"Oh! Have you guys seen the article Time put out? They revealed a ton of news about Isabella's new project! Her new movie is called The Devil Wears Prada! It's a fashion drama adapted from the hit novel of the same name from two years ago!"
"I saw it, I saw it! OMG! They even released a set of high-definition stills! Isa looks insanely beautiful in them!"
"Sigh. Isabella is really way too low-key. Since her debut, it feels like she's barely done any proper interviews, right? Even news about her new movies only comes out after filming has already started and some random passerby spots her. That's just… unbelievably unprofessional!"
"Exactly! This kind of behavior makes her not look like a celebrity at all."
"But isn't that exactly why we like her? She never actively gets into public feuds, she can't be bothered with all the pointless drama in the entertainment industry. She just focuses on doing her own work. Like filming movies. When did Goblet of Fire (Part Two) wrap? September or October this year? And now she's already shooting a new film? Oh my—she is really busy, busy, busy. And next year she still has Order of the Phoenix to shoot? And after that, Iron Man?"
"Stop! Forget all that for now! Vogue just released Isabella's character styling photos for the new movie! Go look, now!"
"What? The Prada styling shots are out? Oh—go, go, go!"
As one of the biggest stars right now, no matter what Isabella did, it was bound to draw attention.
So the moment leaked set photos from The Devil Wears Prada appeared, news that Isabella had a new project spread instantly.
The public was surprised. Fans were ecstatic.
After all, Isabella had never really embraced fashion before.
Or rather, in all those past years, the only time she dressed up properly was when she walked the red carpet.
That was exactly why, when these slightly more mature, breathtakingly beautiful photos appeared, people who had followed her for nearly five years suddenly felt that Isabella had truly grown up.
And in the eyes of her long-time fans, little hearts labeled "excitement" began sparkling furiously.
They kept repeating, "So beautiful, so beautiful, so beautiful!"
Watching someone grow up is never an easy thing.
Especially when that growth blooms like a rose in full glory.
A kind of beauty that endures, never changes, and seems like it will last forever is even more thrilling.
This is not exaggeration.
Only people who are ugly themselves and mentally twisted would envy someone else's beauty.
Since the public loves beauty, and Isabella fans were practically screaming for more pretty photos, Warner Bros., after receiving feedback, shifted the focus of the film's promotion to releasing images.
Over the past week, they played whack-a-mole with the media, gradually releasing on-set photos related to Isabella's new film through different outlets, along with bits of information about the project.
This half-revealed, half-hidden promotional strategy brought Isabella nonstop public attention. Once promotion started, she held the number one spot on both IMDb's star rankings and Google's trending searches.
This over-72-hour domination stunned industry insiders and prompted Warner Bros. to unleash the final blow of their early marketing campaign.
Yes.
Releasing the styling photos through Vogue was also Warner's arrangement.
Vogue belonged to the Time Inc. group.
And Barry Meyer had already officially taken control there.
Since it was an official release, the artistic quality of the photos was guaranteed.
Before readers even opened the magazine, Isabella appeared on the cover, youthful and vibrant. A bun hairstyle, round glasses, a knitted sweater, jeans, and canvas shoes instantly turned the adorable Isabella into the model student from everyone's school days.
When readers flipped further inside, half-length hair, an asymmetrical short dress, knee-high boots, and a light jacket let the wind of fashion blow straight off the page and into reality.
Having grown up and entered society, her calm confidence made Isabella shine brilliantly.
At that moment, fans once again felt pink bubbles popping over their heads.
The photos were so stunning that many people were practically dizzy with excitement.
But even more excited were fashion-related media, editors, and columnists.
"Isabella's sense of style is genuinely surprising!"
"In the past, there weren't many street photos of her, mainly because she's been extremely busy. Since her debut in 2000, if you include Goblet of Fire (Parts One and Two), which have already been filmed but not yet released, she's actually completed six films. That's an incredibly productive pace. And yet, her taste hasn't been isolated from the world like her lifestyle. Instead, it shows a low-key elegance that perfectly matches her personality."
