King of Hollywood
Chapter 637 - 45 Here Again

Chapter 637: Chapter 45 Here Again

"Hey, Dan, really happy to see you," Adrian laughed as he entered the living room and opened his arms to Dennis, "How come you’ve got time to drop by today? Run into some trouble again? Don’t worry, just spill it. Though I’m not Oprah Winfrey, I’d be more than happy to lend an ear to your problems."

"Ed..." Dennis managed a wry smile as he hugged him, unable to find the words to say anything for a moment.

Dennis and Adrian’s relationship was as good as ever. For Dennis, following Adrian to the United Kingdom to shoot movies was the most valuable investment he had made. After "Fight Club," his acting had received considerable recognition, and his role as Hank in "Resident Evil" also gained him a lot of popularity, though winning the approval of the Film Academy would probably not be easy.

Even though he was not the particularly handsome, pretty-boy type, he had his own appeal, or else Winona and Aniston wouldn’t have fallen for him. This, combined with his age disadvantage, meant that even if he starred in some artsy films and received high praise, getting a nomination was not guaranteed. However, Dennis didn’t take it to heart too much. The experiences from his younger years taught him to go with the flow, not to rush for honors.

Moreover, Adrian had also told him that instead of charging for an Oscar now, it would be better to hone his acting skills more, as he had great potential, and it would be a real waste if he didn’t utilize it. So this year, Dennis only took on a low-budget independent film. In fact, Dennis wouldn’t mind even if Adrian didn’t plan to push him for a Best Actor award; he was already satisfied with his current status. It was easy to see how close they were, and just three days ago, Dennis had met with his wife and Adrian at a social gathering. Now he was in Adrian’s house again, clearly something was troubling him that he couldn’t talk to anyone else about, like... heh.

"Alright, let’s go to the study," Adrian didn’t tease him further, signaling Nakama Yukie with a gesture before turning to head inside.

"We’ve been waiting for you, Yukie... huh, someone’s here?" At that moment, two little rascals emerged, followed by an even smaller one.

"Hi, Emma, Lily," Dennis still maintained a smile in front of the three children.

"How are you, Dan, got something on your mind you need to talk to Ed about?" Little Emma asked bluntly, leaving Dennis rolling his eyes, at a loss for words.

Small Emma giggled from the side, but it was Lily who cheerfully greeted him: "How are you, Uncle Dan?"

"Emma!" Adrian called out sternly at that moment, only to see Little Emma and Small Emma turn their heads in sync, blinking in unison and asking, "What?" _{fre\e(w)ebn ov.e l\. co.m}

Adrian couldn’t help but roll his eyes too, but he was already used to their mischief by now, so he told Yukie without fuss, "Don’t mind us, go look after them."

Then he sternly instructed the kids, "Don’t play video games for too long, unless you want to be wearing glasses in the future."

"But I think glasses look pretty cool though," someone immediately responded, and it wasn’t the Little Emma who was used to bantering with Adrian.

"Lily!" Adrian nearly squeezed his daughter’s name through clenched teeth.

"Oops, Ed’s gonna explode, let’s run," Little Emma laughed merrily as she grabbed Small Emma and Lily and zoomed inside, just as quickly as they had dashed out before.

"I’ll keep an eye on them," Yukie bowed at that moment, and then added, "Actually, Emma and the others do have a sense of measure, usually they’ll rest after playing for a while."

Adrian nodded and saw that Yukie seemed to want to say something more, but in the end, she just sighed and continued walking up. Even though Yukie had some friends in Hollywood—Asians, Caucasians, African Americans—she didn’t interact with them much. Apart from work, shopping, and taking personal care of Adrian’s daily life, she spent most of her time holed up in her mansion. Her bedroom was piled high with comics and games from all over the world—mostly from Japan, of course. She had all kinds of gaming consoles, and she managed to get her hands on many games as soon as they were released, some limited edition games or comics included. She would pester Adrian, hoping he could help her get them as soon as they were available.

Adrian would naturally not refuse such requests, but he still wanted to find an opportunity to remind her not to stay cooped up at home too much. But then again, he thought, Yukie’s tendency to stay home wasn’t unrelated to himself, and he vaguely remembered reports about her liking to stay at home, so after some thought, he let it be. Besides, homebody or not, she always did her work well, whether it was her acting or personal care, and she kept up with her physical fitness training. Her figure remained in excellent shape, and under the advice of a fitness trainer, the lines of her lower legs had become even more symmetrical—so he decided to let her be.

Having such a famous star willingly stay by one’s side to take care of everyday needs was probably something only Adrian could manage. Dennis, witnessing all this, thought so in his heart. He was always in this circle and knew very well how famed Nakama Yukie was, who had cameoed on "Friends," starred as the leading lady in "Ju-on," and now played a significant supporting role on "Gilmore Girls." She might not be the very first, but she was definitely at the top among Asian actors.

