On Monday, November 19, Hollywood's three major unions simultaneously filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, seeking to block Daenerys Entertainment's acquisition of MCA. The entire Westeros system was busy handling the matter, yet none of it interfered with the arrival of Thanksgiving.
This year's Thanksgiving fell on November 22.
Snow had just begun falling on the East Coast. Simon loved the atmosphere of a holiday combined with fresh snow, so he and Janet spent the day together at their estate in Greenwich.
After Thursday, another box-office weekend arrived in Hollywood.
During the first week of the Thanksgiving window, November 16 to November 22, Sylvester Stallone's new film Rocky V comfortably took the weekly box-office crown.
The once-miraculous action franchise had clearly lost some of its former magic, however. It opened to just 19.6 million dollars, and reviews were merely passable, with a media composite score around five out of ten. Industry analysts predicted a forty- to fifty-percent drop the following week and a North American total under fifty million dollars. The studio could only hope overseas box office and ancillary markets would help recoup costs.
Daenerys Entertainment's Dances with Wolves ranked second. In its wide-release debut, the film earned 12.67 million dollars. Given only 1,031 screens and a three-hour runtime, the per-screen average above 12,000 dollars was outstanding.
Including its earlier limited run, the film had now accumulated 17.3 million dollars after three weeks, nearly covering its 20-million-dollar production budget.
Misery, which had opened during Halloween, dropped another twenty-two percent this week and failed to rebound during the holiday window, a slight disappointment. It added 6.87 million dollars over seven days, bringing its four-week total to 43.99 million dollars.
Disney's Three Men and a Baby, confirmed for a Wednesday, November 21 release, took in 5.32 million dollars in just two days thanks to strong word-of-mouth and holiday spirit, showing clear dark-horse potential.
Disney's other 2D animated release, The Rescuers Down Under, earned 4.79 million dollars in its opening seven days and placed fifth.
Beyond the top five, the rest were mostly holdovers.
On November 23, the second week of the Thanksgiving window, three new films arrived: Daenerys Entertainment and Columbia Pictures' A League of Their Own, Fox's Predator 2, and Warner Bros.' 2D animated The Nutcracker Prince.
Both A League of Their Own and Predator 2 opened on more than 2,000 screens, while The Nutcracker Prince launched on only 906, matching Disney's The Rescuers Down Under and representing the standard distribution scale for 2D animation in this era.
Inside the estate north of Greenwich.
Except for the main driveway, the rest of the grounds remained blanketed in snow with no clearing done.
Sophia Fache parked outside the main villa, opened the rear door, and the two little ones scrambled out, racing toward Janet who had come to meet them.
It was already Sunday, November 25.
The day was bright and clear. At ten in the morning the air was still cold, but the sunlight felt wonderfully warm.
Sophia had flown in from Europe as usual for the weekend to see the children. Simon and Janet had also stayed on the East Coast after Thanksgiving.
After greeting Janet and listening to the twins chatter excitedly for a moment before they ran off to build a snowman, Sophia walked into the villa alone.
The house felt comfortably warm. She removed her coat and handed it to B-girl Becky, who had come to meet her. When she asked, she learned Simon was upstairs in the study, so she climbed the stairs to the second floor.
Simon was on the phone. Various documents lay scattered across his desk. Hearing the knock, he answered casually. When Sophia pushed the door open and hesitated, he smiled at her and motioned that it was fine. Only then did she step inside.
Trying to appear completely natural, Sophia walked to the other side of his desk and began tidying the papers while listening to his conversation.
They were discussing the latest developments in the MCA acquisition.
These matters were not something to be overheard by just anyone, yet Simon made no effort to lower his voice or avoid her. The realization sent a quiet warmth through Sophia's chest.
Once she had straightened several documents, she wandered over to the bookshelf and pretended to browse the titles. With her back to Simon, she wondered whether he was watching her.
Quite some time passed, but the call showed no sign of ending.
She moved from one end of the shelf to the other without registering a single word.
Setting down the Laura figurine she had been toying with, she turned around. Simon had just hung up one call, only to immediately take another.
