Chapter 443: A Straightforward Refusal

Chapter 443: Chapter 443: A Straightforward Refusal

Realistically speaking, Harvey Weinstein possessed top-tier industry vision and ultimate manoeuvring ability, with precise judgment of people, ruthless layouts, and extremely strong execution. He was Hollywood’s top-tier capital manipulator.

Irene never denied his professional ability and industry status, nor was she unaware that his climb to the peak was by no means accidental.

But at the same time, she knew better than anyone the dirty background beneath Harvey’s glamorous skin.

He was a power maniac who was extremely conceited, paranoid, ruthless, and bursting with a desire for control.

He utterly lacked self-awareness, perpetually placing himself above industry rules, believing he could manipulate everything with capital and connections while treating rules as nothing.

He was obsessed with power and addicted to it. With a ruthless and vindictive personality devoid of an ounce of empathy, those who offended him never met a good end, and countless filmmakers in the circle had been suppressed, blacklisted, or retaliated against by him.

Yet beyond his extremely dark interior, he possessed top-tier camouflage abilities. In public, he was witty, humorous, generous, and possessed a discerning eye for talent, excelling at roping in talents and maintaining connections, making him extremely deceptive personally.

What disgusted Irene even more was his deeply ingrained baseness and filthiness in his bones. For years, he had used his power to coerce and sexually assault women in the industry, trampling on industry bottom lines and human conscience. He was the biggest tumour hidden behind Hollywood’s top vanity fair.

Memories of her past life and what she witnessed with her own eyes in this life made Irene avoid this person at all costs and feel resistant towards him.

She could acknowledge an opponent’s ability, but she would never forgive his base misdeeds, let alone stoop to the same level as such a filthy person.

Therefore, the moment she caught a glimpse of Harvey, Irene subconsciously turned sideways, averted her gaze, and intended to walk straight past, pretending not to see him.

She did not want to make small talk or socialise with him, nor did she want any emotional entanglements or financial ties.

Yet Harvey, who was habitually conceited and accustomed to being sought after and fawned on by everyone, took the initiative to block her path.

Harvey wore his signature slick smile, his neat suit unable to hide his bloated figure. His eyes were shrewd and sharp, carrying the calculation and insight unique to Jewish businessmen. He hurried forward to block Irene, his tone familiar yet carrying a hint of deliberate appreciation and closeness.

"Irene, long time no see. Tonight, you are still the most dazzling presence in the room, completely no less than those actresses." Harvey’s smile was warm and his tone sincere. He looked gentle and generous, completely adopting the posture of a senior who cherished and loved talent.

"I was just watching your red carpet interview. Your speech, macro perspective, and vision remain impeccable. In all of Hollywood, I have seen countless genius directors and cutting-edge Producers, but you alone amaze me the most. At such a young age, your layout is steady, your vision viciously accurate, and your moves precise. Reaching the pinnacle of the industry in just a few short years, your ability, macro perspective, and horizons are unmatched among the entire new generation."

He was not stingy with his praise, elevating Irene with every sentence, his tone growing increasingly firm: "To be honest, I have always felt that you and I are the same kind of person."

This sentence carried immense weight and also reflected Harvey’s ultimate self-awareness.

He leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice, his tone carrying a sense of mutual appreciation and identification, and even more so a superior’s precise judgment of his own kind:

"Neither of us is resigned to passively accepting industry rules. We are both adept at breaking the framework and controlling the situation, and we both know that the core of Hollywood is never works, but rules, connections, and power.

Everyone else is obediently conforming to the track and going with the flow; only the two of us are skilled at crafting the track with our own hands and controlling victory and defeat. Every step of your layout, every film selection, every awards season game has my shadow. We are too much alike."

On the surface, it was ultimate appreciation and mutual affinity, but deep in Harvey’s eyes lurked the exact opposite: disdain and contempt.

In his deeply ingrained arrogant cognition, a woman could never truly rely on her own ability to reach the top tier of Hollywood.

Irene was too young, rose too fast, and her resume was too legendary. In his view, this was simply not something that could be achieved by personal strength alone.

