The word "vanity fair" is very interesting. Fame comes first, profit comes last.
Therefore, it can be seen that most people subconsciously rank the importance of fame and fortune.
However, for some people who have climbed to the top of this social pyramid, they often need to accumulate enough wealth before they can pursue fame.
This is basically the case regardless of the cultural background of the East or the West.
For Simon, the desire to show himself and be noticed is still a kind of instinct that comes from the depths of human genes.
Like a peacock spreading its tail.
The entertainment industry is undoubtedly one of the most convenient channels for gaining outside attention. Hollywood is the core of the world's entertainment industry.
Therefore, from very early on, capital or tycoons from all over the world have been trying to make a big splash in Hollywood.
Especially in the past ten years or so, the British, French, Germans, Italians, Japanese, Australians, Canadians, and Americans... have either established film companies in Hollywood, or targeted the seven established Hollywood players. Large, or investing in movies as a sole investor, there are all kinds of things, and it's very lively.
Simon also knew that many years later, it would be the Chinese's turn again.
As for the results, they basically failed after paying enough tuition for the Hollywood natives.
Just because of the desire for fame and fortune, no matter how many people fall into it, they cannot stop the endless stream of latecomers.
France's Vivendi Group, which suddenly expressed interest in Disney, is the latest 'latecomer'.
The Vivendi Group is a monopoly water company established in France in the mid-19th century. It is responsible for the urban water supply business in core French cities such as Paris and Lyon. It later gradually developed into a company integrating water services, energy, construction, transportation and other businesses. Diversified infrastructure giant.
Then, starting from the 1980s, Vivendi, which has been inherited for centuries, also began its own transformation into a vanity fair. It first invested in the establishment of the first paid cable station Canal+ in France, and participated in film investment, probably consciously accumulating a certain amount of money. experience, naturally turned his attention to Hollywood.
In recent years, the Vivendi Group has been involved in the transfer transactions of major giants such as MGM, Paramount and MCA.
Of course, none of them were successful.
This time, Vivendi was fully prepared and targeted Disney directly.
In the original time and space, Disney during this period was in its own period of the 1990s due to the great success of a series of blockbuster films such as "Pretty Woman", "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin", and "The Lion King". At its peak, the market value was as high as US$20 billion, even more than Time Warner, which at the same time had not completely gotten rid of the debt quagmire left by the original merger.
Because of the emergence of Simon, the once-famous Disney has been firmly suppressed by Daenerys Entertainment. Not only has it lost many blockbuster projects, but its performance has been tepid for several consecutive years. Recently, a scandal of internal strife among senior executives has also broken out, further impacting the stock price. This At one time, the market value was less than US$7 billion.
Not only that, Disney is also the only and last major Hollywood film company that has not changed hands since the acquisition wave broke out in the 1980s. Even for Warner, the original merger was actually the acquisition of Warner Brothers by Time Inc. However, the merged company was completely seized by Warner executives, which gave people the illusion that Warner acquired Time.
Therefore, if Vivendi Group wants to realize its ambitions in Hollywood, Disney is the best and only choice in the short term.
It has just been a week since Daenerys Entertainment went public. Vivendi Group, probably stimulated by Daenerys' stock price, finally made up its mind and formally contacted Disney executives. For some reason, this news appeared in the Los Angeles Times as soon as possible.
Moreover, the "Los Angeles Times" was obviously not very friendly towards this transaction. The news article unceremoniously ridiculed that the French were resisting Disneyland's invasion of French culture two years ago, but in the blink of an eye they wanted to invade American culture.
In fact, Vivendi chose to acquire Disney because of Disneyland Paris.
This large-scale theme park, which cost 5 billion US dollars, fell into huge losses immediately after it opened in 1992. In the past two years, its performance has not improved much, and it has even fallen on the verge of bankruptcy. The name of the originally ambitious 'Euro Disney' has also been changed. It became 'Disney Paris'.
Although the French media continues to ridicule Disney Paris, in fact, the French government does not dare to let such a large theme park go bankrupt.
Because the huge Disneyland Paris provides more than 40,000 fixed or temporary employment opportunities for France, and a comprehensive business circle involving more people's jobs has been formed around Disneyland Paris.