"Take the latest Vogue photos as an example. The asymmetrical dress she's wearing is a classic Prada design. Although it was released last autumn and is already a year old, the reason something is called a 'classic' is because it can be worn season after season."
"The boots she's wearing are Chanel's latest release this year. The moderately soft suede accentuates her leg shape beautifully. Most importantly, once she puts on knee-high boots, we're surprised to find that Isabella seems taller than we expected. In the Harry Potter films, she appeared about the same height as Daniel and Rupert, but in reality—"
"I swear she's definitely over five-foot-five now!"
"She's really grown into a young woman!"
"The most surprising piece is the LV plaid jacket she's wearing."
"We all know that short skirts paired with boots are usually associated with fiery personalities, which doesn't quite match Isabella's previous image. But with a plaid jacket added, a sense of composure immediately appears. From this outfit alone, you can tell that Isabella is passionate but rational."
"Just like the Hermione Granger she plays."
"Driven by emotion, but never ruled by it."
"Once styling that truly matches her personality appears—wow, I'd even dare say that The Devil Wears Prada might be a film personally overseen by Isabella, similar to The Voice."
"Anyone who understands filmmaking knows that productions have dedicated costume and styling teams. What an actor wears is decided by them, and since they aren't the actor themselves, they rarely choose outfits that truly fit the actor's inner self. And most of the time, when capital is paying the bill, they won't let the lead wear out-of-season clothing. So—"
"Oh—"
"Although we've always known Isabella is professional, today I still want to say that her love for film, her insistence on her work, and her desire for creative expression far exceed our expectations."
"She's truly an extraordinary girl!"
"We're extremely, extremely excited for The Devil Wears Prada!"
When this thousand-word praise piece from the fashion media appeared, the flood of compliments nearly made Barry Meyer laugh himself unconscious.
Putting down the magazine, he shook his head and looked at his assistant.
"So this is how fashion media are evaluating Isabella now?"
"Yes."
Nathan Bailey understood his boss immediately and replied bluntly, "They've all invested huge sums in brand promotion for Prada. When each of them has spent a hundred million, even if Isabella were wearing a burlap sack, they'd still claim it was their brand and praise her for her taste."
Barry Meyer burst into laughter.
Moments later, his stomach even started to hurt.
Yes.
The fashion world's excitement was entirely funded by the six top-tier and eight second-tier luxury brands.
The logic was simple.
When Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, CK, and others each sponsored Prada with one hundred million pounds, no one in the fashion industry dared to criticize the film.
If they didn't criticize it and hyped it up instead, and the film performed well after release, those brands could recover their investment.
But if someone trashed Prada and slammed its aesthetics into the dirt—
Wouldn't that be asking the six blue-chip and eight red-chip brands to lose everything?
Exactly.
The people who least wanted Prada to flop were actually the luxury brands themselves.
So once that reality set in, regardless of whether Isabella liked fashion or whether the fashion world liked her, she had become the most fashionable person on the planet.
What?
Someone disagrees?
Just because I can't do anything to Isabella doesn't mean I can't beat up you nobodies.
"Okay, okay. All this—forget it."
"It benefits us anyway."
Smiling as he accepted the marriage sedan delivered right to his door, Barry Meyer brushed aside the promotional topic surrounding Prada.
Then he turned and asked, "How are things in New York?"
"Pretty smooth. Isabella gets into character quickly, and Bryce isn't dragging things down. At this rate, Prada will need at most sixty days to shoot," Nathan Bailey reported while thinking. "But considering there's a Goblet of Fire (Part One) premiere during that period, plus Christmas and New Year—"
"At the earliest, Prada won't wrap until the end of February next year."
Barry Meyer nodded slightly as he listened.
Just as planned, Warner Bros. scheduled the release of Goblet of Fire (Part One) for Christmas 2005.
Since the Harry Potter premiere had to be held at least a week in advance and must take place in the UK, the premiere was set for December 16.
The location was the Odeon Theatre in London's West End.
Why not hold premieres in both the UK and the US?
Simple.
Isabella didn't have time to attend two premieres.
With that arrangement, Prada could finish filming by the 14th at the latest this year. The rest would be shot next year. Once the premiere ended, Christmas arrived, followed immediately by the New Year.
