"Meg, have you read the script for this new project Daenerys and Disney are collaborating on recently?"
"Of course, Sleepless in Seattle," Melanie Griffith nodded, then added with disappointment, "But I asked Joe, and he said Simon has already decided on the female lead. I have no chance."
"Too bad. I read the script and thought the female lead would suit you perfectly."
Beverly Hills.
Inside Jonathan Friedman's mansion in the Coldwater Canyon community, this was one of the countless ordinary parties during award season.
Melanie Griffith showed a regretful expression when Joanna Cassidy said this to her.
After giving birth to Dakota Johnson she had only rested for a few months before returning to work. Yet the few films she had appeared in over the past two years had all been lukewarm. The only one with decent box office was Working Girl, which had come out the year before Dakota was born.
By comparison, her husband Don Johnson, who had previously only been working in television, had begun to rise after The Hot Spot. The original dynamic where the wife was more successful than the husband was clearly reversing.
Probably because of a certain young man who had risen out of nowhere, Melanie Griffith, who came from a film family, clearly felt Hollywood's rapid changes in recent years. This had also given her a very strong sense of crisis.
If she could not land one or two box office projects to sustain her popularity, her already unstable A-list status might slip back to B-list.
Hollywood was a circle that valued relationships but was also the least sentimental when it mattered.
Once your popularity faded, getting quality projects became even harder.
Then it became a vicious downward spiral.
While they were chatting, a couple came over to greet them, Hollywood actress Ellen Barkin and her husband Gabriel Byrne. The reason for saying it this way was that this was another pairing where the wife outranked the husband.
Of course, even in a wife-outshining-husband dynamic, Ellen Barkin, who was in her thirties and had appeared in many films, was still only B-list.
Melanie Griffith and Joanna Cassidy paused their conversation and politely returned the couple's greetings.
The two of them originally had no qualification to attend such a party.
However, Highgate Pictures had recently taken an interest in the copyright to a memoir called Proving Innocence that Gabriel Byrne held.
Gabriel Byrne had bought the book's rights a few years earlier with the intention of starring as the male lead himself and turning it into a two or three million dollar independent film in hopes of chasing some awards.
After Highgate Pictures expressed interest in Proving Innocence, following several rounds of talks Byrne had handed over the rights and only retained a nominal executive producer credit. The project had recently been finalized under the title In the Name of the Father, and Highgate Pictures intended to cast Daniel Day-Lewis after The Last of the Mohicans.
This B-list couple had drawn attention in the circle because of the deal.
The two sides were not familiar, so a nod and greeting would have sufficed.
However, after chatting for a few sentences, Melanie Griffith suddenly warmed up to Ellen Barkin. She lowered her voice slightly and asked, "Ellen, your lip line looks really beautiful. Did you just get it done?"
Gabriel Byrne beside Ellen Barkin noticed that Melanie had started a women's topic. He smiled, raised his cocktail, and tactfully walked away.
Although she did not understand why Griffith had suddenly become so friendly toward her and even felt a faint wariness in her heart, making friends with the other woman would definitely not hurt.
Hollywood was not overly secretive about plastic surgery.
In this circle, from A-list superstars down to newly debuted young actors, everyone spent hundreds of thousand of dollars every year on procedures to improve their appearance. Very few of the Hollywood stars audiences saw on the big screen had never had any work done.
Ellen Barkin carefully brushed her plump lip line and smiled. "I had it done at a clinic in Orange County. Meg, if you are interested I can give you the number."
"Of course, give it to me right now." Melanie Griffith was somewhat impatient and directly pulled out paper and pen from her handbag while adding, "I happen to want to do lip augmentation recently. I contacted several doctors but none of them satisfied me."
Joanna Cassidy smiled as she listened to the two women talk. When Ellen Barkin finally looked at her, clearly asking whether she was interested, she simply kept smiling and shook her head.
Once Ellen Barkin had walked away looking a little lightheaded, Joanna Cassidy said, "You are really too wicked, Meg, even encouraging her to go do it again."
In recent years many Hollywood actresses had gradually realized one rule: Simon Westeros disliked lip augmentation.
The information had first leaked unintentionally from Simon's preferred casting director Linda Vargas.
This young man whose power in Hollywood grew stronger by the day had more than once directly eliminated actresses who had undergone lip augmentation during casting. It was said that Westeros's exact words were: Augmented lips look deformed and completely destroy the natural beauty of a woman's lips.
Because of this the trend of lip augmentation that had been popular in Hollywood for many years was rapidly fading.
However, the news had not spread quickly.
Competition in Hollywood was extremely fierce. The stars who knew this inside information would never voluntarily share it with other competitors.
There was even no shortage of people like Melanie Griffith who actively encouraged others to "ruin their own image."
Only Simon Westeros had been able to change the entire circle's aesthetic trend through personal preference in the past half century of Hollywood.
For most ordinary actors, countless people exhausted their entire careers waiting for just one chance, one chance to become famous overnight.
