The history of paparazzi can be traced back to the very beginning of the film industry; the two share nearly the same length of history.
After a century of development, a set of standard market norms has emerged.
Dating photos of a third-rate actress are usually sold to entertainment tabloids for around $500.
If it were a currently trending actress like Robbie, the price would multiply by a dozen or even dozens of times.
But once it involves explicit photos, the price jumps to units of ten thousand.
Not to mention cheating scandals, which the American public loves to see the most—this is the jewel in the crown of the paparazzi industry!
"No problem, I accept your quote." Leon made the decision without thinking for long.
Cheating photos of A-list celebrities rarely fall into the hands of entertainment media; most of the time, they are sold back to the celebrities at a high price by the paparazzi.
Given Jay-Z's status and wealth, buying back these photos would cost at least several million dollars.
Looking at it this way, this deal was simply a bargain.
"How long will it take approximately?"
"Do you know which hotel they frequent?"
Leon pointed at Sean. "This guy knows everything you want to know."
"Great, that saves me a lot of trouble." Gary said, "It will take as little as two days. It depends on when Jay-Z and Rachel want to roll in the sheets. You will get a celebrity sex tape that will rock the entertainment industry!"
"That's why I appreciate you, man."
What Gary said didn't matter; the key was to see the results of his work.
Previously, Leon had witnessed incompetent paparazzi who claimed to possess Harry Potter's invisibility cloak.
Since Gary had readily agreed, all there was left to do was wait.
Throughout late November, Leon's schedule was packed with commercial performances, mainly to warm up for the release of Blinding Lights.
Aside from that, the progress on Ariana's new album was faster than expected.
Currently, the recording of most of the tracks had been completed. At the end of this month, "7 Rings" would be released as the first promotional single for the album.
Leon attached great importance to this matter. Relying on him alone to sell records, who knew when he could climb to the true top tier of New York?
Fortunately, there was a group of girls printing money for him day and night.
Apocalypse Music's copyright library was constantly expanding, which was an important bargaining chip for his negotiations with streaming platforms.
Enjoying music for free had become an irreversible trend. Except for those true die-hard fans, fewer and fewer listeners were willing to pay real money for their idols.
Every time a listener plays a piece of music, the copyright owner receives a "performance royalty," but the revenue generated by one play is less than a cent, or even less.
Expecting this little money to replace digital record sales was impossible, but if streaming platforms wanted to obtain the free streaming rights to a work, they had to pay a considerable licensing fee.
Spotify was already negotiating with Apocalypse Music, hoping to obtain free streaming authorization for all Apocalypse Music works for the coming year.
Currently, the two sides only disagreed on the licensing fee.
At 7 PM on November 23rd, Leon sat on the sofa in his Tribeca home, staring at the luxury LCD TV in front of him.
The channel was locked on TBS.
Before the AMA awards ceremony began, Ariana had been invited by TBS to record the ace talk show Conan.
She became the first female singer from Apocalypse Music to show her face on this show after Leon.
This was enough to prove that her popularity was at least in the middle of the second tier.
If the 7 Rings album could achieve the expected results, she would be able to kick open the door to becoming an A-list female singer.
"Miss Ariana, can you tell us about the creative process of '7 Rings'? I heard you wrote this after being dumped by a scumbag. Can I take the liberty to ask who that scumbag is?"
Conan's interview style was as sharp as ever, asking pointed questions right from the start.
Ever since he was publicly humiliated by Leon on the show last year, his social media had been flooded daily with comments mocking his size.
Hearing the news that an artist under Leon was coming to the show, every cell in his body was ignited—the chance to get back at him had arrived!
"Me being dumped by a scumbag? No, I won't be hurt by men. A man's value can't compare to my besties at all." Ariana kept her head held high, looking proud.
This feigned arrogance couldn't escape Conan's eyes—I couldn't beat Leon, but I can't beat you, an eighteen-year-old girl?
"That scumbag wouldn't be Leon, would it?" Conan covered his mouth and snickered. "Sorry for being so blunt, but rumors about you two have been circulating for a while, at least before Taylor and Leon officially announced their relationship."
Ariana immediately lost her composure and explained in a panic, "There's no such thing!"
"But I heard your mother has already met Leon?"
"That's because she cares about my life in New York..."
The interview went on for half an hour, and Ariana had been struggling to cope with the other party's difficult questions.
The content was all about her private life; almost nothing about the new album was discussed.
