In addition to meeting with the management of Viking Records, which has recently completed the acquisition, Eric went to London this time to attend the celebration party of the first album "Spice" of the Spice Girls. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

After half a year of continuous warm-up of several popular singles, the first album "Spice" of the Spice Girls was released in April at the same time as Fireflyer 2, and adopted the strategy of releasing physical and digital records at the same time.

Some of the company's top brass were worried that the simultaneous release of digital records would affect physical record sales, but that didn't happen, and since its launch, "Spice" has swept the album sales charts in Europe and the United States.

It's now the album's 11th week of release, but by the ninth week of its release, Spice had sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, which had captured the entire record industry.

Among them, "Spice" sold 2 million records in the UK in eight weeks, breaking the record set by the Beatles decades ago for the fastest record to exceed 2 million records in the UK.

In the United States, the world's largest music market, "Spice" also easily surpassed 10 million records sold, reaching 13.5 million as of last week. In other countries and regions such as France, Germany, Spain, and even RB South Korea and Singapore in the Far East, even after more than two months, the sales of "Spice" are still high on their record sales charts.

As the driving force behind the creation of the Spice Girls, Eric not only produced the music video for the first single "Wannabe" for the Spice Girls, but also half of the songs on the Spice Girls' debut album were provided by Eric. At this time, the Spice Girls group achieved such a dazzling achievement that both the media of all parties and the top management of Firefly Records undisputed all the credit was attributed to him. This celebration was supposed to be held last week, but it was deliberately moved to this weekend in order to match Eric's schedule.

Eric went to Viking Records' headquarters in the afternoon, and met with all the company's management at the recommendation of Simon Fuller, who had been promoted to president of Viking Records. The group's record subsidiary does not have a CEO, with Barry Weiss as president of Firefly Records in charge of all of Firefly's record-related businesses, and Simon Fuller as the head of Viking Records. The group does not plan to abandon the Viking Records brand, but plans to integrate all overseas music business resources into this company. In the future, Viking Records will be mainly responsible for the business of Firefly Records outside North America, including Europe, the Far East and even Latin America, and the Firefly Records headquarters will be mainly responsible for the North American market.

Summer days in London are long, and the evening party is set to start at eight o'clock, and the venue is also chosen at the Albert Hotel near Kensington Garden Street, not to accommodate Eric, but to concentrate many of London's high-end hotels in the vicinity.

Because the party started late, Eric had dinner with Simon Fuller in the evening and went back to his mansion on Garden Street.

It wasn't until the party was about to start that Eric took Mayer with him to the nearby Albert Hotel.

Simon Fuller made the party very grand, in addition to the executives and artists of the Viking record series, he also invited a large number of celebrities from all walks of life in the British entertainment industry, and a red carpet was specially rolled out outside the hotel, and the sides were crowded with British and overseas media reporters.

A large number of stars such as the Spice Girls, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Hugh Grant, Rachel Weisz and many others will also shine on the red carpet.

Mayer, dressed in a white evening dress, got out of the car at the end of the red carpet, and the spotlights on both sides immediately flickered wildly.

Although he had been instructed in advance, when he saw Mayer, some reporters on both sides couldn't help but ask loudly while quickly pressing the shutter.

"Mr. Williams, is this young lady your new girlfriend?"

"Mr. Williams, can you introduce this young lady?"

"Mr. Williams, have you seen The Matrix 2?"

"Mr. Williams, how do Fireflies plan to handle the dispute with AOL management?"

"Mr. Williams, it is said that "Bond 19" is still in the casting stage, can this film still be in time for next year's summer season?"

“……”

Eric ignored the questions on either side, just smiled and waved at the crowd outside, and walked briskly into the hotel with Mayer.

Walking into the party hall with Simon Fuller, who greeted him, and seeing the party guests crowded around like nails attracted by a magnet, Mayer couldn't help but feel a little guilty, if only he were Eric's girlfriend, even if it was only tonight.

However, she knew that she was just an ornamental vase beside Eric tonight.

It was so frustrating that Mayer even wanted to run away, and at the same time he couldn't help but have a shallow grudge against Eric. This guy is so enthusiastic about other women, and even entangled with his cousin, but he doesn't look interested in himself at all, which is really annoying.

Eric didn't have time to pay attention to the female assistant's careful thoughts, and took the lead in hugging and congratulating the five girls of the hot girl group, the protagonists of tonight's party, and then greeted the other guests who came by, and exchanged pleasantries for a while before he was free.

At the buffet table, Simon Fuller and Eric took a glass of champagne and raised their glasses to Eric, Simon Fuller said, "Eric, I have carefully considered the singer selection reality show you mentioned in the afternoon, and I think it is very feasible. However, if it is only held in the UK, is it too small, so why don't we just produce it in North America? ”

"I'm definitely going to bring this reality show to North America, but right now, whether it's ABC's 'Survivor' or Fox's 'Who's going to Be a Millionaire', the ratings are pretty good, and the two networks have introduced some other reality shows in recent years, so there's no shortage of this type of show for the time being," Eric took a sip of champagne and said with a smile, "And I don't want to give this reality show to NBC or CBS, so I'm going to do it in the UK now." You'll also get plenty of time to polish the format. ”

Simon Fuller nodded, and said: "However, seriously, this type of music reality show should not be able to create too popular singers, because if we want to take into account the ratings, it is unlikely that we will maintain absolute impartiality, and some outstanding contestants are likely to be eliminated in advance, these people have the title of 'loser', and it is not so easy to package it." ”

Eric said: "If you are careful, you should still be able to pick out a few good seedlings in the previous sessions." By the way, this time you'd better pay attention to the contestants' own songwriting ability, I forgot to remind you when I was choosing the hot girl group, a few of them, singing and dancing skills are good, but their own creative ability is not satisfactory, fortunately, they can now find enough good producers to write songs for them. ”

Simon Fuller nodded approvingly.

