Accompanying various check-ups, notifying relatives and friends, arranging diet and rest during pregnancy... It was a busy period from Tuesday to Friday, and of course, they continued to stay at home on Saturday and Sunday.
The commotion was so significant that the media inevitably caught wind of it.
So, an official announcement was made on the Ygritte portal: the first child of the Westeros family is about to be born.
This led to another round of congratulations and blessings from all sides.
The discussions in the media were also very lively.
Some analysed the difference between a boy and a girl as Simon Westeros's first heir, some discussed how much wealth this child might inherit, some speculated what name the Westeros couple would give this child, and so on, endlessly.
Anthony Johnston also flew with his family from Melbourne to Los Angeles on Friday, representing the family to visit his newly pregnant sister.
After confirming her 100% pregnancy, Janette quietly donated $10 million to UNICEF and several other children's charities in the name of the Simon & Janette Westeros Foundation. As Janette put it, this was to accumulate good fortune for the little one in her belly, hoping the child would be healthy and safe in the future.
Americans view charity as one of their social obligations, and being pragmatic also serves to gain corresponding social prestige, without the concept of 'a benevolent family will surely have abundant blessings'.
Simon felt that Janette's idea probably stemmed from her consistent study of Chinese in recent years; her Chinese proficiency had now reached a level where she could directly read the traditional Chinese version of 'Dream of the Red Chamber'.
Being an Easterner at heart, Simon naturally did not object to Janette's approach.
Because she successfully conceived, Janette's 31st birthday, which she had always wanted to forget, was also celebrated on a small scale. However, it was only a birthday dinner with some close relatives and friends at the Point Dume estate, so it was far less lively than Simon's birthday party last month.
After the birthday dinner, the Anthony family, who had stayed in Los Angeles for a week, returned to Australia, and Simon finally resumed work.
Janette, however, immediately started her maternity leave.
No more work.
Taking maternity leave after only three weeks of pregnancy... Well, the pregnant woman does as she pleases.
Who would dare to object?
Fortunately, Janette has always maintained a mindset of 'the superior manage people', mostly grasping the general direction of Cersei Capital's operations and confidently entrusting most of the work to the heads of the three subsidiary companies. Therefore, her departure would largely not significantly impact Cersei Capital's operations.
Of course, while Janette was taking early maternity leave, Simon could not truly completely let go of Cersei Capital.
Currently, Cersei Capital, Cersei Fund Management Company, Apollo Management Company, and BlackRock Asset Management Company collectively manage over $21 billion in funds. The former two each manage around $3 billion, while BlackRock, which primarily engages in low-risk stock bonds and fixed-income investments, has already reached a fund size of $15 billion.
Although the heads of the three subsidiary companies were carefully selected and all possess top-tier investment talent from Wall Street, no one can guarantee that these professional managers will not do anything out of line once they have excessive power and lack strict supervision.
There are countless cases of Wall Street fund managers making unauthorized investments that lead to huge losses for their companies.
In Simon's memory, Salomon Brothers, which was on par with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in this era, had likely collapsed later this year due to the exposure of a bond bidding scandal involving fund managers, eventually disappearing from the ranks of Wall Street investment banking giants a few years later.
Janette's previous work at Cersei Capital was half about controlling direction and half about financial supervision.
After Janette went on leave, Cersei Capital quickly reorganized and established an Investment Committee. Simon, James Raybould, and the three heads of the subsidiary companies joined as members of the Investment Committee.
Simon took on the task of overseeing the overall situation, while James was responsible for financial supervision.
All subsequent investments of Cersei Capital above a certain scale will require approval from the five-member Investment Committee before they can be executed. Of course, as the controlling shareholder of Cersei Capital, Simon still retains a veto right.
However, Simon's inner resolve was actually to interfere as little as possible with the management of Cersei Capital.
Unless it was a project destined to fail badly in his memory, he would not deliberately obstruct the decisions of the fund managers of the three subsidiary companies. A qualified boss must be able to tolerate subordinates' failures. The main purpose of establishing the Investment Committee was merely to prevent the three subsidiary companies from running wild after Janette let go.
Janette was actually never that enthusiastic about the operations of Cersei Capital, and now that she was pregnant, she would undoubtedly focus more on the little one. As long as the Investment Committee operates effectively, this system can be maintained indefinitely in the future.