A trace of resentment flickered inside her.
Then she really was beyond saving. After all, this young man was... so much younger than her.
Simon continued flipping through a document while holding the receiver and discussing the details. He glanced up, noticed her expression, paused, and smiled, beckoning her over with a gesture.
What for?
Even as the thought crossed her mind, Sophia still walked toward him.
The moment she reached the side of his leather chair, he slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap.
Her body stiffened. She gave a tiny struggle, but dared not use real force.
What if he let go?
She dared not speak. He was still on the phone.
Besides, he was only holding her. He had not done anything too outrageous.
When she had entered, he seemed to have casually locked the door behind her.
Having found enough excuses, she finally relaxed and settled obediently on his thigh.
Seeing him multitasking so effortlessly, she turned sideways, reached out, and held the receiver to his ear for him. With one hand now free, Simon found her earlobe and gently removed the silver stud earring she had deliberately worn today, tossing it onto the desk.
So he doesn't like women wearing stud earrings. She silently noted it.
Next time she would wear hoops instead. Or maybe he disliked those too. Perhaps he preferred nothing at all.
Then she would wear nothing.
More than ten minutes later, Simon finally set the receiver down. The study fell quiet. Children's laughter drifted in from outside the window. Sophia immediately tensed again, worried he might try something right then.
It was almost noon, after all.
She quickly searched for a topic. "Is the MCA situation very troublesome this time?"
Simon rested his chin on her shoulder, breathing in her pleasant scent, and picked up another document to continue reading. "If the three unions are simply making trouble for the sake of it, yes, it would be very troublesome. But once you understand what they really want, the matter becomes much simpler."
She had vaguely overheard him discussing how the unions' biggest grievance with Daenerys Entertainment seemed to be Simon moving so many productions overseas.
That had cost American film workers a great many jobs.
With that in mind, Sophia said casually, "So, the next Batman film, will it be shot back in the States?"
Simon smiled. "If they want something and I give it to them before they even ask, it will only make them greedy. For people deliberately causing me trouble, I prefer to make sure they lose even more."
She vaguely recalled him mentioning something about running promotional spots on ABC next week.
She should have listened more carefully. Now she had no idea how to continue the conversation.
Fortunately, the hand that had been resting on her waist finally grew restless and slipped beneath the hem of her blouse.
She stayed for lunch at the estate. Little Gemma was very attentive and asked her mother if she had lost her earring. Sophia pretended she had only just noticed, then nodded with a regretful expression. The thoughtful little girl comforted her, saying they could simply buy another one and reminding her to be more careful next time.
Of course.
Then the child pressed further: Was Mommy very hot? Why was her face so red?
Sophia hurriedly changed the subject.
Across the table she noticed the young man grimacing as if in pain, either from being stepped on or pinched. He looked quite miserable.
She felt zero sympathy.
He had known it was almost noon. She had clearly resisted, yet he had still misbehaved.
The new week arrived, and the public, who had been following news of Daenerys Entertainment's pursuit of MCA, was instead greeted by another explosive headline.
Westeros Company suddenly announced it had reached an all-cash acquisition agreement with East Coast telecom operator Bell Atlantic valued at 8.7 billion dollars total: 7 billion dollars in cash plus assumption of Bell Atlantic's 1.7 billion dollars in debt.
Bell Atlantic's board stated it would hold a special shareholder meeting on December 3 to vote on the deal.
According to subsequent reporting by The Wall Street Journal, however, Westeros Company had already secured approval from roughly twenty-five percent of key shareholders alongside board consent. The shareholder vote was therefore all but guaranteed to pass.
The only approvals Westeros Company still needed were from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission.
As if to pave the way for those regulatory clearances, The New York Times soon followed with another report: once the acquisition was approved, Simon Westeros would repatriate the 8 billion dollars currently held overseas to cover the purchase.
At a twenty-eight percent capital-gains tax rate, that would mean more than 2 billion dollars in tax revenue. With the overall U.S. economy deteriorating and the federal budget deficit climbing, a single tax payment exceeding 2 billion dollars was anything but insignificant to the government.