Whether in the past or in the future, any singer or group that has made a name for itself in the music industry basically has a good ability to create music.

However, in the future, with the decline of the entire record industry, singers with outstanding creative ability will become more and more prominent, because the decline of the industry will definitely lead to shrinking resources, and record companies will rarely organize a team to package singers who only have a good voice or good skin but have no creative ability at all.

Eric and Simon Fuller chatted, casually glanced around, and happened to notice that Barbara Blockley, the female producer of the 007 series not far away, looked at him, and opposite Barbara Lockley stood a tall woman in a lilac backless evening dress, Eric didn't recognize who the other party was, but felt that Barbara Brockley looked at him with some cry for help, so he greeted Simon Fuller, and Eric walked over.

Barbara Blockley is a standard bachelor. Eric thought she was entangled by a lily, but when she walked in, she realized that the woman standing across from her was Demi Moore.

Demi Moore noticed the change in Barbara Brookley's expression, turned to see Eric, and immediately showed a look of surprise on his face, and reached out: "Oh, Eric, I just said I wanted to say hello to you, but I saw you talking to Mr. Fuller." ”

Seeing Demi Moore stretch out his hands to him, Eric had no choice but to smile and hug the other party, feeling that the woman's whole body was unabashedly pasted on his body, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for Bruce Willis for three seconds, poor old cloth stall such a daughter-in-law, I don't know how many times my head has been green, but the two should be playing their own games now.

"So, Demi, why are you in London?" Although the two are not familiar with each other, they have met a few times at some parties, although Eric doesn't like each other, but he doesn't act too rusty, after letting go of each other, Eric asked politely.

"I'm working on a movie in London called Notting Hill," Demi Moore said, gesturing to Hugh Grant not far away, and continued, "The lead actor is Hugh, who tells a love story that takes place in the Notting Hills. ”

Eric immediately remembered that Julia had abandoned the script because of Seagram's acquisition of PolyGram and the distribution rights of "Notting Hill" belonged to Universal, but he didn't expect it to end up with Demi Moore.

"'Notting Hill,' I happen to know this script, it's a good story," Eric politely complimented.

With the success of "Four Weddings and a Funeral", Hugh Grant successfully became a box office star, and because of the change of history, he successfully avoided the scandal that should have happened, Hugh Grant can be said to be a very popular British warm man in recent years.

After Julia withdrew, Polygram Pictures seemed to contact the veteran Hollywood sweet sister Meg Ryan, but Meg Ryan took over Warner's "Electronic Love Letters". In the end, Demi Moore, who was far less popular than Julia, was chosen as the heroine, probably out of confidence in Hugh Grant's popularity.

Thinking of "Electronic Love Letters", Eric can't help but feel a little helpless, "Electronic Love Letters" is a product of the cooperation between Warner and AOL, and it is obvious that the two sides have long begun to pull and pull. Because of the disagreement with Firefly on the development path, AOL did not even mention the matter of "Electronic Love Letter" with Firefly, which has also become one of the evidence of the recent media dispute between AOL and the major shareholder Firefly's investment.

"I really didn't expect it, this is really surprising," Demi Moore was really surprised to hear Eric know the script of "Notting Hill", this is just an ordinary romance film with a production cost of less than 30 million US dollars, but she quickly thought of who she took this opportunity from, and then she was relieved, but she was a little envious of Julia Roberts and Eric's intimate relationship, and looked at Eric with a little more eagerness in her eyes: "Eric, can I ask you to dance?" Saying this, Demi Moore smiled at Mayer, who was consciously holding a small vase next to Eric, and said, "This young lady will definitely not mind if I borrow Eric for a while, right?" ”

Mayer nodded politely, and secretly complained in his heart that I mind, would it be useful?

Eric just smiled and refused, "I'm sorry, Demi, I have something to talk to Barbara." ”

"Oh, it's okay, I can wait a while," Demi Moore didn't show loss or give up, raised his hand and said, "Then you guys talk first." ”

When Demi Moore walked away, Eric asked Barbara, "What happened just now?" ”

"It's nothing," Barbara Brockley shook her head and laughed, "Isn't Bond 19 casting lately, and she's also participating." ”

Eric nodded, roughly understood something, and said: "Speaking of which, a reporter asked me just now, looking at the current situation, "Bond 19" may not be able to start this year, right?" ”

Barbara Brockley said with a little complaint on her face: "Yes, you guy brought the box office of the last film so high, and now you are leaving it alone, we are under a lot of pressure." ”

Eric retorted with a smile, "I don't care, I've read every version of the script you handed over." ”

"Bond 19" was originally planned to be released in the summer of next year, but after the global explosion of "Casino Royale", in the face of the good situation of the Agent Cinematic Universe, everyone at MGM showed great cherishment and prudence, just the script of "Bond 19", MGM polished it for a whole year, in addition, because the protagonists of the three major series in "Bond 19" will all assemble, it took a lot of effort to finalize the contracts of the relevant actors.

Judging from the current situation, the release of "Bond 19" may be postponed by a full year. However, a blockbuster of 007's size, with a production interval of three years, is nothing, and no one will mess up the reputation that the entire Agent Movie Universe has just established in order to catch up with the schedule.