Like many times in the past, the results of the 64th Academy Awards once again triggered controversy in the media.
Three women were nominated for the Oscar for Best Director at the same time. In the atmosphere of politically correct public opinion in the past few months, no one would think that this Oscar's Best Director Award should not be awarded to a woman.
However, in the eyes of many media, Barbra Streisand is too obvious compared to the other two female directors nominated this time.
You know, this time, the media rating of "The Storm of Time", which was nominated for six out of eight Oscars, was only a barely good 6.8. The other two movies, "Thelma and Louise" were rated 7.4, and "The Piano" was even higher. 9.2 points.
Even if the media trend does not represent the meaning of the Oscar judges, and even if Barbra Streisand has more experience in Hollywood than the other two directors, it would only be enough for "Story of Time" to win a statuette for Best Director, not even Best Picture. It also seemed that the Oscar was too unfair.
Of course, there are also media who are very expert in analyzing this from another angle.
These media believe that the three works directed by women, "Thelma and Louise" and "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 Oscar, 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. If the best picture and a large number of other awards are still awarded to Daenerys Entertainment this time, then the Oscar will be for Daenerys Entertainment. An Oscar exclusive to Liz Entertainment Group.
Even though the previous films "Rain Man", "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Dances with Wolves" all have outstanding qualities that are enough to win the Oscar for Best Picture, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences certainly does not want the Oscar. Become Daenerys’s private place for entertainment.
Therefore, this time, although the films produced by Daenerys Entertainment, excluding films released by other labels, still received 23 nominations, they only won two statuettes. This result is completely expected. middle.
To put it simply, Oscar is playing with balance.
Naturally, the Academy strongly denied the media's balanced view, and some Academy executives and Olympic judges who knew that "The Waves of Time" was run by the public relations team of Gomen Films had mixed feelings.
Since it is still an award run by her own company, Daenerys will certainly not manipulate public opinion to question the fairness of the Olympic Awards. She will only slightly fuel the controversy between the three films in order to stimulate the commercial potential of the three films.
"The Piano" and "The Waves of Time" were both released in December last year and have not been released at this time.
As of last Friday, "The Piano" had taken advantage of the attention during the awards season that started 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 US$36.32 million.
Compared with the film's production cost of US$7 million, "The Piano", which is expected to hit the box office of US$40 million before it is released, will definitely be considered a hit.
As of last Friday, the cumulative North American box office of "Tide of Time" reached US$71.51 million.
This mainstream film directed by and starring Barbra Streisand has won multiple awards including Best Picture, and is expected to gross over $80 million at the North American box office before the next cut.
"Thelma and Louise" was released on September 6 last year and was canceled in early December. The total box office in North America ended up being US$45.36 million, which was also considered a blockbuster.
After a three-month hiatus, Daenerys Entertainment officially released the video of the film ahead of the Oscars in early March.
Taking advantage of the popularity of the awards season, "Thelma and Louise" has sold 730,000 boxes in three weeks, and it is expected that total sales will reach 1.5 million to 2 million boxes in the future.
At an average video sales price of $30, the film could potentially earn up to $60 million in video sales, which is even better than at the box office.
With the Oscars taking place and the media controversy surrounding the awards results, the new week saw significant increases in box office and video sales figures for the three films.
Ultimately, the Oscars are both a hall of glory and a commercial feast for Hollywood.
KKR, a competitor of Cersei Capital, made a $2.15 billion bid for Victoria's Secret's parent company LTD on March 30. Therefore, Simon dropped off four women in Los Angeles and flew directly to New York.
The results of this year's Oscars were basically within Simon's expectations.
Daenerys Entertainment's best foreign language film award besides the best actress in "The Piano" was also Simon's advance plan.
The reason why the "Transformers" live-action movie once broke the box office record on the other side of the ocean many years later is that in 1987, Hasbro gave the "Transformers" cartoon to local TV stations for free, thus creating the image of Transformers. national popularity.
Public relations for a fringe award like Best Foreign Language Film is actually not that difficult. There are no other outstanding foreign language films shortlisted this year. The public relations team of Gaomen Pictures easily pushed "Raise the Red Lantern" to the podium.
While Hollywood was still reeling from the aftermath of the Oscars, Simon put the incident in the past tense as he fielded a few thank-you calls the next day.
After KKR’s bid, Blackstone also made a cooperation proposal to Cersei Capital’s Apollo Asset Management team, hoping that both parties would jointly fund the bid for LTD.
If you don’t have enough confidence in LTD or have insufficient financial strength, choosing a partner is also a good choice.
However, this time, unlike Simmons, which previously chose to cooperate with other capitals to acquire LTD, Cersei Capital neither lacks confidence nor funds for LTD, and does not intend to give half of its potential future earnings to Blackstone Group.
Two private equity firms have already made bids, 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's stock price.
On the day KKR made its offer, LTD's market value exceeded US$2 billion.
From US$1.3 billion two months ago to US$2 billion 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 market's confidence, whether it is additional stock issuance or bond financing, would allow the company to easily overcome its cash difficulties, which are not actually serious.
The current situation is that LTD's acquisition is almost a foregone conclusion.
