Chapter 61: Gossip

Chapter 61: Chapter 61: Gossip

After a relaxing spa session, Sophia received a call from a friend inviting her to an exhibition at a newly opened art gallery downtown.

Sophia readily agreed and turned to Irene.

"Want to go together? You don’t have anything to do this afternoon anyway."

Irene thought about it and realized she really had nothing to do, so she nodded in agreement.

"Sure. It’s a good chance to nurture my artistic side."

However, this trip to the exhibition, which she had expected to be relaxing and pleasant, soon made Irene regret her decision.

As soon as she entered the hall, she was overwhelmed by a sea of Impressionist paintings.

Looking around, the walls were covered with various blurry patches of color, dancing spots of light, and unrecognizable shapes.

Sophia and her friend were watching with great interest, stopping for a long time in front of a painting titled Water Lilies: Variations of Light and Shadow, whispering about how Monet’s brushstrokes captured the fleeting flow of light and color.

Irene followed behind them, trying hard to understand the deep meaning behind these clumps of color.

She squinted her eyes, then stepped back a few paces, only to feel her head spin, as if she had been shoved into a giant, melting palette.

"Sophia," she finally couldn’t help but gently tug on her sister’s sleeve, lowering her voice, her face full of sincere confusion.

"Are you sure these aren’t hanging upside down? Or maybe someone accidentally mixed the paints while cleaning the canvas?"

Sophia’s friend couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Sophia gave her sister a helpless look and sighed.

"Irene, Impressionism pursues light, shadow, and atmosphere, not precise forms. You need to feel that hazy beauty and capture the momentary impression."

Well, she really couldn’t find any beauty in it.

As expected, if you don’t have artistic talent, you just don’t have it.

Just as Irene was struggling with how to escape this incomprehensible artistic atmosphere, Shelly Ovitz’s phone call came like heavenly music and rescued her immediately.

"Sorry, I’ve been so busy with Britney’s affairs lately that I haven’t checked in on you much. I went to Fox Pictures today. What did they say?"

As Britney’s agent, Shelly was anything but incompetent, busily maintaining the Pop Princess’s image.

Fortunately, because of Irene and Edward’s presence, Britney wasn’t as lonely, isolated, or misunderstood as she had been in her previous life.

Now, she had the support of friendship and the nourishment of love, her career was sailing smoothly, and she had a reliable agent keeping watch at all times.

Even if her family life was still a mess, she could still feel the beauty of life every moment, which was enough to support her in being a happy girl.

So, becoming a cheerful, happy, and positive Pop Princess wasn’t hard at all.

"I’m the one who told you to focus more on Britney’s career, so there’s no need to apologize."

Irene didn’t have anything for Shelly to worry about at this stage.

Her new movie hadn’t been released yet, and her new script had just been finished.

It wasn’t time for the agent to step in yet.

"Adelaide seemed quite satisfied after reading my script. He said he’d let me know the specific release date for Mean Girls within a week. If you have time, follow up on that. They’ve invited our whole family to the Fox Christmas party at the end of the month."

"Alright, I’ve got it. I’ll see if I can get Britney in as a guest for the party. I’m afraid she might be at a disadvantage in other settings, but with you there, there’s nothing to worry about."

Irene had no reason to refuse.

She could just arrange to pick out clothes with Britney in a few days.

She thought the conversation was over, but then another voice came from the other end.

"Make a few more copies of the script. Besides CAA, you can also let other companies take a look."

Irene remained silent but didn’t refuse.

She knew Shelly was looking out for her, but she didn’t want to change distributors unless absolutely necessary.

Last time, she was able to use her father’s American Zoetrope to pressure MGM into settling the box office receipts clearly.

This time, her father wasn’t involved in Mean Girls at all, and she didn’t want to end up in a lawsuit over unfair profit distribution.

On Thursday, Irene took the brand-new Lucky to Dr. Loren’s for his second vaccination.

It was funny.

When she first found Lucky, he was covered in dirt.

The pet hospital only did basic cleaning and deworming without a thorough grooming.

Combined with malnutrition and thinning fur, she had always thought he was just an ordinary mixed-breed mutt.

Later, Irene quickly threw herself into the intense revisions of her script and hadn’t had the time to observe him properly.

It wasn’t until the script was finished these past few days and she finally had time to look closely at her puppy that she realized the little guy seemed to have been swapped.

Her mother, Eleanor, had taken him to the most famous pet grooming center.

Once the originally dusty fur was washed clean, it was a pure white, with beautiful light brown patches distributed symmetrically on his back and ears.

The patterns on his face were especially symmetrical, and he actually looked a bit like a Border Collie-Corgi mix.

Short-legged and long-bodied, looking exceptionally clever and cute.

In the waiting area, Irene was holding Lucky and looking at the pet care posters on the wall with interest when she suddenly heard a woman’s raised, emotional voice arguing from Dr. Loren’s office at the end of the hallway.

"You don’t understand at all! They are purer than many people! Your coldness disappoints me!"

The woman’s voice was exceptionally sharp.

This was followed by Dr. Loren’s attempt to soothe her, though his response sounded a bit weary.

"Kate, we’ve discussed this. Please calm down..."

The nurse at the clinic happened to walk by with a medical chart.

Meeting Irene’s curious gaze, she curled her lips helplessly and gave a "you know how it is" look.

She lowered her voice, leaned in toward Irene, and switched into gossip mode.

"It’s Dr. Loren’s ex-girlfriend, Kate," the nurse whispered.

"A very radical animal rights activist."

She further explained that this ex-girlfriend loved dogs to an extreme, placing the value of a dog’s life above almost everything else.

She had even once had a huge argument with Dr. Loren because he had followed procedure to euthanize a terminally ill, suffering elderly dog, accusing him of being cold-blooded and lacking compassion.

"She always feels Dr. Loren lacks a human touch, but in reality, the doctor is just more rational and trusts scientific judgment."

The nurse sighed.

"Dr. Loren is such a good person, just too good-tempered. He kept putting up with it before. Finally, it became impossible to communicate, and he couldn’t stand the idea of placing dog rights above everything else, so they broke up. I didn’t expect her to show up again today."

In Hollywood, dog lovers are a rather special group.

Irene had seen their power when filming Legally Blonde because they had set a whole bunch of regulations for the female lead Elle’s dog.

For example, the daily working hours could not exceed a certain amount, a specific brand of dog food had to be used every day, and the plot could not contain any scenes of animal cruelty or killing dogs.

If the production crew failed to comply, relevant individuals would come directly to the set to stage a sit-in.

They were almost as difficult to deal with as Hollywood’s most high-maintenance group: minors.

So, she understood just how troublesome this group could be.