[Chapter 734: The Right Moment]
New York, on a yacht along the Hudson River, the crew of America's Next Top Model was busy filming the latest episode.
Eric stood casually on the edge of the set, wearing sunglasses, accompanied by Linda Evangelista. Ahead of them, Cindy Crawford was explaining the rules of the upcoming competition to the last six contestants.
Finishing up business in Boston, Eric had arrived in New York three days ago. He had spent the weekend on Long Island with women and children before heading to Manhattan.
After a month and a half, the shooting for both America's Next Top Model and Project Runway was already halfway through, with expectations to wrap up around September. Eric had spent the previous day reviewing the production results of both reality shows.
Because he had the memories of his past life as a reference, and Cindy had several years of experience as a TV host and sufficient experience in TV program production, Eric was very satisfied with the edited footage of the first two episodes of America's Next Top Model.
However, the results for Project Runway were disappointing. Although Linda was putting in her best effort, she simply didn't have the extensive experience that Cindy possessed. While America's Next Top Model had two edited episodes ready, Project Runway barely had one unsatisfactory rough cut.
Since Project Runway had come around as a follow-up to America's Next Top Model, Eric decided to bring Linda along to learn from Cindy.
It was clear that during Eric's absence, there had been little communication between the two women. Eric understood that getting two equally proud and beautiful women to work together seamlessly was unlikely; opposites attract, but with similar types, it simply didn't work out.
"I can't possibly do what Cindy does," Linda said as she leaned closer to Eric, watching Cindy Crawford from the set. "The audience is interested in details about modeling training, photo shoots, and even personal lives. But for fashion designers, their interest decreases significantly. The chances of drawing inspiration from Cindy's edited footage seem slim."
Eric chuckled, "I didn't ask you to copy Cindy's ideas. I just want you to see how she grabs the audience's attention with this material. Project Runway definitely has its own angles to explore."
Curious, Linda asked, "What angles?"
Not expecting her to understand right away, Eric pointed out as Cindy approached after finishing the competition rules, "I've thought it out; we can work on the pacing. If viewers feel a disconnect from fashion designers, let's bridge that gap."
As Cindy walked out of the filming area, she grabbed a bottle of water from a crew member and overheard Eric's suggestion. "Eric, how do you plan to bridge that distance?" she asked.
"Take a guess," Eric responded with a smile.
Cindy shrugged, showing no interest in guessing. But Linda was quick to voice her discontent. "Eric, Cindy can be quite mean. Last week, I faced some minor issues during shooting and called to ask her for help. She offered none and laughed at me. Plus, she's unwilling to cooperate with my ideas for crossover episodes."
Cindy immediately rebutted, "Hey, Linda, I have my own work too. I'm not your mother, you know. I'm not obligated to help you with everything."
"Alright, no fighting," Eric waved his hand to diffuse the situation. "The crossover idea is great, but there's no rush. Let's save it for the second or third season as a promotional gimmick. Pouring all good ideas into one season can initially deliver impressive results, but if we don't build gradually, the audience will lose interest after a few seasons."
Cindy nodded in agreement, proudly humming a few notes before glancing at Linda. "Hmm, I wonder if there will even be a second or third season for Project Runway."
Linda hooked her arm around Eric. "If Eric says there will be a second and third season, then there will definitely be. Do you have a problem with that?"
"I have no problem," Cindy said, giving a sly smile. She didn't believe that if Project Runway's ratings were lacking, Eric would continue producing it.
Linda seemed to catch that vibe too and nudged Eric. "Eric, what did you say earlier about getting closer to the audience?"
Recalling the rough cut of Project Runway he had watched yesterday, Eric explained, "From what I saw, the pacing feels a bit slow. This is mainly because the clothing design process can be quite dull to watch. However, we can't cut more from the footage, or else the competitive process becomes incomplete. Therefore, I think we should add a lot of voiceover. On one hand, this can create a faster pacing feel. On the other, it can provide viewers with more explanations, helping them understand the reasons behind contestants' actions. You and the production team should have a meeting about it tomorrow. I'll be there too."
"Sounds good," Linda nodded and glared at Cindy in a show of defiance.
Cindy pouted slightly, turning her gaze towards the contestants posing for photos. "What about my show, Eric?"
"You're doing perfectly fine. Just continue at this pace; no need for any changes," Eric replied.
Cindy paused, not feeling too excitable over Eric's praise. Instead, she felt a little lost.
Linda burst into a carefree laugh, making a silly face at Cindy while Eric wasn't looking.
Cindy did such a great job that she ended up losing many opportunities to engage with Eric. Initially anxious about her performance, she now felt a bit smug instead.
Eric returned his attention to the set where he noticed the two women expressing strange looks toward each other. "What's up with you two?" he asked.
Linda immediately shook her head. "Nothing, Eric. How about we head back now? I don't see the point in wasting time here. We might as well try out that method you just mentioned this afternoon."
'You little bitch.'
Cindy cursed her under her breath, observing that Eric seemed genuinely inclined to leave. She put on a wistful expression and tugged at Eric's sleeve. "Eric, it's almost noon. I completed my work so excellently; I can't be denied a reward, like a meal."
