Refusing to help

Upon seeing the figures of Joseph and Hugo walking straight towards them, the male assistant sitting outside the office immediately stood up and leaned out half of his body to indicate a gesture of obstruction. "I'm sorry, Ron is busy now, you can't go in."

Joseph stopped his footsteps and looked up and down at the male assistant. He was wearing a formal suit with no distinctive features, but the slightly inward-chinned and raised pinky finger clearly showed that he lacked masculinity and seemed to have a bit too much feminine air. But this was not surprising, because like the modeling industry, Hollywood was one of the industries with the highest concentration of homosexuals.

Hollywood was a place full of contradictions. On the one hand, a substantial minority of the industry's insiders were homosexuals, and these people were eager to fight for their basic rights as homosexuals. On the other hand, it was extremely conservative and obstructive in practice. When the spotlight was on them, they often dare not even speak the most basic truth.

The struggle for equal rights for homosexuals in the United States began in the 1960s, but the development over the past thirty years had been limited. Hollywood, as the industry with the highest concentration of homosexuals, had not been able to use its huge media power to promote anti-discrimination and equal rights messages. On the contrary, Hollywood's unwritten rules for homosexuality had been deeply ingrained, and it could even be said to be oppressive. It was not until the early 1990s that the United States saw programs that portrayed homosexual characters realistically.

In recent years, there had been a saying circulating in Hollywood: to know who is not homosexual in the industry, see if they dare to play homosexual roles. The most famous example was William Hurt, who won the Oscar for Best Actor for his androgynous and feminine homosexual role in the 1985 film "Kiss of the Spider Woman", becoming the first male actor in history to win an Oscar for a homosexual role. But everyone knows that he was 100% heterosexual.

Of course, such sayings were no longer applicable to the 21st century's sensibilities. For example, after Jake Gyllenhaal played in "Brokeback Mountain", rumors that he was homosexual had never stopped.

In Hollywood, homosexuals should also be divided into two categories: on-stage and off-stage. Backstage workers do not need to hide their sexuality. Even ordinary directors or crew members will not be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation, let alone the endless stream of homosexuals in the fields of makeup and costume design. On-stage actors should be further divided into stars and supporting actors. If an actor only plays supporting roles and extras for their whole life, it doesn't matter whether they reveal their sexual orientation or not, because the audience will not care about a supporting actor's personal life. But if they are a star, let alone a superstar, then hiding in the closet their whole life is the norm, because Hollywood's unwritten rules for homosexuals are even more severe than those for race and gender, perhaps tens of times more severe.

The male assistant in front of Joseph belonged to the behind-the-scenes group. He could express his sexual orientation without any scruples and it did not affect his work at all. Joseph looked at the other person with a puzzled expression and asked, "Who are you?" Then he added, "Where's Shirley?"

Hugo looked at Joseph and vaguely guessed that Shirley was Ron Meyer's former assistant. "I'm Gary Scott, Ron's new assistant," Gary said with a coquettish gesture, stroking his short sideburns. He looked back at the office and lowered his voice, "Kelly caused a big scene because of Shirley's incident. The whole company knows about it." Kelly was Ron Meyer's wife. This gossip came suddenly, but it was quite explosive.

Then Gary looked at Hugo and even threw a flirtatious glance at him, which caught Hugo off guard. "Hugo, if I were you, I wouldn't go in now. Ron has already had three cups of coffee today and his temper has accumulated to a certain extent." When Hugo reacted, he couldn't help but show a slightly embarrassed smile. He had never encountered a man who openly flirted with him like this.

Obviously, Gary recognized Hugo Lancaster, which was not surprising, and next to him was Hugo's agent, Joseph Gibbs.

"Gary, tell Ron that I'm going in," Joseph said with a strong tone, but he was still a newcomer, while Ron was already one of the company's partners. The level difference made him somewhat hesitant.

"Joseph! You know..." Gary was still trying to stop him, but Joseph shook his head and gave a firm look. "Make the call!" Gary then turned to Hugo for help.

Hugo was a bit amused, but he still showed a warm smile and comforted Gary. Seeing this smile, Gary nodded contentedly, "Okay, for Hugo's sake." Hugo was a bit shy before, but now he was amused by Gary's sincerity and laughed along with him.

