In another villa in Beverly Hills, John Aniston walked around in front of his daughter's door, trying to knock on the door, but finally turned away in disappointment, and on the other side of the door, the little girl sat on the bed with her legs crossed, her chin bumping her knees, silently listening to the cry of a caged beast on the radio, revealing a strong and ambitious cry, her eyes did not blink, and she did not know what she was trying to write.

After the turmoil began, after several arguments with her father to no avail, Elizabeth Murdoch moved directly to Los Angeles and lived with Julia, although the two girls pretended to be nonchalant, but after the radio on the coffee table in the living room came out with the tune of "new-divide", the two still looked at each other, Julia silently reached out and jumped the loudest on the radio.

Nicole is making small cakes in the kitchen, wearing big headphones on her head, a simple shirt and jeans, a small radio pinned to her waist, gently swaying her body to the tune inside, holding a large bowl in her hand, stirring the ingredients in the bowl with a blender.

Although Nicole was briefly worried after the turmoil, when Eric personally called and told her not to make any noise during this time, Nicole put her mind at ease and usually did almost what she had to do. She thought, how could such a hateful man not be able to survive, and his tone when he called was full of confidence.

Moreover, he was single now, and she felt that of course she had to fight for it, even though he was so bad.

Drew turned down the sound of the home stereo connected to the radio to the loudest, and the deafening sound resounded within a radius of dozens of meters from the small apartment, and it was only a little more than a minute later. A fat white man in the neighbor's house jumped out in a rage. He yelled at the open window of Drew's room.

“mother**er。 Fuck off, don't affect your aunt's listening to the song," Drew heard the fat man's scolding, scooped up an apple on the table and threw it out, and gave the fat man a middle finger.

The fat man showed a hint of timidity in his heart in the face of Drew's menacing appearance, but soon shouted: "Drew, don't think you are a star." If you don't turn your voice down, I'll call 911 and sue you for disturbing the people. ”

"Let's fight, let's fight, my mother's father just withdrew the lawsuit, I haven't fought enough lawsuits, just have another one with you, and prepare more lawyers," Drew leaned out of the window and shouted, throwing an apple out again, just hitting the fat man's head.

"You...... It's so unreasonable," the fat man said, clutching his head.

"How much is a pound. You sell me some, if you don't, give me a roll. ”

Seeing that the girl is so strong. Some of the other neighbors who originally wanted to come forward to theorize also shrank back, and the fat man stood in his yard and gasped for a few breaths, and was about to continue scolding, but he saw that Drew had an extra red brick in his hand, and glared at him menacingly, looking like if you would smash me down if you were long-winded.

The fat man had seen in the newspaper the tragic picture of this crazy girl filming her own father, so he shut his mouth, took a few steps back, and retracted into his house.

With the bricks in her hand, the girl returned to the bedroom, and the song came to the end.

*……

* Pave the way and let the suffering end

* Crossing new boundaries and reaching the other side of truth

* In the darkness of the eyes, the ashes are like snowflakes

* Between you and me, the sky has fallen

* On this day, I declare war on the whole world

*……

"on-this-day,i-declared-war-on-the-world......" The girl shook her bewitching waist to the beat, and howled, although her little face was swollen and red, but because of the incomplete pentatonic sound, it sounded miserable, and the song finally ended, and the voice of the host named Matthew Lasserd sounded again, Drew reached out and turned off the tape recorder and stereo, and then picked up the bedside phone and dialed the Malibu Sharp Corner Manor.

After connecting, the girl did not look like a lioness when she was scolding the fat man just now, and instantly turned into a docile cat, with a soft voice and a trace of grievance: "Eric, another neighbor bullied me just now......"

In the Malibu mansion, several people in Eric's living room made a gesture of waiting before saying to the girl on the other end of the phone, "Thank God you don't bully others...... Well...... No problem...... I know I know ......"

It took more than ten minutes for Eric to hang up the phone and sigh softly.

Because of the reversal of the wind, Eric originally received four lawsuits, among which Drew's father and the screenwriter who sued him for plagiarism directly withdrew the lawsuit, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that the forces behind these two people must understand the current shape and know that they can't do anything before they give up their support for the two, and although the prosecution for the illegal means used to obtain the land in Malibu has not been withdrawn, Edward also came with news that this matter will drag on for a while, and it is estimated that it will be over.

As for Sony Pictures' lawsuit over the "Dark War" contract, although they are unwilling, they also know that if this happens, although they can delay the payment of the "Dark War" share for a while, it angers Eric, and the sequel to "Dark War" may become far away, such a blockbuster movie, once the sequel is stranded, the loss may be more than tens of millions of dollars. As a result, the parties also began a reconciliation process.

