hunt hollywood

Sophia keenly noticed the change in Amy's expression, and asked suspiciously, "What's the matter?"

"It's nothing."

"There must be something hidden from me," Sophia said, looked at Amy again, and suddenly asked, "About Simon?"

"If you want to know, you can ask him yourself."

"I won't ask, it's Jenny's business to ask." Sophia shrugged, noticing the appearance of two tall girls at the entrance of the hall, and said, "That's it, Najia and the others are here, I'll talk to them about CK's endorsement .”

Amy followed Sophia's eyes and said enviously, "It really is 'waist' and 'leg'."

Sophia smiled and said, "Yes, it's a pity that you are a woman."

The two separate.

Sophia went to Nadja Orman and Yasmine Gary, Amy and Catherine from the crew of "Thelma and Louise" greeted them, and then turned to the main creators of tonight's big winner "The Times" go.

Daenerys Entertainment seems to have gotten almost nothing this year, but the reality is that Barbra Streisand and Warner Bros. Pictures paid the High Gate Pictures team $800 million in PR to secure the award for "On Tides" Fees, of which US$300 million belonged to the commission of the high door film public relations team.

Anyone in the circle who knows the general inside story will understand that this year is just a voluntary concession by Daenerys Entertainment.

Chapter 477 Aftermath (Revised)

As many times in the past, the results of the 64th Academy Awards once again sparked controversy in the media.

Three women were nominated for the Best Director Oscar at the same time. Under the politically correct public opinion atmosphere in the past few months, no one would think that this year's Best Director Oscar should not be awarded to a woman.

However, in the eyes of many media, Barbra Streisand's moisture is too obvious compared with the other two female directors nominated this time.

You know, the media score of "The Stormy Waves", which was nominated six in the Oscars this time, was only barely a good 6.8 points. 7.4 points.

Even if the direction of the media does not represent the meaning of the Oscar judges, even if Barbra Streisand has more experience in Hollywood than the other two directors, it is enough to get a best director statuette for "The Waves of Time", and even the best picture Also won, it seems that the Oscar is too unfair.

Of course, there are also media experts who have made an analysis from another angle.

These media believe that the three female-directed works, "Thelma and Louise" and "Farewell to the Piano", are all films produced by Daenerys Entertainment, which is the key to the outcome of this Oscar award.

Because of the past few years.

The 61st Oscar, Best Picture, "Rain Man", produced by Daenerys Entertainment.

The 62nd Academy Awards, Best Picture, "Driving Miss Daisy", produced by Daenerys Entertainment.

The 63rd Oscar, Best Picture, "Dances with Wolves", produced by Daenerys Entertainment.

For three consecutive years, Daenerys Entertainment has won the Oscar for Best Picture three times in a row, but three times, if this time, the best picture and a large number of other awards are still awarded to Daenerys Entertainment, then the Oscar will become Dani Liz Entertainment Group's exclusive Oscar.

Even if the previous "Rain Man", "Drive Miss Daisy" and "Dances with Wolves" all have excellent qualities enough to win the Oscar for the best picture statuette, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences certainly does not want the Oscar Become Daenerys Entertainment's private enclave.

Therefore, this time, the film produced by Daenerys Entertainment, not counting the films released by other labels, still won 23 nominations, but only won two statuettes. This result is completely expected middle.

Simply put, Oscar is playing balance.

Regarding the media's balanced view, the Academy naturally strongly denied it, and some senior officials of the Academy and the Olympic award judges who knew that "The Stormy Waves" was operated by the public relations team of Gaomen Films had mixed feelings.

Since it is still an award run by her own family, Daenerys will certainly not manipulate public opinion to question the fairness of the Olympic Awards, but only slightly fueled the controversy among the three films in order to stimulate the commercial potential of the three films.

Both "Farewell to the Piano" and "The Stormy Waves" were released in December last year, and there is no release at this time.