Gary picked up the phone and pressed a button, then said, "Ron, Joseph and Hugo are here... He insists on seeing you, yes..." After he hung up the phone, he looked at Hugo again and said, "He said you can go in now."

Joseph looked at Gary's gaze that had been locked onto Hugo and couldn't help but smile. He patted Hugo's shoulder and said, "Let's go in."

Facing Gary's fiery gaze, Hugo politely nodded and followed Joseph into Ron's office.

The office was at least 430 square feet (40 square meters), with spacious and bright lighting, neat and orderly arrangement, and elegant and comfortable furniture. Hugo felt that it was even better than Joseph's house, and the difference was not small.

Ron was sitting behind his desk, with his legs crossed, silver curly hair, and a pair of glasses. He didn't look as smart and capable as he had imagined. Instead, he looked more like a stage manager or assistant director on a shoot. However, Ron's speaking rhythm was far more impressive than his appearance. "So, what brings you to me? I don't think we have any issues to discuss." He was decisive and showed his bad mood at the moment.

Joseph was momentarily taken aback by Ron's imposing demeanor, but it didn't have a significant impact. He raised his voice and continued to inquire with stable language, "Ron, Michael Douglas is your artist, right? He has a movie coming out next week?"

Michael Douglas's position in Hollywood was very special at present. On the one hand, he won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1987 for "Wall Street". On the other hand, he had excellent achievements in the field of production. His 1976 "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was enough to make him a legend. Of course, Michael Douglas's two most well-known deeds were marrying Catherine Zeta-Jones who was two decades younger than him, and also co-starring with Sharon Stone in "Basic Instinct" in 1992.

When Hugo heard Joseph's words, his first reaction was, "Basic Instinct" is coming out next week? His second reaction was that Michael was indeed Ron's artist, and he was really a top-notch agent. But Hugo did not realize that his previous self was also Ron's artist.

Sure enough, Ron continued, "Yes, "Basic Instinct". So what? What do you want?" He still spoke very sharply, without concealing his impatience, obviously not wanting to get entangled with Joseph too much.

It was only then that Hugo noticed that after they entered the office, Ron did not greet them or ask them to sit down. Ron just sat in his boss chair and looked at Joseph and Hugo talking while standing still. This feeling of being condescended to was really uncomfortable.

Even if Hugo didn't know what happened before, he could still guess that for a successful agent, investing too much effort into an actor like Hugo who was in the midst of "falling" was clearly not worth it. Compared to Hugo, Ron had too many important artists to manage. No wonder Ron transferred Hugo to Joseph after the contract expired. At this time, Ron's attitude was not positive at all, even felt like a charity, so why did Joseph still come to him? This made Hugo very puzzled - he still didn't understand the operation of the entertainment industry.

Although Ron's attitude was very rigid, Joseph continued to talk calmly, "Ron, you know that Hugo needs work recently, could you give him an invitation to the premiere?"

In fact, Joseph had his own plan. March was a low season for movies, and there were not many films released, and works with topic and appeal were even rarer. Among them, "Basic Instinct" with an investment of 49 million dollars was undoubtedly the only work that met this criterion. And coincidentally, the male lead Michael was Ron's actor. It was not difficult to get a premiere invitation from Ron since Michael would definitely get a pile of invitations, and Ron could control at least a hundred invitations.

If Hugo could attend this premiere, it would definitely have a positive effect on both exposure and connections. After hesitating for a long time, Joseph decided to put Hugo's career first, even if he didn't want to deal with Ron Meyer, because learning to face objects one hates is one of the required courses for agents.

As for bringing Hugo along, Joseph actually hoped that Ron could give some convenience based on their past relationship. Especially when he thought of the Golden Raspberry Awards in January, which made Hugo fall into the subsequent quagmire because of Ron's suggestion, Joseph hoped that Ron could make some compensation.

Hugo finally understood Joseph's plan, but he looked at Ron who was indifferent in front of him, and sighed lightly in his heart. Joseph was indeed too new to the industry. He did not believe that Ron was a conscientious agent. Self-interest was the absolute rule.

Sure enough, Ron once again verified Hugo's thoughts. He directly shook his head, "No, I don't think Hugo is suitable to appear on this occasion." Without any hesitation, Ron refused Joseph's request, without any intention of giving face.