Elizabeth forcefully pulled Julia's s.h.i.+rt out of her clutched hand, slipped it into the bucket, struck a match and threw it in. The flame briefly raised, the cotton fabric quickly reduced to ashes, finally only a few plastic b.u.t.tons are still flickering in small flame.

Clapping her hands, Elizabeth patted Julia's shoulder as she stared at the fire in the bucket. "Done. Julia, if you want to get that guy out of your life for good, this is a process you have to go through. Go pack. I've already arranged the private jet. We're going to New York, and if you haven't had enough fun, we can then fly to London and Paris."

"I thought I'd talk to my agent first, and I remember i still have the announcements coming up these days... "

"Hey, you're one of the top actresses in Hollywood right now. Julia, you are not one of those underprivileged little actors who are in the hands of agents and don't have a lot of freedom."

"But... "

Elizabeth interrupted Julia. "No buts! Where is your pa.s.sport? If you don't want to pack, bring your pa.s.sport and your credit card is enough. Let's take an instant get away."

More than an hour later, a private Boeing plane took off from Los Angeles international airport.

At the same time the movie director of the Others Jonathan Demme also took off. After Michael Eisner's tip and the communication with Eric, Jonathan Demme flied to Venice, Italy, the second day early in the morning for preparing for the anti-war publicity in the movie the Others. Although there were more than two weeks before the Venice film festival started, Jonathan Demme had no connections in Italy, so all depended on him to work hard. It's never too early to make preparation.

A few days later, when Eric accidentally heard Kapoor's complaint, he knew Julia was taken away by the Murdoch tomboy. In addition to the imagination that the two might be lesbians, he never related it to his blame at all. In turn, he thought it was reasonable for Julia to go out for fun, who left a deep impression on him after she was drunk.

By mid-August, Eric had completed the first two episodes of Friends.

After his hands-on experience, the six "Friends" stars were fully in character mode, doing Kevin Bright a big favor, who took over as the show's director.

Almost one week after the test screening, Disney Company, Paramount Pictures Inc. and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. had given their offer. Michael Eisner certainly was determined to win it. The day after the test screening, Disney Company directly submitted their offer, for the movie the Others and Steel Magnolias, they would offer 35% profits of the north American box office and 10% of the overseas box office. Seeing the figure, Eric had a familiar feeling in an instant. Jeffrey directly pointed out that Disney Company gave him the same share he enjoyed in directing the film at Fox Film Corporation, and the offer was based on the North American box office which was above 100 million, otherwise, Disney would hardly get any profit.

If carefully to calculate, in fact, this offer was much higher than that Fox Film Corporation offered, because at the beginning Fox Film Corporation possessed several Eric's movie videos and rights of management on the movie sideline range products, from where they can also be a.s.signed to the substantial profits, but this time the Firefly Company had made it clear that they would not sell the copyrights of the videos, including the Others and the rights of management on the movie products, except for the distribution rights in North America and overseas.

After Disney Company, Paramount Pictures Inc., the aspiring distributor, came in second, followed by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and others, while Colombia Pictures Inc. did not even make an offer.

Eric was surprised by Fox Film Corporation. On the second day after the test screening, Fox Film Corporation sent someone to take back the outline of the movie Sleepless in Seattle. A few days later, Carl Hunter from Fox Film Corporation personally found Eric himself and wished to change the movie Sleepless in Seattle to the Others as Fox Film Corporation suggested, no mentioning Steel Magnolias at all.

Apparently, Elizabeth's improvised-plan caught the attention of Barry Diller, who was canny, and after reviewing Sleepless in Seattle, Fox Film Corporation was clearly more interested in the Others, which was why it happened.

Eric didn't know what else was going on, but he refused Fox Film Corporation's suggestion. Changing the contract would certainly require a series of negotiations, and it was hard to know what would happen during that time. Now that Disney Company has offered the same price, Eric wouldn't be looking for trouble.

Making sure that there was no compet.i.tion, Firefly Company quickly signed a distribution deal for two movies with Disney Company.

"Eric, I heard you bought Pixar Animation Studios?" Michael Eisner asked at a reception party after signing the contract.

Eric calmly shook his gla.s.s of wine, "Yeah, I'm interested in cartoons, so I bought them for fun."

"You are indeed...a young man," Michael Eisner shook his head while relating it to something. "So it's you who cut off the previous graphic animation corporation between Pixar Animation Studios and Disney Company?"

"Since Disney Company is such a giant, how could it care about such a small company like Pixar Animation Studios? Once Disney Company showed cooperation willingness to the other animation companies, they would kill to work with you."

Michael Eisner smiled with helplessness. Although Disney Company started its business by making animation, after Michael Eisner took over, he did not pay due attention to the animation like his several former chiefs, which also ignited the opposition from some board members. However, with Disney Company's business thriving day by day, the opposition died away.

However, the lack of emphasis on animated films was only compared with live-action films which gained more attention from Michael Eisner than previous ones, which does not mean that Michael Eisner did not pay attention to the status of Disney animated films in Hollywood. So as Eric slowly rose, his purchase of Pixar Animation Studios six months ago caught Michael Eisner's attention. More importantly, he was alarmed to learn that Pixar Animation Studios was producing a new form of 3D animation.