I'm in Hollywood

Chapter 283: Ultimatum

Robert, can you believe it's been almost half a year since we first met?

Robert nodded as he put down his coffee cup, "Pretty close."

"Do you remember what we talked about the first time we met?"

Robert looked up, "We talked about a lot of things. What part are you referring to?"

Eric didn't pay attention to Robert's confusion. He reminded him, "I told you, we don't have much time left."

ocean view and fell silent, lowering his head to pick up his coffee cup again.

Eric continued, “I said at the time that the trend of media groups and film companies merging had begun, and if we didn't take advantage of the last few years, when the merger wave was over, we would completely lose the opportunity to develop and grow, and would only be the vassals of the future big media groups.”

Robert Shaye remained silent.

Eric sighed lightly, there were some things he couldn't tell Robert Shaye. In his memory, twenty years later, more than 90% of the media channels in North America were controlled by the six major media giants. If this happened twenty years later, Eric had almost no room to resist and could only compromise.

Now things are different, as the control over American media is no longer highly monopolized, but rather spread across more than 50 medium-sized and large media companies. Therefore, even if all the media resources held by the major film companies are combined, they would not be able to control more than one third of the public opinion channels, although this wave of public opinion seems to be overwhelming, most of them are just following the trend, changing with the wind.

Therefore, Eric also has no complete countermove, just waiting for his enemy to show their last weapon so that he can fight back. This time, the four lawsuits may once again hurt his reputation, but just like the scandals at the beginning, it will not cause him any fundamental damage. After all, even though he is a public figure now, he is not a public figure who purely depends on fame for a living. Even if this wave of public opinion makes him unable to pick up the director's baton for a short time, he can still dominate the production of the film in other ways.

Therefore, everything he does now is to keep the Firefly.

Famke Janssen and Sharon Stone were both silent for a while, until Robert Shaye broke the silence and said to Eric, "I heard that you might need a lot of money to calm this down?”

"It should be okay," Eric nodded slightly and guessed Robert's intention.

Robert didn't let Eric wait any longer and said, "The 60 million US dollars that you paid me last time, plus the bonus of the new line at the end of the year, although I spent a part of it on investment, I can still take out almost 60 million US dollars.”

This time, it was Eric's turn to be silent. 60 million was neither a lot nor a little.

Eric lowered his head, staring at the three lines on his palm without saying a word. Which one was the career line? It must be the longest one. After a moment of thinking, Eric finally looked up and said to Robert Shaye, "I agree with you. 15% is too little, I think it should be at least 25%." The two discussed some specific details and Robert Shaye left satisfied.

As Eric sighed in disappointment after Robert Shaye left, he had originally planned to merge Pixar Studios and Flower Films, which had rights to many popular films from past eras, into Firefly, but now it seemed best to not do that.

Because John Barrymore was injured, the court case was postponed to a week later, and the other three lawsuits were all handed to Eric's team of lawyers to handle without him having to appear in court.

However, despite his efforts to stay out of the public eye at this time, there was one thing he had to appear for.

On January 20th, the 47th Golden Globe Awards for Television and Film were held at the Hollywood Hilton in Los Angeles.

Famke Janssen's Firefly earned a total of 11 nominations for movies such as Pretty Woman, Lethal Weapon 2, Steel Magnolias, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and the TV series Friends. Among the nominations that involved Famke personally, were two Best Screenplay awards from Lethal Weapon 2 and Home Alone 2. Since the Golden Globe Awards do not have a category for Best Director, Famke could have at least received one more nomination.

If it wasn't for this controversy, Famke, who was nominated for two awards at the same ceremony at the age of less than 20, would have undoubtedly been the brightest star on the red carpet. Although Famke had considered not attending the Golden Globe Awards, it would have been seen as a sign of weakness towards her adversaries, so she finally decided to take a stand and go to the red carpet.

This time, Famke didn't bring any female companion and went to the ceremony alone.

After stopping in the media interview area, Eric flashed a confident smile and let the flashes go wild.

"Eric, Eric, can you say something?" A reporter called out at this time.

Eric smiled without saying yes or no. If the other party asked something difficult to answer, Eric decided to leave directly.

"Eric, you have not been seen for a while, what are you doing in Malibou Manor, is it preparing a new script?"

Eric was stunned, he didn't expect the other party to ask such a question, now under this situation, what mood does he have to think about the script. However, since this question was not too sharp, Eric replied: "I have just registered a music company, and may release a single in a while."

"Eric, can you give us a hint about the theme of the single?"

"Mr. Williams, what's the name of the music company?"

"Eric, are you giving up directing movies and switching to music?"

Eric didn't intend to answer any more questions and was about to leave, but he heard the last one and just rolled his eyes and said, "It's just a joke, I'm still mainly focused on making movies.

After saying this, Eric ignored the reporters and walked straight towards the end of the red carpet.