As of last Friday, "Farewell to the Piano" took advantage of the attention of the awards season that began at the beginning of the year, and had a small-scale long-term screening for more than three months, with a cumulative box office of 3632 million US dollars.

Compared with the film's production cost of 700 million US dollars, "The Piano Farewell", which is expected to hit the box office of 4000 million US dollars before the release, is definitely a big hit.

As of last Friday, the cumulative North American box office of "The Waves of Time" reached 7151 million U.S. dollars.

This mainstream movie directed and starred by Barbra Streisand, with the best picture and many other awards, is expected to have a total North American box office of over 8000 million US dollars before the next release.

"Thelma & Louise" was released on September 9 last year, and it was released in early December. The total box office in North America was finally US$6 million, which is also considered a blockbuster.

After a three-month hiatus, Daenerys Entertainment officially released the film's video tape ahead of the Oscars in early March.

Taking advantage of the heat of the awards season, "Thelma & Louise" has sold 73 boxes in three weeks, and the total follow-up sales are expected to reach 150 million to 200 million boxes.

Based on an average video sales price of $30, the film could have outperformed the box office by topping $6000 million in video sales.

With the Oscars and the media controversy surrounding the awards' results, box office and video sales figures for all three movies showed significant upticks in the new week.

In the final analysis, for Hollywood, Oscar is not only a hall of glory, but also a commercial feast.

KKR, a competitor of Cersei Capital, put forward a bid of US$3 billion to Victoria's Secret parent company LTD on March 30, so Simon flew directly to New York after laying down four women in Los Angeles.

The results of this year's Oscar awards are basically within Simon's expectations.

Daenerys Entertainment's best foreign language film statuette besides the best actress in "The Piano Farewell" is also an early layout of Simon.

Many years later, the reason why the "Transformers" live-action movie once broke the box office record on the other side of the ocean is that in 1987, Hasbro gave the "Transformers" cartoon to local TV stations for free, thus creating the image of Transformers national popularity.

The public relations difficulty of the fringe award of Best Foreign Language Film is actually not that big. There were no other outstanding foreign language films shortlisted this year. The public relations team of Gaomen Films easily pushed "Raise the Red Lantern" to the podium.

With Hollywood still reeling from the aftermath of the Oscars, Simon swept the matter into the past with a few thank-you calls the next day.

After KKR's bid, Blackstone also put forward a cooperation proposal to the Apollo Asset Management team of Cersei Capital, hoping that the two parties will jointly fund the bid for LTD.

If you don't have enough confidence in LTD, or your financial strength is not enough, choosing a partner is also a good choice.

However, this time, unlike Simmons, which previously chose to cooperate with other capitals to acquire Simmons, Cersei Capital neither lacks confidence nor lacks funds for LTD, and does not intend to give half of its future potential earnings to Blackstone Group.

There have been two private equity offers, and another private equity giant is also eyeing it. Many arbitrage capitals have entered the market to buy LTD shares, leading to a further rapid rise in LTD stock prices.

On the day KKR made the offer, the market value of LTD broke through 20 billion US dollars.

From 13 billion US dollars two months ago to 20 billion US dollars at this time, the market value has increased by more than 50%, which makes the LTD board of directors and major shareholders feel quite complicated.

If LTD could have such a market value before the news of the acquisition leaked, relying on the confidence of the market, whether it is additional stock issuance or bond financing, the company can easily overcome the fact that it is not a serious cash crisis.

The current situation is that the acquisition of LTD has almost become a foregone conclusion.

Otherwise, once the acquisition fails, the rate of decline of LTD stock price will definitely not be much slower than the rate of rise.Even though the acquisition of Cersei Capital has made many shareholders realize the potential of LTD, they are still more willing to directly choose high cash out than the stock price to plummet again.