With the end-of-year schedule fragmented beyond belief, it was better to stop and resume next year rather than film three days and rest three days.
Besides, Prada couldn't be filmed opportunistically like other projects.
If other films were missing someone, at most it would be one person.
But Prada—
If Isabella had to attend the Goblet of Fire (Part One) premiere, would Maggie Smith, Chris Columbus, and Michael Barnathan not also have to fly to London?
When all the key members were gone, the entire crew would disperse.
Coming back to film after the premiere?
Forget it.
Don't bother.
"Then what about the schedule for Order of the Phoenix?" Barry Meyer asked.
Nathan Bailey, who had memorized the plan inside out, replied, "David Heyman wants to start Order of the Phoenix after next summer, for two reasons."
"First, whether Order of the Phoenix will be split depends on the market response to Goblet of Fire (Part One), and that result won't be clear until late January. Second, both Daniel and Isabella have exams next year."
"Daniel is taking A-levels, and Isabella is taking GCSEs."
"The reason Rupert and the others' exams didn't affect filming before was because they didn't have that many scenes in the movies. As long as we filmed their overlapping scenes with Daniel and Isabella in advance, they could go off and prepare for their exams."
"But this time—"
"When the two most important actors in a film both have exams, it's simply impossible to keep filming."
"Still, this won't affect us. Even if Order of the Phoenix starts shooting in the summer, it can still make its 2007 release. And next year, we'll have Goblet of Fire (Part Two)—"
Barry Meyer nodded again.
"Okay. Then that's settled."
He waved his hand, signaling that Nathan Bailey could get back to work.
However, Nathan Bailey didn't leave. Instead, he continued, "Mr. Meyer, there's actually one more thing I need to report. Our people discovered that someone is secretly filming Prada in New York—"
"???"
The sudden news made Barry Meyer frown. "What did you say?"
"Someone is secretly filming Prada in New York?"
"When something like this happens, the crew should just call the police! Why report it to me—so is this Fox's doing?"
"Or News Corp's?"
It wasn't strange that Barry Meyer was shocked.
Compared to other places, copyright protection in Europe and the U.S. was relatively strong.
Well—
More accurately, that was mainly because most intellectual property belonged to capital.
So when Barry Meyer learned that someone was secretly filming near the Prada set, his first reaction was to throw that idiot in jail. Works in production also had copyright protection. And even if it wasn't piracy or distribution, trespassing into restricted areas to film was already pushing up against the Castle Doctrine.
His second reaction was—
Normal people didn't do this kind of thing.
Even abnormal paparazzi wouldn't secretly film an active movie shoot.
So whoever was filming was probably an enemy.
And someone bold enough to pull that stunt in New York—
The only person that came to mind was Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp.
However, Barry Meyer's rapid questioning made Nathan Bailey shake his head.
"Mr. Meyer, it's not Rupert Murdoch."
"Then who?" Barry Meyer asked curiously.
"Uh—this is hard to explain—so—may I use the computer on your desk?"
Nathan Bailey pointed at Barry Meyer's desk.
Barry Meyer's expression instantly turned serious. "It's already online?"
As he spoke, he pushed himself back with his feet, making room and signaling for Nathan Bailey to get to the point.
Nathan Bailey didn't hesitate. He stepped forward and started working the computer.
In less than a minute, a very plain-looking website appeared in front of Barry Meyer.
Right there on the homepage was Isabella.
When Nathan Bailey clicked in, a 30-second short video appeared. It looked like it was shot on a handheld DV camera, judging by the blurry image.
Even so, the closed-off street scene of Fifth Avenue in New York was clearly recognizable.
The video showed a god's-eye view of Prada being filmed.
Isabella, dressed in fashionable clothes, was running through the streets of New York, holding a phone in one hand and a stack of Starbucks cups in the other—
The moment the video started playing, deep lines had already formed on Barry Meyer's forehead.
As the video ended, just as he narrowed his eyes to ask a question—
Nathan Bailey moved the mouse again. "Boss, this video was uploaded at midnight last night. Eastern Time. As of now, it's already gotten 140,000 views."
