The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 249

Ring-ring-ring.

The phone rang, and Brian Lister, who was trimming the grass in the yard, glanced toward the house. He was about to get back to work when Mrs. Lister's voice called out from inside, "Brian, it's for you!"

"Coming."

Brian answered, put down his tools, took off his gloves, and went inside. He took the phone from his mother and said, "Hello, this is Brian Lister."

"Brian." A clear, girlish voice came from the other end. "It's Maria."

"Oh, hi." Brian chuckled. After attending the premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean" together, they had exchanged phone numbers and MSN screen names and had kept in touch occasionally. "What's up?" he asked.

The girl on the other end of the line sounded excited, her voice high-pitched. "Great news! Matthew and that nasty, disgusting Keira broke up!"

"They broke up?" Brian asked in surprise. "When did that happen? I was on Yahoo Entertainment today and checked Matthew's blog, but I didn't see anything."

"It's absolutely true!" Maria's words came in a rush. "I was Googling Matthew and found this new website, I think it's called TMZ. It has a story saying Matthew and Keira broke up last night."

Brian was even more puzzled. "TMZ? I've never heard of that site."She said, "Well, go check it out. I'm so happy Matthew finally broke up with that woman who didn't deserve him."

After a few more words, Brian hung up, ran to his room, and sat down at his computer. He opened his browser, Googled TMZ, and went to the site.

The TMZ homepage had just finished loading when he saw a huge photograph and an eye-catching headline.

The photo showed Keira in the dark, dragging her suitcase out of Matthew's house with a grim expression on her face, while Matthew himself stood in the doorway, looking quite miserable.

The caption above the photo was in bold: "EXCLUSIVE! Rising star Matthew Horner and English rose Keira Knightley officially broke up last night!"

Although Brian didn't like Keira either, he thought it was rash to assume Matthew and Keira had broken up based on a single photograph.

He moved the mouse and clicked on the news story, and more photos and an accompanying article appeared.

Brian subconsciously glanced at the byline, which credited a journalist named Ilana, then scrolled down the page, looking at the photos one by one.

The photos had clearly all been taken around the same time and showed a flurry of action: Keira dragging her suitcase out the door, Matthew following her, the two of them standing on the roadside, clearly arguing. Then a taxi pulled up, Keira got in and left, Matthew angrily threw his phone at the taxi, and finally, he went back inside and closed the door.

Seeing this, Brian felt that the two had probably had a huge fight and a very nasty breakup.

There were also photos showing that the photographer had clearly followed Keira, as her taxi was pictured parked outside a hotel in Burbank.

Further down, there was a short video. It wasn't very clear due to the darkness and covert filming, but having seen the photos, Brian could recognize the people in the video as Matthew and Keira. The hidden camera wasn't too far away, and thanks to the quietness of the neighborhood, the sound of the two arguing could be faintly heard.

The video was short, just over a minute long, and Matthew's and Keira's voices grew noticeably louder right as the taxi appeared at the end.

"It's over!"

Matthew's words were relatively clear, and Keira's British accent was distinct enough as she replied, "Yes, I've had enough!"

Keira got into the taxi, and the video ended.

Brian scratched his head. It was no wonder the author of the article was so sure that Matthew and Keira had broken up.

But Brian, being a die-hard fan of Matthew, had never liked Keira. "Finally, the gossipy British media can shut up."

He closed the website and went to Matthew's blog. Since it was nearly noon, several people had already seen the news, and many had left comments.

"Matthew, did you really break up?"

Comments like this, seeking confirmation, were the most common. After all, what the media said could be a lie.

"You finally dumped her!"

Messages like that were also in the majority. Brian visited Matthew's blog often enough to know that most of his fans didn't actually like Keira.

"She has no figure and her face is plain. She's just another smug Brit. You should have broken up a long time ago."

Perhaps words like these best reflected the views of Matthew's supporters.

Brian thought for a moment and also left a message in the comments section: "Next time, get a girlfriend with a better figure."