"KKR still hasn't got rid of the haze of the Reynolds Nabisco acquisition. I personally judge that this time we bid for LTD, mainly because KKR's Henry Kravis hopes to revive KKR through a successful acquisition. morale, and may also have the idea of ​​​​diverting investors' attention."

Midtown Manhattan, the conference room of Cersei Capital headquarters.

Leon Black, president of Cersei Capital's Apollo Management Company, is introducing the process of the acquisition: "Because the negative impact of Reynolds Nabisco is too great, and the U.S. economy has not fully recovered now, facing KKR's board of directors and investors KKR will never offer an unlimited offer. Therefore, $25 billion should probably be KKR’s limit.”

The Reynolds Nabisco acquisition was a disaster because of the out-of-control bids under the irrational competition between the parties.

LTD was valued at only about $2 billion before news of the acquisition leaked in February.

If KKR's offer exceeds US$26 billion, a 100% premium will undoubtedly make investors question whether this private equity company will suffer the same mistakes as the Reynolds Nabisco acquisition.

Therefore, KKR is indeed very likely to control the upper limit of the premium within 100%.

For Cersei Capital, 25 billion US dollars is also the upper limit of the quotation set by Simon.

Even if the LTD cannot be obtained, Simon will not allow this price to rise by even one dollar.

In fact, at the end of the bidding, when the transaction prices are not much different, what everyone is competing for is more likely to be a specific transaction plan.

Simon thought about this, and asked Leon Black again, "Where is the Blackstone?"

"Not sure for the time being, but Blackstone and us have failed to join forces. They may turn to KKR. Both companies choose to bid largely because we are interested in LTD. They should be interested in LTD's future. Not enough confidence. Of course, if KKR also rejects Blackstone’s cooperation invitation, Steve Schwarzman is more likely to give up completely. He is a very cautious and conservative person, and the current economic situation does not allow Blackstone to take risks. It’s too risky, and in addition, the fashion industry is not an area that Blackstone is good at.”

Simon played with a pencil in his hand, thought for a moment, and said: "In this way, you try to contact some media to spread the news that KKR and Blackstone are just blindly following Cersei Capital, and cause as much impact as possible."

Any company that loses its own judgment and just blindly follows others will obviously not gain the trust of investors.

Leon Black said: "There are already media comments like this, and we can indeed add fuel to the flames. However, Simon, doing so may also attract other bidders."

"You just need to stick to the upper limit of 25 billion US dollars in quotations," Simon said, "Even if it really fails, we still hold about 5% of LTD shares in our hands. Well, how much profit can we make if we sell it?"

"At least $5000 million."

"So, that's it, let's talk about your specific acquisition plan."

In the next hour or so, in addition to the basic acquisition offer, everyone also re-adjusted the future payment form, management arrangements, and means to relieve LTD's cash pressure and other acquisitions.

Simon finally agreed to the request of the Wexner family, the major shareholder of LTD, to retain 10% of the shares and the current chairman and CEO Leslie Wexner to continue to hold the current position.Leslie Wexner is officially the founder of LTD Group, and the Wexner family still holds about 30% of the shares of LTD company at this time.

In the original time and space, LTD was controlled by Leslie Wexner until many years later, and the subsequent development of LTD also proved the founder's ability.This acquisition by Cersei Capital is more of an investment, and Simon has no intention of taking control of LTD.

The meeting ended and it was past five o'clock in the afternoon.

Simon and Janet returned to the apartment on Fifth Avenue together, and made a special trip to the construction site of Westeros Building on the way.

Today is Wednesday, May 4th.

April Fools' Day.

After the official start of construction in January, several original buildings have been demolished, and the foundation is being excavated at this time.

The workers had already left work, and the couple left after simply looking around at the construction site.

"After negotiating with the New York Subway Company for a long time, they agreed to add a subway station next to our building, but we had to pay for the renovation cost, which cost about 1000 million US dollars. Also, among the workers employed by Tishman Speyer are actually many from Eastern Europe. As for illegal workers, I talked to James about it and he said it was not a big problem."

