I am Hollywood

Chapter 561: Chapter 562: A Temporary Departure



[Chapter 562: A Temporary Departure]

When Eric arrived at Fox's headquarters in Century City alongside Elisabeth, the savvy media reporters had already surrounded the entrance, making it nearly impossible for anyone to enter without an invitation to the press conference. Eric guessed the situation at the Firefly headquarters in Burbank was likely similar.

With the help of security personnel, Eric's vehicle managed to successfully navigate through the throng of people and into the compound. As soon as he stepped out of the car, he saw Rupert Murdoch and Michael Lynn approaching him with a few others in tow.

Elisabeth climbed out from the opposite side of the car. Upon seeing several familiar faces, including her father, she felt a flush of warmth and hurriedly greeted everyone before making her swift exit under the pretext of work. Eric maintained his usual demeanor and exchanged pleasantries with Rupert and the others before casually asking, "Michael, Rupert, did you figure out who leaked this?"

Rupert and Michael exchanged a glance, and it was finally Michael who spoke up. "Eric, it might have been Miss Barrymore who inadvertently let it slip."

Eric cursed under his breath about the girl, thinking how she didn't realize to keep her tail hidden. In just one day, the news about Firefly pulling out had made it to all the major newspapers and television stations; hiding was simply out of the question. It was clear that Rupert and Michael understood this incident was certainly not a mere 'accidental' leak by the girl; the intention was too obvious. Michael's comment was merely intended to give everyone some leeway.

"Just yesterday, she came to me complaining that someone had tricked her, and now here we are with this mess. I'll have a good talk with her later," Eric said, joining the others as they walked into the office building. "Since this has all happened, let's discuss how to handle it." Michael didn't fully grasp the implication of Eric's first statement, thinking he was just speaking casually. But his sharp nature detected a flicker of something else in Rupert's eyes. Eric caught the change in Rupert's expression just in time. Since the other party noticed his hint, Eric assumed they would soon understand the full context of the situation. As for what the old fox would think afterward, that was no longer Eric's concern.

With twenty minutes left before the press conference, the group did not head straight to the press hall but instead went to a meeting room first to discuss the upcoming press conference issues.

Even though the stock pullout plan would most significantly impact Fox Television, potentially keeping News Corp's stock prices depressed for a long time to come, it also affected Firefly Films' next phase of planning. The most apparent manifestation was that while News Corp's stock tumbled, most companies involved in television operations on the New York Stock Exchange saw their stocks rise to varying extents.

Since the news about the stock pullout had already leaked, any attempt to deny it would be pointless. Regardless of belief, Firefly needed a reasonable excuse to temporarily appease the media, aiming to minimize any uncertainties arising from the television network acquisition during its preparatory phase.

After discussing the joint statements for the press conference, Rupert and his Fox team left the meeting room, allowing Eric and Michael to have a moment of private discussion.

...

Once the outsiders were gone, Michael asked, "Eric, how do we handle this? All the major networks have become wary."

Eric had already thought this through on the way to Century City and even made a few calls. "I just found out that Viacom's negotiations to acquire Blockbuster have reached their final stages. If we want to, we could easily intervene now."

"You mean we can use the front of expanding our video rental business?" Michael inquired. Eric replied, "It's a strategy that would surely work, and selling off our Fox Television shares in order to expand into the video rental business makes sense as a justification."

1993 marked the final prosperous stretch of the video rental industry, and it was also the period of highest profitability. Apart from Eric, who could foresee the future, no one else would have believed that just a few years later, the video rental industry would decline drastically due to the rise of DVDs and online rental services.

At that time, the stature of the video rental industry had already begun to surpass total movie box office grosses. Due to the FCC's strict antitrust rules against television monopolies, progress had only recently started to loosen, and the majority of people were unaware that the U.S. television industry was entering another major period of mergers and consolidations. The excuse of moving towards video rental expansion would at least seem plausible.

During the subsequent press conference, after Rupert announced a series of collaborative plans between Firefly and Fox to the dozens of reporters present, Eric exuberantly promoted Firefly's intentions of entering the rental market, clearly indicating Firefly's aim to acquire Blockbuster, soon to be owned by Viacom.

As for what was to come, Eric anticipated that Firefly would eventually 'lose' in the competition with Viacom, and thus he believed he merely hadn't lied. For good measure, Firefly even sent a vice president to start discussions with Blockbuster's top brass.

...

Viacom had recently offered a staggering $8 billion for Blockbuster, a chain that had over 3,000 video rental stores across the nation. Firefly's sudden involvement led to an evident stalemate in Viacom's negotiations with Blockbuster. Although Blockbuster's management team realized through their brief dealings with Firefly that Firefly had no true intention of acquiring them, they were nonetheless now interested in using Firefly to leverage a better deal from Viacom.

