Under the strong operation of the Westeros system, in less than a week, another version of the story that was closer to the truth about the attack a few years ago appeared in the media.
The legal team formed by Janet also quickly launched a civil lawsuit against Matthew Broderick and other six people for malicious defamation of others' reputations, and requested compensation ranging from 10 million to 50 million US dollars. Mark Stein and five others were $10 million, Matthew Broderick $50 million.
Careful media found that US$10 million is obviously a bottom line, and Matthew Broderick's compensation of US$50 million is exactly 10 times the other party's current net worth.
Moreover, even if Matthew Broderick and others are able to win and obtain the full claim, the amount of compensation is actually far beyond Simon's ability to bear.
In comparison, if Simon wins this lawsuit, it will mean that the six Matthew Brodericks will not only lose all their current wealth, but the remaining debts will also mean that they will have difficulty in the rest of their lives. Turn over again. Not only that, the six people are likely to face jail time after losing the lawsuit.
In addition to fighting back in the media, Simon's legal team also filed an application with the Santa Monica Police Department in Los Angeles, requesting a re-investigation of the attack in the summer of 1986 in order to prove the client's innocence and give the public the truth. When the Los Angeles Times exposed the news, Simon's side immediately took a very large initiative in public opinion.
If Simon Westeros did not have enough confidence, he would not take the initiative to ask the local police station to restart the investigation.
With such a high-profile event, under the close supervision of the media, no matter how influential Westeros is, the local police department will not dare to do any favoritism.
Although no detailed case file was left at the beginning, because there were many people involved, it was not difficult to investigate the ins and outs of the matter, even if four years had passed.
Therefore, when the Santa Monica Police Department in Los Angeles held a press conference to officially reopen the original attack investigation, the six people who were originally very active in front of the media were obviously at a loss. Mark Stein, who once again put on dentures, He even fiercely attacked the Santa Monica Police Department in an interview. It was impossible to investigate the real truth, only the truth that Simon Westeros wanted.
When asked by reporters, the logic given by Mark Stein was that Simon Westeros has a huge net worth and powerful influence, enough to manipulate the results of the investigation. Simon's legal team has not yet responded, but such an attack clearly angered the Santa Monica Police Department, which quickly led to an official refutation.
Immediately afterwards, the Santa Monica Police Department publicly announced a major breakthrough in the case.
Baseball bat.
Although no formal case was filed, the baseball bat from the night of the attack was kept, but sat gathering dust in the corner of the police evidence room for several years.
That attack left a deep impression on the police officers and doctors who rushed to the rescue. Especially the baseball bat that the boy was holding tightly in his hand at that time. Many people clearly remember that they spent a lot of effort to barely save the boy. He took off the baseball bat he was holding tightly in his hand.
At a public press conference, the Chief of the Santa Monica Police Department personally presented to reporters the baseball bat with a large amount of DNA traces from Simon Westeros and five other teenagers. Although no more information was attached, the media immediately interpreted it accordingly.
The market price of that branded baseball bat made of high-quality oak reached $200 that year. Not only that, the baseball bat also comes with the signatures of two baseball stars.
According to Simon Westero's original status as a temporary supermarket clerk, even if he could barely afford the $200 price of the baseball bat itself, it was impossible to get a star's signature.
Therefore, the baseball bat cannot belong to Westeros.
Since the baseball bat does not belong to Simon Westeros, it is difficult to establish the statement by Matthew Broderick and others that Simon Westeros attacked the six of them with a baseball bat.
However, Mark Stein, one of the six young men, once again spoke loudly to the media, firmly refusing to admit that the baseball bat belonged to them, and accused Simon of not being able to pay for the baseball bat, but that it was probably stolen by him.
Just after Mark Stein made these remarks, several old acquaintances of the other party came forward one after another to testify that the baseball bat belonged to Mark Stein himself. It was a personal item that Stein liked very much because he owned two at the same time. It was signed by a baseball star, and he often showed it off in front of everyone.
Immediately, Mark Stein changed his story again and admitted that the baseball bat was indeed his, but the original attack was still initiated by Simon Westeros. He used the baseball bat to defend himself and was taken away by the opponent.
