King of Hollywood
Chapter 491 - 212: Capturing 8 Cities in a Row

Chapter 491: Chapter 212: Capturing 8 Cities in a Row

Birthdays are always important, and their significance seems to grow with time, be it for people, holidays, or events. So far, the Oscars have been held for 70 years—how many 70-year spans does one have in a lifetime? Thus, it’s no wonder the organizers went all out for this year’s ceremony.

I won’t even mention the scene outside; Adrian knew it too well, with more fans, reporters, and guests than any previous year. Inside, the decor was even more lavish, especially on the stage, where on either side stood two half-sized Oscar statuettes, strikingly wrapped and immediately catching the eyes of the guests as they entered, giving off an inexplicable sense of impact.

Between the two sculptures was a large screen, now twice the size of previous ones and formerly located next to the podium. The current screen, suspended in mid-air, could be retracted after use, not obstructing the view of the host, presenters, or band.

"The effect is quite impressive, this is sure to be a memorable awards ceremony," Adrian whispered to Gwyneth, who sat next to him.

"Of course," Gwyneth responded with a warm smile, gripping Adrian’s hand tightly underneath, apparently intending to make up for the intimacy they didn’t show outside. If it hadn’t been for the fear of overdoing it, she might have already linked arms with him.

"I’ve heard this is the last time the Temple Grand Theater in Los Angeles will host the Oscars. The Film Academy plans to move the ceremony to a more luxurious venue in the future," Cameron chimed in, seemingly oblivious to the intimacy between the two.

"Yes, the newly-built Kodak Theater is almost complete. There’s talk they’re planning to move the ceremony there," Adrian replied, indicating that it would likely become the Oscars’ sole future venue.

After patting Gwyneth’s hand, Adrian turned to look around the room and soon spotted Blanchett. She caught his gaze too, and even though there was a distance between them, Adrian noticed Blanchett’s displeased expression upon seeing Gwyneth by his side—it was unclear whether the displeasure was aimed at him or at Gwyneth.

Julia and Monica were not in sight, although he knew where they should be sitting; the hall was simply too vast. However, he did spot Rachel sitting quietly five rows and nine seats ahead to the right. Occasionally she would chat with people nearby, and Adrian admired this quality of hers—he also enjoyed completely tearing it apart.

Zetajones was just a row ahead, as usual, sitting near the "Titanic" and "L.A. Confidential" casts. Though she was deeply engaged in conversation with her makeup artist, she would occasionally look over in his direction, prompting Adrian to chuckle and chat with Gwyneth even more affectionately.

Soon after, the lights in the venue dimmed, and with Billy Crystal leaping onto the stage, the 70th Oscar ceremony commenced. Adrian recalled that this must be Crystal’s seventh time hosting the Oscars. He had been present at every Oscar ceremony since ’93, and while the most memorable host was Ubi Goldberg—anyone who watched her constantly changing bizarre outfits would remember—Crystal was undoubtedly the best at hosting.

Typically, the Oscars ceremony is hosted by well-known comedians. Even though Hollywood has countless comedians, the classy ones who don’t plunge into crass humor, or at least present it subtly, aren’t many. Crystal was undoubtedly one of the best, hence his seven-times host record.

Well, with Crystal’s comic monologue and a segment showing how he’d been coerced into hosting the Oscars—a montage assembled from scenes of the five Best Picture nominations. In this video, he was spat upon by Leonardo, taught by Gwyneth how to spit, stuffed into a toilet for a beating by Crowe and River, scorned by Nicholson, and while holding the Heart of the Ocean, he posed as a model for Leonardo, which kept the hall erupting with continuous laughter.

After all the fuss, the award ceremony immediately began with the presentation of the first award. As expected, the one taking the stage to present was Little Cuba Gooding, who had said "I love you" countless times in his acceptance speech last year and was teased about it for nearly a year, so it went without saying which award he was presenting.

"It’s really a difficult task, just by announcing it I’ll offend the other four women of varying grace, which is so troubling," Little Cuba Gooding said, playing with his words and eliciting a burst of laughter, but in the end, he went on, "Okay, please remember, I really don’t want to do this, but I have to announce that the Best Supporting Actress goes to..."

Adrian squinted his eyes and placed his hands together in front of him. As early as when he got the nomination list, he had been certain that someone’s chances of winning Best Supporting Actress were at least 80 percent, so now his lips parted slightly, silently following Little Cuba Gooding’s voice as he announced, "That Time," Kim Basinger!

A warm applause filled the room instantly, and Kim Basinger’s face took over the entire screen. She covered her mouth uncontrollably, while her husband Alex Baldwin hugged her and congratulated her repeatedly. Isn’t it an interesting thing? Even though Adrian had acquired the adaptation rights for L.A. Confidential and even with him changing the actress to Zetajones, Kim Basinger still managed to win Best Supporting Actress at the 70th Oscars.

