In its headline article, The Hollywood Reporter's account of WMA's packaging project was even detailed down to many specific facts.
The entire report began with Jonathan Friedman initiating the packaging project, including how several major Hollywood studios, out of fear of WMA's shift to a packaging strategy, colluded to try and resist it, until Jonathan Friedman's dissatisfaction with Norman Brokaw's compromise and the uneven distribution of project profits led to a complete fallout with his superior.
This series of causes and effects was described as if the reporter had personally experienced the entire event.
In reality, apart from internal disclosure, this article obviously could not have come from any other source.
The factionalism within WMA was common knowledge inside the industry.
While exposing this internal strife scandal would cause immeasurable negative impacts on WMA, at the same time, if President Norman Brokaw and Vice President Jonathan Friedman were to suffer because of it, many people could benefit.
After all, in the company, other than Norman Brokaw and Jonathan Friedman, there were still seven vice presidents waiting for further advancement.
The number of other WMA agents still struggling to climb the ladder was countless.
Any one of these people had sufficient reason to do this.
Faced with The Hollywood Reporter's sudden exposé, WMA's management had no time to investigate who leaked the dispute and had to frantically start dealing with the flood of media inquiries.
On the morning the Hollywood Reporter article was published, WMA Chairman Lou Weiss firmly denied all content in The Hollywood Reporter's exposé during an interview with a New York reporter from the Los Angeles Times.
He also revealed that WMA had reached a preliminary agreement with Fox Pictures, and the company's first packaging project had not failed, so naturally, there was no high-level internal strife.
However, when the media turned to Fox Pictures for verification, Fox Pictures President Ronald Goldberg's response was ambiguous, neither admitting nor denying, only telling reporters that the company was still in contact with WMA and it was inconvenient to disclose detailed information.
This was actually the result of urgent negotiations between WMA and Fox executives.
Fox Pictures had violated the tacit understanding reached with several other major film companies by secretly trying to secure 'The Butterfly Effect'.
Although this revelation made Fox management look very awkward in front of their peers, Ronald Goldberg understood even more clearly that if he completely denied the whole thing at this time and embarrassed WMA, WMA would not make things easy for Fox in the future.
In addition to persuading Fox to cooperate in their charade, WMA executives also privately contacted Tichi Kassel, the major shareholder behind The Hollywood Reporter.
After some back and forth, they finally received a promise that the other party would not rashly publish any more news that would catch WMA off guard.
After a whole day of scrambling, WMA initially thought it had successfully brought the whole matter back to a point where it could be salvaged.
The next day, however, another exposé was published.
The leaker had clearly done their homework, as the article had shifted its ground, bypassing The Hollywood Reporter, which WMA had dealt with, and was published in another Hollywood newspaper, Daily Variety.
Daily Variety is a daily newspaper under Variety Inc., and together with the weekly Variety magazine, it forms the two major print media platforms of Variety Inc.
In fact, The Hollywood Reporter also distinguishes between a daily newspaper and a weekly magazine, but it does not have a separate name like Variety.
This exposé in Daily Variety was even more detailed, even involving the content of the packaging plan after WMA President Norman Brokaw 'compromised' with Fox.
It highlighted Matthew Broderick's film salary contract of up to $5 million and the seemingly stingy buyout agreement received by the screenwriter of the project script 'The Butterfly Effect', pointing out that these two agreements were the fuse that caused the conflict between Norman Brokaw and Jonathan Friedman.
With Daily Variety's renewed exposé, many daily newspaper media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, also began to pay attention to the matter, and the situation subtly showed a trend of further expansion.
Facing this situation, WMA and Fox had no choice but to stubbornly continue denying many reports in the media.
However, everyone also knew that to avoid further complications, taking strong measures to quickly and thoroughly resolve this storm was already imperative.
This continued until July 21st.
Monday.
After a chaotic weekend, WMA Chairman Lou Weiss and CEO Lee Stevens, following Norman Brokaw who had returned to Los Angeles early to stabilize the situation, also arrived on the West Coast.
At nine in the morning, at WMA headquarters on Camino Street, only four people were seated in the spacious conference room: the two bigwigs who had come from the East Coast and the two parties involved in the entire matter.
"Yesterday in New York, I personally spoke with Mr. Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp," said Lou Weiss, who was 75 years old this year, sitting at the head of the conference table.
His expression showed some fatigue, but his gaze was still sharp as he swept over his three subordinates and continued, "Mr. Murdoch has agreed that Fox will try its best to cooperate with us to complete the project 'The Butterfly Effect'
However, this matter must undergo some adjustments. And, let me state beforehand, what I am about to say is the final decision.
You two cannot object; you only need to execute it. If you cannot complete it, you can just pack your bags and leave".
Saying this, Lou Weiss lowered his head to look at his memo, then raised his head again, sweeping his gaze over Norman Brokaw and Jonathan Friedman, and said, "Since we have denied many of the leaked information in the media, the original plan must be adjusted.
First, the male lead needs to be changed; it can no longer be Matthew. Also, Norman, I have already agreed with Fox that Matthew will star in one of their films called 'Project X.'
They said they had already submitted the script to you before, right?"
Norman Brokaw nodded, but then asked, "Lou, what about Matthew's salary?"
Lou Weiss stared at Norman Brokaw and said, "3 million dollars."
Hearing the figure Lou Weiss quoted, Norman Brokaw immediately stood up and said, "That's too low!"
"Only 3 million dollars," Lou Weiss said with an undeniable tone, "or, you can leave".
Norman Brokaw's lips twitched, but he eventually nodded, sitting back down with a reluctant expression.
Jonathan Friedman could choose to jump ship from WMA if absolutely necessary, but Norman Brokaw definitely could not.
As a vice president of the largest talent agency in North America and even globally, after jumping ship, unless he started his own business, it would be impossible for him to find his place in any other agency.
But if he chose to start his own business, even if he could take a group of top-tier stars with him, Norman Brokaw would never be able to possess the power he currently held.
Lou Weiss saw Norman Brokaw sit down and nodded with satisfaction, then looked at Jonathan Friedman.