This year's Easter is on March 31st, and the Easter holiday season will begin on March 22nd.
Daenerys Entertainment is mainly releasing two films this Easter: Madonna's documentary from last year's 'Blonde Ambition Tour', 'Truth or Dare', and 'Children of the Corn III'.
If Universal Pictures is included, there's also 'Career Opportunities', produced by John Hughes.
'Career Opportunities' tells the story of a supermarket clerk and a runaway rich girl encountering two thieves while on night watch at a supermarket. The story setting has many similarities to 'Home Alone', but this is not a complete copycat of 'Home Alone'. The film was also shot last year, and the similar plot is merely a result of John Hughes' consistent style of mass-produced works.
Simon did not have high expectations for the box office of this film, which he had basically never heard of, but the film's female lead was quite noteworthy: Jennifer Connelly, from 'Once Upon a Time in America' and 'Labyrinth'. This actress is 21 years old this year, in the absolute peak of her beauty.
As March draws to a close, the summer blockbuster season is actually not far off.
Simon has been dedicating more energy to a series of films related to Daenerys Entertainment these days.
For the upcoming summer blockbuster season, the four core films scheduled for June and July; 'Batman: The Dark Knight', 'Terminator 2', 'The Fugitive', and 'A Few Good Men', are all co-productions, distributed by Warner, Fox, Warner, and MGM, respectively.
Aside from these four mainstream commercial films, Daenerys Entertainment's sole independent releases are three niche independent films from Highgate Films.
This was actually Simon's deliberate arrangement, as he expected to take over MCA this year.
Daenerys Entertainment's distribution team will complete the takeover and integration of Universal Pictures through the distribution work of this summer season.
However, to Simon's disappointment, Universal Pictures' four films for this summer; 'Backdraft', 'Jungle Fever', 'Problem Child 2', and 'Family Business', do not have much potential to become big hits.
Reviewing Universal Pictures' 1991 film slate, probably only 'Cape Fear' and 'Fried Green Tomatoes', tentatively scheduled for the end of the year, had decent box office performances. However, in his memory, the North American box office for these two films still did not break $100 million. This means that Universal Pictures likely won't have a single film grossing over $100 million this year.
The fluctuating performance of Hollywood studios is evident from this.
This also further highlights how prominent Daenerys Entertainment has been in Hollywood in recent years.
To minimize or avoid the losses from Universal Pictures' 1991 film business, Daenerys Entertainment has recently cut seven of Universal's film production and distribution plans. However, because most projects were already in substantial production stages, and many had even been completed, the final number of remaining films still reached 16.
On Daenerys Entertainment's side, the three labels have confirmed that 23 films will be released in 1991.
Combining both, the new Daenerys Entertainment will release a total of 39 films in 1991.
Fortunately, Simon had already planned this in advance.
Of Daenerys Entertainment's own 23 films, 11 are from Highgate Film. While niche independent films and art-house films have repeatedly created box office miracles in recent years, their overall scope is still limited, so they won't significantly impact the mainstream commercial film system.
After the reorganization, 6 of Universal Pictures' 16 films were also reclassified under Highgate Film.
In total, Highgate Film will release 17 films in 1991, all of which are niche independent and art-house films.
Additionally, New World Pictures was allocated 11 films, primarily thrillers, horrors, and lowbrow comedies.
The remaining 11 mainstream commercial films include co-productions like 'Batman: The Dark Knight' and films solely distributed by Daenerys Pictures, such as 'Toy Story'.
These three distinct distribution systems will form the main structure of Daenerys Entertainment's future film business.
Each distribution system will produce films on a scale equivalent to a mainstream studio.
Although Daenerys Entertainment still maintains an open attitude towards external collaborations, such a structural adjustment of its film business clearly carries a strong aggressive intent.
After all, traditional major studios usually release only ten to twenty films each year, rarely exceeding 30. After Daenerys Entertainment's film business structure adjustment, the annual film distribution scale will reach as many as 40 films. With the North American film market capacity being relatively fixed, doing so will naturally squeeze the living space of other Hollywood studios.
Simon, however, would not be constrained by the pressure felt by other Hollywood studios; in previous years, he had already offered enough conciliatory bargaining chips. Next, Simon plans to apply pressure and push for further consolidation of Hollywood's major studios, pre-emptively reducing the number of Hollywood media giants to five or even fewer.