This kind of self-contradictory sophistry that is almost nonsense has caused a large part of the media and the public who were originally on the side of the Six to change their attitudes.
Amid the turmoil over the attack, the news that Daenerys Entertainment reached a settlement with the three major unions no longer seems so attractive.
However, the circle is still paying close attention to this matter.
Before the settlement of the lawsuit, it was first accompanied by the resignation of George Cogo, chairman of the Western Chapter of the Writers Guild of America, and then Daenerys Entertainment publicly stated that it would temporarily abandon plans to build a film and television production base in Toronto. In the end, the three major unions signed an almost unconditional settlement agreement with Daenerys Entertainment and immediately dropped the lawsuit.
When the lawsuit that may have blocked Daenerys Entertainment's acquisition of MCA was settled, everyone's attention was suddenly drawn to the east coast of the United States.
Entering December and Christmas approaching, Simon Westero and his wife Janet Westero attended the grand banquet held annually by the White House to entertain members of Congress, media reporters and social elites.
On the second day of the banquet, Simon Westeros also accepted the president's invitation and held a thirty-minute meeting with President George Bush in the Oval Office of the White House, mainly discussing the economic problems currently facing the United States and how to solve them. road.
This is naturally a show, and Bush hopes to reverse his negative image of not caring about America's internal affairs. What Simon got was the Ministry of Justice's approval of Westeros' acquisition of Bell Atlantic.
A week before Christmas, after reaching a partial restriction agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Nokia and other matters, the two major government agencies successively approved Westeros' application to acquire Bell Atlantic.
On December 20, after quietly completing the year-end settlement, Westeros Company officially transferred its overseas funds in Cersei Fund Management Company back to the country and paid a huge one-time tax of US$2.29 billion.
The "New York Post" on the East Coast and the "Los Angeles Times" on the West Coast simultaneously exposed an extremely large check of US$2.29 billion used by Westeros Corporation to pay taxes, and ridiculed this tax check. Included in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Westeros Company did not miss this opportunity to shape its public image, focusing on the media to exaggerate that most of the money was earned from overseas. Simon Westeros hardly used any tax avoidance techniques to pay taxes. It is a manifestation of a strong sense of social responsibility.
The day after the two major print media platforms exposed Westeros Company’s tax check, on December 21, the last working day of the week before Christmas, Westeros Company officially signed an acquisition agreement with Bell Atlantic.
At the press conference that day, Westeros Company President James Raybould, who participated in the signing ceremony, also announced that in view of the current economic situation in the United States, as a socially responsible company, Westeros Company has publicly guaranteed that Bell Atlantic will not make any layoffs over the next year.
Not only that, as Bell Atlantic strengthens its investment in the two major business areas of mobile communications and the Internet, Bell Atlantic is expected to create at least 1,000 additional jobs in the next few years.
Such a public commitment has once again won a lot of goodwill for the Westeros company in the media and the public.
After the signing of the agreement, Westeros expects to gradually complete the cash settlement to Bell Atlantic shareholders within two weeks after Christmas.
In Hollywood, after "Pink" was released on November 23, as of December 20, within four weeks of its opening, the box office quickly reached a cumulative US$70.33 million. In the week from December 14th to December 20th, the single-week box office of "Pink League" was 10.92 million U.S. dollars. Although the single-week box office may fall to less than 10 million U.S. dollars starting next week, this women's baseball-themed film has already It is certain that it will join the 100 million yuan box office club.
"Dances with Wolves", which ended its seventh week of release, has a cumulative box office of US$49.56 million.
Although it is far inferior to "Pink", this film, which has already won six important nominations at the Golden Globe Awards, has a very stable box office curve.
Robert Altman's Venice Golden Lion Award-winning film "Intersection of Life" was released on December 7, with an opening of 613 screens.
Relying on good word-of-mouth and excellent promotion by the Gaomen Pictures team, it grossed US$7.38 million at the box office in the first seven days.
In the second week of its opening, the number of screening screens for "Intersection of Life" has increased to 823, and the box office has also declined, reaching 8.63 million US dollars.