The European currency crisis two years ago plunged the French economy into recession. The current unemployment rate is as high as 9.1%. If Disneyland Paris goes bankrupt, it will not only leave a shocking mess, but will also directly affect the further deterioration of the Paris region's economy.
The failure of Disneyland Paris was largely due to the blindness and arrogance of Disney's management.
Now, if Vivendi can acquire Disney, the French will have direct control over the operations of Disneyland Paris.
As for Hollywood, the news of Vivendi’s contact with Disney was exposed by the Los Angeles Times under Simon’s instruction.
Since Sony acquired Colombia five years ago, the American media has begun to loudly call on the federal government to take measures to prevent foreign capital from invading the American cultural industry. One of the most widely recognized solutions is to lift the ban on media integration as soon as possible to allow Hollywood to Film companies and large American public television networks can merge and integrate with each other to resist acquisitions by foreign capital.
The public opinion storm that began to erupt in March caused lobbying for a series of bills related to the Westeros system to be shelved, including the almost final reopening of the ban on media integration.
The relationship between the United States and France has never been harmonious.
This time Simon is trying to use the power of public opinion to force Congress to vote as soon as possible to lift the ban on media integration.
Otherwise, if another Hollywood giant is acquired by a foreigner, half of Hollywood will be captured by overseas capital. This will be very unacceptable to Americans who also have a sense of national pride and will hinder media integration. The two houses of Congress that have lifted the ban will definitely become the target of media attacks.
As for Daenerys Entertainment, after the ban on media integration is lifted, it can further enter the traditional television industry.
Ohio.
The time is Monday, July 11th.
In a new box office week that started last Friday, North American theaters once again released two heavyweight new films, namely "True Lies" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and the romance film "I" starring Julia Roberts. Love Trouble".
However, the film that gets the most attention these days is "Forrest Gump."
Simon spent the weekend with his family in Los Angeles and flew to Ohio early Monday morning.
The preparations for the "Military Consulting and Security Services Company" (MCSA), a private military force in the Westeros system that reports directly to Simon personally, have taken initial shape during this period. Through Leslie Wake, the former boss of Victoria's Secret parent company LTD Group With Snee's help, Simon purchased 12,000 acres of land in the mountains of southern Ohio, Wexner's hometown, as a training base for MCSA.
Ohio is located in the interior of the United States. Placing the training base here can avoid outside attention as much as possible.
The 50-square-kilometer training base is located in a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides. The surrounding hills and a meandering river are also enclosed in this private property.
Unlike those in Europe, Simon's expectations for MCSA were to be more expensive than expensive. Therefore, in two months, under the operation of Celia Miller, Dan Rubiel and Martin Stillman, MCSA Only 150 permanent members have been recruited for the time being, of which 50 are former retired U.S. officers at all levels and 100 former U.S. Special Forces soldiers.
The first phase of these people's tasks is to complete the construction and start operation of the training base, and to train a group of female bodyguards for the Westeros family.
In addition to the 150 MCSA employees who have already joined the company, Celia Miller was also responsible for recruiting 100 young girls with various sports specialties from universities in various states in the United States during this period. They were basically between 18 and 22 years old. It ranges from senior year to senior year.
Americans’ concept of academic qualifications is far less strong than that of Chinese people.
The generous treatment of Weijia maids is well known, so most girls are willing to give up their current studies after receiving invitations for interviews.
After a rigorous first-stage screening, Celia selected 100 girls from more than 2,000 candidates. This group went through rigorous training, and only 20 to 30 will be retained in the end, and most will still be eliminated. However, Westeros Company has promised that girls who have been eliminated can return to school. Westeros Company will not only complete relevant communication with their alma maters in advance, but will also provide the girls with a one-time scholarship of US$50,000.
At around two o'clock in the afternoon, Simon met the first batch of girls undergoing training at the MCSA training base near Fallston in southern Ohio.
The training content of bodyguards and soldiers is very different.
