Chapter 531: Chapter 252 Soone is Getting Married
“I finally understand why so many won want to sleep with you, Ed,” Sofia said as she walked in from the balcony with a cup in her hand, dressed in a loose t-shirt and long pants, exuding a lazy vibe.
The room was very clean and tidy, all traces of the previous night had disappeared. The hourly cleaners had been diligent, and they hadn’t disturbed the two people still tumbling in the room when they arrived.
“Oh? Are you saying I’m charming and good at making won happy?” Adrian said leisurely, tossing an apple in his hand.
“No, I’m saying you’re great in bed, effortlessly making people long for both death and ecstasy,” Sofia walked over and caught the tossed apple, taking a big bite, her teasing was very obvious.
“Just that? Nothing else?” Adrian made an exaggerated gesture, “You’re not equating to so kind of ‘professional,’ are you, Sofia?”
Sofia laughed without answering, and Adrian unceremoniously wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her into his embrace.
“What are you doing, Ed?!” Sofia exclaid, instantly struggling.
“Since you’ve admitted it, naturally I have to make sure you’re satisfied,” Adrian said with a chuckle, his hand mock-searching across her body.
“Damn it! That’s not what I ant!”
“Then what did you an, let’s hear it.”
“Umm… What I an is… What I an is…”
Thankfully, it had just turned winter in Los Angeles, and it wasn’t especially cold during the day. The heating was on in the room, otherwise, they would have caught a cold.
“Alright, let’s call it even,” Sofia said at this point, raising her hands. They had been up all last night until nearly ten in the morning before falling asleep, and then continued almost all morning. If they went again, they wouldn’t be able to do anything else today.
“Fine, for your sake, we’ll call it even,” Adrian said after looking at her for a while, leisurely cracking his knuckles in a manner that said, “Alright I’ll let you off.”
Sofia’s eyebrows imdiately furrowed slightly, seemingly dissatisfied with his words, but soon she smoothed them out and sighed, picking up and putting on her pants now a bit more composed: “From the beginning, many people warned to keep away from you, my father, my uncle, and many friends, but… They were right, you’re a dominant man filled with a desire to control, Ed.”
“Thank you, I think every man is like that,” Adrian unapologetically admitted.
“But also a man of imasurable talent,” Sofia continued, giving him a look before adding, “That’s what my dad said.”
Adrian didn’t speak this ti, just raised his hands in a gesture of deep thanks, and then Sofia sat beside him: “Anyway, I still have to thank you, Ed. Your talent really is incomparable. I still rember what David Lynch said about you last night.”
Hearing her ntion this, Adrian couldn’t help but smile slightly. As the daughter of Old Francis, Sofia’s party attendees were either actors, directors, producers, or others connected to the film industry, so it was no surprise to see David Lynch there.
“I’ve seen your work, Mr. Adrian, and I also took the opportunity to watch your other pieces. Honestly, although it’s hard to explain… there was a mont when I truly thought this was my own work. What I an is, ‘Mulholland Drive’ is exactly the type of film I wanted to make, so intriguing and so elusive… I have to admit, you’re a genius, Mr. Adrian,” David Lynch had said to Adrian the night before.
Though he spoke slowly and without much expression, there was still a hint of reluctance in his tone. Understandably, these past few months, Lynch had been troubled by that very movie. Even though Adrian had declared at the end of the Cannes Film Festival that it was an imitation, many curious people still asked him for his thoughts.
More importantly, Lynch had indeed seen his own influence in ‘Mulholland Drive,’ perfectly emulated, and with a handle on darkness and violence even more adept than in ‘Lost Highway.’ Even if he himself were to direct, he might not do better, which had left him both frustrated and disheartened. Hence, he was eager to talk with Adrian.
Unfortunately, Adrian had always been busy, and Lynch was planning his new movie. Soone had created an outstanding film in his own style—how could he fall behind? So they didn’t et until Sofia’s party. They had a brief conversation, which ended with Lynch’s words.
As before, Adrian felt not a hint of sha for his actions. Why deny it? Making a movie isn’t easy, even if it’s a replication. But he had indeed made his fortune by plagiarizing, hadn’t he?
“To tell you the truth, if you hadn’t encouraged …” Sofia turned to look at him, but was imdiately interrupted by Adrian.
“You would have achieved the sa success,” he said, “trust , I just made that day co a little earlier. You have a great director for a father; you have so many relatives who produce films; and your acting is completely hopeless…”
“The last part is what you really wanted to say, right?” Sofia suddenly asked, sitting up and folding her arms, with an air of pressing charges.
