Kathryn Bigelow's Thelma & Louise clearly carried a rawer edge.
Raw did not an crude; it simply felt sharper, colder, harder.
The vast desert sands, the life on the run, and the increasingly bold, unrestrained freedom that grew with the story made it hard for audiences to believe this was the work of a female director.
Yet the director was, after all, a woman.
So the new version of Thelma & Louise also highlighted its feminist thes far more sharply.
Fortunately, under Simon's constant influence, Kathryn had abandoned the heavy-handed preaching she once favored in her early films, choosing instead to let the story quietly convey her ideas.
During early discussions, Kathryn had once hoped the two heroines would successfully escape into xico.
In the final cut, however, Thelma and Louise still drove off the cliff, sacrificing themselves to complete a perfect story.
After the test screening ended and they had gone over the final two months of marketing plans, Simon took Kathryn back to the Du Point estate. By then it was already past six.
Since he had given advance notice that Kathryn would be coming, Janet had already ordered dinner preparations.
Upon arriving ho, Janet greeted Kathryn warmly, then brought up another matter.
The lawsuit involving Matthew Broderick and his group had officially concluded today.
For the past several months, the investigation and litigation over the original assault had remained a dia focus, yet Simon himself had not spent much energy on the trivial affair.
After months of investigation, the Santa Monica Police Departnt had formally announced its findings to the dia the previous week.
In truth, the facts had been obvious from the start.
Today the Los Angeles Superior Court issued its final ruling based on the investigation results and both parties' complaints.
Matthew Broderick and Mark Stein's six plaintiffs saw their lawsuit completely dismissed.
On Simon's countersuit, the six n were each ordered to pay damages ranging from $1 million to $5 million, plus a total of 600 hours of community service, and were permanently barred from publicly discussing any matters related to Simon.
Additionally, because the two sides had privately signed a settlent agreent earlier, Simon had not pursued charges for intentional assault, so the original incident was disregarded by the court.
Had she not been pregnant, Janet would never have let the matter end so easily.
Now, with a small life growing inside her, the woman no longer had the heart to pursue it relentlessly.
Besides, the multi-million-dollar compensation would essentially wipe out the n's entire savings. Three of the six could not even afford to pay and would carry the civil debt for years. Unless they cleared it, they would never recover in their lifetis.
By the ti dinner began, this insignificant little episode, at least by Simon's current standards, had been completely put to rest.
After dinner, Janet kept Kathryn chatting until past nine. Kathryn firmly declined Janet's invitation to stay the night and left.
Janet was already three months pregnant; certain things were technically possible again.
But for safety's sake, she had no intention of letting Simon touch her, and Simon had no desire to bother a pregnant woman. During this period he simply took his female assistant when he went into Los Angeles, or indulged in a small hunt like last Saturday.
He never deprived himself in these matters, yet Simon was actually quite restrained.
Over the weekend he spent most of his ti with Janet discussing the establishnt of a private dical center in Malibu.
The idea had arisen mainly because of the pregnancy.
In recent days the woman had already purchased a plot of land in the hills north of the Du Point estate and registered the na: Westeros dical Center.
Of course, building a top-tier private dical facility was not sothing that could be completed overnight. Even when the little one was born it would not yet be ready, so this was primarily a plan for the future.
Essentially, it was an investnt that would generate little return, roughly like the dical center funded by the Johnston family in lbourne.
After discussion, Simon decided the center would primarily serve the entire Westeros system's managent tier and would be supported by the Simon & Janet Westeros Foundation, with specialized research institutions to be established later.
Many charitable projects funded by Western tycoons always included "dical care," largely to serve themselves.
David Rockefeller of the third generation of the Rockefeller family lived to 101 and received six heart transplants in his lifeti.
Those "six hearts" were precisely the result of the Rockefeller family's deep accumulation in dical philanthropy. Even a newly rich tycoon with far greater wealth than the old Rockefeller family would find it almost impossible to assemble six perfectly matched hearts for himself.