Compared to last year, Eric has achieved even more this year, but there were obviously fewer people coming to greet him and most of them were men he already knew. As for the female stars present, except for Julia, Virginia and Nicole, who nodded at Eric according to his instructions beforehand, no other actresses dared to come forward and talk to Eric because of his current reputation.

Eric didn't care either, it was everyone's instinct to take advantage and avoid harm.

During the wait, stars continued to appear on the red carpet.

About ten minutes later, amidst a chorus of cheers from movie fans, Eric saw Jennifer Aniston walking over wearing a white strapless dress and did some photo-ops in the media area before arriving at the rest area.

Their eyes met as expected and the reporters who were paying attention lifted up their cameras, hoping for a newsworthy action from this formerly broken-up couple.

"Jenny..." Eric didn't move his feet and called out softly. Since that day, Eric had tried to contact Aniston more than once. But this time it seemed that Jenny had made up her mind, never picking up any of his calls and not responding to any of the letters he sent. The flowers he sent were also returned.

Aniston glanced at Eric's face for less than two seconds before quickly turning away, walking in the opposite direction as if nothing had happened.

Eric sighed and didn't dare to come close in this situation; it was not because he was worried about his reputation, but he was considering Aniston's wellbeing.

Recently, Aniston had been relatively unscathed in terms of criticism compared to the other close women, due to her having cut ties with Eric on the day everything happened. If Eric were to come closer now and rumors of them potentially getting back together surfaced, it would definitely bring trouble to Aniston.

"Eric, are you okay?" Noticing Eric's low mood, Jonathan Daimi, who was standing next to him, comforted him.

Eric shook his head: "I'm fine."

Tom Hanks, who was on the other side, also said: "Eric, I believe everything will pass."

"Of course." Eric confidently smiled.

... ...

At the ceremony, Eric was sitting at the table for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, since it was arranged in the back, he felt relatively at ease and would not draw too much attention.

Of course, the world will never revolve around one person, so the turmoil Eric was experiencing didn't affect the lively atmosphere of this Golden Globe Awards. Perhaps due to instructions beforehand, the hosts of this year's award ceremony didn't make fun of Eric, and throughout the entire award ceremony, his name was rarely mentioned, and the camera rarely swept across the table that Eric was sitting at.

Eric gradually became aware that someone was planning to give him the cold shoulder. So although the movie and TV series related to Firefly had 11 nominations tonight, it definitely wouldn't get any heavyweight awards.

Eric's predictions turned out to be true, as the release of Pretty Woman missed the Golden Globe nomination, so the more important categories such as Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and Best Motion Picture - Drama all went to someone else without exception. The two Best Screenplay nominations associated with Eric were also unsuccessful. Even the two nominations that Julia Roberts was originally awarded were all zero, let alone the Best Motion Picture - Drama Actress nomination that Winona Ryder got for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, which was no suspense landed on Michelle Pfeiffer, the female lead of the movie Back to the Future 2 that Eric had no memory of.

Finally, Eric no longer had any hope that all 11 nominations would be unsuccessful. However, when it came to the TV series, Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Series, Aniston surprisingly won the Best Actress award.

Eric smirked as he watched the young girl on stage delivering an award acceptance speech without mentioning herself, what was this, a warning to the women close to him that they could get an award if they broke up with Eric Williams?

Two hours later, after the award ceremony, Eric had no plans to attend the after party. Just as he was about to leave, a strange waiter handed him an envelope.

Eric got into the car to return to Malibou Manor and opened the envelope.

Inside was only one piece of paper with a series of numbers written on it: 19900201.

It was easy to decipher. It meant February 1, 1990.

Eric knew without a doubt that this was the ultimatum from the puppet master behind the scenes.

He couldn't help but sigh, thinking back to Michael Jackson's three-month-long media storm in 1993. It had only been a month since his own troubles began, and already they were pulling out the big guns?

Thinking of Michael Jackson, Eric couldn't help but notice the many similarities between his current situation and his past life.

The reason Michael Jackson was attacked on such a large scale in 1993 was not only because of his black identity, but also because he had jumped from being a signed singer to the Chairman of Sony Music, gaining 50% of Sony Music's shares and owning the copyrights to famous superstars like The Beatles and Elvis Presley.

In the nineties, the music industry was still booming, with the value of the song copyrights alone exceeding one billion dollars, not to mention Sony's 50% share in the industry.

For the industry giants and the white-dominated Western world, it was unbearable.

Thus, after a storm of controversy, Michael Jackson began to fade away.

More than ten years later, in 2009, Michael Jackson was fifty years old, and he planned to hold 50 world tour concerts to commemorate his life. Many people thought that the fifty-year-old pop star would not be as dazzling as before, but the reality was not as expected. More than 750,000 tickets for the concert were sold out in just a few hours after the pre-order started, proving that the Emperor Superstar was still the Emperor Superstar.

So, a few days before the start of the highly anticipated 50 concerts, the Emperor Superstar died inexplicably.

