America Tycoon: The Wolf of Showbiz

On the day of the press conference, countless red cultural shirts crowded into Los Angeles City Hall, turning the entire city hall red. The overcrowded City Hall was like a movie premiere starring Martin.

Some of the seats reserved for media journalists were occupied.

Warner Television Network reached an agreement with the City Hall to broadcast live across America.

TMZ, on the other hand, secured the online streaming rights.

From the start, the press conference was explosively popular.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio was the first to take the stage, starting with some formalities and discussing the significant meaning of today's ceremony before finally focusing on Martin.

He spoke passionately, "Martin Davis has brought a fighting spirit to the city of Los Angeles. He has told us time and again that no matter how difficult the circumstances you face, if you stand up bravely, respond actively, and struggle hard, you can ultimately be the winner!"

The applause that erupted on-site was ten times as enthusiastic as when Antonio gave a campaign speech!

Antonio waited for the applause to subside before continuing, "Martin has an extraordinary significance for the city of Los Angeles. His powerful fighting spirit and accomplishments in the cultural and artistic realm are all a testament to his loyal guardianship of Los Angeles. To commemorate Martin's contributions to Los Angeles, we have decided to establish 'Martin Davis Day'!"

Applause broke out once again.

Martin's supporters kept cheering loudly.

Antonio said, "Now, please welcome Martin Davis."

Martin ascended the stage from behind and waved to the audience, the vigorous applause like thunder from a clear sky, making the entire City Hall shake.

TMZ's reporter Jody felt something land on her forehead and touched it, finding dust.

She looked up and saw dust falling from the ceiling because of the applause.

Martin took to the stage, and Mayor Antonio gave him a hug, declaring loudly, "You are a hero, a city hero of Los Angeles!"

Politicians are the best actors; he grabbed Martin's hand and, facing the audience, raised it together.

Martin cooperated, waving and smiling.

Then, Antonio took a golden bronze plaque and presented it to Martin.

Martin held the large plaque in both hands, displaying it joyfully in front of the media cameras.

In this moment, as a star, his social honor had undoubtedly reached a significant height.

Martin approached the microphone and briefly said, "Los Angeles is a city with a great spirit of heritage, and I'm proud to work and live in this city!"

In New York, Natalie Portman was watching the live broadcast and remembered that she had not yet filled in her Oscar ballot. She immediately found it and, although she had never seen any Batman movies and knew nothing about The Dark Knight, she thought Martin's actions were decent. In the selection for Best Supporting Actor, she filled in Martin's name as her top choice.

In Los Angeles, Stallone was watching the live broadcast with his three daughters.

The oldest daughter, Sophia, was thirteen and quite knowledgeable. She said, "Daddy, you can only be a hero in the movies, but Martin can be a hero in movies and also a real-life hero who beats the bad guys."

The second daughter, Sistine, stated, "That's why I like Martin more than you, Dad!"

The youngest daughter, Scarlett, still small, hugging her dad's arm, said, "Daddy, I will always love you. In my heart, you are always stronger than that Martin."

Stallone affectionately pinched his youngest daughter's cheek.

Sophia pulled Scarlett away and asked, "Daddy, why can Martin fight, but you can't?"

Despite being called out by his treasured daughter, Stallone wasn't uncomfortable, explaining, "What Dad practices is for looking good in movies. What that young man Martin practices is not just for show; it's for real combat."

He frowned in puzzlement, "Has the action film industry become this competitive? Without some real combat skills, no one dares to speak up."

"Daddy, why has Los Angeles established 'Martin Davis Day'?" asked the youngest daughter, now a traitor too, "Why isn't there a 'Stallone Day' in Los Angeles?"

Stallone didn't know what to say for a moment.

After thinking, he could only muster, "There will be one day."

Sophia pursed her lips.

Stallone felt incredibly, incredibly exhausted. His three daughters were all clever and shrewd; he wished someone would come and take them off his hands immediately.

With that thought, he felt a bit envious of his old neighbor Tyson. Tyson's daughters were so quiet, sitting still without moving all day.

Stallone stopped watching TV and looked down at his Oscar ballot, on which most of the nominated films he had not seen.

Based on impressions from reading newspapers and television, as well as some people's lobbying, he chose Sean Penn for Best Actor and Martin Davis for Best Supporting Actor...

After all, since he hadn't seen the movies, he based his choices on whoever he was most familiar with lately. Stallone mailed his ballot to PricewaterhouseCoopers that afternoon.

Sophia and Sistine, his oldest and second daughters, were not giving him peace of mind, insisting that Stallone find an opportunity for them to get a photo with Martin and ask for his autograph.

Stallone asked, "You've met countless Hollywood stars, and I've never seen you asking anyone for an autograph."

