In another timeline, even after Mel Gibson's antisemitic remarks triggered a Hollywood-wide backlash, he still wasn't completely crushed. For someone like Dustin Hoffman, whose resources and connections were no worse than peak-era Mel Gibson's, Simon could not possibly shut him out entirely.
With Terry Semel and Peter Guber personally stepping in, Simon took the opening and loosened his grip.
Inside Madonna's mansion, as Simon led Janet toward the dance floor, Semel and Guber, having achieved what they came for, had no interest in lingering at the party. They left together.
Out in the front courtyard, Peter Guber said lightly, "I thought this might be a hassle. Looks like Westeros knows when to stop."
Terry Semel noticed the smile on Guber's face, but he didn't believe it.
If that young man were really so easygoing, Meg Ryan wouldn't have ended up where she was now.
After The Rocketeer last winter, Meg Ryan still hadn't landed a single contract in Hollywood. Recently, word was she'd gone to England to try to rebuild her career there. Semel didn't think much of that move. Any British film company with even a bit of scale was desperate to break into Hollywood. None of them would risk angering the surging Daenerys Entertainment over Meg Ryan.
As for the matter at hand, everyone knew the truth. Trying to blacklist a two-time Oscar-winning Best Actor was impossible. Westeros was simply going with the flow. But if anyone thought Westeros was going to truly let Dustin Hoffman and the others off the hook, Semel, who had dealt with that young man multiple times, did not believe it.
After all, when Meg Ryan rose into the A-list through When Harry Met Sally and wanted out of her Daenerys contract, Westeros had initially been "generous" too. He only asked her to pay a breach fee.
What happened afterward, the entire industry saw.
Semel even thought of Sony's planned Captain Hook project. The script had been floating around Hollywood for years until Sony recently offered a huge price, convincing Spielberg and Robin Williams to sign on.
Since the day Westeros rose to power, Daenerys Entertainment had been collecting rights nonstop. If Captain Hook had strong box office potential, Daenerys had no reason to ignore it.
Yet Daenerys Entertainment had never shown even the slightest interest in Captain Hook.
Even though last week's Ghost failing to show the same magic made many people feel a glimmer of smug "hope" that Daenerys Entertainment could finally miss once, Pretty Woman alone was enough to prove Westeros's eye for film had not dulled at all.
As of last week, Pretty Woman's North American gross had already reached $161 million, and before leaving theaters it was expected to approach $180 million.
More than that, Pretty Woman's overseas performance was even stronger than its domestic run.
Many key foreign markets still hadn't allowed it to open yet, protecting their own summer releases. Even so, in just the countries and regions where it had already opened, such as the UK, Germany, Italy, and Australia, the past few months had easily brought in more than $130 million.
Once Japan, France, Spain, and other major markets opened, Pretty Woman's worldwide total might even threaten the $500 million mark.
A ten-million-dollar production cost for a five-hundred-million-dollar worldwide gross. For any major studio in Hollywood, even if they only had one film like that in a year, it would basically prop up the entire year's performance.
So the people laughing at Daenerys Entertainment because Ghost had only "average" reviews and box office were really just comforting themselves.
Since Westeros still had that sharp, ruthless instinct for what would sell, and he had shown no interest in Captain Hook, Semel couldn't believe it was such a great choice for Sony.
Not to mention Sony was being far too generous this time.
Just for Spielberg and Robin Williams, on top of fixed salaries, Sony had promised them an additional twenty percent and ten percent of net profits, respectively. If Dustin Hoffman joined, he would take at least another ten percent.
Before a single frame was shot, forty percent of the profits had already been promised away. And with a production budget that would not come in under fifty million, Semel thought Sony might not lose money, but it certainly wouldn't make any. At best, it would be paying a huge price for noise and attention. More likely, it would end up as a humiliated sucker.
And that sucker happened to be the deal Guber had introduced.
Semel and Guber got into their respective cars. Before leaving, Semel couldn't help glancing at Guber's brand-new luxury Rolls-Royce.
In the half year since taking charge of Columbia, the extravagance and wastefulness of Peter Guber and Jon Peters had made other studio heads look on with envy.
