At WMA headquarters in Beverly Hills.
Courteney Cox was about to leave after discussing a script she had recently received with Jonathan Friedman, when she remembered the progress of the investigation into the attack several years ago, which she had read about in the newspaper yesterday.
Courteney couldn't help but sit back down and ask Jonathan, "Jon, do you know about Christie Swanson?"
Jonathan Freedman paused, then nodded, "I know".
The Santa Monica Police Department had been continuously investigating the attack that occurred in the summer four years ago.
Yesterday, the media suddenly exposed further details of the case, implicating Hollywood actress Christie Swanson.
It was said that before Matthew Broderick rushed to intercept Simon Westeros that night, Christie Swanson had revealed Westeros's workplace to them.
This evidence further tilted the situation in Simon's favour.
In fact, as the investigation progressed, no one believed Matthew Broderick's initial claims during his press conference; the situation had become very clear.
However, the Santa Monica Police Department had to provide an undeniable case investigation result to the media and the public, which is why they continued to dig into everything related to the original attack.
Although the public is easily inclined to sympathize with the weak, they are not entirely without the ability to distinguish right from wrong, and once they discover they have been deceived and fooled, their anger will only surge more fiercely.
The six people who held the press conference attempting to "pre-empt" the situation were now like rats crossing the street.
In fact, most of them wanted to settle the matter proactively to escape this incident, but Simon's side showed no intention of letting go.
Courteney Cox carefully considered her words, then suddenly changed the subject, saying, "Jon… have we received an invitation to Simon's birthday party this time?"
Simon's personal parties, as well as those organized by Daenerys Entertainment in the past, would send a batch of invitations to WMA for them to distribute.
Courteney's question was clearly aimed at something.
Jonathan, however, shook his head and said, "Courteney, Simon isn't planning a very large birthday party this time; he'll probably only invite some company executives and close friends and family".
After saying that, both of them suddenly fell silent.
Today was February 19th, only three days until Simon's birthday.
Theoretically, for a gathering as important as Simon's birthday party, invitations would have been sent out a week in advance.
Jonathan had naturally received his invitation.
However, Courteney, who had met Simon as soon as he arrived in Los Angeles, was excluded from the 'close friends and family' he had just mentioned.
The ups and downs of life are sometimes truly unpredictable.
Jonathan also thought of Sandra Bullock, another client of his.
As Simon's closest female friend, who had even almost become his lover, Sandra's career had been smooth sailing in recent years.
In comparison, as the lead actress of the 'Scream' series, Courteney, despite also being a first-tier actress, might face an uncertain future after 'Scream 3' concludes this year.
It is very difficult for horror film actresses to transition.
After all, opportunities for actresses in Hollywood are already scarce, but the competition is precisely very fierce.
In Hollywood at the moment, there are veteran actresses like Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Cher, and others; middle-generation actresses like Melanie Griffith, Michelle Pfeiffer, and others; and new-generation actresses like Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, and others.
These actresses are all very strong, and major studios tend to entrust quality projects to them when casting for suitable roles.
Jonathan could roughly understand Courteney's thoughts at this moment.
This actress, who once had the best chance to rise with Simon, was now excluded from the periphery of Simon's social circle.
The two things she suddenly brought up were likely Courteney's attempt to use Simon's upcoming birthday party as an opportunity to personally explain the attack incident to him and also to strengthen their relationship.
However, Jonathan knew that Simon actually didn't care much about the attack from back then; it was Janette who was stubbornly holding on.
That's why women are the most vengeful.
As for Christie Swanson, the one who 'guided' Matthew Broderick and others to attack Simon, she was still a WMA client.
However, this minor actress, who had only been able to dabble in supporting roles in teen horror films in recent years, wasn't even mentioned by Simon after the news broke.
Although WMA wouldn't deliberately blacklist her to avoid any public opinion issues, she wouldn't receive any resources going forward.
A moment later, Courteney finally mustered her courage and said, "Jon, can you please get me an invitation?"
Jonathan could only shake his head.
As far as he knew, the scale of this birthday party would be controlled to within a hundred people.
