The sudden exposure of the Victoria's Secret fashion show plan made the fashion world quite lively.
For Simon, however, this could only serve as a small hobby in his spare ti outside of work.
On May 6, after a shoot lasting three and a half months, Jurassic Park officially wrapped.
Although the film was directed by Spielberg as in the original, Simon still went to Hawaii again in the final week of filming to personally oversee things for a few days.
Once filming was complete, the project team returned to Los Angeles and imdiately threw themselves into intense post-production.
In addition to Jurassic Park, the other two major projects scheduled for the end of 1992, The Ring for Halloween and Ho Alone 2 for Thanksgiving, were also already in post-production.
Malibu, Daenerys Studios.
It was now May 13, a Wednesday.
Simon spent the morning discussing Jurassic Park's post-production with Spielberg. After having lunch together, he began three consecutive production etings at one o'clock in the afternoon for Forrest Gump, Sleepless in Seattle, and Superman.
The preparation progress for the three films varied.
For Forrest Gump, Robert Zeckis and Tom Hanks had just agreed to join the project. The company was still negotiating compensation with both of them.
Sleepless in Seattle would also feature Tom Hanks alongside g Ryan. Hanks's schedule had beco a key coordination issue for both project teams.
The final film, Superman, was already fully ready.
After the Oscars in March, Daenerys Entertainnt had officially announced the main creative team for the Superman and Cyborg projects.
The director of Superman, Roland Emrich, had been confird by Simon very early on. The male lead was Brad Pitt, and for the female lead Lois Lane, after several requests from Courtney Cox, Simon had ultimately given the role to her.
Participating in a superhero series could bring high popularity, but it would also greatly limit an actor's future developnt.
Simon did not mind that Brad Pitt or Will Smith and others might have their careers altered because of this.
As soone he had known since his early days in Hollywood, even though they hadn't built much of a relationship back then, Simon actually hoped Courtney could have better developnt. He had even specifically advised her about it before. With Jonathan as her agent and the popularity accumulated from the Scream series, Courtney did not lack further resources and connections.
However, Courtney ultimately couldn't settle down and be patient.
Since that was the case, Simon would not interfere too much. Her image also fit Lois Lane's character very well.
Speaking of which, the female lead for the Cyborg series was also soone familiar from Simon's mories: Halle Berry.
This black actress, who ca from a beauty pageant background, had debuted a few years earlier. She had previously appeared in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever and Bruce Willis's box office failure last year, The Last Boy Scout, and was also the female lead in Eddie Murphy's upcoming sumr film Boorang.
The Superman production eting ended at six o'clock in the evening.
Roland Emrich, who had been talking with Simon as they left the conference room, noticed Courtney Cox approaching Simon. Being tactful, he quickly ended the conversation and left with Brad Pitt and the others.
Glancing at the others who were walking away, Courtney moved a bit closer to Simon sowhat restrainedly and asked tentatively, "Simon, do you have any plans for tonight?"
This was the third floor of Administrative Building One. Emrich and the others had just squeezed into the elevator. Simon did not wait for another one and headed toward the stairs with Courtney, replying as they walked, "I do. I have dinner plans shortly, and afterward I have to attend the after-party for the Lethal Weapon 3 premiere."
Lethal Weapon 3 would release the day after tomorrow, so the premiere was being held today.
Since Daenerys Entertainnt and Ti Warner Group were still competitors, Simon had no intention of attending the Lethal Weapon 3 premiere itself. However, he had accepted l Gibson's invitation to the after-party following the premiere.
The main reason was that many Australian film professionals would be attending the after-party.
Before that, at seven o'clock, he had invited Leslie Wexner, who had co to Los Angeles to prepare matters for the Victoria's Secret show, along with his fiancée for dinner.
Courtney paused at his words and didn't say anything more.
It was still a workday, yet the man beside her had two social engagents in one evening. It showed just how busy he usually was.
Moreover, over the years, the gap between them had grown larger and larger. Now it was simply a world of difference.
If he were interested in her, he could have shown it long ago. As for herself, she couldn't think of any reason to refuse.
The two walked down the stairs together. Seeing Courtney silent, Simon took the initiative. "How about you? How have you been lately?"
"Pretty good."
After responding instinctively, Courtney couldn't help thinking about her current situation.
