Ever since the Hollywood giants officially launched their lawsuit against YouTube, Isabella had hardly kept in touch with "her own people" — and for two clear reasons.
First, given the situation at the ti, they were essentially on opposing sides. Since their positions and camps differed, there was little point in talking.
Second, there was a direct conflict of interest between them. Barry yer, Robert Iger, and the others had their roots in Hollywood. When the interests of content capital aligned with their own, there was no way they would fully support Isabella simply because they had a decent personal relationship with her.
And truthfully — their personal relationship hadn't amounted to much to begin with. Their acquaintance, their communication, their friendliness — all of it had been built on mutual interest from the very start. If Isabella hadn't played Hermione Granger, she might never have t Barry yer. If she hadn't created The Voice, she probably wouldn't have had much interaction with Robert Iger either.
So when sothing strong enough to shake that foundation appeared, each side made choices they felt were acceptable — even if those choices hard the other. Barry yer and Robert Iger had tried to persuade Isabella to make concessions in the lawsuit. She could understand their behavior. She could even say that if their positions were reversed, she might have made the sa choice. But when it actually happened — when she was the one being asked to sacrifice — she found that kind of persuasion quietly disgusting. So as the conflict grew, the two sides cut off contact.
Ti passed. The person who had disrupted their relationship ended up in Azkaban. And reconciliation — well — even if things could never go back to how they were, in the adult world, reconciliation tends to happen naturally.
What does "reconciliation" an in the adult world? It ans acting as if nothing happened. Maintaining a relationship that glosses over the past. Because no matter what Barry yer and Robert Iger truly thought, they would never openly admit that asking Isabella to prioritize the bigger picture had been wrong. No one willingly excludes themselves from the bigger picture. So after everything concluded, they would never take the initiative to apologize. The most they would do was reach out as if the past had simply been forgotten.
And a new relationship needs a new platform to begin on.
For example — the current premiere of The Devil Wears Prada.
Here, no one was gathering over business interests, and no one was discussing the headache-inducing lawsuit between Hollywood and YouTube. They were here for the film. eting because of the film. Making connections through the film.
So —
"Oh — Isa — you look absolutely stunning today —"
As Isabella walked the red carpet in a Prada evening gown, LV heels, and a Chanel handbag — this was a fashion film premiere, after all — Barry yer imdiately greeted her with a knightly bow.
Despite his perfect-gentleman act, Isabella frowned slightly, looking mock-wounded. "Oh — Barry — are you saying I wasn't beautiful before?"
"Wow — this is my territory. Do you realize how much trouble that sentence could cause you? If you don't explain yourself clearly, I'm not sure my fans will let you off."
As she threw out the question, she winked at the cheering crowd gathered along the carpet.
Her playful, mock-serious expression sent the fans into a frenzy.
"Yeah —"
The rowdy response made Barry yer shake his head dramatically. He shrank his neck and spoke at rapid speed:
"How could that be! Oh — Isa — what I an is, you look especially beautiful today. The mont you stepped out of the car, the instant you set foot on the red carpet, I felt a powerful aura burst from you — spreading outward in all directions with you at the center. The presence you carry feels like confidence. Like you have everything in the world under your control. It's sothing I've never felt from you before."
"I'm not saying you weren't confident before — just that, in my mory, you were always beautiful, but in a fresh, luminous way. Like a princess stepping out of a fairy tale. But today, that beauty is grand. Commanding. Like a queen who has just ascended the throne."
He deliberately dragged out his words, as if searching for the right phrase — then turned to the crowd.
"I'm sure you all feel the sa. The princess has finally grown up, hasn't she?"
"Yeah —"
Thunderous cheers erupted — this ti in clear agreent.
Those heartfelt words made Isabella nod in satisfaction. Like a true queen, she smiled. "Okay, Barry. Your answer pleases greatly. I hereby grant you a pardon."
With royal rcy bestowed, Barry yer responded with exaggerated gratitude. Their playful exchange sent the fans into laughter.
"Oh my God — Isabella is so cute!"
"I want Isabella's blessing too!!!"
"I don't even want a blessing — Your Majesty, punish instead! Please!!!"
The bizarre shouts turned the red carpet into a gleeful riot. Isabella held her composure for a mont — then laughed. After completing her formal interview with Barry yer, she waved grandly and entered the venue.
Since Isabella was the final cast mber to arrive, many people were already inside. And since she was the night's undisputed center of gravity —
"Oh, Isa — we haven't seen each other in half a year. I've missed you."
Robert Iger, Disney's powerful second-in-command, was the first to approach, opening his arms. After a brief hug, he said with genuine feeling, "It's only been six months, but the change in you is remarkable. You've gone from princess to queen. It's astonishing."