One hundred party slots, for other social gatherings in Hollywood, would be considered a significant party size, but for Simon Westeros's birthday party, every invitation slot needed to be carefully selected.
Speaking of which, in recent days, not only Courteney, but many stars under WMA, or rather, countless people throughout Hollywood, have been trying every possible means to obtain an invitation to Simon Westeros's birthday party.
Simon actually doesn't manage the birthday party guest list; Janette is in charge of it all.
Jonathan had indeed managed to get a few invitations for his network through his relationship with Simon from Janette, but the party guest list was already largely finalized, and Courteney had not yet reached the point where he would spend his personal favours on her.
After seeing Courteney Cox off, Jonathan sighed deeply once more, then quickly turned his attention to other matters.
In his most recent conversation with Simon, he was planning to cultivate a few male actors around 30 years old who were suitable for action films.
There were action stars in Hollywood at this stage, such as Dolph Lundgren, Steven Seagal, and others, but none were considered top-tier.
Under WMA, several new-generation actors like Keanu Reeves were still a bit too young.
As for the hottest actor at the moment, Mel Gibson, he was a bit too old.
Jonathan had also thought of Tom Cruise; if there was a male actor around 30 years old suitable for action films, Hollywood had no one more fitting than him.
However, Simon was not at all interested in this A-list actor who also had good box office appeal.
Disliked by a Hollywood mogul of such calibre, and with the deepening cooperation between Daenerys Entertainment and Paramount, the resources Tom Cruise could obtain in Hollywood would only be further squeezed.
It was very likely that within a few years, he would gradually decline.
Daenerys Film City.
While Jonathan was considering action stars, Simon was also discussing future collaborations with Paramount executives.
Simon was a man who valued his commitments.
To prevent Paramount from hindering Daenerys Entertainment's acquisition of MCA, he had no intention of violating either the written contracts or the verbal agreements.
The main collaborations between the two parties going forward were, on one hand, three films, and on the other, USA Network, with each company holding a 50% stake.
Among the three films, the key project already decided was 'Mission: Impossible'" a film that could definitely be developed into a long-running series.
However, since he wasn't planning to use the original lead actor, Tom Cruise, Simon wasn't in a hurry to develop this project for now, as there was no suitable male lead candidate in the short term.
Moreover, although three films were agreed upon, the cooperation period was very flexible, and neither party would be in too much of a rush.
What everyone was discussing at this time was the development of USA Network.
As a basic cable channel, USA Network was founded as a joint venture between MCA, Paramount, and Warner.
Later, for various reasons, Warner divested its shares, leaving MCA and Paramount each holding 50%.
Having been established for over a decade, USA Network was considered a very old basic cable channel.
However, compared to other basic cable channels that emerged at the same time and became increasingly popular, such as ESPN, CNN, and MTV, USA Network had never found its niche.
Its development over the years was like a hodgepodge, having tried sports programming, produced children's shows, broadcast original series, and made TV movies.
In recent years, with the rise of reality TV, it also developed some low-cost variety game shows.
In Simon's memory, later ESPN, CNN, and MTV all became dominant in their respective fields, while USA Network, though it always existed, remained lukewarm and never stood out.
Its style eventually gravitated towards the major public television networks, relying solely on original series like crime and police dramas to boost ratings.
However, due to the nature of a basic cable channel, these series, in terms of both quality and viewership, were destined not to compare with public television networks.
The only thing that satisfied Simon about the current USA Network was its impressive 21 million connected users.
Calculating an average of 3 people per household, USA Network was considered to have a basic viewership of over 60 million people, nearly one-third of the total US population.
Of course, because the four major public television networks were still in a monopoly, and specialized basic cable channels like ESPN, MTV, CNN, and even HBO had taken a large portion of cable TV users, despite having a very considerable connected user base, USA Network's program viewership had always been very dismal.
Because it lacked any flagship television programs to capture viewers' attention, USA Network was the kind of channel whose number on the remote control was barely remembered by anyone.
The main sources of income for basic cable channels are operator revenue sharing and self-generated advertising.