As a wonderful interlocking ensemble drama, this film shows the life of ordinary people in Los Angeles. Because it did not use big-name stars, and many actors participating in it only received basic salary, the final budget was only 8 million. Dollar.
In two weeks, the film's North American box office total of $16.01 million has allowed the film to recover all of its production costs.
Simon originally did not have high expectations for the box office of "Intersection of Life". The initial expected total box office in North America was only about 20 million US dollars. However, judging from the box office curve in the first two weeks, the film's total North American box office is likely to hit the US$50 million mark.
However, although the box office of "Intersections" exceeded expectations, Daenerys Entertainment has no intention of adjusting its public relations strategy during the awards season.
"Dances with Wolves" will still be this year's Oscar public relations focus.
Even so, "Intersections" successfully received three Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture, Drama, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Moreover, the Golden Globe Awards committee also plans to set up a special 'Special Ensemble Award' to commend this film's outstanding performance in ensemble performances.
After Robert Altman's brief rise to prominence at the end of the 1970s, he was almost forgotten due to the failure of several consecutive films in the early 1980s, and he could only mingle in the European film industry.
With the success of "Intersections of Life", the veteran director once again entered the Hollywood mainstream and his career began to regain its vitality.
In the face of offers from other studios, Robert Altman remained unmoved. Although he did not sign a contract, he still publicly stated that he was looking forward to continuing to work with Daenerys Entertainment on the next film.
On December 21st, along with the festive atmosphere, Daenerys Entertainment's most blockbuster "Home Alone" at the end of the year was officially released.
Under Simon's personal arrangement, the film's opening screen count reached 2,676, becoming the film with the highest number of screen openings at the end of 1990. The film's publicity campaign also far exceeded that of other festive films of the same period. Before the start of filming, the budget for advertising and publicity alone exceeded US$12 million, and the overall publicity budget reached US$15 million.
Obviously, as long as the film's box office meets expectations, the later budget investment can easily exceed the film's final production cost of $18 million.
However, the competition this Christmas season is also quite fierce.
In addition to "Home Alone", there are three other new films that have opened on more than 1,000 screens. They are Universal's films after Arnold Schwarzenegger quit and chose another tough guy actor, Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film industry's new film "Kindergarten", Brian De Palma's new film "Bonfire of the Vanities" and the comedy film "Like an Angel" starring Paul Hogan, the actor of the 1980s blockbuster "Crocodile Dundee" series.
MGM produced the Cold War spy film "The Russia House" starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, and its opening screen size also exceeded 700.
Finally, there are four other small-scale new films that are opening on the screen for a few yuan to two or three hundred yuan.
Taken together, during the week of December 21, the number of new films released in North American theaters reached 9. .
After successfully capturing Bell Atlantic, Simon still spent the Christmas week with Janet at Greenwich Manor on the east coast.
Because it was Christmas, Sofia Fesi also rushed over, planning to take a week's vacation.
Probably because she had been looking forward to having a baby, Janet liked Sofia's children very much, and they even had lunch together on Christmas Day.
For the acquisition of MCA, the biggest obstacle of the three major union lawsuits has been resolved, and Daenerys Entertainment has restarted contact with MCA management.
The United Nations has issued an ultimatum to Iraq, requiring Iraqi troops to withdraw from Kuwait before January 15 next year.
Simon knows that this is also the last chance for Daenerys Entertainment to easily win over MCA. Once the war ends in a catastrophic manner and the U.S. stock market rebounds quickly, this matter will have its twists and turns again.
However, on the surface, the Daenerys Entertainment team is still on track and does not show any urgency.
After all, Simon, who knew the future economic trends well, very much hoped to finalize the acquisition before the war broke out. The same was true for MCA.
The several wars that the United States encountered after the two world wars almost all had a negative impact on the domestic economy. Therefore, domestic experts and media in the United States generally predict that once a war breaks out in the Middle East, it will definitely mean another decline in the U.S. stock market. If the war in the Middle East falls into a long-term stalemate like the Vietnam War, the U.S. economy will be further in trouble.
Therefore, both Daenerys Entertainment and MCA shareholders actually expect the acquisition to be finalized before January 15 next year.