"Because Martin is one-of-a-kind!" Sophia asserted confidently, "As children, we always admired Dad in the movies, but as we grew up, we realized that movie characters and reality are two different things."

Sistine chimed in, "Martin is like your movie character come to life. We admired your movie character as children, and now we admire Martin. Isn't that normal?"

Stallone realized he couldn't win against his two daughters and simply said, "Alright, I'll take you to meet him for a photo and an autograph when I get the chance."
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In the following days, media outlets everywhere were filled with various reports about Martin.

Martin's PR team, along with The Dark Knight Crew, continued to campaign vigorously, pushing for Martin to win Best Supporting Actor.

In Beverly Hills, at Martin's neighbor's house.

Charlize Theron sat in the living room with the Oscar ballots and a list of Oscar nominees right in front of her.

She held a pen in her hand, lifted it above the list of nominees, closed her eyes, let go, and wherever the pen fell closest to, she would select the corresponding category first.

Charlize didn't have much time to watch movies, so she used this method, recognized among the Oscar jurors as the fairest and most impartial way to vote.

Stuart Townsend, holding two bags of trash, came down from upstairs and took a look, noticing that Charlize was filling out Oscar ballots. He thought back to the newspaper he had just read, about how their neighbor Martin Davis had been making headlines.

During the last party Martin Davis held, for some reason, Stuart had an unfavorable impression of him and always felt that having such an outstanding neighbor wasn't a good thing.

Stuart reminded her, "Don't vote for Martin for Best Supporting Actor."

Charlize was just about to close her eyes and drop the pen when she heard this and opened her eyes in surprise, asking, "Why not?"

Stuart bluntly said, "Because I don't like him."

Charlize found it absurd, "He's a nice guy. When he was in the hospital, he even had Lily Carter send us gifts during the holidays."

"What? He sent gifts?" Stuart's anger was kindled instantly, "Why didn't I know about this?"

Charlize answered, "You weren't home at the time."

Thinking about Martin's media presence over the past month and his heroic deeds, Charlize picked up the pen and filled in 'Martin Davis' for the top choice for Best Supporting Actor on her ballot.

Stuart flared up, "Didn't you hear what I said?"

Charlize calmly stated, "This is my ballot, and who I choose is my freedom."

"You..." Stuart glared at her.

Charlize simply raised her head, looking at him.

Stuart eventually backed down a step, turned, and left the villa. He picked up the two large bags of trash and went out the side door to the alleyway between his mansion and that of Martin Davis to dispose of the garbage.

There were two rows of garbage cans in the alleyway—the ones closer to the other side were exclusively for Martin Davis's household.

When Stuart came out, he saw two girls in community service uniforms standing in front of those trash cans, looking through the stuff inside.

He couldn't help asking, "Who are you? What are you doing?"

Tony, who had just started her job a few days ago, turned around with a big smile, holding a spray bottle, and said, "We've received lots of complaints from domestic workers about cockroaches in the trash cans, so we're here to apply pest control spray."

Seeing the two dressed in community work uniforms, with badges pinned on the left side of their chests, Stuart didn't think much of it and didn't say anything further.

Tony and Aisha packed up their stuff, closed the trash cans, took off their work gloves, gave Stuart a smile, and left the place.

Once outside, Aisha kept patting her chest, "That scared me to death."

Tony was much braver than her, "What's there to be afraid of? We're now official employees of the community!"

Still feeling uneasy, Aisha pulled on Tony, urging her to leave quickly, "Let's get back before anyone else notices us."

Tony shouldered her bag with a sense of regret, "It's a shame we didn't find anything."

The thing they were looking for wasn't there at all.

Back in the alleyway, Stuart threw the two big bags of garbage into the trash can but didn't go back immediately.

He was a man not known for being very tactful. Reminded of Charlize Theron's attitude just now, his anger grew fiercer.

His entire body, his whole being, was almost ablaze with it.

But Stuart hadn't dared to vent his anger towards Charlize Theron since last year because if they broke up, the house he lived in, the luxury car he drove, and even the credit cards he used could all vanish.

Looking at the garbage cans in front of him, Stuart couldn't control himself and kicked the metal bin repeatedly, with such force that the metal started to deform slightly.

After venting, he felt a bit better.

Opening the side door, he returned home, picked up another two bags of trash, and continued out to throw them away.

After disposing of them, Stuart, as if the trash can were Charlize, kicked it several times to vent his frustration.

The deformed area grew a bit larger.

Back home, Stuart found that Charlize had sealed up the Oscar ballots and was about to leave to mail them.

He asked, "Do you need any help?"

Charlize shook her head, "No need, I'm going out for a bit."

As Oscar ballots were mailed out one by one from the Academy members to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the 81st Oscar ceremony was about to begin.