I am Hollywood

[Chapter 1117: Biological Brother?]

Due to the success of the Firefly Group's "Easter Movie Package" last year, this year's Easter release period naturally became a battleground for major studios.

Starting from March 26, the week before Easter, Warner Bros. released Run Lola Run, Universal Pictures brought out EDtv, and Paramount's teen crime comedy, The Mod Squad, officially premiered in North American theaters.

If it weren't for the surprise hit of The Blair Witch Project, Run Lola Run would have absolutely become the most talked-about film at this year's Sundance Film Festival, thanks in part to Eric's attendance. Even so, Warner clearly had high hopes for this uniquely stylized indie film, scheduling it for 1,700 theaters in its first week.

The situation for Universal's EDtv was a bit more complicated. Directed by Hollywood bigshot Ron Howard and starring Matthew McConaughey, the film had a budget of $80 million, ranking just below the upcoming Firefly's release of Enemy of the State in terms of production cost.

However, unlike Eric's strategy to cultivate the Easter market with blockbusters, EDtv appeared to have been abandoned by Universal. After all, the number of bombs Universal produced annually couldn't compare to the Firefly Group. If they weren't highly pessimistic about the film's prospects, Michael Eisner would surely not have scheduled it for the Easter release.

Lastly, there was Paramount's The Mod Squad. This film was adapted from a TV series from the sixties, but it had nowhere near the popularity of the first two films.

As for this year's Firefly Group's "Easter Movie Package," it included Firefly's Enemy of the State, MGM's American Pie, and Fox's Never Been Kissed. All three films continued the trend of collaborative promotion, rolling out over the next two weeks.

Since the plan was set in early last year, Columbia Pictures hadn't participated in this year's event.

...

After spending the weekend with Carmen Kass in Los Angeles, Eric flew back to New York with her on Monday. At first, Eric wanted to arrange for Carmen to have a place in Manhattan like Gisele Bundchen, but she outright refused.

Upon returning to Manhattan, the girl didn't cling to Eric; instead, she immediately got back to work, even planning a trip to Tokyo next week. Clearly, she wouldn't be able to join Eric for the Tokyo premiere of Iron Man at the end of April.

With only a few days until Easter, Eric also didn't rush to East Hampton. A lot of business with Firefly Investments, ABC Group, and Clover Fund required his personal attention in Manhattan.

"Eric, here's the stock trading report from Clover Fund last week. We retrieved a total of $1.625 billion, and everything has been settled into the Clover Fund account," said one of the girls.

This time in New York, neither of the two girls stayed in Eric's mansion; they both chose other accommodations. It was something Merissa Mayer suggested first, and although Caroline wanted to stay with Eric, she felt too shy to impose herself alone when Merissa brought it up.

Early in the morning, Caroline and Merissa hurried to Eric's temporary office at ABC headquarters to start their day.

As Eric flipped through the report handed to him by Caroline, he asked the two of them, "So, you guys want to join me at the Hearst party tonight?"

Caroline shook her head, "My brother's taking me out for dinner tonight."

Eric raised an eyebrow and asked instinctively, "Your biological brother?"

Caroline scrunched her nose and shot Eric a playful glare.

"Alright, I guess it is your biological brother," Eric replied, laughing awkwardly, then turned to Merissa.

Merissa shook her head, "I have plans with someone; I'm going to Greenwich Village to check out an art exhibition tonight."

Eric didn't dare ask Merissa who she was meeting in front of Caroline, but he noticed the smirk on Merissa's lips and shot her a teasing look when Caroline wasn't paying attention.

Once Eric focused back on the stock report, Caroline pulled out a few more pages of documents and handed them to him, saying, "This is a memorandum submitted by a trader under Clover Fund. He thinks our selling strategy seems too hasty. If we can analyze it more thoroughly, we'd definitely get greater returns."

Eric skimmed through the stock trading report while casually picking up the memorandum.

These past few years, Eric had accumulated enough financial knowledge. He understood that stock trading was a technical role, far beyond simple buying and selling actions. A trader not only had to perform various trades but also had to analyze how other potential traders might react and how their own buying and selling could affect stock prices. In short, a skilled trader could accurately identify or even create the best trading opportunities to maximize profits.

If it had been any other time, Eric wouldn't have minded the "slow and steady wins the race" approach.

However, he simply didn't have the time right now.

The technology stocks held by Clover Fund were already valued at over $30 billion and continued to rise.

From his previous memories, the Nasdaq index had surged from 3000 to 5000 points in just four months, followed by that infamous crash.

Now, the date when the Nasdaq index broke through 3000 points had been pushed forward by more than half a year. Analyzing the current situation from various aspects, Eric felt this time the Nasdaq was likely further from crashing. However, he didn't dare let his guard down and still set the complete liquidation time for Clover Fund within four months.

To cash out tens of billions of dollars in four months, there wasn't enough time for a detailed trade analysis; all the trader needed to do was sell, sell, and sell.

If it were any other time, the Clover Fund's cash out of over $1.6 billion within a week would certainly have alerted the Nasdaq market.

Yet, right now, the entire Nasdaq technology stock market was caught in madness, with both domestic and international funds flooding in to join this speculative frenzy. The total market capitalization of Nasdaq stocks even broke through $3 trillion, with daily trading volumes reaching hundreds of billions. Moreover, the market surrounding Nasdaq tech stocks looked equally crazed and active with index futures and other financial derivatives.

