Chapter 32 - Making Waves

Back home, Eric's door was still blockaded by a sea of reporters. He didn't go out again but decided to call his lawyers so that they could help him look at the compensation agreement. Although he had seen through Columbia's trap, he didn't dare let his guard down.

Once done, Eric finally remembered to call Aniston and dialed her number several times to no avail. At this time, Annie should still be at home, so Eric started to feel concerned. He was about to dial again when the phone suddenly rang.

"Williams' residence ?" Eric picked up.

"Eric, it's me." Jennifer Aniston's voice sounded on the line.

Eric happily said: "Annie, are you okay? I've been calling your apartment, but no one answered."

"I moved in with my dad, Eric. Don't you know? The paparazzi have found about our relationship and started shadowing me everywhere, even pretending to be couriers and knocking on my apartment door. I was terrified." Annie's voice held a tinge of fear.

Eric concernedly asked: "Annie, are you alright? Wait, then when I called you yesterday before boarding the plane, were things already this way?"

"I'm fine, Eric. It started this morning, I don't know how the paparazzi found out, but in the morning newspaper they said…." Aniston's voice felt down, Eric realized it was probably nothing good, and could only comfort: "Okay Annie, it's good that you're alright, you should stay at your dad's for some time, and don't go to the convenience store anymore."

Aniston unhappily complained: "Eric, it won't always be like this, right? How am I supposed to live then?"

Eric said: "Of course not, it will die down over time, right now my house is also completely surrounded. Give me your dad's address, I'll come to visit you when I have some free time."

Eric noted down the address, then comforted her some more before hanging up.

...

In a villa in Beverly Hills, Aniston unhappily hung up the phone. She glanced at the pile of newspapers scattered on the ground, picked up a pillow and started hammering the sofa mercilessly.

Eric and her relationship had been turned into a modern version of Prince Charming and Cinderella, emphasizing Eric's good points and disparaging her. Almost all the newspapers were giving the couple's future a death sentence. Some even compared her to Drew, stating that she would be more suitable to be Eric's girlfriend.

Seeing this, Aniston couldn't help but become anxious as her self-esteem hit rock bottom. Compared to her outstanding boyfriend, she was just plain ordinary.

Now, he was about to become one of Hollywood's youngest millionaires, while the newspapers referred to her as the 'convenience store clerk'; the gap between them was getting larger.

...

Eric didn't know anything about Annie's insecurities, the lawyer he had called earlier had already arrived in a rush.

"Hello, Mr. Edward, thanks for coming in person." Eric said as he let Edward Lewis, and his aide, into the house.

Edward Lewis, the attorney in charge of the gambling contract, hastily shook hands with Eric. He said with a slightly respectful tone: "Eric, congratulations on Home Alone's success, this is my assistant, Carter."

The three people sat on the sofa, and Eric took out the compensation agreement that Columbia gave him and told them everything that had transpired.

Edward Lewis quietly listened to Eric. Once the latter was done, he picked up the compensation agreement and carefully looked it over before stating: "Eric, this contract is without any problems, you can rest assured when it comes to signing it."

"That's good." Eric nodded, he took out his pen and shortly signed the document.

Edward Lewis looked at the young man in front of him, and hesitated for a moment, before saying: "Eric, I think that you may need a dedicated team of lawyers that would be in charge of your routine legal matters."

"Oh?" When Eric heard Edward Lewis' statement, he smiled.

Edward Lewis looked at Eric's smile, and no longer beat around the bush: "I think that my firm is strong enough to handle this. From what you just told us, if it hadn't been for your vigilance, you might have been duped. So if you let my firm represent you in the future, we will be taking over the next negotiations with Columbia, and if they dare breach the contract, we will fight for your interests in court."

Eric knew about Edward and his team's professionalism from the time they had helped him draft the gambling contract. He was also aware that he needed someone to represent him full-time, so, the two quickly reached an understanding. Edward took out a prepared power of attorney form, and Eric readily signed it.

"Then I'll let you handle things, Edward. I don't want to deal with Columbia in person anymore."

"No problem Eric. If there's nothing else, we'll take our leave."

Bidding farewell to Edward and his assistant, Eric breathed a sigh of relief, he could finally focus on his career.

He was very comfortable leaving those matters to Edward. As his personal team of attorneys, they would always fight for Eric's interests. He wasn't worried about them conspiring with Columbia against him. As once discovered, they would receive the scorn of the entire nation, and their careers would be destroyed. Besides, Columbia cannot afford to make that kind of mistake now.

His deduction was spot on; Columbia was caught in the whirlpool of public opinion.

After Eric's statement, many reporters had their headlines, this news was just too hot. That evening, the young man's speech condemning Columbia appeared in all the newspapers. A variety of speculations started to pop up everywhere, some had even started fanning the flames to further expand their sales.

Eric's words had been transcribed verbatim, and after brainstorming for a bit, reporters quickly made up their assumptions.

Some newspapers weren't sure how Michael Eisner was linked to his statement. Before speaking, Eric had declared that he and Eisner got along well and that he would be very happy to work with him in the future. This allowed some others to speculate that Disney's CEO might have played a hand in exposing Columbia's 'poor means'.

Michael Eisner had been hesitant about telling his old friend how Eric had foiled their plan. But when he saw the newspapers, he quickly called Blount Cohen to explain what had happened. It was to no avail as the latter clearly didn't believe him.

Eisner could only bitterly smile. He was aware of Blount Cohen's suspicious character, and it seemed like their friendship was done for. However, he didn't feel resentful towards Eric, what he felt was closer to appreciation.

A bunch of reporters had also found out that Home Alone's screens had only increased to 1500 this week. This was even less than 17 Again which was number two at the box office and whose number of screens had already reached 1600. This discovery made them all rant about Columbia, blatantly questioning the company's integrity.

The other studios who had close relations with the media, and had already been jealous of Columbia for pocketing Home Alone, had a field day. They condemned them with full force, some tabloids even calling on fans to boycott them, inciting them to stop watching movies produced by the giant.

As soon as those articles appeared in the newspapers, Columbia's public hotline exploded. The people's sense of justice wouldn't let them off the hook. Some of the female staff responsible for answering the phone were in tears after having been insulted for hours, and two of them submitted their resignations the next day.

After Blount Cohen had smashed everything he could in his office, he immediately set up a meeting with the public relations department to discuss strategies to handle the fallout.

In the evening, the television station under Columbia's direction issued a statement. They said that the number of screens for Home Alone had already been dealt with as they had signed a compensation agreement instead. They also suggested that Eric's claim about Columbia plotting against him was ridiculous, and he was just dissatisfied by the number of screens they had added and this was his way of retaliation.

However, since Eric hadn't responded, the media and the general public didn't believe any of it.