Because of the ti difference between the East and West Coasts, Simon left Los Angeles early Sunday afternoon to avoid missing Monday morning's schedule, flying straight to New York.
A new week began, and July 1991 arrived.
All day Monday, Simon attended investnt etings at Cersei Capital.
Janet had withdrawn from managing Cersei Capital due to her pregnancy, yet the company's growth and expansion had not slowed.
Most Wall Street investnt banks and funds had still not recovered from the economic slump triggered by the bond market collapse two years earlier. As a result, Cersei Capital, which was moving against the trend, had essentially beco the most active investnt firm on Wall Street.
In the first half of the year, taking advantage of the economic turbulence caused by the Gulf War, Cersei Fund Managent had earned more than $2 billion in profits from oil and stock markets.
Apollo Managent, responsible for private equity, had also established a $1 billion venture fund focused on new technology investnts at the beginning of the year and continued seeking projects across other sectors.
The U.S. real estate market was currently at its lowest point in the early 1990s. In the past two years, major banks had reclaid large quantities of real estate-related assets and bond portfolios after the bond market collapse.
Since it was clear that the U.S. real estate market would recover rapidly in the coming years, last month Apollo Managent, together with Laurence Fink's BlackRock Asset Managent, had purchased $1.5 billion worth of real estate-related assets and bonds auctioned by the banks in a single transaction.
Simon's stop in New York this ti was mainly to discuss several recent investnt projects at Apollo Managent.
Among them, the most important was taking a stake in the top costics company Estée Lauder.
After Ronald Perelman had used a small amount of capital to swallow Revlon, Estée Lauder's biggest competitor, Revlon had gradually been left behind by Estée Lauder over the years because Perelman was not skilled at corporate managent.
Simon also knew that many years later Estée Lauder would grow into a super-giant in the costics industry with a market value of $50 billion.
By then Revlon would have been completely forgotten.
In fact, Estée Lauder was also very suitable to beco part of "lisandre Company," one of the four won's companies under the Westeros system, since its positioning was likewise luxury goods. However, the founding Lauder family still firmly controlled the company, and Estée Lauder was not publicly listed. Simon could not acquire it even if he wanted to.
In this investnt, Apollo Managent would inject $250 million in exchange for 10% of Estée Lauder's non-voting shares.
Estée Lauder's 1990 revenue was $1.8 billion, with net profit of $81 million.
A $2.5 billion valuation seed high, yet Simon knew it was well worth it.
Estée Lauder planned to use the funds to complete the acquisition of another costics company and to increase investnt in product marketing.
Simon had actually preferred to invest directly under lisandre Company's na, but Estée Lauder was wary of the Westeros system's dominance and had therefore chosen Apollo Managent as a compromise. Of course, the high $2.5 billion valuation was another major reason.
lisandre Company needed several years to digest the newly acquired Van Cleef & Arpels, so Simon did not insist on the matter.
As planned, Estée Lauder would also conduct an IPO in the coming years. Apollo Managent typically cashed out during the IPO process to complete a private-equity cycle.
A few years later, when the Westeros system's debt burden was no longer as heavy and Estée Lauder had sufficient buffer, lisandre could take over the 10% stake from Apollo Managent. Everything would then appear perfectly natural.
After finishing dayti work, dinner was an invitation from Morgan Stanley CEO Richard Fisher.
At seven o'clock, Simon arrived at a French restaurant in midtown Manhattan. Richard Fisher had already arrived early.
The two discussed various details of AOL's upcoming listing while eating.
Near the end, Richard Fisher brought up a topic again.
"Simon, based on recent market feedback, the 22.5 million AOL shares simply cannot satisfy demand. Since you refuse to increase the offering size, how about we add a greenshoe option?"
Simon smiled at Richard Fisher. "Greenshoe?"
"Yes, the greenshoe chanism. Specifically—"
Simon raised his cutlery to stop Richard Fisher's explanation. "Charlie, I know what a greenshoe option is. But for AOL, it's no different from increasing the share issuance. I won't agree."