Simon Westeros happened to hold the opportunity that could make an actor soar. Therefore, even if the chance of cooperating with Simon Westeros seemed slim, as long as they knew his preferences it was never wrong to follow them.
Even now in Hollywood, even those who had already succeeded no longer acted as arrogantly as in the 1980s, when A-list stars could do whatever they wanted while studios pampered and coaxed them.
If you did not go along with a certain young man's preferences, you would simply be pushed aside by others.
Relying on a series of cooperation projects in recent years, Simon Westeros held decisive influence not only over Daenerys Entertainment but over every major studio in Hollywood.
Melanie Griffith had simply felt displeased with the couple earlier and played a casual prank, of course also with the intention of pushing Ellen Barkin, an actress of similar age and similar roles, a little further away.
As for how the other woman would react once she realized she had been misled, Melanie did not care in the slightest.
After all, she had never really intended to make friends.
Ignoring Joanna Cassidy's teasing, Melanie Griffith glanced at her husband Don Johnson, who was laughing and chatting with Brian De Palma not far away, then continued, "I wonder if Simon will come tonight?"
Joanna Cassidy subconsciously glanced toward the villa entrance leading to the backyard.
After accepting the role of Queen Hippolyta in Wonder Woman, although the film would not be released until this year's summer schedule, the increased exposure had revived her career, which had been gradually sliding toward television. She now had two film offers in hand that had not yet started shooting.
By comparison, among the final few candidates who had competed for the role with her, she remembered one in particular, the most threatening one, Sanda Bergman, who had appeared in the famous All That Jazz and Schwarzenegger's early Conan the Barbarian and others.
Because of her image Sanda Bergman had originally been one of the actresses most likely to land the role of Queen Hippolyta. Their statuses had been similar at the time, and the other woman had even deliberately tried to seduce Westeros during the audition process.
However, after missing out on Queen Hippolyta the other woman could only appear in some low budget erotic thrillers recently.
The ups and downs of life often diverged completely because of one or two missed opportunities.
After Basic Instinct, erotic thrillers had become very popular in Hollywood in recent years. Although they rarely entered theaters, cable television stations and the video tape market loved this genre.
When they sold well, a large crowd would naturally swarm in.
If one thought about it carefully, this trend had actually been started by a certain young man.
Thinking this way, Joanna Cassidy withdrew her gaze and said, "Simon is in Japan, right? Something about the Universal Studios project there. I saw in the newspaper yesterday that his trip to Japan triggered the 'Westeros Effect.' It is quite interesting."
During the Japanese economic turmoil two years earlier, because of Simon's feat during the 1987 stock market crash and the leak of news about Cersei Capital entering the Japanese market, the financial markets paid very close attention to his every move.
One of Simon's trips to Australia had even been interpreted by the market and caused the Japanese stock market to drop, which was therefore called the "Westeros Effect."
At the time some media had joked that Simon Westeros might be denied a visa if he wanted to go to Japan.
Very coincidentally, Simon had gone to Japan this time for the Osaka Universal Studios matter, and on the day he arrived the Tokyo stock market had once again dropped nearly three percent, startling many people.
The "Westeros Effect" meme had therefore been brought up again.
Melanie Griffith also knew about this matter. She chatted and laughed about it for a few sentences, then added, "I heard he already came back yesterday."
Today was already February 15, a Saturday.
Simon had left for Osaka on Monday and had only stayed there for a few workdays.
Joanna Cassidy was not too clear on these details. If Westeros could come it would of course be best, so she could not help glancing toward the entrance again.
Then she really saw a certain guy.
Melanie Griffith also spotted Simon's figure at the first moment, not because her eyes were sharp but because the guests who had been chatting in small groups in the backyard all turned their attention the moment Simon Westeros appeared.
However, Westeros was chatting with Jonathan Friedman about something, so no one was rude enough to crowd over together.
"This time we only signed a letter of intent for one hundred acres of land to ensure the preliminary design work for the theme park can begin. However, the Osaka city government does not want cash. They hope to contribute the land as equity. I do not want to bring in another shareholder, so this matter still needs further discussion."
Under everyone's gazes the newly arrived Simon took a cocktail from a waiter and stood casually in the courtyard chatting with Jonathan Friedman about the results of his recent trip to Japan.
Jonathan also held a cocktail and smiled as he analyzed, "Japanese land prices have already fallen a lot, and the Osaka city government should understand the promotional effect Universal Studios will have on the entire city's economy. They would not ask for too high a price, right?"
Simon nodded. "If they insist on equity participation the share can probably be negotiated down to around ten percent. However, perhaps after dragging it out for a month or two there will be some turning point. You know, the European Disneyland in Paris opens in April."
Jonathan keenly caught the subtext in Simon's words. "You are not optimistic about the prospects of the European Disneyland?"
"It is hard to say. At the very least the costs for the European Disney park are severely out of control, and the cultural conflicts are also very obvious. Unlike Japan's acceptance of American culture, everyone knows France is very anti-American."
Jonathan also understood the key point.