However, he didn’t come here today to dwell on this. The moment Dennis thought about his own troubles, his face immediately soured.

"Hey, don’t make that face," Adrian said with a laugh, "Come on, spill it—what’s happened? Don’t tell me, after one drink too many, you managed to get the three beauties from ’Friends’ into bed together?"

"Can we not mention that?" Dennis said with a bitter smile and a wave of his hand, "Actually... it’s worse than that..."

"Worse?" Adrian blinked, "Is it that you were caught by Jenny during a sex party?"

Jokes like that were all too common and Dennis just continued with a bitter smile, then held his face in his hands with a sigh. Adrian shrugged, took a bottle of whiskey and two glasses from the drinks cabinet, added some ice cubes, and poured half a glass before passing one over.

Without a word, Dennis took the glass and took a big sip before he sighed deeply, "Jenny’s having an affair."

"What?!" Adrian, who had also taken a sip, almost spit it out, "You’re joking, right, Dan? If there were issues between you and Jenny, it’s definitely you who cheated first. Don’t think I don’t know about Jordana constantly being involved with you!"

Faced with Adrian’s interrogation, Dennis didn’t try to defend himself, but only sighed again. Adrian raised his eyebrows in surprise, Dennis’s demeanor seemed to suggest he was telling the truth, but it still seemed unbelievable. After Dennis and Aniston got married, the media would every so often speculate about when they were going to divorce, but in reality, the couple seemed happy.

It was different from certain celebrity couples who displayed affection in public but were like strangers behind closed doors. Even though Dennis made a big blunder when he got engaged and was still secretly dating Jordana, his feelings for Aniston were still quite good. Adrian could vouch for that, so when Dennis said Aniston cheated, Adrian’s first reaction was that it was impossible.

Then again, he always felt like Aniston seemed to know about Dennis’s affairs but never exposed him, which made it plausible that given a long enough time without winning Dennis’s heart back, infidelity might happen. What was odd though was that Dennis’s current demeanor was not at all like that of a man who had been cheated on. He didn’t appear very angry, rather his expression always carried a hint of something strange. If it were Adrian himself, although he wouldn’t be angry, swift and fierce retaliation would be necessary, like how he dealt with Penelope. So Adrian remained silent, quietly waiting.

After a moment of silence, Dennis finally spoke again amid sighs, "It probably started around April. I hadn’t noticed anything until a few days ago when I went to visit the set of ’Friends.’ Courtney tipped me off that something was amiss, and then... after observing a few times, today I made an excuse about having to go out, left for about half an hour then hurried back, sneaked into the bedroom, and then I saw..."

He took a deep breath, made several meaningless gestures, and the strange look on his face grew even more pronounced, "Then I saw Jenny and... and Noni tangled together on the bed."

With a splutter, Adrian couldn’t avoid the whiskey spraying out of his mouth, but he paid it no heed and stared wide-eyed at Dennis, "What?!"

"Jenny... and Noni," repeated Dennis with a bitter smile, continuing the gestures, "on the bed..."

"You didn’t see wrong?" Adrian asked, only to change his question after Dennis rolled his eyes, "Are you sure? Are you sure they weren’t just playing around and it seemed too intimate by accident?"

"I think I’m still capable of telling them apart," Dennis said, annoyed, grabbing his hair. "Besides, they were both stark naked! What the hell! How could this happen! This is some kind of sick joke!"

It wasn’t until his voice became somewhat shrill that he managed to control himself. He downed the whiskey in his glass and continued bitterly, "According to Courtney, Noni had been seducing Jenny ever since her cameo on ’Friends’ at the beginning of the year. She saw Noni taking Jenny aside in a very intimate manner, even pretending to kiss her. At first, she thought it was necessary for the shooting, because the plot required Noni to play Rachel’s lesbian high school friend who’d always loved Rachel and ended up giving her a farewell kiss. But later she realized something was off because they often went out together and kept it from me... Damn it, if I find out who suggested inviting Noni for the cameo on ’Friends’ and arranged such a plot, I won’t let them off!"

"Mmm..." Adrian laughed it off and turned aside. He certainly wasn’t going to tell him that he was the one who had suggested Winona’s cameo and the plotline.

Winona Ryder had indeed made a cameo in the original ’Friends’ series, and the plotline had been the same: a lesbian classmate who had loved Rachel all along, goes on a date with her and then seals their farewell with a kiss, slightly improving the show’s already somewhat sagging ratings. A star cameo was always one of the biggest draws for a sitcom. And as America’s most popular sitcom that had once set viewership records, how could ’Friends’ not invite stars for cameos?

Even so, after seven or eight seasons, the most popular TV series could start to falter, so ’Friends’ hadn’t regained its high viewership from the NBC days, which had become the butt of many jokes. But Adrian didn’t care. As long as this sitcom was broadcast on ABC, the ultimate victory would belong to him. After all, there’s a reason why classics are called classics.

