The Boeing 767 took off from Honolulu International Airport at eight o'clock in the morning. Accounting for flight time and the time difference, when it landed in Los Angeles it was already past three in the afternoon on Monday.
Less than two hours remained until the five o'clock Oscar red-carpet ceremony.
On the airport runway, Joan Severance, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and Nicole Kidman took turns hugging Simon goodbye at the cabin door before stepping down the stairs one after another.
Nicole Kidman stayed last. Thinking back on the wild weekend that had just passed and glancing at the other women who had already descended, she finally gathered her courage and said to the man in front of her, "Simon, I… um… I hope this is the last time. From now on… anyway, it was just too chaotic."
"Sure," Simon answered with a smile. "Actually, if you had said you didn't want to before, I wouldn't have forced anything."
Nicole froze for a second.
Recalling the past two days, it was true. The man had never once pressured any of them. They had either taken the initiative themselves, gone along with the flow, or… in short, none of them had felt any real resistance.
Seeing Nicole standing there in a daze, Simon gestured toward the cabin door and reminded her, "The red-carpet ceremony is about to start. You don't have much time."
She nodded instinctively and was about to follow his cue and leave the cabin when she suddenly asked on impulse, "You really aren't attending the Oscars? Or the Gucci party afterward either?"
Simon shook his head without offering any explanation.
An inexplicable wave of disappointment washed over her.
She stepped forward once more, hugged Simon again, and walked out toward the stairs.
Two cars were already waiting beside the runway. The one picking up Nicole was a luxury RV. Her personal assistant and stylist were already inside, ready to work on her look in every spare second. The moment she climbed aboard, Pat Kingsley called to go over the final details she needed to watch for during the ceremony.
Joan Severance, Cindy Crawford, and Linda Evangelista had no red-carpet credentials for the awards themselves.
They were, however, preparing for the Gucci party afterward.
The three women left the airport in a stretched Rolls-Royce. Linda Evangelista took one last look at the Boeing 767 disappearing from view, then glanced at the RV following not far behind their car. A mix of envy and dissatisfaction rose in her chest. Unable to hold back, she complained to the other two, "Why don't we get an RV? And why do I have to ride with you two?"
Cindy Crawford picked a bottle of red wine from the onboard cabinet, glanced up at her, and cut straight to the point. "Because your status is too low."
Linda Evangelista reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on and shot back immediately, "Yours isn't any higher!"
Cindy twisted the corkscrew in her hand with deliberate slowness. "I'm not the one complaining."
At that moment the RV quietly accelerated and overtook the Rolls-Royce.
Linda Evangelista watched the RV glide past and could not help muttering, "I really don't get what Simon sees in her. She's practically flat up front, and even though she obviously wanted it, she always acted so reluctant."
Joan Severance accepted the red wine Cindy passed her, took a sip, and said, "A lot of men like women who act that way."
"In that case," Linda looked at Cindy Crawford, "Cindy, being so forward was clearly a miscalculation on your part."
Cindy leaned back lazily against the leather seat, wineglass in hand, and replied casually, "I was actually trying to provoke you. Worked pretty well, didn't it?"
Linda had been about to pour herself a glass since Cindy showed no intention of doing so. Hearing that, she paused, then understood. She glared hard at Cindy and blurted out, "Bitch!"
Cindy did not get angry. She simply narrowed her eyes in warning. "Call me that again and I'll slap you."
Linda Evangelista opened her mouth, ready to argue, but when she saw Cindy's narrowed gaze she swallowed the words. Grumbling, she poured her own glass of red wine and settled into a comfortable position against the seat.
After a brief silence, Linda could not resist speaking again. "Still, that guy really is something." She seemed to remember something and added, "And strong."
Cindy said softly, "Your mouth is pretty big too."
Linda's eyes widened and she shot back at once, "So is yours!"
Cindy clarified, "I mean if you run your mouth about the weekend in front of other people, be careful you don't get silenced."