"Bob — were you secretly listening to my conversation with Barry just now?"
Isabella laughed.
"Of course not!" Robert Iger shook his head decisively. "I genuinely think you've grown."
"Really?"
She didn't quite believe him.
"Absolutely."
"Then your etiquette is a bit off," Isabella raised an eyebrow.
The aning was obvious — if Robert Iger truly saw her as a queen, how could he have casually pulled her into a hug?
Before she even finished speaking, he had already straightened up. Hand over chest, he bowed his head in apology.
The swiftness of his reaction made Isabella burst out laughing. "I was joking."
Robert Iger didn't mind. Lifting his head, he smiled and gestured to the man beside him. "Isa, it's a sha we haven't seen each other in so long — and it really isn't because I didn't want to. Things have simply been incredibly busy. Pixar has officially joined Disney, for instance. Let introduce you — this is the head of Pixar Animation, John Lasseter."
"Hello."
At Iger's cue, a slightly balding man with small glasses extended his hand.
"Hello." Isabella shook it, smiling at the sowhat shy middle-aged man.
Disney's acquisition of Pixar had been completed earlier that year. At the ti, Isabella had been too caught up in the YouTube lawsuit to pay it much attention. She only knew that despite the strong butterfly effect she had created — disrupting News Corp, reshaping North Arica's content landscape — Pixar's fate had still followed the sa path she rembered from her previous life, folding into Disney.
With the deal complete, Steve Jobs beca Disney's largest individual shareholder, holding roughly 5.5% of the company's shares. In her previous life, that figure had been 7%. The reason was straightforward: after acquiring The Voice IP, Disney's recent financial reports had been exceptionally strong, which pushed the stock price up. So when Disney acquired Pixar at a $60 billion valuation, the share percentage Jobs received was naturally smaller. The dollar value, however, was unchanged — around four billion. Which ant this man was, at this mont, technically less wealthy than Isabella.
After a brief exchange with Robert Iger and a confirmation of future cooperation, Iger tactfully stepped aside with his new colleague, making room for others. Next to approach were Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, both of whom had co to show their support.
George Lucas, in particular, never stopped smiling — and Isabella understood why. After thirty years, he had finally turned his IP into a complete, unified entity. With full control over Star Wars, the rewards were enormous — financially and emotionally.
"Isa, I don't know if Steven has ever told you our story," Lucas began. "When Star Wars beca a massive hit in the late 1970s, Steven actually suggested I imdiately acquire Fox. Only then, he said, would I truly control the franchise. He even offered to lend money and bring in investors through his family to form a small consortium. We absolutely could have done it."
"But I didn't take his advice. I thought the film industry had already peaked, and there was no rush. I told Steven to wait — once I had enough, I'd acquire Fox outright in one clean move. And then I missed the best window entirely. Hollywood went global. Wealthy players started circling Fox from every direction, and it slipped out of reach."
"I thought I'd never see a complete Star Wars in my lifeti. But —" He shook his head with a laugh. "I'm talking too much. I'm just genuinely excited. Isa, Steven ntioned you love SW too — you just haven't had the ti? I'll make you a promise right now: the next Star Wars trilogy is yours. Whenever you're ready, just call ."
"Hahaha — thank you, George." Isabella laughed. "Let's leave it there for now. I imagine a lot of people are waiting."
She genuinely wanted Star Wars, even if her interest in acting had faded. In the Western world, once your fa reaches a certain level, it can be exchanged for almost anything. Star Wars was to the previous generation what Harry Potter was to this one. The torch was ready to be passed.
After Spielberg and Lucas took their leave, Jon Feltheir, CEO of Lionsgate, stepped forward. Beside him stood the widely acknowledged titan of the film industry — Jas Caron.
Though it was their first eting, the conversation didn't feel strained. After a few polite pleasantries, Feltheir got to the point: Spielberg had already inford Lionsgate that Isabella was willing to purchase the Avatar project. Lionsgate was also willing to sell Lightstorm Entertainnt — Jas Caron's personal Hollywood production company, through which all his projects ran. However, Lionsgate didn't want to sell Avatar outright. They wanted distribution rights.
"We're not talking business today, Jon."
Isabella smiled and firmly closed the door.
Feltheir nodded politely, though clearly disappointed. "Of course. Another ti."
Beaver Entertainnt didn't have a distribution operation, so on paper, Lionsgate's interest in securing Avatar's distribution rights made logical sense. But Isabella would never hand those rights to Lionsgate — not because she wanted to use Avatar to enter the distribution business herself. Distribution relies on scale; a company with only a handful of projects per year doing its own distribution is simply inefficient, forced to source external titles just to keep the network alive.