The movie she starred in, "That Time," was about the seventies, a drifter’s observations in a northern small town, showcasing the impact of those big events of the decade on the town, condensing the variety of changes that happened to Americans during this time. Thanks to the director’s good control of pacing and a mainstream storyline, it received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Screenplay.

Basinger played a single mother in it, not exceptionally brilliant but good enough for a nomination. Coupled with her accumulated experience and connections, there weren’t any significant rivals this year, so she won Best Supporting Actress with ease.

Adrian clapped his hands with a smile, watching Kim Basinger make her way to the stage to accept her award with great interest. This film called "That Time" did not exist in his memory, it could be because he had not seen it, but a film with four Oscar nominations was unlikely to leave no impression at all. So there was only one possibility: such a change must have been caused by him, the butterfly.

Thinking about this, Adrian laughed lightly. Chaos theory is called chaos theory because the universe is unpredictable; from the moment he was reborn, every action he took was influencing the world to change. Besides, weren’t the changes he caused plentiful? The parents of Emma, Kirsten’s Oscar statuette, or those two women who should have been successful, whether actively or passively, why bother about it too much?

Hollywood is, after all, Hollywood, the world’s movie factory. Producing a movie like "That Time" is quite normal, right? Like in Japan, although the three major laboring manga were messed up because of his meddling, in January, Shogakukan serialized a manga by a newcomer, a hot-blooded, humorous series called "Great Thief." It received excellent reviews and began to sell well immediately upon publication. Its author was Oda Eiichiro!

Reality is always stranger than fiction. Fiction needs to stick to reason at least to be logically consistent, or the readers won’t buy it. But when reality defies logic, everyone has to accept it.

Therefore, Adrian need not worry about the potential consequences of these events. All he had to do was to keep a tight grip on the movies from his memory, just as he had done before, selling the adaptation rights to popular novels ahead of time and seizing every opportunity that he could grasp, more than enough to build a firm empire.

Basinger had already ascended the stage to give her speech; Adrian withdrew his gaze and turned it to Zetajones in front of him. Even though he had told Zetajones not to hope for an award this time, and Zetajones was aware of this, she still couldn’t help but show a look of disappointment at this moment. Only those utterly indifferent could face the possibility of an award slipping away without any concern.

She quickly noticed something, turned her head, and met Adrian’s eyes. Adrian gave her a comforting, encouraging smile. This look lacked the usual desire and manipulation, only sincerity. Zetajones paused, a complicated expression flashing in her eyes, but she quickly recovered and returned his smile before turning away.

Adrian chuckled to himself, then heard Gwyneth’s voice next to his ear, "What are you looking at?"

Her voice was full of chiding, and one could easily imagine her current expression. Turning his head to look, Adrian saw just that: she was biting her lip, her eyes filled with a sultry grievance, seemingly feeling wronged and dissatisfied with his attention shifted to another woman.

"What’s wrong?" Adrian asked in a casual tone.

"Nothing, I just wanted to know what you were looking at." Gwyneth pouted. Honestly, that gesture didn’t suit her temperament, but at this moment, it appeared quite playful.

"Okay, then I’ll keep my eyes on you all night since I don’t have a single nomination anyway." Adrian chuckled, his hands clenched together tightly before relaxing, and then stealthily he reached over to the inside of her plump thigh, giving it a not-too-light, not-too-firm pinch.

"Forget it, they’re about to hand out another award." Gwyneth snorted lightly and rolled her eyes at him, then turned her gaze back to Kristo, who was back to clowning around on stage. However, as Adrian tried to withdraw his hand, she caught it and pressed it onto her thigh. She understood all too well that there was no point in throwing a small tantrum; she wasn’t unaware of what kind of person this rascal was.

Their voices weren’t loud, but the people sitting on either side of them couldn’t have failed to hear. Yet whether it was Cameron on Adrian’s side or the others next to Gwyneth, they all treated them as if they were thin air, sitting upright and watching the stage attentively.

The award for Best Supporting Actor was closely followed by the Best Supporting Actress. After that was presented, Kristo continued to flaunt his wit, and several people were teased, including the guy in the White House. The affair between Clinton and Lewinsky was now so tumultuous and well-known that Hollywood couldn’t resist taking jabs at the president, and he surely couldn’t escape it.

"...So, this lesson tells us, don’t mess with the interns," Kristo concluded with a deadpan expression. It sounded as though he was dragging L.A. Confidential into the mix, but as soon as that last sentence came out, everyone knew what he was referring to, and the room burst into laughter again.

"Did you hear that? Don’t touch the interns," Gwyneth whispered teasingly and mockingly into his ear.