They not only installed a swarm of cronies inside the company, they spent Sony's money without a shred of restraint. Rumor had it that for the past few weeks Jon Peters had been flying back and forth between Europe and Los Angeles every week on Columbia's private jet, just to date his new girlfriend. Not only the flight costs, but hotels, restaurants, even luxury shopping for the girlfriend, were all billed to Columbia.
No other studio could have gotten away with that.
But Columbia's finances happened to be overseen by Peter Guber's ex-wife.
Plenty of Hollywood insiders were watching Sony's spectacle from the sidelines, curious how much "tuition" the Japanese electronics giant would end up paying, and how long it could last before it slunk away from Hollywood.
Simon knew the number.
$2.1 Billion Dollars.
In another timeline, that was the asset write-down loss Sony announced the year Guber and Peters left Columbia. The shock of that staggering loss forced Sony's founder, Akio Morita, to step down and withdraw completely from management.
On the dance floor, Simon remembered these "old stories" as Janet, arms looped around his neck, leaned in and whispered, "Are you really going to let those guys go?"
Because Janet was so close to his ear, Simon instinctively tilted his head away.
Janet had left him with "aftereffects" the last time she bit his wrist. These days Simon had developed a psychological shadow about Janet biting his ear, too.
Noticing him dodge, Janet deliberately leaned closer and clicked her teeth near his ear, making a soft, tinkling sound.
Simon turned his head and kissed Janet's cheek, shifting her teeth away from his ear as he held her by the waist. "I've never been someone who's good at forgiving. It's just that some things can't be done all at once. For now, I'll keep it in my heart."
Janet nodded, humming, then teased softly, "So petty."
Simon only smiled.
After one dance, they stayed a while longer and then left Madonna's mansion.
When they returned to the villa on the west side of Point Dume, it was ten at night.
Janet had never been someone who liked staying up late. She dragged Simon into the bath, then fell asleep quickly.
The next day was Sunday.
Summer had already arrived, and early golden sunlight poured into the seaside bedroom.
Simon woke at six. He carefully eased himself out of Janet's embrace, washed up, changed into workout clothes, and went to the gym.
At seven, he returned to the bedroom, changed, and woke Janet.
He guided the half-asleep woman into a bathtub filled with warm water, then went down to the dining room.
With A, B, C, and D now around, Simon no longer needed to handle breakfast himself.
Claire, the woman Simon called "C," wore a crisp white shirt and black pants in an office-like style. When she saw him, she handed him the day's newspapers.
Simon greeted her good morning, and he didn't bother hiding the way he looked the young woman over.
White shirt, black trousers. That was the uniform for all four women.
Simon wasn't so warped that he made them wear maid outfits. That would make him look like some old English landowner. The office-style look was perfect. All four were about 175 centimeters tall, slim and elegant, and with matching outfits, they fit Simon's obsession with clean, uniform order.
At Simon's current level of wealth, he found it difficult to feel strong hunger for women. Everything was too easy to obtain.
With four perfect "vases" like this around him, most people would spin all kinds of lurid fantasies, but for Simon, aside from handling daily tasks, they were simply pleasing to look at.
Claire Gaine, the "C" in question, noticed his gaze. She shifted a little closer and said softly, "Boss, you might want to look at today's entertainment section of the Los Angeles Times."
Simon paused, then nodded with a smile. "All right."
He opened the paper and found the entertainment section.
A pale, slender finger reached in and tapped a certain spot. Simon followed it, and his brows tightened.
"Another Big Deal: Michael Ovitz May Be Leading Matsushita's Acquisition of MCA."
In Simon's memory, news of Matsushita's bid for MCA did not become public until after August. Before that, everything had stayed in the realm of secret contact.
So what was this?
Was Matsushita moving early?
With that thought, Simon began reading, then couldn't help feeling both amused and exasperated.
It turned out the story was pure accident.
To avoid another media storm like the one sparked by Sony's Columbia purchase, Ovitz had indeed kept this deal extremely confidential.
But plans never beat fate.