Janet and Simon talked about some trivial matters about the construction of the building, and soon returned to the apartment on Fifth Avenue.

Simon didn't care too much when he heard about illegal labor: "There is probably no construction site in New York that does not use illegal labor, because there are simply not enough workers locally. Moreover, even if something happens, iron The Speyers at Lionsgate can do it too, they've been doing it for almost 100 years."

Talking and entering the apartment, she was greeted by Alia Mukerji, a yoga teacher that Janet had found from India.

After months of exercising, Janet's figure is already a bit better than before pregnancy.

However, this Indian girl who is very good at yoga and has a first-class appearance and figure has stayed.

Simon has seen with his own eyes that Aaliyah's body is as soft as an acrobat, and the unlocking scale is [-]%, so he jokingly asked her if she had any plans to develop in Hollywood.

There are actually quite a few Hollywood stars who turned from fitness coaches to actors relying on their connections.

Steven Seagal used to be Michael Ovitz's judo coach.

Aaliyah obviously has this idea, but she doesn't seem to lack patience and ambition to go further.Simon didn't care about it, and let this charming Indian girl continue to stay.

After taking a shower with Janet, the woman went to the kitchen to arrange dinner. Simon changed into a casual cardigan and slacks, and sat on the living room sofa while watching CNN's instant news while holding a drawing book to sketch.

When the special fragrance came, Simon stopped his brush, looked up to see Aaliyah put a cup of coffee in front of him, just smiled, and turned his attention back to the sketch in front of him.

After a while.

The fragrance still did not dissipate, and there was a voice next to my ear: "Sir, you are really good at drawing."

Simon glanced sideways, and the Indian girl squatted beside him prettyly, her arms resting on the armrest of the sofa, her eyes filled with just the right amount of curiosity and admiration.

Chapter 478 Little Vase (Repair)

Without responding to Aaliyah's compliment, Simon remembered something and asked, "By the way, how tall are you?"

"5 feet 9 inches."

The Indian girl didn't understand why Simon asked this suddenly, but she answered immediately.

As he spoke, he stood up and showed Simon.

Aaliyah was only wearing a light blue pullover sweater and white jeans in the apartment. The slightly loose sweater still couldn't conceal the girl's well-proportioned and graceful figure, even though it was easy to distinguish from the girl's black hair and facial features Her ethnicity, if she walks on the street, can definitely attract a super high rate of turning heads.

Dispelling the idea of ​​pulling the girl over to play with, Simon shook his head and said, "Unfortunately, it's too high."

Seeing Simon look back, Alia squatted down next to the man again, maintaining the posture with her arms on the armrest of the sofa and asked, "Sir, is there any problem?"

Simon said: "If you're under 5'6", there just happens to be a role that's perfect for you."

There was no disappointment on Aaliyah's face, she glanced at the storyboard sketch in Simon's hand, and asked, "Is this the movie your husband is preparing?"

"No," Simon shook his head and said, "The other one is called "Scent of a Woman". In the film, there is a tango dance that I believe will be very brilliant. The hero needs a partner. Unfortunately, you are a bit tall, no Very suitable."

Gabriel Anwar, the tango girl in the original "Scent of a Woman", is actually half-Indian.

If it wasn't for Alia's being too tall, Simon was looking forward to trying this girl whose appearance and temperament were much stronger than Gabriel Anwar's.

However, 5 feet 9 inches, converted to over 175CM, which is already a model-level height.

Al Pacino is barely 1.7 meters tall.

If Aaliyah wears high heels during the shooting, the picture will be very uncoordinated if you think about it.

Aaliyah didn't ask any more about "Scent of a Woman", and looked over with a pair of amber eyes: "Actually, I'm a good dancer. If you have time, sir, I can dance for you."

Simon didn't speak, but raised his head slightly and gestured in one direction.

Aaliyah turned around.