"Here's a secret, Eric: Cindy's expression means... ah, ouch! You think I wouldn't dare fight back?"
Eric separated the two women. "Alright, no more playing around. There are so many people here."
Noticing the crew members and contestants on set glancing curiously in their direction, the two 'cats' that almost scratched at each other quickly resumed their aloof demeanor.
Cindy styled her voluminous wavy hair, turning to Eric. "Eric, let's wait to eat together later. I've got a guest coming in. She's a stunning beauty and will be a special guest this episode."
"You already invited someone and still..." Linda began, but seeing the threat in Cindy's glare, she cut herself off.
Eric wrapped an arm around Linda's waist and gently patted her, signaling her to stop causing trouble. Nodding to Cindy, he asked, "Alright, but you have to tell me who your guest is first."
"Elizabeth Hurley," Cindy announced, observing as Eric's expression remained unchanged. "Eric, don't you know her?"
"I do," Eric nodded.
Elizabeth Hurley, a well-known British supermodel and actress, had become familiar to Eric through a series of tabloid headlines. He was unclear about the entire flow of her romantic history, but from the snippets in his memory, it seemed that the British supermodel had dated multiple men at once. Additionally, her personality... she was always trying to latch onto wealthy men and 'luckily' ended up with an Indian mogul.
Eric remembered that Elizabeth Hurley was currently dating British actor Hugh Grant.
After Hugh gained fame from Four Weddings and a Funeral, she had leveraged his publicity to build her own career in Hollywood. According to Eric's memories, Hugh was due to face a scandal later that year, which would decrease his popularity significantly. But for now, it was July, and since the incident hadn't occurred yet, it seemed that the butterfly effect resulting from Eric's influence in Hollywood had changed many things.
Thinking it over, Eric asked Cindy, "I'm just curious, how did you decide to invite her as a guest?"
Cindy explained, "I met her at a Chanel party last month. We hit it off. When she heard I was doing this show, she wanted to come in as a special judge. She's been wanting to break into Hollywood for a couple of years, but it hasn't gone smoothly, so she thought this opportunity could boost her exposure. It's a win-win situation for both of us."
...
After spending over an hour at the set of America's Next Top Model, once the crew wrapped up for lunch, Cindy quickly led Eric and Linda to a quieter restaurant in a large building along Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, which offered excellent privacy with separate booths and required a membership card.
As the three were settling in, a tall woman in a black long dress approached them.
"Hi, Liz," Cindy stood to greet Elizabeth Hurley, embracing her briefly before apologizing, "Sorry, Liz. Two friends unexpectedly joined me today, so I couldn't let you know beforehand."
As the two women chatted, Eric felt Elizabeth Hurley's gaze fixated on him, sparkling with an unknown intensity.
"Let me introduce you; this is Eric Williams, and this is Linda. You definitely know her," Cindy waved her hand playfully in front of Linda, making her feel slightly annoyed.
"Mr. Williams, hello," Elizabeth said, her eyes lingering, wearing a polite smile as she reached out her hand to Eric.
"Just call me Eric," he replied, shaking her hand. The brief contact felt like a teasing brush, making him think, wow, this woman is bold.
After the formalities, as they sat at the table, Elizabeth Hurley directly asked, "So Eric, are you here for America's Next Top Model?"
"Yeah," Eric nodded, casually flipping through the menu handed to him by the waiter.
Elizabeth quickly realized she might be acting a bit too eagerly and refined her demeanor, elegantly browsing her own menu. Once the orders were placed and the waiter had left, she continued, "I thought you'd still be in Boston; I heard it's quite lively there lately. By the way, I've set up my own personal homepage on Yahoo, but I'm not too good with it."
Eric replied dismissively, "Oh, that should be simple. Just a bit of tinkering, and you'll figure it out."
After its rollout, Yahoo's personal homepage had garnered over 7 million users in less than a week, showing rapid growth.
Thanks to Eric's influence in Hollywood, many celebrities opened their own personal pages, further enhancing the appeal of Yahoo's personal homepage. With mobile internet still a far-off concept, Yahoo's personal homepage primarily focused on long-form blogs, given the real-time microblogging had yet to catch on. However, Eric had already instructed the Yahoo department handling personal homepages to emphasize the social aspects.
As this topic floated around, Cindy's eyes also lit up.
Her thoughts drifted back to a photo she had seen in The New York Times a few days earlier. It featured Eric posing with several business moguls like Jeffrey Katzenberg from Firefly Group, Jorma Ollila from Nokia, John Chambers from Cisco, Steve Case from America Online, among others.
In the photo, everyone stood centered around Eric. The accompanying article predicted that due to the rapid development of the companies mentioned, along with Eric's significant ownership stakes in them, his personal fortune could rise by more than 50% this year. At the beginning of the year, Forbes estimated Eric's personal assets at $46.5 billion. A 50% increase could potentially skyrocket his wealth to an astonishing $70 billion.
What did $70 billion even mean? With Microsoft's stock soaring, the second richest man, Bill Gates, had just reached a net worth of $12.9 billion this year. Eric's wealth alone was nearly equivalent to the total net worth of the others in the top ten of the Forbes list combined.
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