Last Friday, Ovitz and his team returned from Tokyo to Los Angeles and happened to run into actor Charlie Sheen's group. Sheen was not a CAA client, so he had no obligation to keep Ovitz's secrets. And just like that, the news leaked, becoming the "proof" the media had been hunting that Ovitz was indeed working on Matsushita's acquisition of MCA.
Daenerys Entertainment had not yet approached MCA, but the private preparations for the acquisition had never stopped.
Simon planned to wait until the war broke out later in the year, and until Matsushita officially announced its bid, before jumping in. Now, if this leak forced Matsushita to launch its tender offer early, things could become troublesome.
After last year's small market crash, MCA's stock had slowly recovered above $45 in the first half of the year, and its market cap hovered between $4.5 and $5 billion.
If Simon had to fight now, without $8 billion, it would be difficult to seize MCA.
In his memory, Matsushita acquired MCA for $6.6 billion. In the following years Universal released a monster hit like Jurassic Park, yet Matsushita still eventually had to sell at a lower price. That alone showed MCA was not worth that kind of valuation.
So forget $8 billion. If the price went above $7 billion, Simon would rather walk away than be the sucker.
Seven billion dollars was the ceiling Simon had set for this acquisition.
He was considering how to handle this sudden complication when Janet, in a light aqua dress and looking vibrant, walked into the dining room. She leaned in, kissed him, sat down beside him, and glanced casually at Claire still standing nearby. Then she asked Simon, "What is it?"
Noticing Janet's seemingly casual look, Claire's eyes flickered away guiltily and she slipped off toward the kitchen without a sound.
Simon didn't notice Janet's little glance. He held the newspaper out to her. "Matsushita might have to announce their MCA acquisition early."
Janet skimmed the article quickly and wore a faintly gleeful look. "Matsushita probably isn't ready either. Launching early doesn't help them at all. It just drives MCA's stock up. I bet CAA and Matsushita will both publicly deny the report."
Simon nodded. That was very possible.
Remembering something else, he added, "Also, tell Cersei Capital not to touch MCA stock."
With this news out, Wall Street arbitrage money would definitely start buying MCA. Cersei also did short-term arbitrage trades. If they bought now, they could very easily get investigated by the SEC for insider trading.
"I know," Janet said.
Claire and Deborah brought breakfast in.
Simon had planned to stay home and rest today, but with this happening, Amy and James both called. After breakfast, Simon headed straight to the studio.
After seeing him out the door, Janet returned inside.
Soon after, Allison and Becky arrived from the nearby staff quarters, and all four women, A, B, C, and D, were together.
Janet directed them to clean the villa, inspected the kitchen and each bedroom and bathroom, personally wrote a shopping list of household supplies needed for the coming week, and sent A and B out to buy them.
After arranging that, she made several more calls, handling small details about the various Westeros properties. The Mercer Island mansion in Seattle needed a speedboat. The new estate in Rome needed the latest alarm system installed, and so on.
She had been doing these things back when she was Janet Johnston. Now that she was Janet Westeros, it felt even more legitimate.
She genuinely enjoyed the feeling of being the lady of the house.
And because she could delegate most things, even household work that looked messy and endless always felt effortless in her hands. Her mind stayed in a relaxed, half-awake state, never pushing herself too hard. Lazy, light, unhurried. She never let herself get tired.
By noon, she could still curl up on the living room sofa and flip through some materials from Cersei Capital before Simon came home for lunch.
Next week, Leon Black's Apollo Management team would participate in bidding for a $1.5 billion bond asset package owned by Columbia Savings and Loan Bank. The deal would be done in partnership with Citibank and Australia's United Bank, each contributing $500 million.
Five hundred million was already half of Apollo's $1 billion fund, so they had to be extremely cautious.
The $1.5 billion bond valuation was the result of the U.S. bond market's continuous collapse and shrinkage over the past half year. On paper, those bonds had a book value close to $3.5 billion.
If the deal succeeded and the bonds were repaid as scheduled over the next three years, Apollo's $500 million could more than double, with an average annual return above thirty percent. For any private equity firm, that was an extremely eye-catching return.
There were also other investment targets being scouted.
For example, an acquisition of a mattress manufacturer called Simmons. Simon seemed very interested in the company, and that made Janet pay even closer attention.