After finishing his trip to Geneva, Simon flew to Florence, where Gucci is headquartered, the next day.

Sofia hopes that Simon can appear in the Gucci documentary. Throughout the whole day on the 24th, Simon was followed by the camera and wandered around the corners of Florence with the new Gucci creative director Tom Ford. Ford's 1990 Gucci Spring Show in September

The summer fashion collection will draw inspiration from the world's oldest cultural and artistic center.

As the hosts, the Gucci family specially prepared a banquet for Simon at the Gucci family's suburban manor in the evening.

To be precise, it was Aldo Gucci, the second-generation eldest son of Gucci, who invited Simon.

Two of the three sons of Gucci founder Guccio Gucci have passed away. Only the eldest, Aldo, is still alive. He is the one who was reported to and sent to prison by his nephew for tax evasion a few years ago.

In the last equity transaction, some members of the Gucci family immigrated overseas for tax avoidance reasons. Only Aldo Gucci's second and third sons remained in Italy. His eldest son Aldo also had a disagreement with his father.

, lives in New York all year round.

All kinds of twists and turns over the years have caused the Gucci family to lose all its glory in Italy, but after all, it still has some foundation. Especially this time, the guest is Simon Westero, a newly minted world-class wealth upstart and a Hollywood tycoon. Therefore,

For the first time in so many years, the Gucci family was once again full of guests and friends. Many Italian political and business celebrities attended, and it also attracted a large number of people from the entertainment industry who came to Simon.

Even though Aldo Gucci initially insisted that he was unwilling to sell the family company, he still firmly held 20% of the shares of Gucci. His attitude toward Simon changed a lot because of this dinner that restored the glory of the Gucci family.

Because there was no language barrier, Simon was able to socialize among the banquet crowds with ease until 10 o'clock in the night, and then he said goodbye and left.

Aldo Gucci, who is 83 years old, still did not rest. He personally took his two sons and a large group of celebrities to send Simon and Sophia out of the Gucci family manor.

In the car, watching the brightly lit manor of the Gucci family disappear from sight, Sofia said: "Now, it will be even more difficult for us to acquire the remaining shares of the Gucci family."

Simon naturally understood what Sophia meant.

Over the past few months, Gucci's recovery has been obvious to all.

If Gucci continues to maintain its previous state of decline, the Gucci family will definitely sell off all its shares in a few years. But now, even the most incompetent children of the Gucci family know that they will hold on to their shares and rely on Simon Weiss.

The big tree of Tello is the long-term solution.

"It is impossible for us to capture all the interests. It is enough to have the absolute controlling stake in Gucci. After Gucci's operations are stable, we can just turn our resources and energy to other luxury brands," Simon said, then smiled: "And, the Gucci family

Maybe I borrowed some of my name this time, but again, if we achieve 100% control of Gucci, the Gucci family will definitely not do this. When we go to Italy, we will only be like an outsider with black eyes.

Sitting on the bench. This kind of borrowing is mutual."

Sophia nodded in approval.

Simon was just socializing at the party just now, but she actually got to know a lot of local people who might be helpful to Gucci's operations in the future.

Thinking of this, Sofia was about to talk about the incident in Cannes again when the car suddenly slowed down and finally stopped.

Simon looked at the front row in confusion and asked: "Neal, what's wrong?"

Before Neil Bennett could speak, someone knocked on the car window several times.

Simon looked out warily, but saw a woman's face looming out of the window. After identifying the woman's identity, he rolled down the window and said, "Miss Furley, why are you here?"

The woman's name is Sabina Forelli and she is an actress.

At the previous party at Gucci's house, Sabina Forelli took the initiative to chat with Simon several times and even left her business card. Simon barely remembered the other person's name.

The car window rolled down, and a pitiful and pretty face of Sabina Forelli appeared in front of Simon and said: "Mr. Westeros, my car broke down, can you give me a lift?"

Sabina Forelli said and pointed to a black car with smoke coming from the hood on the side of the road.

Simon looked at the car for a few times in the car lights, feeling a little confused about whether to laugh or cry.

I didn't expect to encounter such a clichéd trick. Moreover, looking at the smoke coming out of the car, this woman really did it. The car was definitely really broken, and might even have been scrapped.

This is the southern suburbs of Florence where various mansions and estates gather. Simon's estate in this city is also not far away, less than five kilometers away by car.

After all, it was impossible to leave a young woman in the suburbs, so Simon had no choice but to push open the car door and let Sabina Forelli squeeze in, squeezing into the back row with him and Sofia.

In the front row are two bodyguards.

It is well known that kidnapping cases in Italy are rampant. When Simon was still in Los Angeles, he heard that he was going to Italy, and many people around him advised him to bring more entourage. Therefore, he specially brought four bodyguards with him on this European trip. Jennifer did not have one tonight.

Come together, Simon left two bodyguards in his manor.

With the addition of an outsider, Simon and Sophia stopped their previous conversation.

Sabina Forelli seemed very talkative, her hot body in thin clothes was unabashedly attached to Simon's body, and she asked all kinds of things about Hollywood. She also specifically expressed her hope that Valerie Golino could star in "

He was envious of Catwoman in "Batman" and boldly asked Simon if he could take her to Hollywood.

Because we were not far away from each other, Simon's car quickly drove into another manor.

Compared with other residences in Europe, the most satisfying thing about this manor on the outskirts of Florence is that it has a stone wall more than two meters high. The overall wall of more than 600 meters surrounds the entire five-acre manor.

When Simon first saw the information about this manor, although the Italian-style villa in the manor didn't quite fit Simon's aesthetics, he bought it without hesitation.