"And over a thousand comments."
As he spoke, he scrolled down.
Soon, the comments came into Barry Meyer's view:
[@kalasend: Is—Is—is that Isabella???]
[@darthpaul: Oh—this angle is amazing. How did you even film this?]
[@wei-u7t: Is this real footage from Prada??? Oh oh oh—I'm sending this to my group chat!!!]
[@DEvie49: Oh my god—is this Fifth Avenue in New York? So some big-shot who lives here or works here filmed this for us? OMG—OMG—OMG—this is insane!!!]
[@EriPam-t2b5t: No no no—the flustered Isabella is so cute—I love it—I love it—]
[…]
The market-like chaos of the comments made Barry Meyer take several deep breaths.
Maybe it was because the video didn't involve plot spoilers.
Or maybe it was because the overall reaction was positive.
From a marketing standpoint, this could even be considered effective leaked promotion.
After swallowing, he cleared his throat and said, "When did you discover this?"
"An hour ago."
"Did you assess this person's behavior?"
"Yes. He didn't infiltrate the crew, so it's not illegal. Prada is being filmed in public locations, and since we didn't clear out everyone nearby, private filming unrelated to the plot can't be dealt with through legal means. So this kind of spread—there's nothing we can do about it."
Nathan Bailey sighed helplessly.
Barry Meyer nodded thoughtfully. "From the current situation, whether we deal with this video or not doesn't really matter."
"But—"
"It's 10 o'clock now, right? Even in Eastern Time, that means the video has only been up for twelve hours?"
"So twelve hours, 140,000 views?"
"What website is this?"
On the surface, 140,000 views in twelve hours didn't seem like much.
Google and Yahoo both had daily traffic in the billions.
News about Isabella on those sites easily reached hundreds of millions of views per day.
But Google, Yahoo, Amazon, MSN—those were all mature platforms, and they mainly spread text and images.
Yet now, a website had appeared that could host video.
And this site seemed to let ordinary people upload moments from their own lives.
This—
Something was off.
Very off.
Barry Meyer sensed something unusual. Nathan Bailey quickly explained, "Mr. Meyer, the site you're seeing is called YouTube."
"It was founded earlier this year, on February 14, Valentine's Day."
"At first, the founders wanted to make it an online dating platform, but that failed."
"So in April, they pivoted and turned it into a video platform. The idea is to let non-technical internet users quickly upload and watch interesting videos online."
"The first video on the site was called Me at the Zoo, uploaded by one of the founders. It was just casual footage from a visit to the San Diego Zoo. Nothing special, but the model was new, so in the first month after the pivot, their average daily traffic reached 30,000. Right now, it's already around one million per day."
"Because they seemed promising, they received their first angel investment last month."
"Sequoia Capitalinvested 3.5 million dollars."
"That gave them the funds to upgrade their infrastructure. And based on current trends—"
"They may reach 100 million daily visits in less than a year."
"At that point—"
"A new form of media may emerge."
Yes.
The reason Nathan Bailey reported the secret filming of Prada to Barry Meyer so seriously was because the people who discovered it believed that YouTube might threaten the position of traditional media.
Once the public could freely speak through the internet, the monopoly traditional media held over information would start to crack.
The logic was simple.
When everyone in the world could become a broadcaster, the most valuable thing traditional media would have left would be its brand.
The new channel, the internet, might replace newspapers, magazines, and television as the main battlefield of the media industry.
"So what are you suggesting?" Barry Meyer asked bluntly.
"Uh—the investment department is asking whether we should consider investing in this website. Or similar ones," Nathan Bailey relayed.
Any large conglomerate had an investment division.
Once they spotted a promising sector, putting in some money for a stake was only natural.
In the past, this kind of deal would never have reached Barry Meyer.
A few million dollars wasn't even worth his attention. A department head could decide that.
But this time, anything related to YouTube had to be brought to him.
The reasons were simple—
First, there was already a video on YouTube suspected of involving Time Warner content.
Second, Time Warner had only just decided to abandon the internet at the end of last quarter.