Eric couldn't help but shiver when he thought of these, thankful that he had not been reborn into a black body. Thus, while he was now facing joint exclusion from several bigwigs, he did not suffer from discrimination from the public at heart.

After the Golden Globe Awards, Eric quickly signed a contract to transfer 10 percent of Firefly shares to Robert Shaye, and directly deposited the $60 million cash that Robert Shaye paid into an investment company account in New York.

Although Jeffrey and Chris objected to this, hoping that Eric would leave a sum of cash for contingency, Eric was determined and asked Chris to use the $60 million plus the $10 million that had already been credited to purchase as much Cisco as possible.

Before this incident, Eric had not been too concerned about money. He felt that as long as he developed steadily, he would eventually reach the top step by step.

After the storm, Eric realized that in this capitalistic world, money is the most important thing, it's like a talisman. If Eric was already a billionaire with billions of dollars in assets, even if he was young, these people wouldn't dare to attack him like this.

As time passed, Eric endured the bombardment from the newspapers and media, but he could also occasionally hear good news. Since most investment institutions were not very optimistic about Cisco's prospects and its market value was only $225 million, under Chris's price attack, some investment institutions that had already decided to buy Cisco's stock surrendered their subscription shares.

The shares acquired increased bit by bit, and by the end of the month, the $70 million had been spent and 23% of Cisco's shares were obtained. Although it was a great loss to get 23% of Cisco's shares for $70 million based on its $225 million market value, if it was calculated based on Cisco's peak market value of $500 billion, the value of the shares would be astronomical.

Of course, Eric knew that as Cisco grew, the stock would be diluted over time, but as long as he could keep around 10% of the shares, it would still be a huge fortune in the future.

On the same day that Chris spent all of his 70 million dollars, February 1st finally arrived, and the four lawsuits were still lingering. The Los Angeles branch of the Federal Trade Commission, the US antitrust investigation agency, held a press conference announcing an investigation into the suspected monopolistic behavior of Firefly and the United Talent Agency (UTA).

As soon as the news came out, public opinion was abuzz again. A variety of analyses soon appeared in the press.

At Malibou Manor, Edward Lewis hurriedly walked into the living room. Sitting opposite Eric, there were already several people in the living room at this time, Jeffrey, Robert Shaye and UTA's CEO Capwell Hyde.

"Edward, let's talk about the situation first," Eric said, pouring a cup of coffee for Edward Lewis.

Edward took a sip of coffee and then put a thick stack of documents on the coffee table and picked up one of them saying, “Eric. This is what’s going on. The Federal Trade Commission has started an investigation into Firefly and UTA for evidence. If the charges are established, then, you could face a hefty fine in addition to handing over all of your UTA shares.”

“How much would the fine be?” Eric asked the question he was most concerned about. Columbia and Fox both owed Firefly a large share of their profits, and Eric realized that money was the ultimate trump card.

Edward Lewis found another document and said, “Under antitrust law, the fine is usually based on 20% of the revenue generated by the illegal company. But this number is not fixed. It has a lot of flexibility and if it’s handled properly, you don't have to pay a penny. All you have to do is transfer the UTA shares in your hand, but if…”

Edward interjected, “Sorry to interrupt, but you know we are all not too familiar with the law, so just tell me how much I might have to pay for this.”

“Well,” Edward Lewis said, “according to the violations from Firefly and UTA, you may have to pay up to one hundred and sixty million dollars in fines.”

Eric jumped, “How can that be so much? UTA’s profit is only a few million this year?”

Edward explained, “Eric, it’s not just your algorithm. You should count UTA and Firefly together. Because they were both your individual properties before. And I got some information from Ms. Caroline earlier, your total revenue this year is over four hundred million. Add the potential income from the five movies still being released, since the violations from UTA and Firefly are not serious, the 20% base penalty does not exist, so the total amount of fines you have to pay could reach one hundred and sixty million.”

Eric was stunned, asked, “What is the time limit for collecting fines?”

Edward knew exactly what Eric was asking and said, "Given the current situation, the litigation will not exceed three months, and after that, you have three months to pay the fine. Right, Eric, I just emphasized to you that the $160 million is only the worst possibility, actually, in general, the fine will be far lower than this number, even no need to pay."

"Half a year," Eric murmured to himself. He did not ask Edward what would happen if the fine was not paid by the due date. Obviously, there was nothing left but to freeze his assets and then auction them off. What were his assets? Only Firefly.

Moreover, although the profits of these films at the end of the year could be far more than $160 million, Eric was sure that after these films were withdrawn, he could not get this money except for litigation. And when he won the lawsuit, half a year was estimated to have passed.

Since things were irreversible, Eric no longer felt sorry for himself, and said to the people around him, "Since we have reached this point, we should fight back."

Jeffrey had been holding his breath for a while, as Eric lacked trust in others, so, as of now, only Jeffrey knew about the video tape he had left behind: "Eric, what do we need to do, just tell us?"

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