Of course, Eric is not sighing for these things, but thinking of Drew's little Nizi, after Drew's father withdrew the complaint, Eric said hello to let the girl move back, however, Drew refused, saying that he wanted to live with his mother in Culver City, Eric knew that this was because the girl didn't want to cause trouble to himself anymore, so no matter when the girl called these days, Eric would patiently make a phone porridge with Little Nizi.

Walking over to the couch again and sitting down, Eric said to Jeffrey and the others, who were sitting around him, "Where did we just go?"

Jeffrey reluctantly reminded: "The music company thing. ”

"Oh yes," Eric thought again. And then he said, "About the music company. Let's be attached to the Firefly for the time being. I figured out that with the release of the single guò, we were able to establish a simple distribution channel and for the time being mainly release the soundtracks of our company's films. Robert, Jeffrey and I don't know much about distribution, so how about you leave the record company in charge for the time being?"

Robert Shea smiled and nodded in agreement, he had the idea: "Of course, no problem, but what about Emi?"

"Keep it cooperative. Eric said, the two are talking about EMI EMI Records, the New Territories Point Records established by Eric named after his single is just an empty shell, and has no distribution ability at all, so this time to release this single, I can only choose to cooperate with the famous EMI Records: "Because of the firefly thing, I suddenly established a record company, and now several old record companies are very afraid of this, so I can only maintain cooperation." Otherwise, we have no chance to develop at all. After accumulating a few years of strength, it's not too late to consider flying solo. ”

Everyone in the living room laughed. There was a bit of pride in his tone, after all, it was not easy for a newly formed music company with nothing but a single to arouse the jealousy of the world's major record companies.

"Let's talk about the UTA," Eric said, looking at Edward, "Let's talk about the progress of the case first." ”

Edward took out the information that had been compiled in advance and said: "The current situation is very favorable to us, because the major companies that were originally behind the scenes must have now given up and no longer tried to influence this case. Therefore, we only need to respond to the lawsuit in accordance with the normal procedures, because the illegal damage index caused by Firefly and UTA's violation of the antitrust law is very low, so in the absence of other forces, coupled with the current trend of public opinion, it is impossible for the Federal Trade Investigation Commission to impose heavy penalties on Firefly and UTA, and even if the fine is paid, I think it is only symbolic. All you have to do is get rid of your shares in UTA. ”

After hearing what Edward said, Eric looked at Kapoor, who was sitting on the other side, and asked, "Kapoor, what do you think now, I mean, do you want to take over UTA?"

Kapoor smiled bitterly and shrugged, "Of course I want to, but unfortunately I can't afford it." ”

Eric was silent, since the start of the antitrust investigation, now has formed a new pattern of North America's three major brokerage giants, CAA, WMA and ICM, have all quoted him the purchase price, of which ICM's offer is as high as $30 million, and the other two have also offered more than $20 million, you know, Eric bought UTA a year ago, and only spent a mere $1 million.

However, ICM's offer of such a high price must have been well thought out, and now UTA not only has a series of A-series superstars such as Al Pacino, but after acquiring UTA, ICM can also get another advantage, that is, once UTA and ICM merge, Eric Films will give priority to ICM's artists, which is undoubtedly a thing.

In just one year, Eric has made a comeback for Al Pacino with a few movies, and has also promoted a few little-known young actors to the position of world-class superstars. ICM is now at the bottom of the three major brokerage firms, and has the fewest Hollywood A-list superstars as a signboard, which is why it is so eager for UTA.

Hearing Kapoor say this, Eric asked, "Let's not talk about money, Kapoor, I just want to ask, what's really in your heart?"

Kapoor thought for a moment before saying, "Eric, I've actually been contacted by Marvin Josephson from ICM, and if you have to tell me, I'm inclined to sell UTA to ICM, and Marvin Josephson has promised to give me a partner." As for the other two companies, I think you must not have considered the CAA, and I have not considered it, although the WMA has carried out a series of reforms and integrations in the past six months, it is too old after all, and the system is still a little rigid. ”

Eric nodded, although he wanted Kapoor to accept UTA alone, but it was still unrealistic to think about it, not to mention that Kapoor could not pay two or three million dollars to buy the entire UTA, even if Eric gave all the UTA to Kapoor, but with the development of UTA, it is still necessary to introduce partners, and it is not like this model that has developed step by step to the last three major brokerage companies. It's better to do it all at once. Sell UTA directly to ICM.