When everyone got out of the car, Simon, who was already covered in perfume by the hot beauty Sabina Forelli, asked: "Miss Forelli, where do you live? I'll ask the driver to take you back."

Sabina Forelli unabashedly wrapped her around again, holding Simon's arm: "Simon, can I stay here for one night? I have been staying in the hotel for the past two days, and I always feel like someone is following me."

Seeing that Simon was being pestered, Sofia winked at him and walked towards the villa with a smile on her lips.

Simon felt that if he sent this woman away by force, she might cause another mischief, or she might just faint in his arms, so he could only wave to the two bodyguards and let them go to the annex to rest, taking Sa with him.

Binna Foreli walked towards the main villa.

In the living room of the villa.

Jennifer hadn't rested yet. When she saw Simon coming in with a tall girl with a hot figure, a resentful expression appeared on her face. Her tone became a little colder, and she changed her title and said: "Boss, the movie over there in Cannes

The festival award results have been released.”

With that said, the female assistant handed a folder to Simon and turned around to walk upstairs.

Simon took the folder, then helplessly reached out to hold the female assistant who was about to leave, and said: "Miss Furley's car broke down. She is just staying here for one night."

Simon held her hand, and hearing him explain to her, the sourness in Jennifer's heart dissipated a bit, and she allowed Simon to lead her and sit down on the sofa in the living room.

Sabina Forelli is obviously a smart person. Seeing the friendly attitude between Simon and Jennifer, the young tycoon obviously pays more attention to each other. She very wisely did not move closer to Simon and sat down obediently on the sofa next to her. Watch.

When Sophia came to the living room with a pot of coffee, she got up diligently and walked over to take the tray and pour coffee for everyone.

The living room of the villa unknowingly once again presented a situation of one man and three women in which the yin and yang were in decline.

Janet said very early on that Simon's personality was like a lion's. Unknowingly, his personality seemed to become more obvious, and even the top management within the company gradually showed a trend of increasing yin and declining yang.

Simon also discovered that although sometimes the women around him were definitely no less thoughtful than the men, he was still more adaptable to this situation.

There is about an hour's time difference between Florence and Cannes, and tonight happens to be the time for the closing ceremony of Cannes. Simon had previously received an official invitation from Cannes to attend the closing ceremony, but chose to refuse.

Pulling his female assistant to sit down in the living room, Simon opened the document containing the Cannes awards results.

Although many of the films in his memory appeared as scheduled, the results of the awards at the 42nd Cannes Film Festival were beyond Simon's expectations.

The biggest variable is undoubtedly the Palme d'Or.

The winner of the Palme d'Or in my memory is Steven Soderbergh's "Sex, Lies and Videotape" because the chairman of the jury for this film festival is Wim Wenders. Simon had previously felt that this

The German film director, whose films always convey a sense of emptiness and alienation, should be more interested in Soderbergh's film about the confused lives of young people at the end of the American beat generation.

However.

The actual result is that the winner of this Palme d'Or became Giuseppe Tornatore's "Cinema Paradiso".

Thinking about it carefully, "Cinema Paradiso" is also qualified to win the Palme d'Or, and it is also biased towards Wim Wenders' preferences. Moreover, digging deeper, Simon realized that the difference in the results of this award should be "Sex,"

The reason why the publisher of "Lies and Videotapes" is different from the original time and space.

The original "Sex, Lies and Videotape" was distributed by Miramax, and the Weinstein brothers are well known for their skillful public relations skills.

Now, the film's distributor has become Columbia Pictures.

Although Columbia Pictures is an unknown number of places higher than the current Miramax, in terms of awards public relations that require a lot of effort, Columbia's team obviously has less connections and experience than those who focus on literary films and have been around all year round.

The Weinstein Brothers of Europe.

Of course, "Sex, Lies and Videotape" did not go away empty-handed, but won the second-ranked Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

As for "My Left Foot", there is only one Best Actor award.

Daniel Day-Lewis' performance is truly deserving of this award.

From the beginning, Simon had no intention of letting "My Left Foot" win the Palme d'Or. He is also happy to see the current results, especially "Cinema Paradiso" winning the Palme d'Or.

This is not because I am relieved to see "Sex, Lies and Videotape" lose. The main reason is that the last Palme d'Or was "Pulp Fiction", which is a Hollywood movie. If this time's Palme d'Or is still a Hollywood movie, then the next one will be

In the next few years, due to considerations such as balance, the possibility that Hollywood will win the Palme d'Or again is very low.

Although it is difficult for the Cannes Film Festival officials to interfere with the results of the awards, the judges participating in the award selection must also understand that it is definitely not knowing that they continue to award the Palme d'Or to Hollywood. After all, most of the judges are usually European filmmakers. If they are too biased,

, which is also a huge damage to their own interests.

In addition, Simon's favorite Jane Campion's "Sweet Sister" received nothing.

Jennifer recovered from the jealousy just now, took over a script on the coffee table, and explained to Simon: "This was sent by Deutschman in the evening, the script of Tornatore's new film, called "

"Family Journey" tells the story of an old man who traveled all the way to visit his scattered children after retirement. Deutschman said that he had talked to Tornatore twice, but the other party was probably waiting for the results of the Cannes awards.

, so he did not immediately agree to our cooperation invitation."

Sabina Forelli, who had been sitting quietly next to her, had just heard that the director of her country had won the Palme d'Or, and her eyes lit up. When she saw the script in Jennifer's hand, her expression became more emotional.

She does not expect to step into Hollywood like Valerie Golino did with Venice's Best Actress. If she can play a role in an Italian film invested by Daenerys Entertainment, it will be a springboard.
To be continued...