"Simon, with Desperate Housewives that Daenerys is currently preparing, do you think I could try out for the Gabrielle role?"
At the post-show party for CK.
The speaker was Brooke Shields.
Back in the day, Brooke Shields' controversial CK jeans commercial[1] was known to everyone, and this actress had always kept a good relationship with CK, making a special trip tonight to show support.
A few years earlier, right after the acquisition of New World Entertainment, Simon had personally taken away the female lead role in the comic book adaptation film Angel that had originally belonged to Brooke Shields. He had zero interest in this actress who had won the first Golden Raspberry for Worst Actress.
At this moment Brooke Shields brought up the Desperate Housewives currently in preparation and even sent over a charming glance without a trace. Simon remained completely unmoved and shook his head with a smile. "I'm sorry, Brooke, but Gabi's role is written as a Latina."
Brooke Shields refused to give up. "I speak Spanish, so playing a Latina should be no problem at all. Besides, Simon, if you're willing, changing the script would be the simplest thing in the world, wouldn't it?"
"But," Simon shrugged, directly killing Brooke Shields' hopes, "the role has already been cast."
"All right," a flash of disappointment crossed Brooke Shields' face. She glanced at Janet, who was chatting with Cindy Crawford and the others not far away, then quickly slipped a card into the pocket of Simon's suit jacket. "Still, Simon, if a suitable role comes up, you can call me anytime."
Simon looked at the corner of the card peeking from his breast pocket and said with a hint of teasing, "And if no suitable role comes up, Brooke, can I still call you?"
Brooke Shields raised an eyebrow slightly, then nodded at once. "Of course. I'm already looking forward to it."
While they were talking, CK founder Calvin Klein walked over. After a few casual words, Brooke Shields tactfully excused herself and left.
Once Brooke Shields was gone, Calvin Klein asked in an offhand tone, "Simon, what did you think of CK's runway show just now?"
Simon nodded. "Very nice design style."
"Then," Calvin Klein hesitated for a moment before speaking directly, "CK has run into some funding trouble recently. I was wondering whether you might be interested in investing in my company."
During the show Janet had quietly told him that Sophia had already set her sights on CK and would probably make contact soon.
Simon had not expected Calvin Klein to bring the matter up directly with him.
He shook his head. "Carl, the problem is I don't know anything about CK."
"If you're interested, Simon, I can send you some materials tomorrow. The issues CK is facing aren't serious. Outside our main product lines, the men's underwear and fragrance lines we launched recently are selling extremely well. We're just a little tight on cash flow. If you're willing to invest in CK, I'm confident you will definitely receive very handsome returns in the future."
Janet had said at the show that CK was already on the verge of bankruptcy.
Now Calvin Klein claimed the company's problems were minor. Simon naturally did not believe a word of it, but he also understood why Klein was talking this way. If he were in the same position, he would do exactly the same, lure the potential investor aboard first no matter what.
"No need for the materials, Carl," Simon thought for a moment and said, "I'll take some time to look into it privately. If CK really is worth investing in, I'll have someone contact you."
Calvin Klein looked somewhat disappointed. He had been searching everywhere for funding support lately to get CK through its current difficulties.
Sending materials to Westeros would have been ideal if the man showed interest. Even if he did not, Klein could at least drop the name to bluff other investors.
It seemed this little trick had been seen through.
Naturally he showed nothing unusual on his face. Calvin Klein continued to introduce CK's situation for a while longer before walking away.
After finishing his conversation with Klein, Simon walked over to Janet's side.
Janet was not short, but that was only relatively speaking. Standing among a group of vixens who all reached six feet in their high heels, she suddenly looked a touch "petite." Still, the aura cultivated over years in a wealthy family was something the other women could not match. Add her current status, and she easily became the center of the little circle.
Casually sliding an arm around Janet's waist, Simon looked over the surrounding vixens and asked with a smile, "What are you ladies talking about?"
Cindy Crawford's eyes sparkled as she gazed at Simon. "When women gather, of course we're talking about men."
Simon said regretfully, "Looks like I've missed a lot of wonderful parts. Why don't you keep going and pretend I'm not here?"