If the Paris Disneyland's operating performance fell short of expectations, and with the Japanese economy in a downturn, the Osaka city government might abandon its insistence on equity participation out of risk considerations and simply choose to sell the land for cash. After all, if they insisted on holding shares, once the theme park failed to operate successfully in the future that equity would not only fail to yield profit dividends but would also continue to depreciate.
"Enough about that. Simon, Meg is here tonight as well. Do you want to talk to her about Sleepless in Seattle?"
As Jonathan spoke he did not wait for Simon's response but signaled toward Meg Ryan not far away.
Although she had switched to WMA, Meg Ryan was not personally represented by Jonathan. However, WMA had been trying to transform toward CAA's model in recent years and placed great emphasis on internal cooperation, so Jonathan naturally had to "lead by example."
"Good evening, Simon."
After the series of encounters before, Meg Ryan was like a well behaved little quail in front of Simon.
Simon looked over Meg Ryan, who was wearing a black halter evening dress tonight. A trace of satisfaction flashed in his eyes as he said, "Hanks is very interested in the script. The male lead is basically confirmed to be him. You can talk to Tom about the script privately."
Meg Ryan nodded seriously to indicate she had noted it. Seeing the man raise his glass and take a sip of wine, she tactfully walked away.
Jonathan beside him saw the scene and could only feel helpless.
Simon seemed to have a hard time mustering any interest in this Hollywood sweetheart whom countless fans regarded as their dream girl.
After sending Meg Ryan away, Melanie Griffith, who had been watching from the side, pulled her husband over, with Joanna Cassidy following beside them.
Everyone chatted for a few sentences. Melanie Griffith even specially mentioned Dakota's recent situation.
Because Simon had personally chosen the name, rumors had spread throughout the circle and in many people's impressions Dakota Johnson had already become Simon Westeros's goddaughter. Whether the Johnsons had done it deliberately or not, Simon had not paid attention to these details.
He had come tonight mainly to discuss the new project Brian De Palma was preparing, Carlito's Way, with him.
After laughing and chatting with the Johnsons for a while, Simon, De Palma, and Jonathan slipped back into the villa.
The current Simon, if he did not want to socialize, most people would only feel it was natural.
Carlito's Way was another biographical gangster film. Universal Pictures had bought the script two years earlier and begun slow preparations.
In Simon's memory the film's box office had been passable, and with Brian De Palma involved the project had been directly added to Daenerys Entertainment's slate for next year.
However, the male lead Al Pacino whom Brian De Palma had his eye on still had Scent of a Woman to shoot, so Carlito's Way could only start filming in the second half of the year. The release schedule for next year would also depend on the specific finished product.
Simon, De Palma, and Jonathan chatted on the second floor terrace for more than ten minutes and settled most of the details.
Knowing that many people at tonight's party still hoped to interact more with Simon, Brian De Palma did not want to be resented. Once the main business was finished and they had chatted about some trivial matters, he proactively stood up and said he wanted to greet the others.
Once De Palma left, Jonathan said proactively, "Simon, the Byrne couple who bought the rights to Proving Innocence are here tonight as well. Do you want me to bring them up?"
The project In the Name of the Father, adapted from Proving Innocence, had actually been personally selected by Simon. This biographical drama telling the story of Gerry Conlon, who was wrongly accused in a bombing case and spent more than ten years proving his innocence, had been a hot Oscar contender in Simon's memory and had performed very well commercially as well.
Simon shook his head. Looking down from the terrace he unexpectedly spotted a woman's figure. It was Kris Jenner.
Kris Jenner had probably been paying attention to this side the whole time. When she saw Simon look over she immediately looked up, her smile carrying a few traces of mischief.
Jonathan noticed this and proactively stood up. "All right, I will head downstairs first."
Simon simply nodded.
Kris Jenner also came upstairs at Simon's signal.
For some reason, every time he saw this woman who had once claimed to be "very familiar" with him, Simon could not help feeling a playful urge to tease her.
This terrace had enclosed railings, and inward was a sitting room.
Noticing that Kris Jenner casually locked the door behind her when she entered the sitting room, a trace of amusement appeared on Simon's face. This woman was quite perceptive, or perhaps she simply did not want anyone else coming up to disturb them.
"Hi, Simon."
Greeting him, Kris Jenner, who had originally wanted to explain why she was here tonight, had just stepped onto the terrace when she saw the young man before her unhurriedly clear a plate of candy from the round table in front of him, place it on the floor beside his feet, and then pour some wine into it.
She immediately recalled that experience on the plane back then.
Although a long time had passed, facing this man whose power in Hollywood grew stronger by the day and thinking about everything she had gained from the Real Housewives of New York series over the past half year, Kris Jenner could not muster the slightest thought of resistance.
She glanced at the plate with wine beside the man's feet, then looked up at him pitifully, her eyes filled with pleading.
Simon remained unmoved and insisted, "Come."
After hesitating for a few more seconds, Kris Jenner glanced left and right to confirm again that no one could see this side. The woman then slowly lowered herself down.