However, this didn’t mean he was willing to see the ratings fluctuate. That’s why he had suggested inviting Winona Ryder for a cameo, and he even broke his usual habit of not interfering with the script, bringing up the general content of that episode.

Sometimes a newsworthy cameo could significantly boost ratings. For that matter, Dennis was undoubtedly the best choice — a husband and wife team has a certain allure. But the problem was, he’d already made a cameo in the first season, playing himself no less, and now it was tricky to bring his character back. Then there was Adrian, the Miracle Director who, though not often on screen, always attracted a lot of attention when he did appear. Unfortunately, like Dennis, he too had made a cameo in the first season, also playing himself.

So, when Adrian proposed inviting Winona, many eyes lit up — whether producer or scriptwriter, all had worked on ’Friends’ for years, maintaining its good reputation with considerable effort. They immediately saw the value in the suggestion.

You see, the love triangle between Winona, Dennis, and Aniston was public knowledge at one point. In the end, Winona broke up with Dennis and Aniston swooped in to become his wife. Though time had passed, Winona had even attended Dennis’s wedding. But putting two former romantic rivals together on TV and stirring up a lesbian romance? That was one heck of a stunt.

The idea proved to be a success. After the episode aired, ’Friends,’ which had been struggling a bit, saw a significant ratings boost, and the internet buzzed with talk of the enemies’ on-screen lesbian kiss. At the time, Adrian had wondered why Winona so easily agreed, but now, in light of Dennis’s situation, it seemed she had been planning this all along.

"Then what?" Adrian continued asking, "You found them in bed together, then what did you do?"

He always thought Dennis was acting a bit odd, not the slightest bit angry, but more like he’d done something wrong.

"Then..." Dennis now seemed a bit awkward, clearly struggling with himself. It took him a while to finally exhale, "When they noticed me, they appeared panicked, and I was very angry, incredibly angry. You know, no one could stay calm in that kind of situation, even if your wife is cheating with a woman, a woman who’s also your ex. So... so... that’s why I just..."

"So you just..." Adrian made a gesture that all men would understand, and widened his eyes. Dennis nodded to confirm his guess.

"Though they struggled hard, in my confusion I still... anyhow, I was just looking to vent because I was so shaken up, so I... it was only after I came to my senses that I realized it was wrong... that’s why I had to come to you for help," Dennis admitted, though he didn’t fully clarify, the implication was obvious.

The room fell silent. Adrian didn’t speak again for a long time, just stared at him, then slowly bent over the table, his body trembling violently. If he wasn’t considering Dennis’s dignity and his own image, he might have burst into laughter at the table — that guy really went for it!

"Ed!" Dennis exclaimed in dismay.

"Alright, alright, just wait a second..." Adrian finally managed to control his emotions, looked up to see that unhappy and aggrieved face of his, and immediately turned away, shaking with a hissing sound.

Dennis could only grimace and scratch his head, and it took three such iterations before Adrian thoroughly adjusted.

"Alright, alright, I’m serious this time—you discovered it when?"

"Around 2 o’clock."

"Around 2 o’clock?!" Adrian immediately covered his forehead, "You got here after 4:30, don’t tell me..."

"Yes." Dennis spread his hands innocently.

Adrian took a deep breath, trying hard to suppress his laughter, and raised his hands, "Well, my advice is, you go back right now and do them both again."

"What?" Dennis was dumbfounded, and he could never have expected such a response, "Are you kidding me?!"

"I’m serious," Adrian shrugged, "Alright, I’m going to ask you a few questions, and you have to answer honestly—when you were with Noni, did she resist or comply, or did she go from resisting to complying?"

"Um... well... there was some initial resistance, but then she became very compliant."

"And Jenny, was she resistant or compliant, or did she go from resisting to complying?"

"She... resisted for a good while before becoming compliant."

"So, what was her resistance like, more fear or more dissatisfaction?"

"Probably... more dissatisfaction."

"Then that’s the deal." Adrian slapped the table, "Go back now, do them both again."

"Why?" Dennis looked at him in distress, "You have to tell me why?!"

"It’s obvious," Adrian chuckled mischievously, "Noni still has feelings for you, although it’s not clear why she would seduce Jenny in such a way, but her behavior shows that she still cares about you—unless you just lied to me. And Jenny isn’t averse to a threesome, plus she must know a bit about the mess between you and Jordana, more importantly, she definitely can’t satisfy you."

Dennis’s mouth hung open, his adam’s apple bobbing, unable to speak for a moment, feeling somewhat embarrassed and yet a little... exhilarated.

"So, go back, do them both well," Adrian smiled like a fox, "And you might just keep Noni at home to enjoy the fortune of having both."

(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to vote for it on Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)