The media is scary good at its job.
The moment Victor "accidentally" leaked the news, reporters from all over pounced like sharks smelling blood.
"Hahaha, finally!" one reporter exclaimed, rubbing his hands together. "That lucky kid, the one who stumbled into a billion dollars, finally made a mistake. Oh, this is it. I'm going to make sure he gets what's coming to him!"
That reporter was Curt George. 45 years old, divorced, and angry at the world.
Curt was a man filled with resentment. He'd lost three fingers in a street fight when he was young. He'd failed his college exams. He'd worked his tail off for years, finally started his own small newspaper, and then watched it go bankrupt in six months. To make it all worse, his wife chose that exact moment to divorce him, leaving him alone with their son.
The dual failures in his job and his family had left him crushed.
He eventually pulled himself together, mostly for his son, and took a job as a simple reporter at New York Entertainment News. But his dream of getting rich never died. It just got uglier.
"I must become wealthy," he would swear to himself. "I'll make that woman regret leaving a future billionaire!"
He tried everything. He invested in real estate and lost. He day-traded stocks and lost. He even took bribes to publish fake news. But reality was cruel. He just kept failing, facing bankruptcy over and over. He even lost the farm his parents had left him.
As a result, he couldn't stand to see rich people. Especially young, rich people who had built an empire from nothing.
Ever since he'd seen Zane Blackwood on TV, so young, so confident, so rich, Curt had felt a deep, personal hatred.
Why do you get to have everything I ever wanted, you little brat?!
Curt George was, simply put, a miserable man who couldn't stand to see anyone else succeed.
He sat down at his keyboard, his fingers flying, pouring all that bitter jealousy into an article. It didn't take long. He published it in the B1 section of New York Entertainment News.
The headline was simple and mean: "The Arrogant Zane Blackwood Is About to Fail. This Is the Beginning of His Decline."
"Now, let's analyze this, shall we?" he wrote.
"Zane Blackwood. 20 years old. He's the Chairman of the Golden Sunrise Entertainment Group, a director at ICQ, a shareholder at Amazon, and owns 2% of Yahoo. He's worth over $500 million."
"You might be asking, 'Curt, how is such a successful person arrogant and foolish?'"
"I'll tell you how. He just chose to buy into 'Titanic'!"
"Oh my God! Did no one tell him the big ship is a disaster? It's been in production for four years. The investment has gone up again and again. The cost is now $200 MILLION. Even the two giant studios, Fox and Paramount, want to run away from this movie. What kind of box office can it possibly get?"
"Wake up, you stupid, arrogant, lucky little kid!"
Curt's article had an impact. New York Entertainment News was a big paper. Soon, readers all over the city were shaking their heads and laughing.
"This Blackwood kid is definitely going to lose his shirt." "Yep, a movie like that? He's going to suffer." "See? He's just lucky. God can't favor him forever." "You really think the ship will lose money?"
Other papers, smelling blood, quickly piled on.
The Boston Morning Post: "Golden Sunrise, Quicker Sunset? Blackwood's Billion-Dollar Blunder." Washington Entertainment Weekly: "Fox and Paramount Are About to Send a Very Nice 'Thank You' Card to a Very Young, Very Rich Sucker." New Intercontinental Entertainment News: "The Big Ship is Doomed. I Said It. The Public Said It. And the Critics Said It!" California First: "Be Smart, Young Man. Stop Now, Before It's Too Late!"
The thing was, the Golden Sunrise Entertainment Group wasn't some tiny, unknown company anymore.
People had seen its movies, like "Run Lola Run," "Juno," and "The Human Removal Project." "America's Got Talent" had turned UPN into a rising star with over 40 million subscribers. "SpongeBob SquarePants" was a monster hit, and his music label had signed Eminem and Beyoncé.
Zane was a real, public figure. And the media loves to watch a public figure fall.
"More money than sense" became Zane's new label. It was the tag everyone, everywhere, was using for him.
Three days later, the mockery hadn't died down. It was getting worse. Making fun of the "idiot billionaire" had become the public's favorite new hobby.
Victor walked into Zane's office, holding a stack of newspapers and grinning from ear to ear.
"Boss," Victor laughed, "you're really famous nationwide now!"
Zane, who was reviewing a budget, looked up and his face darkened. He was thick-skinned. He didn't care what strangers thought. But being ridiculed to his face by his own CEO?
"Very funny, Victor," Zane said, his voice flat. Anyone else would have been unhappy.
"Oh, come on, boss," Victor said, still smiling.
"Victor," Zane said, his voice suddenly sharp. Victor's smile faded. Zane looked down at the newspapers, his expression turning cold and cunning. "I want you to remember the names of every single newspaper, and every single reporter, that wrote these articles."
"Uh... okay. Why?"
Zane looked up, a cold, thin smile on his face. "Our new movie, Static, is coming out soon. And 300 is in pre-production. When it's time for the press screenings, we won't be giving them any invitations. We'll give all our exclusives to their competitors."
Zane leaned back in his chair. He was, at heart, a very petty man. But he was also a very smart one.
Victor's eyes went wide, and then he let out a sharp bark of laughter. "Boss, that's brilliant."
"They want to treat me like a joke?" Zane said. "Fine. But the joke doesn't get a front-row seat to my next hit."
"Got it," Victor said, making a mental note. He then tossed the papers onto the desk. "Still, boss, your... 'sacrifice'... will be remembered. After all, without you becoming the national laughingstock, we wouldn't have been able to close the deal so fast."
Hearing that, Zane's good mood instantly returned. The mockery, the bad press... it had all been part of his plan. He had wanted them to think he was an idiot.
Because while the world was laughing at him, he had been at the negotiating table. He had used their belief in his stupidity to his advantage.
His "sacrifice" had worked perfectly.
In the end, he had secured the investment. He'd paid a total of $85 million for a 25% profit share in Titanic.
And thanks to his "stupidity," the terrified studios hadn't just given him the box office. They'd given him the real prize: box office, DVD and video sales, and a whole range of those precious, all-important ancillary profits.
The only thing he couldn't get was the sequel rights. But that was fine. The studios could keep the lifeblood.
Zane had just stolen the heart.
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