The greenshoe option in an IPO was essentially a price-stabilization chanism to handle uncertainty during the listing process.
Simply put, if the new shares perford strongly after listing and the price rose, the issuer could issue an additional batch of shares, up to 15% of the original offering, to raise more capital. If the market weakened, the issuer could use previously raised funds to repurchase a certain number of shares from the market to support the price and prevent a break below the offering price.
Richard Fisher's suggestion to activate the greenshoe option clearly still hoped Simon would issue more AOL shares.
In reality, even the current 15% offering size already felt excessive to Simon.
If possible, he would have preferred to issue only 10%.
However, to avoid too few publicly traded shares affecting AOL's trading liquidity and in turn hurting the stock price, after repeated discussions Simon had finally settled on 15%.
Moreover, there was another reason for doing so.
AOL monopolized the ISP markets in several of Arica's most prosperous coastal states. This was actually very easy to provoke resentnt.
Issuing slightly more shares to various Arican investors could also reduce unnecessary future antitrust or similar troubles.
Microsoft and Facebook in Simon's mory were the best examples.
Because of its monopoly, Microsoft had been tornted throughout the 1990s in the original tiline and had nearly been broken up.
In Simon's view, a major reason was that Microsoft's equity was overly concentrated. Bill Gates and Paul Allen still held more than half the company's shares until 2000. Such enormous wealth and powerful monopoly advantage in the hands of just two people naturally made other Arican capital forces unwilling to accept it.
Later, as Gates gradually reduced his holdings and Microsoft beca a widely held public company owned by nurous investnt banks, pension funds, and other institutions across the U.S., Microsoft never again faced serious antitrust trouble in North Arica.
Facebook, because it had beco a widely held company early on, survived the world-shocking data breach scandal. Despite dia claims that Facebook was about to collapse any second, Zuckerberg resigning, or trillion-dollar fines, the final result was rely a sowhat theatrical congressional hearing.
Over four full hours, instead of fierce questioning from lawmakers, all anyone heard were things like "My granddaughter is a loyal Facebook user and wants your autograph" or "Could you please explain what big data is?"
Ultimately, because large numbers of Arican pension funds, insurance funds, and investnt banks held Facebook stock, the U.S. governnt could not possibly destroy the company unless it had lost its mind. It did not even dare impose overly harsh penalties.
To avoid ending up in the sa situation Microsoft had faced in the 1990s, Simon would continue taking Westeros system companies public and steadily reduce his own ownership percentages. The cash realized could then be used for other investnts.
Ultimately, Simon hoped to integrate the entire Westeros system into the Arican economic system.
By then, attacking the Westeros system would an attacking the Arican economy. Simon did not believe he would still encounter the kind of trouble Gates had faced.
But that was not now.
For a cutting-edge tech company like AOL, which had the potential to beco a trillion-dollar giant, selling large amounts of shares when its valuation was still only $3 billion would be extrely unwise.
Therefore Simon rejected Richard Fisher's suggestion without hesitation.
Both n harbored goodwill toward each other. Although Richard Fisher had not achieved his goal, the dinner remained pleasant.
By the ti dinner ended it was already past eight in the evening on the East Coast.
Simon left the restaurant and headed straight to Kennedy International Airport.
There was a seven-hour ti difference between New York and London. The flight from the East Coast to Britain took roughly eight hours.
If Simon took off now, he could sleep on the plane and arrive in London at local noon on Tuesday.
Once aboard the Boeing 767 private jet, the housekeeper Alice Ferguson, who would be accompanying Simon to Europe this ti, ca forward with a slightly cool expression and reminded him that Ms. Jenner had already been waiting for over half an hour.
Ever since the events of the previous Saturday, the housekeeper had adopted a distant, "I want to keep my distance from you" attitude in front of her outrageous boss.
