Martin didn't care one bit about France "darkening."
No big deal—if France goes black, the whites can come to Guinea.
Call it reverse migration.
Of course, Guinea would only accept the elites.
Martin had made up his mind: in the future, he'd "whiten" Guinea. Black elites could stay, the hardworking ones too, but the lazy ones would all be "shipped out."
At the four-nation summit, when Obama floated Martin's immigration proposal, he was fully prepared for Sarkozy to reject it.
To his surprise, the other man hesitated only briefly before agreeing, even promising to do his best to convince the parliament.
Obama was stunned.
Holy crap, is the French president this easy to talk to?
Maybe… I should push for more?
Like Israel—France had always been ambiguous on that. Or Europe's industrial hollowing out—France was the fiercest opponent.
Obama's hopes were high, but reality slapped him down.
Sarkozy firmly rebuffed Obama's suggestions, calling them daydreams.
Prince Charles of England watched with glee as the Frenchman chewed out the American.
Neither are any good!!!
Especially Obama—that woman Diana had publicly supported him once. Even worse!!!
After the meeting, Obama sighed to Martin, "You got lucky. Sarkozy actually agreed. Don't worry about him backing out—the whole thing's in the memo, making it official."
Martin smiled. "I'm not worried."
Then, after chatting a bit more with Obama, Martin headed straight to Paris's international airport, ready to fly back to Los Angeles on his private jet.
Obama invited him to hitch a ride on Air Force One, but the boarding process was too cumbersome, complete with searches. Martin politely declined.
…
Time flew to late August, and Joker's run continued strong.
On the last Monday of August, the film pulled in another $1.74 million.
Tuesday, the traditional discount day for theaters, saw a slight uptick to $2.24 million.
Wednesday $1.45 million, Thursday $1.49 million—four weekdays netting $6.92 million.
Keep in mind, this was Joker's third month in theaters, and it was still holding steady above a million dollars daily. Only Titanic had done that before.
By now, Joker's North American total hit $448 million, with global earnings at $1.156 billion, surpassing Spider-Man and Batman: The Dark Knight to become the king of global box office.
And this was an R-rated film!!!
Who knows if, in this timeline, Deadpool could break that record.
…
After wrapping up Joker's post-promotion duties, Martin flew to Australia. His first child was about to be born.
"Hey, Charlize, what are you doing here?"
Martin was surprised to see Charlize Theron standing beside Naomi Watts at the Australian estate.
The South African diamond smiled. "If I don't show up, you'll forget about me. Plus, Nicole's about to give you another kid. For fairness, I want one too."
Martin shook his head with a laugh. "Come on, how could I forget you? You've just been too busy lately."
Charlize Theron sighed. "No choice—the World Cup next year is in my homeland, South Africa. I've got to negotiate with the organizing committee there and join a bunch of promo events. Can't skip those. Oh, as the South African World Cup ambassador, I can score plenty of free tickets. You into soccer? I remember you bought a team in England—Chelsea, right?"
Martin said, "Yeah, Chelsea. But I bought the team just to boost my influence in Europe. Doesn't mean I love soccer. As for going to South Africa to watch…"
He thought for a moment. "We'll see. If I have time."
Then he asked Naomi Watts beside him, "How's Nicole been lately?"
Naomi smiled. "She's great—healthy, in good spirits, just a bit plumper."
"Oh, really?" Martin grinned mischievously. "I've gotta snap a pic."
He pulled out his phone and hurried upstairs.
Naomi Watts and Charlize Theron followed, chatting and laughing. Before they reached the top of the stairs, they heard Nicole's voice from a bedroom upstairs.
"Ah, Martin, you're here."
"Jerk, what are you doing? No pictures!"
"Damn it, I'll kill you."
Then Martin's voice.
"Hey, darling, you actually look beautiful plumped up!"
"You know, in the southwestern Pacific, there's an island nation called Tonga where they value fullness as beauty. If you showed up there, you'd be Tonga's number one beauty."
"Stop, stop, that hurts—my ears! I'm sorry, I was wrong. You're not fat at all!"
When Naomi Watts and Charlize Theron entered Nicole's bedroom, they saw the heavily pregnant Nicole, in her maternity dress, pinning Martin to the bed, straddling his chest, twisting his ears.
"Take that for calling me fat, take that!"
At first, Martin pretended to yelp in pain, but soon he stopped, his eyes fixed under Nicole's skirt.
Charlize Theron giggled. "Nicole, you're exposed—and you're not wearing panties."
"Ah!" Nicole shrieked, rolling off Martin, her face flushing as she kicked him off the bed.
Martin jumped up with a grin. "It's not like I haven't seen it before. But were you going commando on purpose?"
"Little bastard!" Nicole pouted.
"Alright, enough flirting." Naomi Watts stepped in, helping Nicole up and propping her against the headboard, straightening her dress. Then she said, "Nicole, Martin brought a top medical team from Europe for you. He's so good to you."
Nicole huffed. "Of course he should be—I'm about to give him a kid. But the Sydney medical team's been great. Why another one?"
"Better safe than sorry. This is my first child," Martin said.
"Yeah, makes sense." Nicole was pleased with Martin's attitude.