Mrs. Lister's voice called from outside. Brian closed the page and left his room.

...

Thanks to the scoop on Matthew and Keira's breakup, Ilana made a huge splash with her new company. The TMZ website, which had just begun its trial run, received enormous attention, and numerous websites and print entertainment publications reprinted their story.

After their fiery breakup, Matthew and Keira were once again in the media and public eye as hot newsmakers in the entertainment industry.

The production teams for "Dawn of the Dead" and "King Arthur," their respective projects, were of course not about to miss such an opportunity. They used the attention generated by the breakup to create a wave of advance publicity.

Matthew never gave any response, whether at the entrance to his agency or at the Universal Pictures production office. The journalists who ambushed him with questions were always stonewalled. Keira, in this regard, was just like him; she never answered the question of whether they had broken up, neither confirming nor denying it.

This kind of breakup gossip has a shorter shelf life than news of a new romance, and since this was a carefully planned operation, they naturally had to follow a predetermined rhythm.

After four or five days of speculation about Matthew and Keira's breakup, the buzz died down.

As planned, the second wave of speculation arrived right on time. That same day, Keira, while traveling to London with the cast of "King Arthur," ran into a reporter from ABC TV's entertainment channel and admitted that her romance with Matthew was a thing of the past.

Matthew deleted all of his blog posts and photos related to Keira and posted a new photo of a mirror broken in half, with the caption, "When love becomes a thing of the past."

Thus, a second wave of media hype was generated, and Matthew and Keira, along with the two film crews behind them, were once again in the spotlight, attracting a great deal of attention.

This kind of publicity stunt seems very unethical, but it's the norm in the industry. Matthew wasn't one to pride himself on moral purity. From the moment he devised the plan to the actual breakup, he not only didn't object but actively cooperated. The same was true for Keira; both of them knew full well that it would make them more famous.

In show business, fame means a great deal.

The final summary of the publicity storm surrounding the couple's scandal came from Disney Pictures, which estimated that Matthew and Keira's various romantic exploits had added at least $8 million, or possibly even more, to the North American box office for "Pirates of the Caribbean."

It was a very profitable deal for all parties involved.

Having completed this project, Matthew gained a clearer understanding of why so many stars love to display their affection in public: it could bring tangible benefits.

For Hollywood stars, dating can be business, showing affection can be business, and even breaking up can be business.

It's no wonder that stars in show business tend to end their romantic relationships quickly, because the purpose behind them is inherently impure. Compared to celebrity couples who love to constantly parade their love, those who are relatively low-key might last much longer.

In that respect, could what he felt for Britney at the beginning be considered true love?

Matthew didn't dwell on it. Some things were in the past, and he didn't look back; he looked forward.

Influenced by the scandal of Matthew and Keira's breakup, the box office for "Pirates of the Caribbean," which had entered a relatively flat period, unexpectedly picked up. Its eighth weekend in North America surpassed the trend of the seventh weekend by twenty-three percent, bringing the three-day earnings back to the ten-million-dollar mark at over eleven million dollars. In one fell swoop, the total North American box office suddenly broke the three-hundred-million-dollar mark.

It was the second film this year to gross over $300 million in North America, after "Finding Nemo."

Numerous media outlets and research agencies issued brand-new forecasts, predicting that "Pirates of the Caribbean," boosted by a series of positive events, was on track for a final North American box office of $350 million.

Additionally, the film's overseas box office was approaching $300 million, bringing its total worldwide gross to just under $600 million.

In Matthew's estimation, the film would have no trouble surpassing $700 million worldwide.

The weekend's box office numbers were a testament to Matthew's influence, and the events following the release of "Pirates of the Caribbean" showed that his star was on the rise.

Matthew understood perfectly well that if he succeeded in another two or three films and proved his ability to carry a film's box office on his own, he would definitely become an A-list star.

It seemed a bright future awaited him, and ahead lay the life of his dreams.

"Pirates of the Caribbean" was a box office smash, and the Walt Disney Company threw a special reception to celebrate, which Matthew, naturally, did not miss.