“Surely your ego isn’t that fragile, Sofia?” Adrian replied with a smile, then reached out to brush the hair from her ear, his expression turning serious: “I will always rember, when it was just the two of us left last night, how you waved the trophy around shouting ‘I can do it’ after you had had too much to drink, it was just… too adorable.”
Sofia laughed self-deprecatingly: “Good thing there was nobody else around by then, or they would have surely laughed at … Oh God… Oh damn…”
She suddenly held her forehead and groaned, which made Adrian curious: “What’s wrong?”
“Umm… well…” Sofia made a few gestures, seeming to find it difficult to speak, but ultimately she ca clean: “A long ti ago, Nicola made a bet with that… I would definitely never sleep with you!”
“Ha?”
“I’m very confident in myself, and I have no interest in a guy who seems capable of ssing around with won anyti, anywhere—don’t deny it, I saw you with Kirsten coming out of the bathroom last night! You’re a complete asshole, a big one, Ed! And… it seems like you’re not at all interested in , so… oh, damn, I can almost see his smug face now.”
Sofia blurted out what was on her mind, then cupped her face and sighed in lantation, while Adrian couldn’t help but shake his head with a suppressed laugh. No wonder Cage left with such a aningful expression last night, even giving a thumbs-up.
“About that… just ignore him, treat him like air,” he suggested after a thought, “How about we talk about sothing else, like your next project?”
“What are you scheming now?” Sofia looked up warily, “I won’t consider my next piece for the coming months.”
Adrian looked puzzled, but soon understood, and chuckled as he looked at her: “Hell, what do you think I’m up to? I just think you’re really suited for this script.”
“Really?” Sofia was skeptical. With a major director for a father and a leading actor for a cousin, she knew so things about Adrian that many did not—her cousin had a pretty good relationship with the guy.
“Of course, it’s also a story about a girl’s coming of age, but set further back in the past, revolving around various events at a girls’ boarding school deep in the forest,” Adrian elaborated a bit, then paused, pondering for a few minutes before adding, “But indeed, for a long period, it won’t be suitable for you. You have a movie releasing next year, and I expect certain dia won’t let you off easily, so inevitably there will be more sarcasm and ridicule. Let’s wait until ‘Suicide’ has fully fernted. And the subject is sowhat similar, so perhaps it would be best to produce it around the year 2000.”
Sofia stared at him blankly for a long while before saying, “You’ve… already thought this much?”
“Of course, I always like to look ahead.” Adrian smiled, stretched out his hand to pinch Sofia’s chin, and leaned in to kiss her on the lips. “Don’t worry, Sofia, I’m not a greedy man.”
Then he got up and straightened his clothes: “Alright, I’ve stayed here too long. I need to leave.”
“No, Ed, you can…” Sofia hurriedly stood up.
“Don’t worry about it, Sofia, I really have other matters,” Adrian said with a smile, pressing down on her shoulder, “Last night and today were wonderful. I’ll rember them.”
Only after Sofia entered the house and was visible in the rearview mirror, did Adrian take his eyes off her and then pressed on the accelerator. It wasn’t true to say he wasn’t moved; there weren’t many beautiful female directors, alright, Sofia wasn’t exactly beautiful, but she had more temperant than many actresses, and he wouldn’t mind adding another ‘collectible’ to his list.
Of course, that was almost impossible. Simply put, what Adrian could offer her, her family could offer too. Although Old Francis had had many ups and downs in his life and wasn’t as powerful as Adrian, he had amassed connections that even Spielberg would envy, not to ntion, a female director needs far less than an actress does. If she desired nothing, how could he be certain of keeping her by his side? So it wasn’t to be.
There was nothing to regret; Adrian wasn’t short of won, and, after all, occasionally inviting her out for a friendly match was quite nice.
As for the movie he ntioned upon leaving, it wasn’t one of Sofia’s “forr” works; it was sothing Adrian had prepared for Liv. Even though Adrian had pegged Liv as rely a vase, there are levels to being a vase, and he positioned Liv as, well, an artistic vase!
That’s pretty self-explanatory, with a little thought anyone could figure out that an artistic vase, although still a vase, has its advantages—you need so acting ability but not too much; the key is whether the execution is just right, and that mainly depends on the director’s skill, so it’s quite suitable for Liv.
Thanks to his past life’s naive adoration of art films during college, which led him to a period of binge-watching European cinema, he found several films in his mory that Liv could star in, the most suitable of which was the one he had ntioned to Sofia before. At first, he had no idea who would be better suited to direct, but as Sofia’s “Suicide” went to the Venice Film Festival and won Best Newcor, garnering praise from critics, Adrian quickly made up his mind—after all, the original version was directed by a woman.