Linda Evangelista, standing beside Cindy Crawford, boldly said, "But, Simon, you're simply too dazzling. We can feel your presence even with our eyes closed."
Simon studied the legendary supermodel beside Cindy and laughed. "That kind of flattery is far too satisfying to a man's vanity, Linda. Give me another line."
They had only seen each other from afar at last year's Milan Fashion Week opening party and had not spoken then. Linda Evangelista had not expected Simon to call her by name so familiarly and said in surprise, "Simon, you know me?"
Simon put on an expression of disaster. "Oh no, I'm exposed. Looks like I'll be getting a proper interrogation from Janet when we get home."
Janet very cooperatively rolled her eyes at Simon and made a "just you wait" face.
Everyone burst out laughing.
Of course they all understood it was just a joke.
If there were going to be any questioning, the women figured Janet Westeros would be far more interested in what was going on with the "waist spirit" and "leg spirit." After all, Yasmeen Ghauri and Nadja Auermann were standing right there.
Still, from the brief contact just now, the women had also noticed that Janet did not seem to mind her husband's various flirtations and showed none of the instinctive hostility common among wealthy wives.
Perhaps this was an opportunity.
They chatted and laughed a while longer. Seeing the time was about right, Simon took Janet and left the CK party.
The next day was Sunday.
Although there was no work scheduled, the day was still fully booked.
The couple drove to East Hampton on Long Island in the morning to visit Steve Ross once more. They returned in the afternoon, and in the evening there was another Rebould family cocktail party. Many senior executives from the Westeros Group on the East Coast made a point of attending.
After the weekend, Simon returned to the West Coast while Janet stayed behind.
It was not only the acquisition of Victoria's Secret's parent company LTD. Janet also planned to conduct a full review of finances, personnel, and every other aspect across the entire Westeros Group.
During this period, outside of Daenerys Entertainment, the quarterly and annual financial reports from all the companies the Westeros Group held or owned, Verizon Telecommunications, America Online, Melisandre, Ygritte, Cersei Capital, Nokia, SUN, Oracle, Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, and many others, whether public or private, had been released one after another.
As the Westeros Group grew ever larger, Simon neither had the energy nor the professional expertise to handle all of it. In the past Janet had always taken care of these matters, and the woman possessed an extraordinary talent for them.
During the year she had been pregnant, Janet had set many things aside. Now she was picking them all up again.
Just last week, for all kinds of reasons, Janet had decisively fired more than thirty people inside Cersei Capital. In the coming weeks, any other Westeros Group companies that had problems would inevitably face a thorough cleanup in which many people would lose their jobs.
Because this mountain of work that had accumulated over nearly a full year needed handling, Janet would have to remain on the East Coast for the next several weeks. That meant Simon would have to fly over from the West Coast every weekend to keep her company.
Simon returned to Los Angeles. After another round of auditions and selections, the four housewives for Desperate Housewives were basically confirmed.
The four housewives would be played by Connie Sellecca as Susan Mayer, Sheila Ward as Bree Van de Kamp, Patricia Wendy as Lynette Scavo, and Laura Harring as Gabrielle Solis.
Simon was either familiar or unfamiliar with the actresses chosen for the housewives, but each of them perfectly matched the images from his memory, and their acting experience was richer than that of the original actresses.
Three-time Emmy winner Patricia Wendy and Sheila Ward, whom Simon had personally approved, needed no further explanation. As for Connie Sellecca, the thirty-seven-year-old actress who looked even more mature and sexy than the original Teri Hatcher had debuted in the 1970s. Although her fame had never been huge, she had already appeared in more than twenty films and television shows.
Gabrielle's actress, Laura Harring, was twenty-six this year. Born in Mexico and later immigrated to the United States, she had even won the Miss America title in the 1985 Miss America pageant. She matched Gabrielle's character setting one hundred percent more perfectly than the originally unknown Eva Longoria before she became famous.
Not only that, in the original timeline Laura Harring had also appeared in David Lynch's 2001 film Mulholland Drive, acting alongside Naomi Watts.
With the four housewives locked in, casting for the rest of the supporting roles immediately began.
