At the WMA headquarters in Beverly Hills.
Courtney Cox had just finished discussing a new script she had recently received with Jonathan Friedman and was about to leave when she remembered the investigation update on the assault case from a few years ago that she had read in the newspaper yesterday. She sat back down and asked, "Joe, do you know anything about Christie Swanson?"
Jonathan Friedman paused, then nodded. "I know."
The Santa Monica Police Department was still investigating the assault case from four summers ago.
Yesterday the media suddenly revealed new details about the case, and Hollywood actress Christie Swanson was implicated. It was said that before Matthew Broderick rushed over to ambush Simon Westeros that night, Christie Swanson had been the one who told them where Westeros was working.
This new piece of evidence further tilted the situation in Simon's favor.
In truth, by this stage of the investigation no one believed Matthew Broderick's original claims from the press conference anymore. The facts were clear. The Santa Monica Police Department simply needed to produce an unquestionable conclusion for the media and the public, which was why they continued digging into every detail of the original incident.
The public might easily sympathize with the underdog, but they were not completely incapable of distinguishing right from wrong. Once they realized they had been deceived and manipulated, their anger would only burn hotter.
The six people who had called that press conference in an attempt to strike first were now essentially public enemies. Most of them were even trying to reach out for a settlement to escape the incident, but Simon had shown no intention of letting go.
Courtney Cox carefully considered her words, then suddenly changed the subject. "Joe, did our agency receive an invitation to Simon's birthday party this time?"
In the past, both Simon personally and Daenerys Entertainment had always sent a batch of invitations to WMA for them to distribute themselves.
Her intention in asking was obvious.
Jonathan shook his head. "Court, Simon isn't planning a large-scale birthday party this time. He'll probably only invite some senior executives and close friends and family."
After he spoke, both of them fell into a brief silence.
Today was already February 19, only three days away from Simon's birthday. Normally, invitations for a birthday party that many people cared about would have been sent out a week in advance.
Jonathan had of course received his own invitation.
However, Courtney Cox, who had known Simon since he first arrived in Los Angeles, had been excluded from the "close friends and family" he had just mentioned.
The ups and downs of life could sometimes be truly unpredictable.
Jonathan also thought of another client of his, Sandra Bullock. As Simon's closest female friend, someone who had nearly become his lover, Sandra's career over the past few years had been smooth sailing.
By comparison, although Courtney, as the lead of the Scream series, was also a top-tier actress, once Scream 3 wrapped up this year she might face an uncertain future.
Transitioning out of horror roles was extremely difficult for actresses.
After all, opportunities for female stars in Hollywood were limited to begin with, while competition was fierce.
Current Hollywood had veterans like Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, and Cher; the middle generation like Melanie Griffith and Michelle Pfeiffer; and the new generation like Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts. All of them were exceptionally strong, and the major studios tended to give quality projects to these established names.
Jonathan roughly understood what was on Courtney's mind.
This actress who once had the best chance of rising alongside Simon had now been pushed to the outer edges of his social circle. The two topics she had suddenly brought up were likely her attempt to use Simon's upcoming birthday party to personally explain her involvement in the old assault case to him and to rebuild their relationship.
What Jonathan knew, however, was that Simon actually no longer cared much about the assault case from back then. It was Janet who was still relentlessly pursuing it.
Women really were the ones who held grudges the longest.
As for Christie Swanson, the woman who had "guided" Matthew Broderick and the others to attack Simon, she was still a WMA client.
However, in recent years she had only been able to land minor supporting roles in teen horror films. After the new information came out, Simon's side had not even mentioned her. While WMA would not deliberately blacklist her to avoid public backlash, she would no longer receive any meaningful resources.
After a moment, Courtney finally gathered her courage. "Joe, could you help me get an invitation?"
Jonathan could only shake his head.
From what he knew, this birthday party would be limited to under a hundred people. A hundred slots might seem decent for other Hollywood parties, but for Simon Westeros's birthday every single invitation was carefully selected.
Lately it was not just Courtney. Many stars under WMA, and countless people throughout Hollywood, were doing everything they could to obtain an invitation to Simon Westeros's birthday party.
Simon himself did not handle the guest list. Janet was in charge of it.
Jonathan had used his relationship with Simon to get a few invitations from Janet for his own network, but the list was basically finalized. Moreover, Courtney was not important enough for him to spend any favors on her.
After seeing Courtney Cox out, Jonathan sighed inwardly once more before quickly turning his attention to other matters.
During his most recent call with Simon, the young man had mentioned he wanted to develop several male action stars around thirty years old.
Hollywood did have action stars at the moment, such as Dolph Lundgren and Steven Seagal, but none of them were truly top-tier. Under WMA, Keanu Reeves and a few other newcomers still seemed a bit green. As for the current biggest name, Mel Gibson, he was already getting a little old.
Jonathan had also thought of Tom Cruise. If one were looking for a male star around thirty suitable for action films, no one in Hollywood was more perfect.
Unfortunately, Simon had zero interest in the actor, who was both a major star and a solid box-office draw.
Being disliked by a Hollywood heavyweight of Simon's level, and with Daenerys Entertainment's cooperation with Paramount deepening, the resources available to Tom Cruise in Hollywood would only continue to shrink. It was very possible that within a few years he would gradually fade from prominence.
Daenerys Studios.
While Jonathan was considering action stars, Simon was meeting with Paramount executives to discuss future cooperation between the two companies.
Simon was a man who valued his promises. In order to get Paramount to stop obstructing Daenerys Entertainment's acquisition of MCA, he had no intention of breaking either the written contracts or the verbal agreements.