Realizing she had misunderstood, Linda still refused to admit it and stubbornly answered, "I'm not stupid."
Joan Severance watched the two women bicker while holding her wineglass. The fingertips of her other hand lightly traced the outside of her handbag.
Inside the bag was a card with Simon's private email address written on it.
The man had said that if anything came up in the future, she could reach him through that email.
Email. It was a rather novel thing.
Joan Severance had barely touched a computer before.
But the man had mentioned he checked his email every day. From that alone, having the address was clearly more useful than a private phone number. Phone calls took time, and that man could not possibly have much of it to spare for women. Calling too often would only backfire.
Sending the occasional email would probably avoid that problem altogether.
Joan Severance was thirty-four this year, not actually much older than the twenty-seven-year-old Linda Evangelista or the twenty-six-year-old Cindy Crawford.
She had simply debuted much earlier, which placed her a generation apart from them.
The modeling industry moved at lightning speed. If you entered at fourteen and had not broken through by twenty, your prospects were basically finished.
Having seen enough, Joan Severance understood exactly how valuable the private email address Simon Westeros had left her really was.
It was essentially a promise.
Of course, if handled properly, that connection might bring her unexpected rewards.
Just that made the weekend worthwhile.
Moreover, when she thought about it carefully, aside from the absurdity of four women together, the experience had not been bad at all.
This year's Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the Los Angeles Music Center.
At five o'clock Pacific Time the red-carpet ceremony officially began.
The Oscars centered on the five best-picture nominees, The Piano, The Prince of Tides, JFK, Thelma & Louise, and The Fisher King, while also including technical categories for blockbusters such as Batman: The Dark Knight, Terminator 2, and The Flash.
The red carpet lasted one hour. The most popular male and female stars of recent years appeared one after another.
Nicole Kidman stepped onto the carpet around five-forty. The audience still remembered her performance in Pulp Fiction, and her role as April O'Neil in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series had boosted her popularity even further thanks to the films' success.
The moment she appeared, cheers erupted from the viewing stands on both sides of the carpet.
After more than half a month of careful preparation and another frantic rush just now, all for the next few hours.
Feeling the cheers in her ears, Nicole Kidman quickly composed herself. She smiled and waved to the crowds on either side of the carpet, drawing even warmer responses. Only when Pat Kingsley signaled her from the edge did she realize it was time to move forward at a measured pace.
Screams, cheers, applause, spotlights, the eyes of the world…
This was exactly what she wanted.
For one brief moment she thought of a certain guy.
Everyone was doing everything possible to squeeze into this grand event, terrified of being forgotten, of losing popularity, of others overtaking them. Yet he had casually flown off to New York at the single most important moment in Hollywood.
She walked the red carpet almost without noticing.
After giving a short interview to an ABC reporter and exchanging quick greetings with a few familiar faces in the holding area, it was nearly time. Everyone began filing into the theater hall.
Nicole Kidman would serve tonight as presenter for one of the five best-picture nominees, The Prince of Tides. It was a small segment of the ceremony in which five stars introduced the nominated films at different points. Thanks to arrangements by WMA and Daenerys Entertainment, she had a fairly prominent seat in row six of the hall, right next to the The Piano team, perfectly positioned to be caught by the cameras.
At six o'clock the ceremony began on schedule.
After two consecutive years of strong audience feedback, Billy Crystal was once again hosting.
The comedian had also enjoyed a huge year.
Following When Harry Met Sally, Crystal's starring role last year in the box-office dark horse City Slickers had turned a twenty-seven-million-dollar budget into one hundred and twenty-three million dollars domestically, his second hundred-million-dollar film in recent years.
The dual successes had made Crystal the hottest A-list comedian on WMA's roster.
The opening monologue was, as usual, full of playful jabs.
In the past year Warren Beatty, whom Woody Allen had envied so much he wanted to be the man's fingertips, had finally gotten married. All of Hollywood was celebrating.
