King of Hollywood-Chapter 928 - 333: Impossible

Chapter 928: Chapter 333: Impossible
The high-pitched singing echoed on the stage, and in the adjacent box, standing on her father’s lap with her hands on the edge, the little one watched without blinking. Adrian was also watching, but his gaze was mostly on the woman beside him – her fair neck, soft golden hair, and the elegant smile at the corners of her mouth, completely unrestrained.
Finally, the woman couldn’t help but glance back at him, but instead of backing off, his scrutiny became even more blatant, as if he intended to strip her bare with his eyes. Even though the woman was used to it, her thin skin couldn’t withstand it for long, and after a brief standoff, she turned away, her cheeks flushing red.
"A splendid opera, Mr. Wadlow, a significant portion of the thunderous applause belongs to you," Adrian said as he shook hands with the bearded theater manager backstage after the performance ended. "Especially the line, ’Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.’ The actor performed it exceedingly well, this troupe is fantastic."
"Thank you, Mr. Cowell. Serving you and... Ms. Blanchett is my honor," the theater manager in his forties nodded politely and said with keen insight.
Just by looking at how they’re arm in arm, it’s evident their relationship is extraordinary, even though this is Sydney. Knowing the gossip from Hollywood is not difficult, especially since Adrian is also carrying a child. Besides, both are theater owners, so it’s impossible for them to select a tactless person as manager.
"By the way, Mr. Wadlow, is the theater’s schedule this year more focused on classical or modern?" Adrian asked immediately.
"We are currently adjusting to maintain a balance, and in a few days, we will be showing a stage adaptation of Dario Fo’s ’Accidental Death of an Anarchist’. If you and... Ms. Blanchett are still in Sydney by then, you are welcome to watch it," Wadlow replied with a beaming smile.
"A good suggestion," Blanchett seized the opportunity to chime in. "I like Dario Fo’s ’Accidental Death of an Anarchist’. Let’s see how it goes by then?"
"As you wish, dear," Adrian smiled. "Actually, I brought this up because I have an idea."
He looked at her, his eyes playful: "I’m planning to find a troupe to adapt ’A Streetcar Named Desire’ into a stage play. Are you interested in trying for the lead role, Kate?"
"No problem," Blanchett agreed immediately, raising her eyebrows with an assertive posture, "as long as the script is excellent, and you don’t mind."
Wadlow couldn’t help but clear his throat, despite ignoring their relationship, this kind of open flirtation was a bit... After all, he wasn’t the only one here, but if rumors spread, it would still count as his responsibility.
Luckily, Adrian and Blanchett didn’t say much more and soon left the backstage. It wasn’t until they exited the theater that Blanchett began to complain, "I hate your photographic memory, it leaves me no room to perform, you know I am the theater owner!"
"You certainly are the theater owner, no one said you weren’t." Adrian laughed heartily and then discreetly slapped Blanchett on her pert rear.
Blanchett’s expression changed. She intended to feign nonchalance, since Adrian loved to provoke her until she was seething yet unable to react. But then he suddenly pinched and rubbed hard, causing some pain, which made Blanchett glare at him angrily. Of course, the response she got was Adrian’s cheeky grin.
Fortunately, he quickly noticed that his silent daughter in his arms was watching them with wide eyes, so he spared Blanchett and leaned over to nuzzle her little cheek, "Hey, Eleanor, what are you looking at?"
"Disgusting!" the little one retorted unceremoniously, slapping daddy’s face as punishment for the bearded teasing.
Then, she looked back and forth between her daddy and mommy before shaking her head solemnly, "Sister is right, watching daddy and mommy bicker is the most fun."
"I knew it," Adrian smirked, "Lily always finds a way to influence them, but..."
He smiled at Blanchett, "To satisfy Eleanor, how about we do it a few more times?"
Blanchett rolled her eyes, took her daughter into her arms from him, and turned a deaf ear to his laughter.
After failing to persuade Jobs, Adrian abandoned the notion of integrating an operating system for smartphones, after all, he didn’t know much about that, and without bringing in Apple, he couldn’t think of a strategy. Plus, he was too lazy to search through his memory, so he simply let it go. Given the current circumstances, he wasn’t losing out either.
Of course, Samsung would undoubtedly continue along the path of manufacturing, and he believed Jobs would prepare some measures after hearing his advice.
As a result, in the coming period, he was even more relaxed than in the first half of the year, delegating most of the tasks to Ivanka, thus better accompanying the women and children. Just like now, taking Eleanor and Blanchett to Sydney to watch performances at the theater she bought, contributing ideas from time to time—similar to Rachel, Blanchett now returns to Sydney occasionally to play roles in stage plays. Initially, she played roles in theatrical productions, and it was Adrian who brought her to Hollywood ahead of time; otherwise, Blanchett would have stayed in stage plays for several more years before entering the film industry.
