Chapter 125: At the Party
Chapter 125: At the Party
Eric patiently waited for Geena Davis to finish her excited acceptance speech before walking offstage with her and returning to his seat.
What followed was a long three-hour stretch of accompanying the event. The Best Original Score nomination Home Alone received could basically be ignored. Eric simply laughed again and again along with the not-very-funny jokes from the presenters onstage.
As a young man who had barged into Hollywood only half a year ago and already achieved such great success, Eric became the target of all kinds of teasing from the presenters more than once. Because of that, the camera often swept over him, occasionally even giving him a close-up. Under such circumstances, Eric did not even have a chance to let his mind wander. But he did not find it especially boring. Instead, he watched with great interest and compared how the Oscars now differed from the Oscars more than a decade later.
After several hours, Eric’s strongest impression was that the Oscars in this era had not yet gone down the more extreme art-film route. Most of the winning works, such as Rain Man, Working Girl, and Beetlejuice, were relatively commercial films. More than a decade later, however, the Oscars would practically become a stage for politically correct mainstream-message films and extremely niche films. If actors aimed for awards, they either played great historical figures or sick people.
More than two hours passed this way, and most of the major awards had already been presented. After Best Cinematography, Best Animated Short Film finally arrived. Everyone knew that after this award came the heavyweight Best Actor category, so they all hoped the Best Short Film award would pass quickly.
Perhaps sensing the anticipation from the audience below, presenter Carrie Fisher, who had once appeared in the Star Wars series, only gave a brief introduction before opening the envelope and reading, “The Oscar for Best Animated Short Film goes to—Tin Toy, John Lasseter.”
Amid applause, Virginia glanced at Eric again. After receiving encouragement from his eyes, she finally stood and walked toward the stage.
The winner Carrie Fisher had read was clearly a man, yet the person walking onstage was a sexy beauty in a sapphire-blue strapless gown. The audience in front of their televisions could not help wondering.
“Who is that?”
“What a beautiful woman!”
“There’s actually a woman named John? How strange.”
The organizers had clearly planned this. After Virginia walked onto the stage, the camera immediately turned to the front of Eric and gave him a huge close-up. Eric inwardly cursed, but helplessly sat upright and looked straight ahead without any expression, as though he did not know a camera was giving him a close-up.
But this attempt to pretend the matter had nothing to do with him did not work very well. In addition, after Virginia stepped onto the stage, the guests around him all looked toward Eric with amused smiles at the same time, making it even harder for him to distance himself.
Viewers in front of their televisions who paid even slight attention to gossip news quickly remembered Virginia’s identity. This beauty was said to be starring as the female lead in a film personally written by Eric.
In an apartment in Manhattan, New York, Aniston was curled up on the sofa, hugging a teddy bear. All night, she had stared fixedly at the television screen, hoping to see another shot of her boyfriend, even hoping the presenters would tease him a few more times. But every time she saw Eric, her gaze would involuntarily drift toward Virginia sitting beside him, and the teddy bear in her arms would suffer another round of abuse.
When she saw Virginia go onstage to accept the award, the girl finally could not hold back anymore. She fiercely muttered, “Bitch,” pursed her lips, and yanked hard, as if tearing at the hair of some woman who had seduced her boyfriend. At the same time, another tuft of fur fell from the poor teddy bear in her arms.
“No, I’m going back tomorrow.” After venting, Aniston no longer had any interest in the remaining awards. She rushed into the bedroom like a whirlwind and began packing. At the same time, she thought again of what her father had told her. If she truly cared about this relationship, she had better stay by his side. No sincere feeling could withstand being worn away by distance. And if she felt she could not hold onto him, then she should give up early to avoid even more pain.
“I’m not giving up. Why should I give him up for those little bitches?” Muttering nonstop, the girl efficiently packed a large pile of clothes. Finally, she found the key to Eric’s mansion, stuffed it into her shoulder bag, then picked up the phone and dialed the airline’s booking number.
Almost at the same time Virginia walked onto the stage, Jennifer Connelly, far away in a hotel in Rome, the capital of Italy, also saw this scene through cable television.
After rejecting Eric that night, the young woman had no choice but to return to Europe again and take the initiative to request reshoots for some scenes in The Dying Swan. Just as her agent had said, she had just given up an important opportunity, so she could not cut off her European connections as well. It was precisely because she had played Deborah in the famous Italian director Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America at thirteen that she gained acceptance in the Italian film circle. Now, this was the only usable connection she had left.