What had once been a purely favorable scenario suddenly came crashing down. An infuriated Summer Redstone published a scathing article in the Los Angeles Times, trashing Eric for being out of line. But the acquisition of Blockbuster was a key part of Viacom's deal to acquire Paramount, and failure in this endeavor would strip Viacom of its bargaining chip for large- scale debt financing, jeopardizing their plans for Paramount. Thus, Redstone had no choice but to raise the price once again.

Eric ignored Redstone's provocations, maintaining his work and life rhythm as usual.

After the press conference, although the drop in News Corp's stock price accelerated, the fears regarding the split between Fox Television and Firefly kept the prices from returning to their prior levels.

Perhaps Rupert soon understood the situation. Days later, 20th Century Fox successfully completed the deal to acquire TG Films, raising their initial offer from $120 million to $140 million. Eric guessed Rupert's reasoning; despite the commotion, the old fox felt guilty but was unwilling to raise the price, simply paying a $20 million incentive to prevent some troublemaker from stirring things up again.

Once TG Films was acquired, Fox started ramping up the publicity for Buffy the Vampire Slayer to restore investor confidence. They even touted that Eric himself was stepping in as

producer.

...

By mid-August, an unexpected event disrupted many ordinary lives. On August 18, a dentist in Los Angeles officially filed a lawsuit against Michael Jackson for purportedly molesting his son, who had not yet turned 13, sparking widespread outrage over the accusations against

Jackson.

Faced with the lawsuit while on his Dangerous World Tour, Michael Jackson was forced to halt his concerts and return to the United States to respond. Eric recognized this tour represented Jackson's career peak, but it would also mark his definitive high point.

Upon Jackson's return to America, hundreds of reporters quickly surrounded his residence, igniting a fiery media frenzy. As for how the accused felt during this wild celebration, who

cared?

In hindsight, there was too much discussion about the event. While Eric believed Michael Jackson was innocent, he could do nothing but watch from afar. He had no connection to Jackson; he was acutely aware that in times like these, there was little he could do. Not to mention the dentist's accusations or the media's bias against Michael, even his own sister stepped forward to tarnish his brother's reputation with claims of pedophilia. How could Jackson possibly clear his name?

...

Perhaps this incident took a toll on Eric, or maybe he was just overwhelmed with work recently; he found himself feeling inexplicably irritable and downcast. Many around him noticed this change, and Jeffrey even brought a psychologist to Eric's office, but Eric flatly refused the offer.

In the following days, the people surrounding Eric increased significantly. Famke Janssen, who was already filming the new season of The X-Files in Canada, made a special trip back to Los Angeles to stay with Eric for several days. Then there was Jennifer Connelly, and even Nicole, who was filming The Mummy in Morocco, began calling him frequently. The perceptive Penelope became particularly accommodating around Eric, and everyone else seemed to tread cautiously. The girl who had caused trouble by leaking the stock pullout plan even moved into the mansion and invited Tina Fey and Claudia Schiffer over, secretly inquiring if Eric wanted to 'sample' some twin action. Joanna and Virginia also repeatedly suggested that Eric might want to spend a while in New York to keep the two little ones

company.

Eric understood why Jeffrey and the women around him appeared so on edge. The percentage of celebrities in Hollywood struggling with mental health was alarmingly high, and many chose extreme methods to alleviate their pressures, which often resulted in severe harm to themselves. As the backbone of Firefly, if anything happened to Eric, the company would be like a ship lost at sea, and at this juncture, no one wanted to see such a scenario unfold.

"I plan to stay in New York for a while," Eric stated at the start of the new week's executive

meeting.

The room full of Firefly executives reacted without surprise to Eric's declaration; in fact, they exhaled in relief and nodded in agreement.

Seeing that no one opposed him, Eric began discussing the plans for his absence. With summer blockbusters now over and the stock pullout firmed up, the most pivotal task at handn/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

for Firefly was the preliminary layout for acquiring ABC, which mainly involved assembling a buying team, coordinating financing channels, and acquiring shares in ABC to gain initial leverage, etc. Since Michael Lynn had confirmed he would be leaving next year, Eric no longer felt any reservations and entrusted the entire matter to Katzenberg. Most of the film projects were proceeding smoothly. Even if issues arose during Eric's absence, they could always be rectified upon his return. Recently, the film Charlie's Angels had confirmed its script, cast, director, and production team, leaving the remaining details of the

project that didn't require Eric's attention.

*****

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