Conan continued to increase the intensity, shifting the topic from Leon to Ariana's romantic history. "I heard you dated a black boyfriend named Dean before? Good heavens, I don't mean to offend your height, but I'm really curious how you handled a young black man?"
The dirty, explicit joke won a full house, and the audience applauded and hooted.
"This bastard... you really have some nerve."
In front of the TV, Leon couldn't help laughing, curious about how Little A would answer next.
Although before the show recording, the management team had guessed the difficult questions she might face and made sufficient preparations.
But Conan's improvised lewdness was something no one had expected.
Ariana frowned, but returned to normal after just a few seconds.
"Why don't you talk about music at all?"
"We'll talk about music later. I want to ask some more interesting topics first." Conan grinned from ear to ear.
"Fine. Since you keep talking about those explicit topics, it's hard not to conclude that the rumors about your 'small bird' are true."
"What?" Conan's smile stopped abruptly.
"What else?" Ariana shrugged. "From the first second of recording, your questions haven't gone beyond the lower half of the body. I'm starting to believe the rumors in the news about your marital discord."
Conan instantly flushed red, unable to utter a single word.
The audience below gasped collectively, then responded with enthusiastic cheers.
Ariana not only perfectly defused the tricky question but also returned the humiliation in a witty way.
"How did I not see that this chick has such a sharp tongue before?" Leon was watching with great interest when his phone rang suddenly.
He pressed the mute button on the remote control and answered Max's call.
"Ice Cube agreed to produce 'Not Like Us'!"
"Great..."
Leon hadn't expected Cube to agree so readily.
Kendrick was an artist under Dre, and the grievances between the two sides during the N.W.A period hadn't been fully cleared up even now.
Every time reporters captured scenes of them in the same frame in public, there was zero communication throughout.
"This is thanks to your movie," Max explained. "He really likes the image you created for Dre in Straight Outta Compton!"
During the filming of Straight Outta Compton, Leon disregarded director James Wan's objections and demanded that the other party must restore the true personalities of the N.W.A members as much as possible.
The perfect, almost "saintly" Dre in the original script was gone, replaced by a cold-blooded, hypocritical extreme egoist.
This won great praise from Cube.
"He will bring the beat to New York within a week. He told you to wait and see what real hard stuff representing the Golden Age of the West Coast is!"
"I'll wait and see..."
After hanging up, Leon chatted with Taylor about tonight's Conan show for a while, and after some flirty texts, he went to sleep hastily.
Early the next morning, Gary brought the promised heavy bomb as agreed.
"Sht..." Leon plugged the USB drive into the port. In the video, Jay-Z was entangled with Rachel in various difficult positions.
Merry-go-round;
Rocking car;
Eiffel Tower, flipped over and over...
Although the video footage shot by Gary was blurry, he also brought some high-definition photos.
The shooting distance was so close it was like a third party was there, just short of appearing in the frame.
"How on earth did you do it..."
"Fck, I almost died in that woman's apartment."
Gary cursed while smoking, recounting his creative process.
Yesterday, based on the information provided by Sean, he sneaked into the apartment rented by Rachel and installed a pinhole camera directly facing the bed.
Less than a minute after installing it, he heard the door open.
In a hurry, Gary could only crawl under the bed. While Jay-Z and Rachel were lost in their passion, he secretly took out his camera to capture close-up shots.
"Luckily they only stayed for three hours and left." Gary complained incessantly. "I almost thought I'd have to sleep under the bed all night. The creaking noise of the bed boards was maddening!"
"I can't find the right words to describe your wisdom..." Leon exclaimed, while also breathing a sigh of relief. "Your professional ethics are enough to make the paparazzi industry collectively reflect on themselves."
Fortunately, Braun's commission to Gary back then was only to spread rumors; otherwise, the protagonist of the tape might very well have been himself.
The content exceeding expectations left Leon speechless. He immediately instructed Elsa to pay the $500,000 commission fee.
After watching Gary leave, Leon enjoyed the tape alone once more.
"Oh yes~ Baby~"
"Yes, just like that!"
"How do I compare to Beyoncé?"
Leon laughed as he watched. Jay-Z, who was in a state of high arousal, gave a fatal answer without thinking: "Of course it's you, bitch! No one compares to you!"
He turned away from the computer, entered the password for the secret room against the background wall, and locked the USB drive in the safe.
He already had a plan on how to use this tape—on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2011, he would transform into a Dark Santa Claus and give Jay-Z a Christmas gift he would never forget for the rest of his life.