In terms of career, compared to many actresses in Hollywood who struggled for years without breaking through, her luck had already been quite good.
However, many things were best not compared.
They were both under Jonathan Friedman's managent, close in age with similar starting points. Yet over the years, Sandra Bullock had left her far behind.
From the initial Run Lola Run to the two Back to the Future sequels, last year's The Silence of the Lambs, and the upcoming A Ti to Kill, six years of successive box office hits plus so award nominations had firmly established Sandra Bullock as a new-generation A-list actress.
And her?
Up to now, her most famous work was only Scream. Although the series had made her a household na and her popularity seed close to A-list level, fundantally she had still not shaken off the label of being eye candy.
How to distinguish between a true star and a vase?
It was actually quite simple: look at whether a star had enough box office draw.
Sandra Bullock was the type who already possessed strong box office appeal. However, Courtney clearly understood that after the Scream series ended, she would still find it difficult to carry a film's box office on her own.
Courtney also knew that Simon's earlier suggestion for her to patiently take on different types of roles to polish her skills and shed the eye-candy label had been well-intentioned and very correct.
But she had her own concerns.
The distance between her and the man beside her was growing farther and farther. Who knew whether he would still rember her after she patiently built herself up for a few years.
Therefore, while she still had so connection, and because Jonathan Friedman still took good care of her out of consideration for her past acquaintance with Simon, grasping whatever opportunities she could get her hands on was most important to her.
They no longer had much in common to talk about. After casually chatting about so trivial matters, they unconsciously reached the ground floor.
The black Bentley was already waiting in front of the building.
Courtney was hoping Simon would invite her before getting in the car: Want to give you a ride ho? Or anything else. Anything would do.
But nothing happened.
After saying goodbye and watching his car drive away, she could only head alone to the parking lot to get her own vehicle.
Dinner was arranged directly at the Du Point estate.
Although no party would be held inside the Shell Villa, inviting so people over for dinner at ho, even if he was still sowhat reluctant deep down, Simon knew it was necessary etiquette.
A few days earlier in Columbus, Ohio, Leslie Wexner had been extrely hospitable in entertaining him and his wife.
After sending the little one away in early March and spending two months carefully reorganizing the entire vast Westeros system, Janet had resud her pre-pregnancy work rhythm. She now spent only about two or three days a week on the East Coast. This past week, she hadn't gone to New York at all.
When Simon got ho, Janet imdiately pulled him into the walk-in closet to adjust his outfit.
After enjoying herself by blowing him a while, they went downstairs. The ti was approaching seven o'clock.
Just as she was about to check on the chef's dinner preparations in the kitchen again, A-Girl Allison ca to remind them. The couple left the villa together to welco the guests.
Leslie Wexner was already 55 years old. However, this wealthy fashion businessman had only officially gotten engaged at the beginning of this year. His fiancée was nad Abigail Koppel, a typical French-descended blonde who looked about thirty years old and worked as a lawyer.
After exchanging pleasantries, they entered the Shell Villa. Even though he owned a large estate exceeding 300 acres in Columbus, Leslie Wexner couldn't help feeling a twinge of envy as he looked around the villa they were in.
Having also built a massive foundation at a very young age, Leslie Wexner never shortchanged himself in life. However, even calculating based on Cersei Capital's 2.45 billion dollar acquisition price for LTD, plus his other investnts over the years, his personal net worth was still under one billion dollars.
Such wealth absolutely placed him at the very top of the pyramid in Arica. Yet in front of Westeros, he was still just a "poor man."
The rich were also divided into different levels.
Outside of Columbus, Ohio, Leslie Wexner also owned a luxury mansion in Manhattan and a vacation villa in Miami, Florida. Moreover, the properties Westeros could purchase, he seed able to afford as well. However, the differences could still be easily spotted.
The simplest example: The current batch of Arica's top super-rich basically all owned private jets. But only Simon Westeros could casually use a Boeing 767 as his personal aircraft.
Many people could of course afford to buy a Boeing 767, but being able to afford it and being able to use it were often two different things.
To make docking convenient, Simon Westeros had spent tens of millions of dollars building a dedicated hangar at Los Angeles International Airport. Other billionaires could not so casually throw out tens of millions.
Then there was the estate in Columbus.