Otherwise, once the acquisition fails, the falling speed of LTD's stock price will never be much slower than the rising speed. Even though Cersei Capital's acquisition has made many shareholders realize the potential of LTD, they are still more willing to directly choose to cash out at a high price than if the stock price plummets again.
"KKR has still not gotten rid of the haze of the Reynolds-Nabisco acquisition. In my personal judgment, the main reason why we are bidding for LTD this time is because KKR's Henry Kravis hopes to revive KKR through a successful acquisition. morale, and may also have the idea to divert investors’ attention.”
Midtown Manhattan, in the conference room of Cersei Capital headquarters.
Leon Black, president of Apollo Management, a subsidiary of Cersei Capital, is introducing the process of the acquisition: "Because the negative impact of Reynolds Nabisco has been too great, and the U.S. economy has not yet fully recovered, facing the KKR board of directors and investors Under pressure, KKR will never make an unlimited offer. Therefore, US$2.5 billion should probably be KKR’s limit.”
The Reynolds-Nabisco acquisition was a disaster caused by the out-of-control bids due to irrational competition between the parties.
LTD's market value before news of the acquisition leaked in February was only about $1.3 billion.
If KKR's offer exceeds US$2.6 billion, a 100% premium, it will undoubtedly make investors once again question whether this private equity company will suffer the same fate as the Reynolds Nabisco acquisition.
Therefore, there is a real possibility that KKR will cap the premium at 100%.
For Cersei Capital, US$2.5 billion is also the upper limit set by Simon.
Even if LTD cannot be obtained, Simon will not allow this price to increase by even one dollar.
In fact, when the bidding reaches the end and the transaction prices are not much different, what everyone is competing for is more likely to be a specific trading plan.
Simon thought about this and asked Leon Black: "Where is the Black Stone?"
"Not sure for the moment, but Blackstone and us have joined forces to no avail, and they may turn to cooperation with KKR. To a large extent, both companies chose to bid because we are interested in LTD. They should be optimistic about the future of LTD." There is 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 besides, the fashion industry is not Blackstone’s area of expertise.”
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 the trend of Cersei Capital, so as to have 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: "Some media are already making such comments, and we can indeed add fuel to the fire. However, Simon, doing so may also attract other bidders."
"Just stick to the upper limit of the offer of US$2.5 billion," Simon said: "Even if it really fails, we still hold about 5% of LTD shares. Well, how much profit can we make if we sell it?"
"At least fifty million dollars."
"So, that's it, let's talk about your specific acquisition plan."
In the following hour or so, in addition to the basic acquisition quotation, everyone also readjusted acquisition matters such as future payment forms, management arrangements, and means to alleviate LTD's cash pressure.
Simon finally agreed to the request that LTD's major shareholder, the Wexner family, retain 10% of its shares and that current chairman and CEO Leslie Wexner continue to serve in his current position. Leslie Wexner was the official founder of LTD Group. The Wexner family still held approximately 30% of LTD's shares at this time.
In the original time and space, LTD was controlled by Leslie Wexner until many years later. The subsequent development of LTD also proved the ability of the founder. 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 Fifth Avenue apartment together, and on the way they made a special trip to the Westeros Tower construction site.
Today is Wednesday, April 1st.
April Fool's Day.
After the official start of construction in January, the original buildings have been demolished and the foundations are being excavated.
The workers had already gotten off work, and they just took a brief look at the construction site, and the couple left.
"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 10 million U.S. dollars. In addition, many of the workers employed by Tishman Speyer are actually from Eastern Europe. As for illegal workers, I talked to James about it and he said it’s not a big problem.”
Janet and Simon chatted about trivial matters about the construction of the building and soon returned to the Fifth Avenue apartment.
When Simon heard about illegal workers, he didn't pay too much attention: "There is probably no construction site in New York that does not use illegal workers, because there are simply not enough workers locally. Moreover, even if something goes wrong, the iron The Speyers of Lionsgate can handle it, too, and they've been doing this for almost a hundred years."
As she spoke, she entered the apartment and was greeted by Alia Makheji, the yoga teacher Janet had found from India.
After several months of exercise, Janet's figure is already better than before she was pregnant.
However, this Indian girl who is good at yoga and has a first-class appearance and figure has stayed.
Simon had seen with his own eyes that Aaliyah's body was as soft as an acrobat, with a 100% unlocking scale, so he jokingly asked her if she had any plans to pursue a career in Hollywood.
There are actually quite a few celebrities in Hollywood who have turned from fitness trainers to actors by relying on their connections.
Steven Seagal was Michael Ovitz's judo coach.
Aaliyah obviously has this kind of intention, but she doesn't seem to lack the patience and ambition to go further. Simon didn't care about this and just allowed this charming Indian girl 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 sofa in the living room while watching CNN's real-time news while holding a drawing pad and drawing at will.
A special fragrance came. Simon stopped painting and looked up to see Aaliyah putting a cup of coffee in front of him. He just smiled and turned his attention to the storyboard in front of him again.
After a while.
The fragrance still did not dissipate, and a voice came from my ears: "Sir, you are really good at painting."
Simon glanced sideways, and saw the Indian girl squatting down next to him, her arms resting on the armrests of the sofa, her eyes filled with just the right amount of curiosity and admiration.