Moreover, although the federal government imposed numerous restrictions on the telecom sector, acquiring a regional operator carried few regulatory hurdles unless someone deliberately created them.
Still, someone immediately stepped forward to object.
It was Motorola, which had long held a major grudge against Westeros Company.
Motorola cited provisions from the 1984 AT&T breakup legislation, arguing that Westeros Company owned a telecom-equipment manufacturer called Nokia. Even though the company was based overseas, it still violated the clause prohibiting telecom operators from engaging in equipment manufacturing.
In addition, Motorola's retired former chairman Robert Galvin personally appeared on a CBS news interview program, fiercely criticizing Simon's private luxurious lifestyle and stating that the federal government should take measures to prevent the rise of yet another capital oligarch. America did not need a second Rockefeller family.
Simon simply ignored Robert Galvin's accusations. Westeros Company, however, responded immediately to Motorola's claims, stating that Nokia's operations would remain limited to Europe. Upon completion of the Bell Atlantic acquisition, Nokia would withdraw entirely from any North American activities it had begun testing, including a technical research institute in Silicon Valley.
The media back-and-forth left many onlookers confused.
What exactly was going on?
Wasn't Daenerys Entertainment trying to acquire MCA? How had it suddenly become Westeros Company acquiring Bell Atlantic?
Or was Simon Westeros planning to buy Bell Atlantic all along, with MCA merely a distraction?
That did not make sense either.
To secure MCA, Daenerys Entertainment had used an extremely generous cooperation agreement to push Panasonic out of the bidding. It was impossible for Panasonic to accept such an easy abandonment.
Or perhaps...
Simon Westeros was pursuing both deals at once?
Two acquisitions simultaneously?
This...
The public could only watch the spectacle. As each new piece of information emerged, the stock prices of Bell Atlantic and MCA reacted most directly. With the agreement between the two sides essentially finalized, Bell Atlantic's previously sluggish trading volume saw its shares rise only eight percent over the following days, while MCA's shares plummeted a full eleven percent, sliding from a high of sixty-nine dollars all the way down to sixty-one dollars.
At MCA, some people did not care and were even secretly pleased. It would be better if Daenerys Entertainment simply dropped the acquisition.
But many shareholders eager to cash out at a high price were unwilling to accept that outcome.
Some had already threatened to file a class-action lawsuit if Daenerys Entertainment abandoned the deal too easily.
The three Hollywood unions, who had been sharpening their knives, were equally bewildered. They had thrown a punch, only to hit Bell Atlantic instead.
Before most people had even processed what was happening, ABC suddenly began airing a promotional video. It was an Australian government advertisement inviting film and television production. In ninety seconds, the ad showcased Australia's cities, grasslands, deserts, snow-capped mountains, jungles, and other stunning landscapes while detailing various incentive policies for overseas producers.
As if in perfect coordination, Daenerys Entertainment immediately announced it had signed a 300-million-dollar film-production memorandum of understanding with the government of Victoria, Australia. The state would provide a uniform twenty-percent tax rebate.
In exchange, all six films would be produced entirely in Australia over the next three years, including post-production, with more than seventy percent of each crew hired locally. The arrangement would directly or indirectly create tens of thousands of jobs in Victoria.
Both parties also stated that even deeper and broader cooperation would follow.
The fundamental purpose of Hollywood's major unions was to protect the employment rights of their members.
By moving production overseas, Daenerys Entertainment had once again pulled the rug out from under them.
If there were no jobs, what was there left to protect?
After the Australian film-promotion video and the 300-million-dollar memorandum, news followed that Daenerys Entertainment CEO Amy Pascal and television division president Robert Iger had traveled to Toronto, Canada, right after the Thanksgiving holiday to inspect sites and meet with local officials. They planned to build another film and television production base there, primarily for television programming.
After years of careful development, Daenerys Entertainment had already become a formidable television-content supplier. Shifting several hundred million dollars in annual television production investment overseas would clearly cost the American entertainment industry yet another large batch of jobs.
For the three unions, this news was undoubtedly another heavy blow.