Because Leslie Wexner had personally made the connection, Simon's farm estate in the suburbs of Columbus was adjacent to the Wexner family's. The Wexner estate covered over 300 acres and served as their primary residence. Although the Westeros estate Simon had spent a huge sum to purchase was only 50 acres, he could only stay there a few days a year at most.
Moreover, it was said that Westeros owned various properties all across North Arica, Europe, and Australia.
According to so dia speculation, just the value of these real estate holdings alone was enough to give Simon a very prominent position on the Forbes rich list.
Last year's Forbes 400 list of richest Aricans had given Westeros an unprecedented net worth of 35 billion dollars.
Now, less than a year later, many people could clearly feel this young man's wealth growing at a visibly rapid pace.
Even after sitting down in the dining room, Leslie Wexner couldn't help wondering: Just how much money did Simon Westeros have now?!
In addition to personally overseeing the preparation of the Victoria's Secret show, Leslie Wexner had arrived in Los Angeles since Monday. Over the past few days, he had also discussed with Simon and Janet how the Wexner family planned to use the cash they had just realized from the LTD acquisition.
After selling approximately 20 percent of LTD's shares and subtracting capital gains taxes and so reserve funds, Leslie Wexner planned to invest the remaining 300 million dollars elsewhere.
When it ca to investnt vision, probably no one in recent years could compare to Simon.
Since they were already business partners, Simon didn't mind forming even closer ties of interest with Leslie Wexner.
As a relatively established wealthy man, Leslie Wexner also had very good connections in Arican political circles and belonged to the Democratic camp.
Pulling in such an ally would only benefit Simon.
After several discussions, of the 300 million dollars in capital, 100 million would be accepted by Cersei Capital's hedge fund managent company, Cersei Fund Managent.
This hedge fund under Cersei Capital, with assets controlled at around 3 billion dollars, had always been an object of close attention and pursuit by many Arican capital groups.
Under Janet's personal arrangent, Cersei Capital had also used this fund to weave a network of interests that would definitely attract significant attention if revealed.
For the remaining 200 million dollars, Leslie Wexner also accepted Simon's suggestion and would place them into two other subsidiaries under Cersei Capital for technology stock investnts in the coming years.
The three subsidiaries under Cersei Capital, Cersei Fund Managent, Apollo Managent, and BlackRock Asset Managent, had decreasing risk levels according to their different investnt targets. This arrangent for the Wexner family's funds could ensure the safety of the 300 million dollars as much as possible.
Most matters had been handled during work hours, so the dinner atmosphere was quite relaxed.
Of course, the conversation still focused mostly on the Victoria's Secret show.
The project had just been announced, and many people were trying to probe indirectly about what was really going on.
Naturally, there was no shortage of gossip.
If soone else wanted to gather the top models in the fashion world for a big show, it might still be seen as a relatively pure comrcial activity.
But this was Westeros.
The guy was only 24 years old this year. Whether in terms of wealth, power, or personal image, he held fatal attraction for too many won.
In fact, many models hoping to join this show had already begun to entertain the idea from the start that Westeros's intentions might not be entirely pure. If they could catch the eye of this young super tycoon, even if it was unlikely they would gain any official status, the second half of their lives would no longer require any struggle.
This kind of gossip inevitably beca material for everyone to tease Simon with during dinner. Even Janet wore a slightly resentful little expression.
Dinner ended a little after eight o'clock.
The after-party for Lethal Weapon 3 started at nine in the evening. Simon took the opportunity to invite Leslie Wexner along.
Hollywood's glamour held a natural attraction for many wealthy individuals. Leslie Wexner and his fiancée happily accepted, and everyone headed into the city together.
Under Simon's deliberate support in recent years, the influence of the Australian crew in Hollywood had beco increasingly obvious.
In addition to the early ones like l Gibson and George Miller, the newer arrivals such as Nicole Kidman, Jane Campion, Peter Jackson, Baz Luhrmann, and Sam Neill had all established firm footholds in Hollywood.
For tonight's after-party, l Gibson had specifically invited a group of Australian crew mbers in Hollywood to co and show support.
This was also why Simon had decided to attend.
The lively premiere of Lethal Weapon 3 marked the official opening of the 1992 sumr movie season.
Reviews
All reviews (0)