Simon stopped, reached out, and gently pinched the housekeeper's delicate little face, patiently molding the corner of her mouth into an upward curve that satisfied him. Only then did he nod to himself and warn, "If you dare show that sour face again, I'll dock your pay."
After Simon released her face, the housekeeper's eyes blinked rapidly several tis.
Then.
Clearly she had no idea what to do next.
Should she quit? Slap him back? Sue him for harassnt? Obviously.
None of those would work.
So she could only lower the lifted corners of her mouth again and glare at him furiously to show how unhappy she was.
Simon paid her no further attention and instructed, "Tell the crew to prepare for takeoff. Also, bring a pot of coffee and the weekend box office report."
Alice blinked again.
Take off imdiately?
Was he really taking that woman to Europe?
Seeing her boss walk deeper into the cabin, the housekeeper followed a few steps, then stopped, turned, and went about her duties.
Simon reached the mid-cabin lounge. Kris Jenner, seated on the sofa, imdiately stood up and greeted him with a smile that carried a hint of flattery. "Simon, you… hello."
Kris Jenner was wearing a light-blue won's blouse and fitted white casual pants that perfectly displayed her mature, voluptuous figure. Many Western won in the eighties had not yet developed the habit of tanning themselves; the woman before him had very fair skin.
Without returning the greeting, Simon glanced at her, continued toward the forward cabin, and said, "Co with ."
Kris Jenner did not understand Simon's intention. Feeling sowhat uneasy, she picked up her handbag and followed him to the front section of the Boeing 767.
Entering the upper-level lounge in the forward cabin, Simon casually sat on the sofa and looked at the woman who had followed him in. "I hear you and I are very close?"
Without Simon's invitation, Kris Jenner did not dare sit down. Hearing his question, her guilty expression grew even more ingratiating. She subconsciously took a step forward, noticed the man's warning glance, and hurriedly stopped. She stamred, "I… Simon, I'm very sorry."
Having said that, she thought about her current situation and relaxed a little.
If this young man was unhappy that she had used his na to secure the New York Wives opportunity, he would not have needed to et her at all.
Now the situation seed clear.
She pointed at the seat beside Simon, her face taking on a slightly seductive charm. "Simon, may I sit?"
Simon shook his head. "Stay standing."
The woman could only remain standing and watch as the man leisurely picked up a magazine and began reading, uncertain what would happen next.
Still, thinking back to what had happened at the beginning of the year, she had to secure the New York Wives opportunity no matter what.
A few months earlier her ex-husband had suddenly canceled her credit cards and filed for a clean divorce.
Because of the prenuptial agreent, she had received almost nothing. After years as a housewife, she discovered she was qualified for nothing else.
She had quickly married another man.
But she never wanted to experience that sudden feeling of having nothing again.
So when New York Wives began casting, and she learned her chances of being selected were slim, she had taken the risk of dropping the young man's na. She had always followed the Beverly Wives series closely. The housewives who appeared on that reality show not only gained fa and status; so had even developed decent careers.
At the very least, participating in the show ca with a salary.
It was said that for the upcoming new season of Beverly Wives, the main cast mbers' per-season pay had risen to $250,000, already a very substantial inco.
Even the newest New York Wives offered $100,000 per season.
Moreover, she had full confidence that, like the Beverly Wives, she could leverage the fa from the show to do other things.
The housekeeper brought in coffee and the weekend box office report. Before leaving she glanced at the woman standing by the door, thought for a mont, and asked, "Sir, shall we take off imdiately?"
Simon looked up at Kris Jenner. "Do you want to co to Europe with ?"
Kris Jenner opened her mouth.
If it had been only tonight, she had already prepared an excuse.
But Europe, she had never considered that.
However.
If she refused, would she lose the chance to appear on the show?
Simon noticed her hesitation and said, "You don't need to get off the plane. You'll be sent straight back once we reach London."
Kris Jenner calculated the ti, hesitated for a mont, and finally nodded.
Seeing the woman agree, Alice said nothing more, turned, and left the forward cabin.
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