Her path was simpler: develop more IPs, then negotiate acquisitions with existing Hollywood studios. Buy a major studio with established global distribution, and you inherit that capability overnight. If she could acquire Disney, she wouldn't need to build the entire chain from scratch. When there's a better shortcut, why grind?
More importantly, Lionsgate wasn't equipped to handle a project like Avatar. The essence of Avatar was that it opened the door to 3D cinema — it forced theaters worldwide to upgrade their equipnt. But those conclusions only beca obvious after its success. Before that, the world was largely resistant. Under those conditions, Lionsgate simply didn't have the institutional weight required. Only Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Sony could carry a project like that.
So Lionsgate had to be declined.
Beyond Barry yer, Robert Iger, Spielberg, Lucas, Feltheir, and Caron, the Vice Chairman of Universal also appeared — the father-in-law of Peter Parker, as it happened. The Chairman of Columbia Music Group was there too — seemingly unrelated to film, but he was the younger brother of Sony's current chairman, Howard Stringer. Paramount's newly appointed chairman, Brad Grey, also made an appearance. His predecessor, Sherry Lansing, had been ousted earlier that year by Sumner Redstone — not over Viacom's failed YouTube lawsuit, but because Mission: Impossible 3 had flopped while Tom Cruise's earnings from the project still ca out to 1.5 tis Paramount's. That was sothing Redstone couldn't stomach.
Brad Grey, personally selected by Redstone, was a seasoned industry veteran who had entered the business in the 1970s. Before Paramount, he was a partner at Brillstein Entertainnt — the sa Brillstein where NBC president Kevin Reilly had once worked, the company behind Saturday Night Live, among other things. Impressive resu. But when eting Isabella, he still hurried over with an obvious smile and obvious flattery.
The reason was simple: they weren't on the sa level. Right now, if Isabella was even mildly displeased, he could disappear from Hollywood — and he knew it. The man who had brought him into the industry was Harvey Weinstein, who was currently serving ti at San Quentin alongside his brother. Brad Grey had no illusions about where power actually sat.
Beyond industry figures, the chairn, CEOs, and founders of the brands that had sponsored The Devil Wears Prada were also in attendance, and their interactions with Isabella were warm. Upon learning that North Arican content companies would be advertising on YouTube, they each expressed enthusiasm for embracing the internet — the new world. Isabella thanked them graciously and happily accepted their goodwill.
After brief exchanges with the sponsors, she chatted with Anna Wintour — the real-life inspiration behind Prada — smiled and greeted various non-industry guests, and then encountered the evening's most unexpected arrival: a man nad Bernard Madoff.
Yes — that Madoff. Then chairman of NASDAQ. He had attended primarily to pitch his financial products to Isabella.
"Mr. Madoff, I'm sorry — but I'm not interested in projects with an annual return of only 15%. The total investnt in Prada isn't even $50 million, and as of today — before it's even been released — the actual return has already exceeded 4,000%. If nothing unexpected happens, the total return on this project will exceed 5,000%. Fifteen percent annually is simply too low for ."
She smiled at the old man, then walked away — leaving him standing there, completely stunned.
There was no reason to be polite to Madoff. First, no matter how powerful he appeared, a man with dirty hands had no grounds to take offense at anything Isabella said. Second — it was already the sumr of 2006. The subpri crisis had effectively already begun. As early as her vacation in the Cayman Islands, she had heard CNBC anchors report that the U.S. foreclosure rate had risen to 1.24 tis that of the previous year. The global elite already knew sothing was about to detonate. And capitalism has always used economic crises to harvest global wealth — capital doesn't perish, only ordinary people do. Even so, soone still needs to take the bla. A "big fish" visible enough to draw public attention and absorb the backlash.
Bernard Madoff was nothing more than a dead man walking. Soone like that didn't even deserve a polite smile.
Under normal circumstances, over an hour of pre-premiere socializing would have exhausted Isabella. But tonight — being sought after by everyone, especially by those powerful figures whom ordinary people considered untouchable — she found herself genuinely enjoying it.
Honestly, even the most rational and humble person can't entirely resist being toasted and admired. When soone who could decide others' fates with a single word lowers their glass before you — that intoxicating feeling — even if you're not a narcissist — is difficult to refuse. Anyone who claims power is overrated has either never truly seen it or never had enough of it to know.
After making her rounds — or rather, standing still while everyone ca to her — Isabella finally took her seat as the screening began. The lights dimd. Warner's logo appeared. Beaver Entertainnt's animation played. Then the screen went dark for a mont, and lit up again.
A hand wiped the fog from a mirror. A sleepy face appeared at the center of the fra.
The new version of The Devil Wears Prada, starring Isabella, had officially begun.
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