In addition, the Wisteria Lane set planned for Universal Studios would also start construction soon.
After gradually moving most of the office departments to the Daenerys Studios in Malibu, Universal Studios had freed up a lot of space. The operations team had already been looking for ways to turn the extra areas into new attractions.
If Desperate Housewives became a hit, the Wisteria Lane set could perfectly serve as a new attraction at Universal Studios.
Once all the early preparation was complete, Desperate Housewives would begin filming in July and officially premiere on USA Network in September.
Because March 13 was Janet's birthday, Simon worked only until Thursday that week before flying to New York once again.
New York Fashion Week was still ongoing. Because of some Gucci and Van Cleef & Arpels brand events, Sophia would also fly over this weekend, and she would try to make contact with CK at the same time.
After attending CK's runway show and party last week, Simon had indeed looked into the company's operating situation afterward.
Unlike Calvin Klein's light and casual tone at the party, the problems CK faced were actually quite thorny.
Aside from cash-flow tightness caused by the economic downturn, in the 1980s, as CK's fame kept rising, Calvin Klein, eager to expand the company and chase higher profits, had licensed the CK brand widely without restraint.
In simple terms, he had allowed other manufacturers to use the CK trademark on their products.
Licensing could indeed increase a company's revenue in the short term, but any business operator with even a little long-term vision understood it was not a sustainable strategy.
Now Calvin Klein had realized this. For the sake of core expansion and brand reputation, Klein had been trying to reclaim those licensing rights over the past two years, which had triggered a string of disputes and lawsuits.
Of course, combining this with the information in his memory, Simon could see that these problems really were only temporary.
As long as CK got through the current series of difficulties, it would have a very promising future. In Simon's memory CK remained a first-tier luxury brand many years later, which was proof enough.
However, no one else could see the future the way Simon could. Most of the capital capable of helping CK through its difficulties saw only a mess that could collapse at any moment. Moreover, CK had been heavily affected by the American economic downturn, and many companies in the United States right now were in similar straits, so investors were being extremely cautious.
All in all, this was a pretty good bargain-hunting opportunity.
Sophia Fache made first contact with Calvin Klein on Saturday, March 14.
Melisandre had no intention of swallowing CK whole, nor did it plan to replace Calvin Klein as the head of the company.
After more than twenty years, although the current problems were numerous, Calvin Klein had built CK from nothing to its present scale. His ability was beyond doubt.
However, Melisandre's requirement was at least fifty-one percent of CK's shares to achieve absolute control of the company.
Calvin Klein had taken the initiative to mention investment to Simon at last week's party, then received no response for an entire week. He had originally thought the super-rich man was not interested in CK. Sophia Fache's sudden contact felt like a ray of hope, yet it also made Klein start thinking about holding out for a better price.
Calvin Klein himself no longer held many shares in CK, but Melisandre's direct demand for absolute controlling interest was something no founder would want to see.
In recent years Gucci had risen rapidly, and the newly acquired Van Cleef & Arpels was also developing quickly. Melisandre had already become a banner in the luxury industry. Moreover, it was backed by the colossal Westeros Group.
Therefore, any company Melisandre wanted to acquire would naturally draw strong interest from other capital as well.
However, Sophia gave Calvin Klein no chance to hold out for a better price.
After the two sides made contact, Sophia gave Calvin Klein only one day to consider: either accept Melisandre's acquisition offer for absolute control, or the deal would be called off immediately.
This approach had actually been instructed by Simon, learned from Warren Buffett.
Because of Berkshire Hathaway's reputation in the investment world, companies Buffett was interested in often tried to hold out for a better price once they received an offer. Therefore Warren Buffett frequently gave targets very little time to think during negotiations to prevent them from using Berkshire's name to raise the price.
Daenerys Entertainment had been using this tactic since early on when acquiring script copyrights.
In just six short years Simon had built a massive business empire. The current Westeros Group's fame far surpassed Berkshire Hathaway.
Therefore, when Westeros or its subsidiaries wanted to acquire a company, other capital would often pay attention, making it necessary to use a similar "final ultimatum" method as Buffett.
[1] "Do you know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing" - Brooke Shield