He was certain that all of Irene’s status, all her honours, and all her voice today entirely relied on the deep foundation of the Coppola Family, relying on the connections, resources, and roots accumulated by the family rather than her own talent and ability.

From the bottom of his heart, he despised Irene, feeling that she was a hothouse flower relying on family protection, looking glamorous and dazzling on the surface, but actually unstable at the roots.

The foundation of the Coppola Family would eventually be exhausted one day, and the family’s network protection could not accompany her for a lifetime. Once she lost the family’s blessing, all her auras would instantly shatter, and she would simply be unable to gain a foothold in the cruel Hollywood power game.

Precisely because of this, he developed a strong desire to befriend and control.

In his view, as long as he extended an olive branch to Irene and the two joined forces strongly, with his PR manoeuvring ability, network influence, and capital methods, paired with Irene’s precise and vicious film selection vision and top-tier creative ability, it would be enough to completely monopolise the Oscar awards season, control Hollywood’s entire award framework, hold all Oscar statuettes and industry resources in their hands, and truly dominate the awards season and control industry rules.

This was his extremely conceited and extremely greedy ambition, and also his idea of a top-tier win-win cooperation in his eyes.

Harvey earnestly reined in the calculation in his eyes, still maintaining a gentle senior posture of cherishing talent, his tone full of temptation as he tried to win Irene over:

"You and I joining forces is the most perfect combination in all of Hollywood. I control the rules, manoeuvre PR, and open up networks; you are responsible for creative output, precise film selection, and content layout.

From now on, more than half of all Oscar awards will be decided by us. No one can keep us in check anymore. We can completely take down the entire awards season and even control the wind direction of the entire industry. Do you want to consider in-depth cooperation with me?"

Irene listened quietly to his flattery and wooing, her expression remaining calm and waveless, without a trace of ripple in the depths of her eyes.

No matter how deeply Harvey’s ambition and calculation were hidden, Irene could see through them at a glance.

A faint yet distant smile hung at the corners of her lips. Her tone was gentle yet her attitude firm, tactfully and thoroughly rejecting his wooing.

"Mr. Weinstein, you flatter me too much." Irene’s speaking pace was level, neither humble nor pushy, and her sense of propriety was just right:

"I do not have such grand ambitions, nor have I ever thought about controlling the Oscar or ruling Hollywood. For me, power, monopoly, and framework games have never been the goals I pursue."

Her gaze was clear, her tone open and transparent, and every word clear: "From the time I entered the industry until now, my only original intention has been to film quietly, create properly, and make good movies one after another that audiences love and can withstand the sedimentation of time. Simply filming and steadily creating is enough."

Irene did not violently retort, nor did she bluntly tear off face. With a gentle voice, she completely rejected his power ambition, clearly and explicitly declining this seemingly top-tier yet actually dirty bundled cooperation.

As her words fell, she nodded slightly as a polite farewell. Without waiting for Harvey to reply again, she turned sideways and calmly bypassed him, walking straight toward the depths of the banquet hall without a shred of nostalgia.

Harvey Weinstein, left in place, saw the gentle smile on his face freeze and shatter completely in an instant.

Watching Irene’s calm departing back, all the appreciation and friendliness in his eyes faded away, replaced by gloom, anger, and disbelief.

His active wooing had always been something no one dared refuse, and countless people in Hollywood broke their heads wanting to cooperate with him. Yet when he rarely took the initiative to extend an olive branch, he was rejected so casually and lightly by a young junior.

Being extremely conceited, he could not accept such a rejection, let alone tolerate losing face in public.

Confirming that Irene had walked completely far away and could no longer hear the movement behind him, Harvey’s face turned as gloomy as water. Lowering his voice, he cursed a vulgar foul word through gritted teeth, his eyes full of gloomy hostility and unwillingness.

In his paranoid perception, this rejection was not indifference to fame and fortune, but rather unappreciative and arrogant conceit.

At this moment, he, who had always been vindictive, had already quietly planted the seed of grudge deep in his heart.

He still did not believe that Irene established herself by her own strength, simply treating the young girl relying on her family background as too arrogant, snobbish, and ignorant of worldly wisdom, who would sooner or later pay the price for today’s rejection.