Chp 59 : Overbound Shamelessness?

Happy New Year 2021 everyone!!

I don't hope for anything, I'm afraid to jynx it, but I wish that this year could be better.

I've posted the new chapter earlier by one or two days on Patréon,

Happy Reading for Everyone!!

~~~

"Al!! Congratulations! Your 2 songs entered the top tens of American Billboards chart!" As soon as Al opened the orphanage's front door, Ari Emanuel screamed at his face in point-blank range.

His eyes blinked in surprise, both by good news and Ari's scream. "It's still 8 AM Ari, how about breakfast first, we've made some scrambled eggs and there's coffee made by Jessie?" He then used his thumb to point inside the orphanage.

It has been a few days since the Live Aid Concert was held, and the crazed fever of it still has yet dispersed, especially about the 3 songs that he played in that concert.

Ari accepted his kindness and went inside, once he was inside the orphanage, he saw the orphanage's kids were in deadbeat condition.

From the way they look, it must be another Al's hell "exercise" that they did once a week, he smiled a little.

Years ago, he almost accepted his offer to train with him after he saw how built his body was. Fortunately, more additional clients hired him, and the works that kept piling up made him rejected it, and he felt grateful for it.

Jessica who was in the kitchen saw Ari coming over and offered him a coffee. His purpose for coming here was to accompany Al to the <Ferris Bueller's Day Off> pers conference and table read.

"Table read" is one of the stages of film, television, radio, and theatre production when an organized reading around a table of the screenplay or script by the actors with speaking parts is conducted.

After John Hughes the director completed the script, he kept it confidential for these stages. So the script he received when he got the offer for the role was half complete, but he knew the film plot because he had watched it before in his previous life.

As for Billboard things, he was also his agent in the music industry. After the Live Aid concert, Universal Music came to him and offered him the best term for the 2 singles so that they could record and distribute them, of course, the song's rights still will be held by him, or else he wouldn't take Universal's extended arm.

But sometimes everything never went according to plan, there was a little trouble with recording 'Shallow', more likely a problem with Madonna's record label, Sire Records.

They asked for an expensive price and unreasonable demands from Universal Music for only one duet song and so, the negotiation collapsed.

Al then suggested Universal Pictures for letting Alice became his duet partner and after they heard Alice's angelic voice, they gladly accept it and even wanted to contract Alice as their exclusive singer.

He recorded 'Don't Look Back in Anger' and 'Shallow' and as Ari has said, his songs took 3rd and 4th places on Billboard's chart.

The greater Al's fame in the music industry, the more connection Ari was going to have, and more clients will he have in the future.

As for Alice, she used the stage name of Ellish, for hiding her identity and Mary worked as her manager. How surprised the listeners were when they heard 'Shallow' but the voice they heard was not Madonna's but a girl named Ellish.

Madonna's record label tried to sue them for copyright infringement but the Los Angeles court didn't even accept the case and even treated it as a joke, this was the song he wrote and they accused Al of stealing it? It was like a thief shouting thief.

Ari looked at his watch that showed 9.30 AM so he asked Al to be prepared to go to Paramount Pictures HQ.

He cleaned his dishes and saying farewell to everyone, then Laura who still had food in her mouth screamed to him, "Don't forget to bring me a gift, Al!"

Then her words followed by everyone else, "Me too Al!"; "Me three!"; "Me million!"

Al made a weird face at them, "Guys, I just leave for a moment, it doesn't even take all day. So, please no gift for..." His words stopped after he saw Laura, Drew, Melissa, Annie, and Jon gave him puppy eyes move.

He sighed, "Okay what do you want?" Kids screamed in excitement and told Al what they wanted.

After everyone stated their wishes to him, Al turned to Toby who was looking at him absentmindedly with a complicated look on his face.

He called his name a few times, and finally, he answered on his 3rd tries.

"Toby? You okay?" Al asked with concern. Everyone also looked at Toby in that way.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why you asked?" Trying hardest to hide his guilt? Or something else?

"Everyone had given what they wanted, it was only yours left."

"I'm okay Al, just stay safe there." He then finished his words with an awkward laugh.

He looked at Toby in doubt, usually, it was he and Laura who asked him weird things, and he was sure that it was just them trying to mess up with him.

There was something off about Toby since a few days ago but he didn't tell him what, when Al asked him. So he thought that he will be having a "brother talk" with him tonight.

~~~

Paramount Pictures HQ was located on Melrose Ave, Hollywood. It was not merged by Viacom yet and still held by Gulf and Western Company, and they were not yet turned their way to a media empire, their turning point was in 1989, when Gulf+Western Company sold other business they had to focus on Paramount development and changed their names to Paramount Communications.

When they came here, Al was blocked by reporters and paparazzi who were trying to interview him about his singles, asking if he was going to make an album or not, and his upcoming film with Paramount Pictures.

Al chose to be silent and ignored any question, and with the security's help, they were able to fend off these people and entered the building without harm.

As soon as he entered the building, he was greeted by a familiar face, Ned Tanen, the current Paramount Pictures president and the old enemy of Robert Zemeckis.

Steven also has enmity with this guy, he almost cut the budget of <E.T.> and replaced Al with Henry Thomas as Elliot.

Al also should have it, but now, he had a partnership with him, and in business, there was no eternal enemy and friend, only benefits.

