may feel that their requests have not been responded to by the artists, which is seen as disrespectful. Similarly, artists may feel that their private lives have been invaded, and outside of work, they can only respond to fans within certain limits. These two perspectives are prone to conflicts, so nearly every artist encounters fan-related incidents to varying degrees.

If it were just that, during other times, Hugo's behavior would not be considered arrogant, but rather a case of his judgment being clouded by his popularity. However, the publication of this article from Entertainment Weekly after the Golden Globe Awards brawl made it thought-provoking. It undoubtedly unveiled the suspicion of Hugo's arrogance, and subsequent reports gradually turned that suspicion into reality.

Following closely, National Enquirer exposed Hugo's repeated instances of tardiness as a high-profile event. It revealed incidents of him being late on the first day of filming "A Few Good Men" and also presented a transformed account of the Algric event. The report pointed out that Hugo bossed Algric around and made many excessive demands, putting Algric in a difficult position, ultimately resulting in Algric losing his job.

Furthermore, what surprised people even more was that National Enquirer actually revealed the incident of Hugo missing the audition for "The Fugitive" due to his tardiness. In the report, the journalist Anthony Stewart wrote that Hugo was an entire hour late, which completely angered the producer Arnold Kopelson, who had held him in high regard. Consequently, they parted ways on bad terms. Such tardiness was clearly a display of unprofessionalism and a lack of respect for the production team.

However, in this matter, it was interestingly reported by Anthony that the audition for "The Fugitive" took place on the day before the Golden Globe Awards, which was the 23rd. He vividly described how Hugo partied all night the previous day and then departed from Malibu to Universal Studios for the audition, resulting in his lateness.

The "arrogant behavior" associated with indulging in pleasures now appears even more authentic.

Next, the famous supermarket gossip tabloid Globe once again boldly exposed a scandal. It claimed that the reason why Hugo didn't receive any new scripts for half a year after "A Few Good Men" was because he raised his price and refused to accept anything less than eight million in remuneration. This led to production companies withdrawing from negotiations, and Hugo became extremely picky about the scripts. Globe pointed out that scripts like "The Firm", "Sleepless in Seattle", and "The Fugitive" all wanted Hugo to play the male lead, but they couldn't reach an agreement on the salary, and Hugo also requested changes to the scripts. This posed a huge challenge to directors and producers, resulting in the projects falling through. As a result, Hugo's films continued to achieve success, but he still hadn't received any new projects.

Pushing the "Diva" drama to its peak was the National Enquirer three days later. This supermarket gossip tabloid exposed another major scandal. According to the news, Hugo was actually very close to collaborating on a project. The film had a budget of sixty million dollars and had invited A-list directors and top-notch cast members, clearly aiming to create an ambitious work.

However, Hugo ultimately missed out on this project not due to salary issues as people speculated, but because he attempted to interfere with the casting process.

Anthony, who wrote this news again, became the focal point of this news event. In his report, he sternly criticized Hugo, saying, "Hugo tried to arrange a male friend and a female acquaintance into key roles in the cast. This caused the collaboration, which was already in the signing stage, to be interrupted. The director and producer are veterans who have achieved great success in the industry. They were not only astonished but also deeply outraged by Hugo's behavior. Although Hugo has achieved decent results, he is ultimately just a young actor and has no qualifications to meddle in the casting process. This directly led to the collaboration falling apart, and Hugo was abandoned, completely missing out on this project."

Although Anthony didn't directly mention the name of the project in his report, people generally speculated that it was "The Firm" because it was the closest project to Hugo in the past two months. Director Sydney Polack matched Anthony's description, as Sydney expressed admiration for Hugo during the release of "A Few Good Men", leading people to believe that Hugo's next project would likely be "The Firm". In this process, there were no other strong competitors, which also supported this speculation. However, after entering 1993, there was suddenly no news of Hugo collaborating with "The Firm", which raised people's suspicions.

Amidst this wave after wave of superstar frenzy, Hugo's image as a young and arrogant superstar suddenly grew "taller". Although all of this was just rumors, it still had a tremendous impact on the public.

In fact, various media outlets have different opinions on this matter.

For example, regarding the fan incidents, Entertainment Weekly overlooked a key point, which was that Hugo was in a busy promotional period and didn't have time to attend to fans. He had a tight schedule. Regarding the "A Few Good Men" incident, the production crew also came forward to clarify that Algric was the instigator, and Hugo was the victim.

Another example was "The Fugitive" incident. The audition was not on the 23rd but on the morning of the 25th. Hugo was late because of Anthony's press conference that morning. The problem was that the events happened in the morning, and Anthony already knew about it in the afternoon and reported it the next day, distorting the facts. There was definitely something fishy going on there.

There was no definite response from anyone in the industry regarding the issue of remuneration, and the idea of Hugo interfering in the casting for "The Firm" was baseless. Sydney did not give any positive affirmation to this matter either.

These arguments and viewpoints served as proof that the so-called "Diva" syndrome was simply unfounded.

For a while, the media had different opinions. Some believed that Hugo was indeed acting like a big shot, while others thought it was utterly ridiculous. Some even believed that this was a publicity stunt orchestrated by Hugo himself, or that he colluded with Anthony to stage this drama in order to gain attention.

Various nonsensical comments filled the news and entertainment pages throughout the week. The brawl incident, which was expected to cause a huge uproar, was instead forgotten by people. Whether Hugo was truly acting like a big shot became the latest focal point of debate. Although some accused and others defended him, it was undeniable that the audience was divided, with some believing and others doubting.

The biggest impact of this incident was that the majority of people's impression of Hugo had indeed taken a nosedive. After all, being at the center of such a storm, it was hard for people to believe that all of it was baseless. The idea that there's no smoke without fire was deeply ingrained in people's minds. Especially in the case of the so-called stardom disease, this wasn't a murder case that could be proven with evidence. It was more about the attitude displayed by the artist. So, basically, everyone had their own judgment.

Hugo became the vortex of public opinion, as anticipated after the celebration banquet. However, it wasn't the result Hugo and Joseph had hoped for. This situation put Hugo in a terrible position: the media reporters wanted to dig up more news from him, while the film production companies didn't want to attract more attention during this storm. This meant that Hugo, who was already idle at home, would probably have to continue resting for a while longer.

It was initially thought that the success of "Scent of a Woman" and "A Few Good Men" would propel Hugo's career to new heights. But now, it seemed that instead of receiving a positive response, it only confirmed the curse of "the more famous, the more rumors". Hugo found himself entangled in a pile of rumors, and it wouldn't be easy to extricate himself in a short period of time.

Over the past week, wherever Hugo appeared, he would be followed and harassed by reporters. He couldn't even find a minute of tranquility, which inevitably made him feel irritable.

Although the negative impact of the brawl incident had been resolved, and although the discussions about the superstar mystery had both positive and negative aspects, resulting in endless debates, and although it was better to receive such intense attention than to be ignored... this was not the way Hugo wanted it to be.