Chapter 841: A Chance to Collaborate

[Chapter 841: Intense Flirting]

As the conversation flowed, 87-year-old actress Gloria Stuart, best known for her role as Old Rose, was slowly guided backstage by a group of people.

"Well, Maggie, see you at the Vanity Fair party," Eric called over to Madonna as he made his way toward Gloria Stuart. It was clear that discussing the Yahoo Music Store was no longer on the agenda.

Once seated on the sofa, Gloria, despite the ceremony running for over two hours, seemed to be in great spirits. She occasionally reached out to touch the small golden statuette held in her hands by previous Best Supporting Actor winner Kevin Spacey, smiling and murmuring, "Unbelievable, just unbelievable."

As one of the stars from Hollywood's Golden Era, Gloria Stuart had long faded from the limelight by the mid-forties. Thus, this was her first Oscar nomination, and she was finally receiving the award.

Eric approached to congratulate the elderly actress, shaking her hand warmly. They chatted for a moment, and despite her daughter's urging for her to rest, Gloria expressed her desire to witness the final moments of the ceremony. Eric then personally assisted her back to the auditorium.

...

Just as they returned to their seats, last year's Best Director winner Robert Zemeckis took the stage to announce the nominees for Best Director.

The five nominees for Best Director were showcased in close-ups on the big screen. Zemeckis opened the envelope and declared a name that was already a foregone conclusion: "The Oscar goes to James Cameron for Titanic."

Amidst the applause and cheers, everyone surrounding the Titanic crew stood up, and Eric rose to his feet, clapping as he looked back at Cameron, who was hugging people in the crowd.

Since Eric was sitting in the middle, as Cameron approached, he merely reached out for a celebratory high-five. Instead, Cameron took his hand while pushing past William Stuart and Drew, squeezing over.

With laughter among those around them, William and Drew quickly smiled and stepped aside into the aisle.

Enduring Cameron's bear hug, Eric patted his back twice and joked, "Man, I know you're excited, get up there, everyone's waiting for you."

"Thank you, Eric, no matter what," Cameron replied again, letting go of Eric and giving him a fist bump before continuing towards the stage.

Eric turned around, noticing that the girl had taken his seat and was playfully pointing to his original spot. "You should sit here; I don't want to risk Jim stepping on my dress again, it's expensive."

Eric had no choice but to sit beside her, listening to Cameron speedily deliver his acceptance speech. He turned to William and asked, "William, you're definitely going up there next. How does it feel?"

The Best Picture award could nominate up to three people. In original timeline, Titanic only nominated Cameron and Jon Landau. However, this time, as one of the key producers, Firefly had included William Stuart's name as well. Despite some unpleasantness during production, Cameron didn't oppose Firefly's arrangement.

"I'm excited," William Stuart replied, shaking his head with a smile. "But once was enough for this experience; working with Jim is just too challenging." After a moment, he tentatively added, "Eric, I'd actually like to help produce for you."

On stage, Cameron expressed his gratitude towards Eric once more, and the camera panned over to Eric, who smiled and nodded. Once the shot moved away, he said, "That's a great idea; I'd love to have someone familiar with CG effects to help me out; you must have gained quite a bit of experience this time."

For Eric's films, the production responsibilities were initially handled personally by Jeffrey Hansen. After Jeffrey's retirement, Jerry Bruckheimer took over the role, and they had a very pleasant collaboration on Jurassic Park. However, in recent years, Bruckheimer had been increasingly focused on his own film and television company. Though those companies were affiliated with Firefly, he certainly couldn't fully dedicate himself to being Eric's producer anymore. After completing the collaboration with the Broccoli siblings on Casino Royale, Eric needed to find a new producer to manage his projects.

William Stuart clearly recognized this opportunity. Upon hearing Eric, he quickly responded, "Then it's settled."

Eric understood William Stuart's eagerness and agreed with a smile, "Of course, it's settled."

On stage, Cameron exclaimed his iconic "I'm the king of the world" before leaving amidst applause.

The next presenter was Al Pacino, who came on stage to announce the Best Picture award -- a result that was, of course, no surprise.

Cameron hurried back to his seat, rising again to join Jon Landau and William Stuart as they made their way to the stage.

Thus, the 69th Academy Awards ended perfectly, with Titanic taking home an unprecedented 13 Oscars, setting a record in Academy history.

...

At this point, it was already early morning on the East Coast, but in Los Angeles, it was just around nine o'clock in the evening -- the beginning of the nightlife.

After the ceremony, regardless of whether they had won or not, most guests rushed off to various parties scattered throughout Los Angeles.

After several years of development, Conde Nast had placed even greater importance on the brand effect from the Vanity Fair party, increasingly leveraging their connections and resources to attract key Oscar attendees. As a mutually beneficial arrangement, more and more celebrities favored the Vanity Fair party following the Oscars.

Firefly and Conde Nast had established an agreement prior to the Oscars to cancel individual celebratory parties, directing all their crews to the Vanity Fair party in exchange for more coverage for Firefly's award-winning films across Conde Nast's media.

After the awards ceremony, the creative teams of both Titanic and The Thin Red Line rushed to the Vanity Fair party venue at the Beverly Hills Arts Center.