Besides, he got $ 10 million and 15% North America Box Office as payment, so what can he say, money is good, more money is better.

"Brandt! Long time no see kid, the last time I saw you was when you were this tall." Ned Tanen leveled his hand to his waist, showing that it was Al's height before.

Now he was as tall as him, and the way he looked at Al was as like he was his proud grandfather who seeing his grandson grown up.

It made him uncomfortable but he swallowed it, he smiled and shook hands with him. But Ned Tanen suddenly hugged him and turned to the right side.

Then Al saw that they were being photographed by two or three reporters. His mind clicked, he understood that this was just a setting to show the media that they were in a good relationship.

He was also sure that these reporters were from their subsidiaries' newspaper.

The news about the bad relationship between Robert Zemeckis and Ned Tanen was an open secret, and with Robert Zemeckis's popularity kept soaring to the sky, of course, Paramount's board directors must be desperate asking Ned Tanen to fix his relationship with him.

So by using Al as a bridge, they were trying to mend their relationship by showing that they had a good relationship with their apprentice to the public. Al was not mad, instead, he was impressed by these people's shamelessness.

Yes, he was used as a pawn but he also learned a few tricks from it and treated it as a lesson so he wouldn't be tricked again.

He smiled at him and followed every of his arrangement while trying to learn a bit from this. Then he was brought to one of the rooms.

Tanen opened the door and there, Al finally saw the crew and cast of the <Ferris Bueller's Day Off>. He was late and the last one who arrived, accompanied by Ari of course.

"Hello everyone." When he came in, girls in the room were shrieked in excitement because they were meeting their idols.

Their reaction was in contrast to each other. There was excitement, amazement, adoration, contempt, hate, and jealously.

He smiled and greeted them all, Ari then gave a box to him. Al had already predicted this, he would be attacked by reporters and delayed from the table reading.

What could make everyone happy besides money? Foods!! Inside the box were cheeseburgers and sandwiches that he and the cook he hired for Valhalla Dine & Bar made yesterday, he came up with the recipes he got from "Mind Library".

He gave this food as an apology for coming late, most of them cheered while a few grunted but still accepted the food Al gave.

Then he met with the director, John Hughes, the teenagers&family-themed director who was the creator and producer of legendary films <Home Alone> series.

Al greeted him and he answered with just a nod, he guessed Hughes was not a man with many words, and from the look he gave, he was not mad or looking at him with contempt because of him coming late.

As for John Hughes, he knew that Paramount really wanted Al to play in this film, look at the 3 films he starred in before. The box offices were exploded, 2 films got box office more than 600 million globally, while 1 film soon catching up.

Not only that, he made 1 short film that got best short film at Chicago Film Festival and Academy Awards, Directed a film that acclaimed to be the best low budget Sci-fi film ever made, and an Academy Award's trophy for the best original screenplay.

Also, he was singing at the Live Aid concert that made him and his songs' popularity soared, and he admitted that he really loves his songs, he even queued in the music store, only to get his 2 singles and played it every morning.

Look at him, he only made 2 films, and one of them had a box office of $50 million with a budget of $1 million, but compared to him, Alphonse was still many times better.

No wonder he felt pressured, if the box office failed then he would be the one who blamed. He was absentminded since his trip here, so when Alphonse Brandt greeted him, he was stunned and only replied with a nod, he felt really embarrassed inside but he still played cool, as director the worst thing to do is losing his composure.

He just hoped his authority as the director wasn't overlapped by him later on.

Al introduced himself in front of everyone else, he needs to be professional and didn't need to give himself airs, everyone else is a team here.

He made several jokes in his introduction and the cast felt eased with him, he took control of the situation easily.

They also introduced themselves to him, from Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jennifer Grey, Jeffrey Jones.

Is that Kristy Swanson? The original Buffy the Vampire Slayer and of course the future MIL... cough, he didn't realize she was also getting a role in this film, he winked his eye at her when she introduced herself to him.

She was stunned and gasped seeing him doing that, her face blushed and quickly sat back and hid her embarrassed face.

And finally, the enmity he felt before was excreted from the one named Charlie Sheen.

Al remembered him, he and his father exactly, at the last Oscar Party he attended.

His father Martin Sheen, precisely, was making an enemy out of Steven Spielberg, so that was why, his son also had it with Al, who was Steven's Godson.

Al greeted Charlie Sheen and he replied with a snort. Al sat down on the seat between Alan Ruck and Mia Sara.

The table reading will soon begin, before that, he had a little conversation with Alan and Mia. Mia confessed that she was his fans, she had been since he wrote Toys Story.

As for Alan, he liked his songs, especially 'Don't Look Back In Anger', he loved it.

And from the conversation they had, it had been revealed that before he took the role, it was supposed to be given to Matthew Broderick, but Paramount insisted to use Alphonse to be cast on the role.

Until this day, there were still people who protested Al to play in this film, especially the faction led by Charlie Sheen, who was revealed that he was Matthew Broderick's best friend.

Al smiled, this shooting would be very interesting. He never had a conflict with other actors on the set before, and this would be the first time he tasted it.

Then the sound of Tom Jacobson, one of the producers of this film woke him up from his daydream. "Okay, everyone! Let's this table reading session start!"

To Be Continued...

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Produced by:

JJTS

Directed by:

Jarvis