Connelly also sensitively noticed that her agent had become much colder toward her. Lester had shifted more of his energy toward the other artists under him during this period, and his attention toward her had become less and less. He had not even accompanied her on this trip to Rome.
Every time Connelly thought of her decision a few days ago, another layer of regret accumulated in her heart. After the close-up of Eric sitting upright appeared on the television, Connelly could not help taking the handbag beside her, pulling out her address book, and once again looking at the string of numbers that was actually already deeply engraved in her mind.
“Would calling him now still be useful?” Connelly stared blankly at the number in her address book and murmured uncertainly to herself.
Although she was far away in Rome, Connelly had still learned from scattered newspaper reports that all the roles in Running Out of Time had already been finalized. Although the cast list other than the two male leads had not yet been revealed, she knew there definitely would be no place for her. If she called now, Eric could not possibly replace someone else to let her act. Connelly felt Eric was not the owner of one of those major film giants, and the film projects in his hands were limited. He could not always have a suitable role for her. Calling him would not bring her any benefit.
Virginia was already fully satisfied just from getting to show her face on the Oscars stage. The young woman did not do anything unexpected. She properly accepted the Oscar statuette, took out the acceptance speech Eric had stuffed to her beforehand, read it, then followed the presenter backstage.
Best Actor was unsurprisingly taken by Dustin Hoffman, who had delivered a brilliant performance in Rain Man. After that came two technical awards. Only when Best Director was about to be presented did Virginia finally return to her seat with the Oscar statuette in hand. Her charming face was flushed, and with the mature charm radiating from her body, several nearby men could not help turning their gazes toward her while secretly envying Eric’s good fortune with women.
Although it was not the time to speak, Virginia still looked at Eric affectionately, her gratitude obvious beyond words.
After Rain Man unsurprisingly won Best Picture, the three-hour awards ceremony finally ended. What followed was party time. The famous Oscar Vanity Fair party would only appear a few years later, but that did not mean celebrities all went home after the Oscars before that. There were countless celebration parties of every kind, and most guests could find somewhere to go as long as they were willing.
Home Alone did not win a single award, so naturally, there would be no celebration party. After leaving, the Runkel couple, who were enthusiastic about this circle, wanted to take little Stu to some parties and make themselves familiar. Unfortunately, the little boy had sat in the awards hall for three hours and was now already so tired that he was drowsy, though he might also have been pretending. The Runkel couple could only take their son home in disappointment.
Because there were many people, Virginia did not hold Eric’s arm. Only after Eric finished greeting the acquaintances around him one after another did she move closer and ask, “Eric, where are we going next?”
Eric took the Oscar statuette Virginia was carefully holding, rubbed it, and played with it for a moment. “What do you think? I just received invitations to several parties. The Rain Man crew’s, the Working Girl crew’s, and the ones held by Warner and Disney. Oh, Amy also said earlier that Columbia would host a party too.”
Virginia thought for a moment, then said uncertainly, “How about Rain Man?”
Eric snapped his fingers. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. Rain Man’s celebration party is at the Sunset Tower Hotel in Beverly Hills. After the party, we won’t have to travel as far home as we would from the Hilton.”
After making their decision, the two found Kapoor Sid and drove together to the Sunset Tower Hotel.
As the biggest winner at this year’s Oscars, the Rain Man crew’s celebration banquet was undoubtedly the grandest and most formal. Eric’s arrival was also welcomed by Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, and a group of directors and producers.
After moving through the crowd, greeting and chatting with people he knew and did not know, Cruise suddenly pulled Eric aside. Then he said to Virginia, who had been holding Eric’s arm the whole time, “Miss Madsen, I’d like to speak with Eric alone.”
After entering the party, Virginia had stayed glued to Eric’s side the entire time. Deep down, she also had some little thoughts of her own. She herself had hooked up with Eric at a party, so she naturally did not want other women to copy the same method. Now that Cruise had personally spoken, although Virginia was unhappy, she could only nod and leave.
“Eric, regarding Running Out of Time, I have a new idea. Look, could we film it this way…”
After chasing Virginia away without the slightest psychological burden, Cruise began telling Eric his new ideas for Running Out of Time’s plot.
Eric listened seriously to Cruise’s long speech and patiently waited until he finished. Only then did he get a chance to summarize all of Cruise’s points.
Reduced to one sentence, it was: add scenes.