The main areas of future cooperation were three films and the USA Network, in which both companies held fifty percent stakes.
Among the three films, the confirmed flagship project was Mission: Impossible, which had the potential to become a long-running franchise. However, since he had no plans to use the original Tom Cruise, Simon was in no hurry to develop the project. There was currently no suitable male lead.
Besides, although three films had been agreed upon, the timeline was very flexible and neither side was rushing.
What they were discussing now was the future development of USA Network.
As a basic cable channel, USA had been founded in 1977 as a joint venture between MCA, Paramount, and Warner. Later, for various reasons, Warner had exited, leaving MCA and Paramount each with fifty percent.
After more than ten years, USA was a fairly veteran basic cable channel, but compared to contemporaries like ESPN, CNN, and MTV that had grown increasingly successful, USA had never found its identity. Its development history was like a messy stew: it had tried sports programming, children's shows, original series, made-for-TV movies, and in recent years had even developed some low-budget reality game shows as the reality genre rose.
In Simon's memory, ESPN, CNN, and MTV had all become dominant in their respective fields, while USA, though it continued to exist, remained lukewarm. It eventually drifted toward a style similar to the major broadcast networks, relying on original crime and police procedurals for ratings. However, as a basic cable channel, both the quality and viewership of those shows were destined to lag behind broadcast television.
The one thing about current USA that satisfied Simon was its 21 million subscribers.
Assuming an average of three people per household, USA already reached over 60 million potential viewers, nearly one third of the entire U.S. population.
Of course, because the four major broadcast networks still held a monopoly and channels like ESPN, MTV, CNN, and HBO with their distinct identities had taken most of the cable audience, USA's programming performance remained dismal despite its large subscriber base.
Without any flagship programs to anchor viewers, USA was the kind of channel that people rarely remembered the number for on their remote.
The main revenue sources for basic cable channels were carriage fees from operators and advertising.
Operators paid basic cable channels a monthly per-subscriber fee based on viewership and subscriber count. High-profile channels like CNN could receive as much as seventy cents per subscriber per month, along with strong ad revenue.
USA's average carriage fee, however, was only about fifteen cents, less than a quarter of CNN's, and its subscriber base was less than half of CNN's as well.
Therefore, despite 21 million subscribers, its monthly carriage fee income was only slightly over three million dollars. Adding advertising revenue that was roughly equal, its annual revenue came to just over sixty million dollars.
Simon understood that this situation existed mainly because USA Network lacked a clear identity. It had tried to do everything and ended up like the bear picking corn, accomplishing nothing. In contrast, channels like ESPN, MTV, and CNN that focused on single areas such as sports, music, and news had all succeeded.
Even before acquiring MCA, Simon had already begun considering USA's next steps.
The obvious cable niches (music, sports, news, and even movies) had already been claimed. That left USA to focus on audience segmentation.
With the Beverly Hills Wives IP already in hand, Simon had decided to transform USA into a women's channel targeting the enormous group of American housewives.
Although America was the most developed country in the world and had gone through multiple feminist movements in recent decades, in the early 1990s more than forty percent of American women still chose to become full-time housewives after marriage. For these women, aside from housework, television was their primary form of entertainment.
USA was also perfectly suited as a 24-hour basic cable channel for housewives.
After operating for so many years without much success, when Simon proposed keeping the equity structure unchanged but demanded full operational control of USA, Paramount chairman Martin Davis had not pushed back too hard.
The two sides spent the entire afternoon in discussion and basically finalized next year's budget and programming plan for USA.
Over the coming year, Daenerys Entertainment and Paramount Communications would jointly inject one hundred million dollars into USA for series development, rights acquisition, and advertising and marketing.
On the programming side, in addition to relaunching Beverly Hills Wives, they would also launch a New York Wives series. With the Wives reality franchise as the flagship, Daenerys Entertainment would continue developing and acquiring more television programming specifically aimed at female audiences.
The meeting ended promptly at five o'clock.
As everyone else left, Paramount chairman Martin Davis did not rush to depart. He suggested taking a walk with Simon around the Daenerys Studios lot. Simon did not refuse.
"Actually, Simon, about Mission: Impossible, is there really no way to let Tom give it a try? I think he's still very suitable."
The two men strolled along the paved path through the lot. Hearing Martin Davis bring up the subject, Simon simply shook his head. "Martin, this is a matter of principle."
When necessary, Simon was willing to make compromises, such as cooperating with Paramount or lifting the ban on Meg Ryan. These were all to ensure the MCA acquisition went smoothly. He would not lose the bigger picture over small things. Tom Cruise, however, had no leverage to force a compromise, and Simon needed to maintain a clear stance: that the studios were the ones who controlled Hollywood.
Moreover, the current Daenerys Entertainment had such a strong reserve of quality IPs that it could afford one or two project failures, even if it was the Mission: Impossible series.
Sensing Simon's determination, Martin Davis did not press the issue and tactfully changed the subject.
After all, Martin Davis was not a time-traveler like Simon. He could not know the connection between Tom Cruise and the Mission: Impossible franchise. He had only mentioned it because Tom Cruise had enjoyed a reasonably good working relationship with Paramount over the years, and there was some personal goodwill involved.
Furthermore, as Paramount's performance had begun to decline in the past two years, Martin Davis's control over the company was weakening rapidly. He sensed that Paramount might face the same fate as MCA in the coming years. If that happened, the company would no longer be his concern, so he was not inclined to quibble over details.
His easy concession of operational control over USA during the afternoon meeting had largely stemmed from the same reasoning.