I’m in Hollywood

Chapter 244 – Lazy

Under the influence of this great depression, Donald Trump's assets shrank rapidly.
In just over two years, Donald Trump's assets have shrunk from the peak of 1.7 billion US dollars to the current 500 million US dollars.

If it's just this, it's not much; after all, the market value of many real estate companies has been greatly reduced.

Before the Great Depression, Donald Trump was at the peak of his career, full of vigor, and his real estate company had a very large booth, so he owed hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to major banks and financial institutions.
After the Great Depression began, due to continuous losses, the capital chain of his real estate company was on the brink of collapse and could go bankrupt at any time.

Although he had managed to convince several banks to postpone the high interest payments required for the loan, he was no longer able to borrow any money from any institution.
Without funds, his real estate company could not continue running normally and remained in a semi-paralyzed state.

A few days ago, Donald happened to see an article about Eric in a newspaper, which used an exclamatory tone to detail Eric's miraculous rise and predicted that Eric's Firefly Film Company could get at least $400 million in pure profits with several films released this year.

After carefully reading the article several times, Donald Trump immediately had an idea.
Even large conglomerates worth billions of dollars are unlikely to have two hundred million dollars in cash.
If he could get this money from Firefly, even half of it, he could get through this bankruptcy crisis.

Donald Trump has the same advantage that all smart businessmen share, which is the ability to seize every opportunity available to him without thinking about the chances of success.
There are only two possibilities when trying something: success or failure.
Without trying, there is only one possibility.

After Donald Trump made up his mind, he immediately found a detective agency.
He gathered a lot of information about Eric and found out about his acquisition of Pixar Studio, owned by Jobs.

Pixar has always been a heartache for Jobs, losing money since it was bought, yet this studio was acquired by Eric for $20 million at the beginning of the year.
In the data he collected, Pixar's losses this year will reach a record high of 10 million US dollars, so the evaluation of Eric's acquisition in the data collected was very low, even using words like 'foolish'.

But this was exactly what Donald wanted to see.
He felt that the boy, while very talented in the film industry, was not too clever in business, or rather, not too clever outside of the film industry, which would be just fine if it were true.

Donald Trump originally planned to go to Seattle himself, but then he found out that Eric had led the crew to New York, which is his headquarters.

Because it was unlikely to contact the middleman for an introduction in a short time, and Eric was busy shooting the movie.
Without participating in any social activities, Donald had to take the risk of going to Eric's door in person.
He had previously made an analysis of Eric's character.
He felt that since Eric achieved fame at a young age, he must have the pride and vanity that young people of this age should have.
In order to cater to Eric's mentality, Donald specially arrived two hours early and let the crew know about it.

Looking at the 19-year-old in front of him with a faint stubble on his chin, Donald Trump felt a tinge of envy.
He still had not completely lost his youthful innocence.

Investment institutions have estimated the market value of Firefly after the merger with New Line to be more than one billion US dollars.
According to the share calculation, the teenage boy's worth is now twice as much as it is now.
And the other side did all this in just a year.

But this was not a time for reflection.
Donald Trump quickly organized a series of prepared speeches in his mind and was about to speak, but Eric spoke first.

“Mr.
Donald, are you my movie fan?”

Donald Trump paused, wanting to nod subconsciously, but then decided to speak truthfully: “No, I'm not, but I really like the movie “running out of time” you made.
When the videotape comes out, I'll definitely buy a box and keep it.”

“Oh, thank you,” Eric nodded politely, not saying anything more, watching the waiter bring the two people's lunch and pour red wine for the two, but in his heart he was secretly calculating.
Donald Trump obviously wouldn't come to the door for no reason, but Eric couldn't understand why the other was looking for him.

Can't he be trying to pull a fast one on in his own movie?

Eric recalled Donald Trump's liking for the entertainment circle and thought it was quite possible.
However, there was no chance for “Sleepless in Seattle” for sure.
Could the other party want to guest star in “Home Alone 2”?

Eric was about to discard this “absurd” thought, but suddenly he raised his head and looked carefully at Donald Trump across from him.

What the heck!

Eric muttered under his breath, “Could it be this coincidental?”

Because he just had that thought, his subconscious mind suddenly recalled the plot of “Home Alone 2” in his memory, and he realized that Donald Trump had indeed made a cameo in this children's movie.

Around twenty minutes into the movie, when Kevin mistakenly arrives in New York and checks into the Plaza Hotel near Central Park, Donald Trump portrayed a fleeting, passerby role for the little guy with one line of dialogue and a positive close-up.

Eric originally knew about the role of the guide, but he has been too busy lately to pay attention to it.
Besides the main cast of Home Alone 2, he didn't care about the minor roles and left them to the casting director.

For roles like Donald Trump's cameo, they don't even need to determine the actor in advance.
Usually, when shooting, they just find an extra or pick a strongman from the crew to make a cameo.

So Eric had never really given much thought to the person's identity, and if it weren't for Donald Trump, Templeton sitting in front of him, Eric probably would never have remembered.

After a few seconds of pondering, Eric still couldn't see the meaning of guest-starring a nameless, faceless character with just one line of dialogue.
He could only say that the New York real estate tycoon must have been pretty bored.