Operators pay basic cable channels a certain amount of revenue sharing monthly, based on their viewership and subscriber numbers.
For highly-watched basic cable channels like CNN, each subscriber can contribute as much as 70 cents per month to the channel, and advertising revenue is equally substantial.
However, USA Network's average operator revenue share only barely reached 15 cents, less than a quarter of CNN's, and its subscriber count was also less than half of CNN's.
Therefore, despite having 21 million connected users, its monthly operator revenue share was only a little over £3 million.
Its annual revenue, including advertising revenue which was roughly equivalent to the operator share, was only a little over $60 million.
Simon understood that this situation mainly arose because USA Network's positioning was not clear enough; it always wanted to be big and all encompassing, but ended up like a bear breaking corn, it didn't do anything well.
ESPN, MTV, and CNN, which focused solely on single areas like sports, music, and news, all achieved success.
Before acquiring MCA, Simon had already begun to consider the next steps for USA Network's development.
The main areas that cable television could specialize in; music, sports, news, and even movies, had already been occupied.
Therefore, USA Network could only start by segmenting the audience.
Because of an IP like 'The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills', Simon ultimately decided to transform USA Network into a women's channel, targeting the very large group of housewives in the United States.
It's important to note that while the United States is the most developed country in the world, and has experienced multiple feminist movements for women's liberation in recent decades, in the early 1990s, the proportion of American women who chose to give up work and become full-time housewives after marriage still exceeded 40%.
For these women, after managing household chores, their biggest pastime was undoubtedly television.
USA Network, coincidentally, was a 24-hour basic cable channel very suitable for the housewife demographic.
After operating for so many years without much success, when Simon proposed maintaining the ownership structure but requesting absolute control of USA Network, Paramount chairman Martin Davis did not have any realise to refuse.
The two sides discussed for an entire afternoon and essentially finalized USA Network's budget and programming plans for the coming year.
Over the next year, Daenerys Entertainment and Paramount Communications will jointly inject $100 million into USA Network for series development, rights acquisition, and advertising marketing.
In terms of television programming, while relaunching 'The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills', they will also simultaneously launch another series, 'The Real Housewives Of New York'.
While making the 'Real Housewives' reality series the flagship, Daenerys Entertainment will also continue to develop and acquire a batch of television programs specifically targeting women.
At five o'clock, the meeting ended on time.
Everyone else left, but Paramount Chairman Martin Davis was not in a hurry to leave and suggested walking around Daenerys Film City campus with Simon, which Simon did not refuse.
"Actually, Simon, regarding 'Mission: Impossible', are you sure we can't let Tom try it? I think he's very suitable".
As the two walked along the asphalt path in the park, Simon heard Martin Davis bring this up and simply shook his head, saying, "Martin, this is a matter of principle".
When necessary, Simon would make some compromises, such as his cooperation with Paramount, or lifting the ban on Meg Ryan.
These were all to avoid complications in the MCA acquisition, and Simon would not lose sight of the bigger picture for minor issues.
However, Tom Cruise had no leverage, nor had he provided him any good reason, to make him compromise, and Simon also needed to continue expressing an attitude; the attitude that studios are the real controllers of Hollywood.
Moreover, Daenerys Entertainment, with its abundant reserves of high-quality IPs, wouldn't be too concerned about the failure of one or two projects, even the 'Mission: Impossible' series.
Sensing Simon's insistence, Martin Davis didn't push too hard and wisely changed the subject.
Martin Davis, after all, was not a newcomer like Simon and could not have known the connection between Tom Cruise and the 'Mission: Impossible' series.
He had only mentioned it because Tom Cruise's cooperation with Paramount had been quite pleasant over the years, and there was some personal relationship involved.
Moreover, as Paramount's performance began to decline in the past two years, Martin Davis's control over the company was rapidly weakening.
He had a premonition that Paramount might face the same fate as MCA in the coming years.
Once that happened, the company would no longer be his concern, so he naturally wouldn't be too particular at this point.
The reason he so easily gave up control of USA Network at the afternoon meeting was mainly due to this.