Although this will make Eric completely lose his influence on the brokerage company. However, in his current capacity, he no longer needs to exert any influence on the agency.

"In that case, let's talk to ICM and see if we can raise the price a little more," Eric said to Edward after deciding.

Edward nodded, indicating that he would make a note.

"Alright, now it's time to wrap things up. After more than a month of wretchedness, I can't just do nothing and pass quietly. ”

As soon as Eric finished speaking, Jeffrey gently persuaded: "Eric, I think it is the best result to let this matter pass quietly." ”

Eric was stunned and looked at the others, whether it was Robert Shea or Chris Hansen, who had nothing to do with Hollywood at all.

smiled wryly. Eric said, "Okay, I'll listen to you. I don't do anything substantial, but I still have to do some posture, otherwise people will think I'm a good bully. ”

When everyone heard Eric say this, they all laughed with relief in their hearts. They are all worried that Eric will be young and vigorous, and they want to fight the seven major film companies, which is very unwise behavior, because Firefly and Eric can survive this turmoil intact, it is already God forbid, and now there is not much strength to fight back.

"Eric, what do you want to do?" asked Jeffrey with a smile.

Eric originally thought of some fighting tricks in his previous life, when a person was beaten by a group of people, he sent a ruthless attack to catch one of the other party's group of people to the death, and beat one of them, I believe that the rest of the people will definitely show fear and dare not provoke lightly.

He originally picked Fox, but seeing that everyone around him was unwilling to do such a thing on his own, Eric had no choice but to give up.

After thinking for a while, the corners of Eric's mouth showed a wicked smile again: "Since you can't cripple a person, let's provoke the relationship between this person and his companions." ”

The people present were all smart people, and after a little thought, they understood what Eric meant, and at the same time, they also realized that the object selected by Eric must be Fox, after all, the cooperation between the two sides is the deepest, and Firefly even holds 10% of the shares of Fox TV.

……

The release of the single "new-divide" sung by Eric himself set off a wave in North America, and the lyrics of this song are not moaning or unknowing, but the most realistic portrayal of Eric's encounter during this time, therefore, the single album sold more than 1 million copies within three days of its release, and reached more than 3 million copies a week later, and it also undoubtedly topped the charts of various songs.

At the same time, because of the impact of this song, Eric has received more and more public support, and he now hardly has to worry about this turmoil, and at the same time, several women who are close to him have also stepped out of the shadow of this turmoil under the guidance of a series of public opinions, and began to consider this year's work arrangement.

On February 19th, another event of great importance to Eric happened.

On this day, Cisco was officially listed, and the stock issue price was $18, because there was no limit on the day of the stock issuance, so on the day of the issuance, Cisco's stock price reached $22.

Although this result is not too impressive, but in the next period of time, Cisco began to burst into continuous daily limits, and the stock price tripled in less than a month, Chris praised Eric on the phone in a very strange tone of envy, and mysteriously asked Eric how to confirm that Cisco stock would explode, of course Eric couldn't answer, he could only talk nonsense with Chris.

At the same time, in mid-February, the list of nominees for the 62nd Academy Awards was announced, and "Smell of a Woman" received four nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, and undoubtedly became a big favorite for the Oscars. The two films were nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at the same time, which once again caused an uproar in the media, because for the Oscars, it is very rare to have a double nomination, let alone two such important acting awards.

As for Eric himself, all of them were nominated for scripts, the best adapted screenplay for "Smelling a Woman", the best original screenplay for "Island Horror", in fact, "Dark War" could have received a nomination, but for public relations reasons, Eric gave up and chose "Island Horror", which is the most likely to win the award, after all, because the "Sixth Sense" has not yet appeared, the theme of "Island Horror" is still very novel, and the hope of winning the award is the greatest.

Of course, Eric has just had a well-known storm with the Seven, so the company responsible for the distribution of these films will definitely not do its best to publicize these films, Eric can only do it himself, and among the fireflies, only Robert Shea has some experience in this area, and Eric handed over all this matter to Robert.

He was dealing with another matter, and that was about provoking a man and his companions.

In front of a famous Italian restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, a black limousine slowly stopped in the parking lot, the driver opened the door, and Rupert Murdoch stepped out of the car.

With a wry smile, Rupert Murdoch tidied up his suit, and Elizabeth, who came out on the other side, stepped forward to hold her father, and the two wanted to walk into the restaurant.

The waiter had already recognized the two and greeted them: "Mr. Murdoch, Mr. Williams has been waiting for a while, let me take you over." (To be continued......)