In this process, traditional major studios will certainly be merged and disappear. With the upcoming lifting of horizontal integration restrictions in the media sector, media giants will gain more monopolistic resources. It will become increasingly difficult for newcomers to rise in Hollywood.
Point Dume Estate.
Today is March 22nd, Friday, and another week has passed without realizing it.
After Janette became pregnant, Simon has basically been clocking out at 5 o'clock sharp every day.
As soon as he entered the Shell Villa, Simon saw the hall filled with a dazzling array of children's products: strollers, formula, plush toys, Lego blocks, piles of clothes, stacks of tiny shoes... it looked like a children's flea market.
Walking through the chaos, Simon found the woman sitting on the sofa by the glass curtain wall, holding a remote control and operating a toy truck on the floor.
She looked engrossed.
The toy truck bumped twice against Simon's feet with a 'ka-ka' sound, accompanied by the woman's husky and playfully innocent voice: "Beep beep beep, Daddy's blocking the car's way, Daddy move aside quickly".
Simon didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He walked over and swatted the woman's bottom, who was lying on the sofa with only her head peeking out: "Buying so many things, does our family have a mine?"
Janette, of course, couldn't understand the idiom in Simon's words, but that didn't stop her from responding with righteous indignation: "Yes".
Simon paused.
Well… This family really does own a mine.
He walked around the sofa and sat down, picked the woman up and placed her on his lap, snatched the remote control from her hand, and the toy truck started running on the smooth floor again.
Hmm.
This is pretty fun.
Janette saw Simon quickly getting engrossed and reached out to grab the remote control, displeased: "This is for the baby".
Simon dodged: "Don't snatch it, the baby still has a few years to go, let the baby's dad play for a while first".
Janette rested her head on Simon's lap, her small paw reaching out to snatch it a few more times. Unsuccessful, she had to give up, but burst into uncontrollable laughter.
After laughing for a while, Janette gently stroked her lower belly and asked, "Simon, what do you think our little one should be named?"
Simon said, "What do you think?"
"I want you to name then".
"I'm not very good at naming things".
"Yes, Seattle or something", Janette suddenly laughed again, patting Simon's arm, and said, "My child won't have such a strange name".
Simon also smiled and said, "How did Jenny end up telling you that?"
"Hmph hmph hmph".
Janet didn't explain, just hummed a few times proudly.
Simon thought for a moment and said, "If it's a boy, let's call him Melbourne. If it's a girl, hmm, also Melbourne".
Janet clenched her small fist and punched him: "Melbourne… I'll Melbourne you".
Simon didn't dodge, laughing: "You told me to name them, and I think this name is good, Melbourne, Melbourne Westeros".
Janet punched Simon again: "My child won't be named Melbourne, it's even worse than Seattle".
Simon was very easy going: "Then you name the little one yourself".
Janette twisted her soft body and rolled on the sofa, still looking very distressed. After a moment, she finally 'compromised' and said, "If it's a boy, then Melbourne it is. If it's a girl, Seattle".
Simon helplessly said, "Don't fight with Jenny over such things, okay?"
Although the female assistant was very dissatisfied with the name Simon had given in advance, it was conceivable that if Janette snatched it, it would become a rather lively affair.
"I don't care, if she has the guts, she can give birth to a baby before me".
"I have the feeling that if Jenny gives birth first, you might secretly kill me in the middle of the night".
"No, I wouldn't". Janette shook her head and said, "I wouldn't even have to wait until midnight, and I'd kill both of you".
"Uh, really?"
"Of course not", Janette reached out and stroked Simon's face, saying, "I can't bear to".
Simon breathed a sigh of relief: "That's a relief".
"However, I won't let you off either".
"Hmm?"
"You figure it out".
"No need to think, you're already pregnant anyway", Simon put down the remote control, leaned down and kissed the woman's lips, saying, "So, how about just Melbourne?"
"That's so ugly".
"You'll get used to it. Who dares to say Westeros sounds ugly now?"
"Westeros doesn't sound ugly to begin with".
"Alright, you repeat 'Melbourne Westeros' a hundred times in your mind every day for a week, and you'll get used to it. The power of habit is strong".
"I still think Seattle Westeros sounds better".
"That's precisely because you've repeated it many times in your mind".