Besides that, he also accompanied Monica on a tour of Western Europe, had a retreat with Sophie in Provençe, prepared Nicole’s production company, and advised Gwyneth on going the fashion route, among other things. Julia, Monica, and the others have established their own careers and succeeded, and now the other women—mainly the actresses—are also starting to get excited. Certainly, they don’t want to follow the same path as other women, so they all pull Adrian for advice. For instance, Gwyneth wanted to pursue an intellectual fashion writer path, creating a different image by publishing fashion and wellness books.
Of course, vacationing with Kate was also a must, and in fact, Adrian spent the most time alone with her. Her special status made it undeniable, no matter how jealous the other women were—even Little Emma, who held a grudge and refused to give up, was included in this.
Speaking of that headache, Emma, one can’t help but mention the other Emma. Having spent so much time with the little devil, she hadn’t learned anything else but returned plenty of troublemaking skills. Adrian had to thank Charlize and Ivanka; without their help, he would have faced much bigger problems because Little Emma actually ran to ask Julia if she could date Ed!
Yes, that’s right, she directly asked this question in front of Julia, even though it was during a private conversation. Adrian could fully imagine Julia’s stunned, shocked, and incredulous reaction.
"What nonsense are you talking about." She would definitely exclaim that.
In fact, Julia’s reaction was even stronger than he imagined. According to Little Emma’s account, she first grabbed her and loudly asked questions like "What are you talking about," "Are you joking," "He is Patricia’s father," etc. Then began examining her body, questioning her thoughts in detail, and finally kept asking her if she’d told Adrian about this, or... had Adrian tried to seduce her!
If Adrian had been present, he would surely have cried foul. He hadn’t voluntarily taken Spanish Fly.
In addition to these, during that period, Julia would always look at Adrian in a certain way, then find ways to inquire about his schedule, while also keeping track of Little Emma’s schedule. No matter where she went, she had to call her. Whenever Adrian went to see her, Little Emma was surely not around. In short, if it wasn’t for Ivanka standing by his side, and Charlize helping to cover, things could have been very troublesome.
It’s no wonder Julia was so anxious. After all this time, those few women who knew him best had more or less... noticed the things between him and Little Emma. However...
Just a single question like that from Little Emma could drive her a bit crazy. If she found out that it really happened, and with Emma, too... It’s hard to imagine what Little Emma was thinking. Adrian admitted he hadn’t figured out how to explain it to Julia. But now that this has stirred things up, it will be a long time before he can bring it up again.
"If we could get her approval, we wouldn’t have to sneak around like this," Little Emma explained privately, her face full of grievance.
Seeking... approval? Hearing such an explanation made Adrian feel quite annoyed. Moreover, how was Little Emma sneaking around at all? Even when Julia was suspicious, she was bold enough to proceed openly!
"Don’t worry, Rose, there will be a way." Emma comforted her, then her eyes turned, "By the way, I have an idea..."
"Shut up, Charlotte, stop tempting Rose." Adrian interrupted her threateningly before she could say more. Little Emma was already a headache because of her; if she comes up with another bad idea, who knows what might happen.
"Alright, alright." Emma shrugged, seemingly giving up, but Adrian knew it wasn’t that simple.
In fact, a few days later, when he privately asked Little Emma, she straightforwardly admitted that Emma had given her an idea and it would definitely be effective. However, she refused to share it at all.
"I know when we can implement it, and I promise this situation won’t happen again," Little Emma swore confidently.
Seeing this, Adrian simply gave up, and let them be. Anyway, it’s like this already. How much worse could it get?
In short, that was how the last few months of 2006 were spent. Yes, there were parties held on some small islands around Hawaii or the Caribbean Sea, featuring not just the previous group—Gwyneth and Nicole were both eagerly awaiting another round of competition—but also others. Not to mention the most special group of Kate, Sarah, Charlize, and Ivanka, there were also Natalie, Scarlett, Keira, and Anne, often referred to as the leading ladies. Then, there was this peculiar mix of Liv, Jessica, Megan, Kayden, and Rachel. Lastly, there was the younger group of Avril, Tyler, Leighton, Blake, Keeley, and Amanda.
Of course, besides Liu Li, the Asian group also joined in a chaotic skirmish. The showdown of the Shuanglin against the Shuangliu was quite spectacular, and Yukie, being Japanese, was frequently targeted.
Other than that, things were generally unremarkable. The work was left mostly to Ivanka to handle, and as for films... In November, there was "Charlotte’s Web," featuring roles from Julia and Dakota, a film in which Julia’s production company also invested. Then, there was the second "Fantastic Four," which, like most sequels, didn’t do particularly well. But at least it wasn’t as much of a failure as the original version.