Adrian chuckled softly, his hand on her thigh slipping further in. Gwyneth quickly squeezed her legs together and shot him an annoyed look. Adrian chuckled again and withdrew his hand.

Many people talking about this matter believed that Clinton was nearly impeached because of his involvement with a White House intern, but it was not really the case. As I’ve said before, it was common for presidents or high officials to sleep with political interns, just like one-night stands in Hollywood. The real reason Clinton faced impeachment was for lying; when a judge asked him whether he had been involved with Lewinsky, he firmly denied it. After the affair with Lewinsky was exposed, his political opponents seized the opportunity. They argued that since he had lied about this matter, who knew if he hadn’t lied about other things as well, triggering a series of events.

Okay, that aside, next up were the technical awards. Best Sound Mixing, undoubtedly, was easily snagged by Titanic. Then, the mighty ship began surging ahead full steam, as if it had just set sail from Southampton, sweeping all before it with youthful vigor, collecting awards for Best Sound Editing, Best Costume Design, and Best Art Direction one after another.

Although many had anticipated this outcome, the reality still made them swallow hard. The sensation when the presenter repeatedly announced the same film as the winner, and the soundtrack of that movie played over and over, was truly indescribable. Even Kristo couldn’t help but joke, "Hmm, perhaps we could negotiate to give some awards to other films?"

"It’s just so incredible, we’ve got all the awards so far," Gwyneth said excitedly at his side.

"Calm down, dear, we haven’t reached the heaviest award yet," Adrian patted her hand. He always maintained a calm demeanor, congratulating the winners by leading all the crew members to stand up during the musical interlude after each announcement.

Was there a need to be so excited? These were all awards that ’Titanic’ deserved, weren’t they? Adrian thought to himself. He glanced at Gwyneth, still somewhat excited, then shook his head slightly in his mind, wondering just how disappointed she would be when the Best Actress award was announced.

From the Best Supporting Actress category, it was clear that the Film Academy wasn’t going to give too much consideration to ’Titanic’ for the acting awards. The one among the five nominees who posed the biggest threat to Kim Basinger was Gloria Stuart, who played Old Rose in the great ship. After all, ’Titanic,’ moving towards a global box office of 2.1 billion, exerted more pressure than the mere 1 billion box office it had during the awards ceremony in memory.

Because of the Oscar’s unprecedented 15 nominations, the great ship was still wobbling in theatres, and many people wondered whether it could break through 2 billion and go on to reach 2.1 billion.

Unfortunately, in recent years, Stuart had semi-retired and hadn’t taken on many movies. So, even though she had some good works in her youth, it had been a while. Basinger had also become less active in recent years, but undeniably, she was doing better than Stuart.

Moreover, unlike the Grammys, which like to be extreme, either leaning completely to the right or left, the Film Academy preferred balance. They believed that Titanic’s visual effects were the main draw, and the actors’ performances were secondary. Therefore, they gave the acting award to someone else, and Basinger ultimately won over Stuart.

Because Adrian had a hand in it, Gwyneth hadn’t made as many movies in the past few years as she had in memory, so her credentials were somewhat shallower, making it difficult to win Best Actress.

However, this meant there was a good chance that Best Picture would be ’Titanic’s to claim, since its performance was evident. And Best Director might as well be locked down for Cameron, as most of the time, Best Picture and Best Director tend to go to the same film.

Of course, nothing is absolute—just like Oda Eiichiro could create ’Great Thief’ and Kim Basinger could win Best Supporting Actress for ’That Time’—nothing could be concluded 100% until the end. It’s said that Old Paltrow was also lobbying on behalf of his daughter; probably in his eyes, as long as Gwyneth won Best Actress, she would naturally leave that bastard behind, haha...

Actually, it wouldn’t be bad for Gwyneth to win Best Actress. Adrian had hoped that beyond breaking the box office and nomination records, ’Titanic’ could break the award-winning records. He had been counting on his fingers from the start; they were still a considerable distance from the number of twelve Oscar statuettes.

After a musical number, the award ceremony continued, and the list was still dominated by ’Titanic,’ winning Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and other significant awards. The other crews naturally felt desolate. Barely did they breathe a sigh of relief when ’The Full Monty’ won Best Musical or Comedy Score, as ’Titanic’ wasn’t nominated, but then Best Original Score was also taken by ’Titanic.’

"Okay, I must be dreaming, how can they take so many, hey, wake up!" Kristo said while holding his face and rubbing it several times, his comic appearance drawing many laughs.

Especially loud were the members of the ’Titanic’ crew. No matter how gloomy the other crews might be, their mood was utterly euphoric. What could be more delightful than sweeping up Oscar statuettes one after another? So far, they had conquered eight categories, and what’s more, the following one was almost inevitably theirs—Best Original Song! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to cast your recommendation votes and monthly votes at Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)