Therefore, some MCSA instructors will actually only be responsible for the firearms, physical fitness and fighting training of these girls. When it comes to professional skills such as vigilance, communication, monitoring, etc. that bodyguards need to master, former Westeros companies will recruit them. U.S. Secret Service instructors and professional agents from the CIA are in charge.
At the edge of the shooting range where gunfire burst, Simon watched for a while a row of tall, well-proportioned girls in camouflage military uniforms shooting with guns, and Simon looked around again.
There are at least four obvious cameras around the open shooting range, and the entire training ground is basically covered by the cameras.
Simon also knew that the monitoring center connected to these cameras was not inside the training base, but 100 kilometers away in downtown Columbus, the capital of Ohio, and at the Point Dume Manor Monitoring Center in Los Angeles. The surveillance images here could also be retrieved at any time.
The reason for this is that the long-term consideration is to maintain monitoring of this training base.
In the short term, it is to ensure the absolute safety of the 100 girls in training at this time.
These girls, whose height is between 175CM and 180CM, generally have athletics, basketball, fighting and other sports expertise. Compared with ordinary women, they actually have considerable self-protection capabilities.
It's a pity that this is a military camp.
The rate of sexual assault among female soldiers in the federal army is shocking, and a group of girls who are stronger than ordinary people still cannot fight back in front of former US military special forces.
Simon doesn't want the girls who will serve as the most personal bodyguards of the Westeros family to suffer similar injuries.
Therefore, not only are the training sites strictly monitored, but these trained girls do not live inside the base on weekdays, but in the nearby urban area of Foulston. At the same time, there are also a considerable proportion of women among all types of instructors, and there are regulations Strict preventive training regulations have been implemented.
As a precaution, the girls are even banned from contact with other members of the base except their instructors.
Celia, who was still wearing a black OL suit, noticed the gaze of the man next to her, followed it, and couldn't help but said with a smile: "Simon, I think you are not training bodyguards, but basically raising your daughter. .”
Simon looked away, glanced at the woman next to him, and said with a smile: "Do you like this kind of PLAY? We can try it when we have time."
Celia thought for a moment before she understood. She rolled her eyes at the man with a slightly red face: "I mean, you are too protective of the women around you."
Simon said: "Actually, you meant to say 'possessive', right?"
Celia hesitated slightly, but did not deny it.
Simon did not deny it, saying: "Of course this is possessiveness, a very pure possessive desire from males. Since these girls have entered my territory, I naturally want to prevent them from becoming the targets of other males."
Celia's eyes flickered a few times, and she suddenly asked a somewhat sharp question: "What about yourself?"
Simon glanced sideways at the woman next to him, with a naturally evil smile on his lips: "Of course I am an exception. Everything in my territory belongs to me, including you."
"You," Celia's eyes widened slightly, but she couldn't help but avoid the man's gaze and said, "You are just like a lion on the grassland."
Simon didn't respond.
Celia didn't know that she was not the first woman to feel this way.
After being silent for a while, Celia took the initiative again: "Boss, why don't you speak?"
Simon said: "What?"
Celia deliberately showed a bit of teasing: "Are you embarrassed that I exposed you to your face?"
Simon looked at the girls who started to gather here at the instructor's signal after completing several sets of training, and said: "Celia, you must have understood my growth experience."
The woman paused and nodded.
Simon said: "For you, or for most people in this world, what you have received since childhood is very orthodox human society and civilization education, and you will think that this world is bright and beautiful. Yes, even now, you will at least think that this world is full of order. However, I am not."
Celia didn't answer and waited for the man to continue.
Simon didn't pause too much, and quickly said: "For me, I have lived at the bottom of this society since I was a child. The world in my eyes is cruel, and it is the law of the jungle. If you are not strong enough, you will only be eliminated. Here we are. Later, I stood where I am now. In my eyes, the top of the pyramid of this society is still cruel, and it is still the law of the jungle. So, I am different from you, and I have always been different. My outlook on life has been from childhood to adulthood. It's always the jungle of the jungle. You just asked me if I felt embarrassed. Unfortunately, your moral principles don't apply to me. In my eyes, the strong have everything. And the weak, if you can't become stronger, you should have the weak. consciousness."