Thus, Clover Fund's abrupt large-scale reductions went unnoticed by the market.

Of course, Eric wasn't letting his guard down in the slightest.

Speaking of which, the reason he received this advisory memorandum from the trader was due to the strict confidentiality surrounding this reduction action.

To avoid any potential discovery of Clover Fund's liquidations, Eric hired twelve trading teams, half of which were based outside North America. Although these teams understood their services were going to a super client, even after the transactions were completed, they could never figure out the total amount of funds Clover Fund cashed out.

Reading through the pages of the memorandum with great interest, Eric tossed it aside and asked Caroline, "What's the schedule for the Iron Man promotion?"

"The events you need to attend are: Tokyo premiere on April 22, London premiere on April 29, and Los Angeles premiere on May 5. Also, on April 29, you need to come to New York to record Late Show with David Letterman, which airs on May 2."

Eric calculated in his mind. Tokyo, London, Los Angeles -- this seemed like another long global flight.

Caroline blinked and noticed Eric's thoughts. She said, "Eric, I heard from Boeing a couple of days ago that the two Boeing 747s are ready for delivery. But as per your instructions, the relevant documents have been sent directly to Ms. Barrymore."

Eric had never been an impatient person. However, after waiting so long, the news that the two Boeing 747s were ready put him in a good mood. He nodded, "Perfect, we can take the new planes next time."

Caroline smiled slightly, "Also, we received an email from LVMH in France, written by Ms. Delphine Arnault herself. She expressed a desire to meet with you to discuss a collaboration on a new Dior perfume advertisement."

Eric looked at the printed email Caroline handed him, perplexed. "Delphine Arnault? Who is that?"

"She's the eldest daughter of Bernard Arnault, the owner of LVMH."

Eric nodded, reading through the email, beginning to understand. The recipient had likely seen the Dior J'adore Golden Goddess poster he designed and was probably hoping he would personally handle the advertisement for J'adore Dior.

Not knowing whether to view it as a wild fantasy, Eric just smiled and said, "Have someone send her a reply declining the offer."

Eric had put a lot of effort into the J'adore Golden Goddess concept but had no intention of shooting the advertisement now. After all, although a TV ad might only last for a few seconds, bringing it from concept to final product typically required at least a couple of months.

Eric simply didn't have a month's worth of time to spare, and since he neither lacked money nor fame, he certainly wasn't interested in a situation where he would merely make a cameo as a figurehead during the ad shoot.

Caroline nodded.

After discussing these matters, Eric turned to Merissa and asked, "How's the negotiation between Firefly Electronics and the major record labels going?"

Merissa shook her head, "I haven't heard any updates in the last couple of days. Should I make a call to check?"

"Let's skip it for now."

Eric sighed.

To make up for the content shortcomings of the digital music store, Firefly Electronics was targeting the most likely partnerships with Universal, EMI, and BMG.

Due to an inherent aversion to digital music players and the desire for greater profits, the terms proposed by these three companies were very harsh. Obviously, it wouldn't be easy to follow up with a large-scale mini music store promotion right after the release of the next-generation Fireflyer player.

The hardware for the mini music store was all set, but without sufficient content support, the outcome would likely be just as dismal as an ATM machine running out of cash.

...

After a busy day, as night fell, a black sedan slowly pulled up outside a mansion on the Upper East Hydee.

After the driver got out and opened the door, Eric was the first to step out, extending a hand back into the car.

Cindy Crawford was pulled out by Eric, but they didn't immediately enter the villa. Another tall woman emerged from the car: Linda Evangelista.

The current head of the Hearst family, William Randolph Hearst III, greeted them as he saw the stunning figures standing beside Eric. His expression revealed some envy. Only a young man like him could dare to bring these two top supermodels to a party. Perhaps these two rising stars of the fashion world would only kneel in deference to someone like Eric Williams.

"Hey, William, good evening," Eric said, shaking hands with William Hearst III and introducing the two women beside him, "This is Cindy, and Linda."

"Hello, Mr. Hearst," Cindy and Linda greeted William Hearst and Mrs. Hearst before they all stepped inside the villa.

Many guests had already arrived at the villa, most of whom were socialites from the Upper East Hydee.

William Hearst III personally introduced Eric to a few people. After a bit of small talk, the couple left to attend to other guests.

After the Hearsts walked away, Linda picked a cherry out of her cocktail, playfully sucking on it, then cast an irritated glance around before addressing Eric. "I noticed everyone else only has one companion."

"I noticed that too," Eric said, taking a sip of his red wine and chuckling, "So, you two are really getting a great deal out of it."

"Pff," Linda made a feeble sound of disapproval, visibly dissatisfied. She scanned the crowd and dragged Cindy along, saying, "I saw Aerin Lauder; let's go say hi. By the way, her dress looks amazing tonight. Maybe I can ask which designer made it and get him to create a set for me."

Without waiting for Eric to respond, Linda led Cindy toward the distance.

Eric didn't follow. Just as he was about to have a chat with some familiar faces, he heard a sweet voice beside him. "You're Eric Williams?"

Turning his head, Eric first saw a doll-like face with alluring eyes and a thin mouth, giving off an oddly charming vibe.

Seeing Eric look over, the girl introduced herself, "I'm Lydia, Lydia Hearst."

*****

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