That was a big event.
It ranked right up there with the seven major studios becoming eight, then eight becoming seven, then seven seeming to become six again. (and six becoming seven - SIX SEVEN)
Batman had once more saved Gotham.
The Flash had shown up in Central City.
Suddenly realizing Los Angeles did not seem to have any particularly famous superheroes. That was truly dangerous.
Just look at the big screen and you could see how unstable Hollywood really was.
A madman had assassinated the president (JFK), a woman had lost her voice (The Piano), a beggar could not escape the shadow of a bombing (The Fisher King), a poor man had been forced into therapy (The Prince of Tides), and two women had gone on a murderous road trip (Thelma & Louise).
Of course, for the Oscars this year was also groundbreaking. For the first time in history three female directors had received best-director nominations at the same time.
Inside the theater hall.
Listening to Billy Crystal deliver his string of jokes from the stage, many film professionals in the audience could not help feeling a touch of emotion.
In nearly a century of Hollywood, a lot had clearly changed in recent years.
But three female directors nominated together at the Oscars, that unprecedented fact had genuinely surprised a great many people.
For more than two months after the Golden Globes, the media had been discussing the matter nonstop.
Especially after all three films had also been nominated for best picture at the Globes yet none had won, the press had launched fierce attacks on the Golden Globes for discriminating against women.
In that atmosphere, both inside and outside the hall many people realized that the 64th Academy Awards had a more than ninety-percent chance of producing Hollywood's first-ever female best-director winner.
Behind all these changes the figure of a certain young man was clearly visible.
After Billy Crystal's opening, current Academy president Karl Malden took the stage to deliver the ceremonial remarks and deliberately mentioned once again the historic nomination of three female directors.
Then the awards presentation began in earnest.
The first award was best supporting actor. Whoopi Goldberg, who had won best actress last year for Ghost, came onstage, and the trophy went to veteran actor Jack Palance for City Slickers.
Nicole Kidman would not present The Prince of Tides for another hour or so.
Watching one award result after another come in, Nicole found herself, right from the moment Whoopi Goldberg handed out the first trophy, entertaining an idea that might or might not be amusing. She decided to count how many of the presenters or winning films had any connection to Daenerys Entertainment.
First, Whoopi Goldberg, Ghost. Obvious. +1.
Second, Kathleen Turner, introducing best-picture nominee The Piano. +2.
Third, Rebecca De Mornay and Christopher Lloyd presenting best makeup, won by Batman: The Dark Knight. Rebecca De Mornay had also appeared two years ago in Daenerys and Disney's The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. +3.
Fourth, Joe Pesci, who had won best supporting actor last year for Goodfellas, presenting best supporting actress, won by Kate Nelligan for The Prince of Tides. +4.
Fifth, newlyweds Warren Beatty and Annette Bening presenting best art direction, won by The Prince of Tides. No connection.
Sixth, Batman series leads Adam Baldwin and Valeria Golino presenting best film editing, won by JFK. +5.
Seventh, Wayne's World stars Mike Myers and Dana Carvey presenting best short film. +6.
Eighth, Nicole Kidman, introducing best-picture nominee The Prince of Tides. +7.
Ninth, Tom Hanks presenting best visual effects, won by The Flash. +8.
Tenth, Thelma & Louise leads Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon presenting best foreign-language film, won by Raise the Red Lantern. +9.
When she reached the tenth, Nicole Kidman watched the emotional acceptance speech from the Eastern director on stage thanking Simon WesteroS and suddenly lost the heart to keep counting.
Even though ten items had produced zero actual wins for any Daenerys-related nominations, she still felt a certain sensation again.
A feeling of being surrounded.
She also vaguely recalled the rumor circulating in the industry that Barbra Streisand's personally directed The Prince of Tides had actually received Oscar-campaign assistance from a team under Highgate Pictures. So even the earlier "no connection" entry was not really unconnected at all.