Despite Adrian’s intervention, where the second installment’s enemy was Mole Man instead of the original Galactus or the more spotlight-stealing Silver Surfer, the audience was already a bit weary of frequent superhero films. Additionally, with an unoriginal story and somewhat homogeneous elements, along with poor pacing, the box office didn’t meet expectations.
But anyway, it was significantly better than the original, and at least recouping costs shouldn’t be difficult, especially with Bingbing’s cameo, which also helped to rake in earnings from China. However, there was no post-credit scene, and after much deliberation, Marvel temporarily removed the Fantastic Four from the Avengers lineup. The fact that, like Maguire, the actors hadn’t signed long-term contracts was one reason, and the Fantastic Four being a small team was another reason.
Well, never mind, since the overall framework of the Avengers is set, and unless there are major surprises, it will still feature those characters.
Come December, two more films were released, including "National Treasure," a collaboration between Zetajones and Cage. Unsurprisingly, this unusually novel puzzle-solving movie was captivating. Though the action scenes were somewhat lackluster, the overall quality was still quite good. As a result, Zetajones easily regained her popularity from before her pregnancy, and Cage temporarily resolved the burgeoning financial crisis. As for what comes next... It’s hard to say unless he learns to plan and manage his finances reasonably.
Then, there was "The Holiday," directed by Nancy Meyers, starring Kate and Sarah.
It was quite by chance that they ended up starring in this movie. Not sure how it happened, but after writing the script, Meyers met Sarah, who had been shifting toward producing, and doing fairly well. She became interested after discussing it, and upon reading the script, her interest grew. With Adrian’s consultation along the way, she decided to invest and co-produce with Meyers. When Meyers persuaded her to agree to be one of the lead actresses, she had a brainwave and brought Kate into the project, citing that one was from the United States and the other from the United Kingdom, which was just perfect.
Kate surprisingly agreed because over the past two years, her commercial films had all been action-oriented while the artistic works leaned towards a more somber palette. She suddenly wanted to try romantic comedy. Of course, it was mostly because they had a great relationship. Even among the closest four women, Kate and Sarah had the best relationship.
Since that’s the case, Adrian just let her be. Occasionally taking on such roles wouldn’t be bad. It could also add some... ahem, games to the bedroom.
Thus, 2006 passed in such a manner, and after the New Year came, Hollywood, after two days of silence, suddenly burst into excitement. The Miracle Director had no works last year?! The Miracle Director had no works last year! My God, are you kidding?! This energetic guy, who could produce two films a year of any genre, had no works last year!! That’s impossible!!!
Although he had consecutively won Best Director three times, making it unlikely to win it again, with rumors suggesting that the Film Academy decided there would never be another three-time consecutive Best Director winner, but... Did he not intend to win Best Picture? Isn’t he going to promote his women?! Most people within the circle understood that the women close to him weren’t just the Miracle Girls mentioned in the media.
But the fact was, Adrian indeed had no works released in the past year. Even if there were, it would be too late now. For many actors, this was an absolute blessing, especially for actresses, as it meant one less strong competitor at the Oscars in February. However, for directors, it felt somewhat odd. Although without the Miracle Director, they had one less formidable competitor, beating the Miracle Director to get Best Director would have been an honor, even when the Film Academy practically wouldn’t award him the prize again.
Of course, Scorsese was an exception. "The Departed," released officially in December, received high praise from critics. Without the biggest rival, it looked like he finally had a significant opportunity to fulfill his long-cherished wish this year.
That’s precisely what Adrian wanted to see. After utilizing certain means to let him miss out on Best Director at the 75th Oscars, it was only right to make it up to him. After all, when Monica won Best Actress, he helped a little. Yet, Adrian remained a bit displeased; even though he hinted for it, Scorsese still included a segment in "The Departed" about mainland agents buying chips.
It wasn’t that the scenario was foolish—having official representatives purchase a chip. In movies, you can’t always expect everything to be logically consistent, let alone when it’s politically correct. The critical point was that Adrian had transferred the remake rights to Scorsese. Had it not been for that, he wouldn’t care how he filmed it. The concern was that if the mainland felt offended, it might affect his nearly completed plans there, and that would be a disaster.
Well, regardless, the movie is already out; you can’t very well have Scorsese pull it and modify it to fit your suggestions, can you? It’s about political correctness. Altering politically correct content... So better let it be. The current mainland market isn’t what it will be in a few years, and his plans there are nearly finished. Perhaps he can take a gamble. After all, isn’t he considered a long-standing friend of the Chinese people?
However, despite the Miracle Director having no works last year making some people euphoric, this wasn’t the most focused topic of the New Year in 2007. Moreover, it was only spread within the circle, as the public’s attention was elsewhere—the writers’ strike had reached a fever pitch. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets at Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)