As Eric and Drew arrived at the parking lot, Peter Rich led a security team to fend off the throng of frenzied reporters waiting outside, escorting them into the arts center.

The moment they stepped into the lobby, Eric spotted a balding middle-aged man enthusiastically approaching them.

"Who is that?" the girl asked, leaning curiously against Eric.

Peter Rich, who had just caught up, quietly whispered to Eric, "Louis Horvitz, the director of this year's ceremony."

As the middle-aged man reached them, he didn't seem to notice Peter Rich's quiet words. He eagerly extended his hand, saying, "Eric, congratulations on the 13 awards, that's simply a miracle."

"Thank you, Mr. Horvitz," Eric replied as they shook hands. "This year's awards ceremony was fantastic."

"Ha ha, I'm glad you enjoyed it," Louis Horvitz beamed, engaging in pleasantries until they entered the party hall, at which point he bid farewell and left.

The girl watched him go and remarked, "What an interesting guy; he's so excited, it's like he won an award himself."

"He must have won something," Eric laughed, then turned to Peter Rich who was following behind and asked, "The ratings for the ceremony should be out by now, right?"

"Yes, Mr. Williams," Peter replied. "Preliminary numbers from ABC indicate an average viewership of 51 million, which is 12 million higher than last year. The highest ratings were during the last ten minutes, with 55.5 million. Based on these figures, this year's Oscars 30-second commercial price is about $950,000, which is a 30% increase from previous years. Director Louis Horvitz should receive a nice bonus as a result."

After hearing this, Eric chuckled, "See, he really did win something."

The girl chimed in, "Heh, but I'm sure it's not worth as much as the awards we received."

Just then, Eric recalled something and asked Peter Rich, "Madonna should be coming, right?"

Peter replied, "Miss Ciccone should be on the guest list. Do you want me to check?"

Eric nodded and added, "If she is confirmed to come, call to have a few Fireflyer samples brought over; I'll need them later."

"Sure," Peter said, and noticing Eric had no further instructions, he quickly turned and left.

The girl glanced back at Peter leaving and said, "He's quite capable; Eric, why did you let him work at FFM then?"

Eric picked up two drinks from a passing waiter and handed one to the girl, explaining, "Just like Allen. People like these should be considered part of our core team."

Eric had initially assigned his first assistant Allen Fisman to ABC as a department manager. After several years of hard work, he had climbed the ranks to become the Vice President of ABC Group.

Allen's success had inspired Eric to continuously seek out talent from within his assistant's office, familiarizing them for a while before placing them into various roles in the Firefly system, thereby creating a dedicated management team.

Of course, Eric wasn't going to grant them any special treatment due to familiarity; unless they proved their capabilities, they would still face elimination.

The girl merely nodded, seeming to understand half of it. As guests continued to arrive in the party hall, she abandoned that line of thought and eagerly engaged with Eric amidst the crowd.

...

As more people began to fill the venue, the atmosphere grew more lively.

The Titanic crew, housing most of the night's glory, undoubtedly stood out among the crowd. For a long time after the party commenced, the guests were enveloped in waves of congratulations and praises.

After about an hour, Eric finally slipped away. Madonna had just arrived at the party and had come over to say hello.

Grabbing a few Fireflyer players from Peter Rich, who was waiting on the side, Eric made his way to where Madonna was chatting in a booth.

Across from Madonna sat a young Hollywood actor Eric didn't recognize; he looked about 25 or 26, and possibly had appeared in the recent wave of teen horror films.

At the moment, Eric couldn't recall his name, so he simply said, "Hi, can I have a moment alone with Maggie?"

The young man, momentarily dazed by the queen's charm, quickly snapped back to reality upon noticing Eric. Evidently misunderstanding the situation, he humbly and somewhat flusteredly said, "Of course, Mr. Williams, oh, I'll leave right now."

As the young man hastily departed, Madonna watched him go, then turned back to Eric with renewed interest, saying, "Eric, I was just about to start a whole new romance, and you just interrupted it. How do you plan to make it up to me?"

Eric had no intention of rising to the bait; he held out a Fireflyer from his pocket, saying, "Here, just take this."

Madonna picked up the sky-blue Fireflyer and examined it, suddenly laughing as she said, "Oh, I've seen these before, and my manager told me that these little gadgets could seriously hurt physical album sales."

While saying this, Madonna shot Eric a playful glance, her eyes reflecting a mix of knowing and teasing as she seemed curious how Eric would respond.

"In the 70s, when Sony first released its video recorders, Hollywood had similar views to what you're expressing now. Universal and Disney even engaged in a ten-year legal battle with Sony," Eric replied, unfazed by Madonna's underlying rejection, and elaborated, "But twenty years later, video tape sales each year exceeded $13 billion, which is more than double domestic box office earnings. It was the rise of the video tape industry that contributed to Hollywood's current prosperity. Without the extra profits from the video tape industry, no studio would dare to produce a film like Titanic at such an investment level."

As he spoke, Eric pulled out another white Fireflyer from his pocket and said, "And what you're seeing now is the future of the music industry."

"Very interesting," Madonna remarked, playing with the device in her hands. "But Eric, I'm not someone who gets easily convinced."

"I never intended to persuade you tonight; I'm just creating an opportunity for everyone."

"Oh? What opportunity?"

"Of course, a chance to collaborate."

*****

https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.