However, as ntioned earlier, next year’s “Star Wars Prequel” featured a role played by Sofia, and the dia was bound to cause a stir, plus the subject matter was sowhat similar. Luckily, Adrian had a big-budget production scheduled for next year, with Gwyneth, Blanchett, and Liv all involved, so delaying it for a year wasn’t too much of a problem.
Ti swiftly moved into late November of ’98, and the annual Thanksgiving was just around the corner. At the sa ti, a new battle for the popular release dates began. Film companies were rolling up their sleeves in preparation, and although Miracle Director had two films premiering then as well, to not compete would an categorically losing out, especially since both of Miracle Director’s films seed to deviate from purely comrcial works.
“Shakespeare in Love” and “Elizabeth,” the two films Adrian shot last sumr, were finally set to premiere, and massive promotions had started as early as late October. Just a slight ntion by AC dia’s outlets of last year’s reports on these two films ignited the fires of curiosity in people’s hearts—after all, these were Miracle Director’s works.
Critics also flocked to join the buzz, comnting on the trailers and the bits of plot that had been revealed. So viewed “Shakespeare in Love” skeptically for its overly dramatized expression, while others doubted whether Blanchett could embody Elizabeth I effectively. So believed Adrian was pitting Gwyneth against Blanchett by arranging for two films at the sa ti; of course, most people focused on the fact that both films shared the sa leading man.
“We can notice that Dennis Knight is both the protagonist of ‘Shakespeare in Love’ and ‘Elizabeth,’ which is quite interesting. We all know that Dennis is a bona fide Arican, and although he successfully played a British thug in Adrian’s debut ‘Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels,’ this doesn’t an he can convincingly play a British man from the end of the Middle Ages, particularly since both characters have left their marks in history,” wrote an article in the latest USA Today.
There were many similar reports, most expressing skepticism over Dennis’s acting capabilities, but so suggested he might be overly intimate with the female leads of both films—even though everyone knew that both Gwyneth and Blanchett held the title of Miracle Girl and that both films were directed by Adrian and completed concurrently.
Of course, the reason Dennis attracted so much attention wasn’t solely because he was the male lead in these two films—in fact, Dennis was hardly the male lead in “Elizabeth,” it was just that the trailer featured him more prominently, and the dia always tends to speculate—more importantly, he was about to get married, to “Arica’s Sweetheart” from “Friends,” Jennifer Aniston!
When the dia disclosed this news in early November, it imdiately caused a sensation. Although everyone was aware of the love triangle from years before and knew that Dennis had eventually chosen Aniston, with whom he was currently dating, no one had heard any whispers about marriage; even fewer knew they had gotten engaged last year, which understandably sent the paparazzi into a frenzy.
Most entertainnt journalists in Los Angeles then surrounded the couple’s ho, seeking to regain their dignity and to obtain exclusive news. In Hollywood, celebrity weddings always garner much attention, particularly when it involves two A-list stars. The most iconic example being Sean Penn and Madonna, with reporters and paparazzi scrambling to learn everything they could.
In short, for the past half month, the hottest entertainnt news had been about their wedding, which managed to attract the attention of the majority of the United States. There were blessings as well as curses, so hoped their union would last, while others believed they wouldn’t even stay married for three months, arguing that marriage and dating were two different matters.
The most heated discussions were online; although so fans of Aniston and Dennis offered their blessings, the opposition was strong. The “Friends” website even saw ssages from users claiming it would be a huge mistake if “Rachel” married Dennis, with so even calling for fans to protest on the streets.
Such incidents actually occurred several tis in Los Angeles. Although rely farces, they remained the talk of the town in dia reports.
Many close to Dennis and Aniston were hounded by reporters for comnts. While the other five main stars of “Friends” were obvious, even Adrian couldn’t escape.
“They should make a fine couple; I wish them well,” he replied simply to the reporters, as anything less would not do. David Schwimr had been misinterpreted as disapproving of “Rachel” being taken away for just saying, “I hope Dan treats Jenny well.” Heaven knows how the dia would have spun it if he had said more, and this certainly didn’t involve his privacy.
Among these people, Winona was probably the most unfortunate and reluctant. Almost daily, the dia hounded her with questions like, “Dennis is marrying Jennifer, what are your thoughts?” Despite her spokesperson issuing a stern warning to the dia, so paparazzi remained as persistent as flies, and she seed quite haggard on television appearances.
Finally, the wedding date quickly approached, just before Thanksgiving, and like other celebrities, they refused dia attendance and invited a host of guests. (
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