novelraw Chapter 459
Chapter 459
Beverly Hills is a frequent haunt for Hollywood stars, especially its luxury hotels. Many celebrities even keep long-term private suites there.
For the paparazzi of Los Angeles, if they don’t have a specific target but want to snag a story or a photo that will sell, it’s a location they can’t go wrong with.
By staking out the luxury hotels of Beverly Hills, it’s not uncommon to spot a few stars checking into a room during a late-night stroll.
Before the sun had even risen, two paparazzi from TMZ stepped out of their car and positioned themselves near the entrance of a Beverly Hills hotel.
The two reporters, one younger and one older, had been tailing Matthew for some time, but after the initial frenzy of the first week of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," they had moved on.
But last night, around midnight, they received a tip from the hotel that a very famous actor had checked in with a beautiful model from Latin America.
Although the informant didn't say much due to hotel policy, the mention of a "major star" piqued their interest. They had rushed to the hotel early in the morning to lie in wait by the door.
"These Hollywood stars," the younger paparazzo muttered, standing by his car a short distance from the hotel. He glanced at the entrance, switched on his small camera, and adjusted the settings. "Don't they ever get tired of sleeping with each other?"
The older one shook his head. "People get bold when they're drunk. In that state, it's easy to hook up with someone for the night."
"I'm sure drugs are involved, too."It was easier to get high on drugs, and as far as he knew, very few stars in this business stayed clean.
"Look!" The older reporter beckoned to his younger colleague and was the first to raise his camera toward the hotel entrance. "Looks like someone's coming out. A hot Latina!"
The younger man also raised his camera, pointing it at the entrance. Through the lens, he saw a Latin American woman in a tight blue dress. She was quite beautiful, but what was more striking than her face was her body—incredibly sexy and voluptuous.
The woman stood behind the floor-to-ceiling glass window at the hotel's main entrance, seemingly waiting for a car.
And when a tall man approached her, the older reporter recognized him instantly.
Matthew Horner!
How many days had it been since they'd last seen him? And he'd already found another Latin American lover!
But neither of them paused; they kept shooting, capturing everything—from Matthew Horner and the Latin American beauty standing by the glass wall laughing together, to them stepping out of the hotel and sharing a kiss, to getting into a car and driving away.
"The bastard changes women like he changes his shirts."
The younger man felt a pang of envy as he thought of the woman's stunning face and devilish figure.
The older reporter was also in a foul mood. "I hope he chokes tonight!"
Still, he had a job to do. When he saw the black Mercedes start to move, he immediately jumped into his car and followed it closely.
Matthew Horner's scandals were a hot commodity for any entertainment media outlet in the country, let alone TMZ.
The last time they published photos of Horner with that busty woman, the reaction had been overwhelming. It seemed the American public was more concerned with who Matthew was dating than with the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
The two TMZ paparazzi followed the Mercedes to various famous Los Angeles landmarks for the rest of the day, and as darkness fell, they trailed it back to the hotel in Beverly Hills.
They then noted that the couple didn't emerge again. They were definitely in for a wild night.
There was no point in continuing the stakeout. They had enough photos for one day, and the shots of Matthew Horner kissing her were more than enough to prove the big star had changed partners yet again.
The two quickly returned to the TMZ office building in Los Angeles. After some digging, they discovered that the Latin woman was Sofia Vergara, a famous host, actress, and model from Colombia, whose swimsuit calendar was a bestseller across Latin America.
Soon after, news and photos of Matthew Horner and his new girlfriend’s Los Angeles escapade began appearing on various entertainment websites. TMZ, of course, posted the most detailed account, including photos of the two entering and leaving the same hotel.
TMZ didn't need much to spin a story about what the two were doing, both inside and outside the hotel.
Matthew himself received the news before it broke.
He got a text message from Ilana, replied with a simple "Okay," and went back to Sofia.
Over the past few years, Ilana had established an unspoken understanding with him. Whenever TMZ was about to publish a story about him, she would always give him a private heads-up beforehand.
From the moment he stood behind the hotel's glass wall that morning, he knew there were paparazzi outside.
Sofia knew it too, which was why she would occasionally make intimate gestures whenever she spotted the pursuing photographers.
However, the woman was not just physically mature; she was also mature in her thinking. She seemed intelligent, knowing when to stop, how to please him while still achieving her own goals.
It was a transactional affair, and Matthew didn't interfere with Sofia's actions, except that he didn't return to her hotel room that night.
So, when he left in the morning, Sofia was still asleep.
Matthew left the hotel on his own, and that was the end of it for both of them. They had each gotten what they wanted.
Naturally, from the moment he walked out of the Beverly Hills hotel, he decided to put Sofia out of his mind.
He then headed to a shopping center in Santa Monica for a fan event.
That weekend, the film "Wedding Crashers," directed by David Dobkin and starring Rachel McAdams, made a small splash at the North American box office, earning an unexpected $33 million in its opening week despite a production budget of only $40 million.
However, it had virtually no impact on "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."
Despite a poor reception from critics, the film was holding remarkably steady. Its box office dropped by just over 50% in the following weekend, and it finished its second weekend at the top of the North American box office with $75 million.
Adding that to the $70 million collected over the previous four days, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" easily surpassed the $300 million mark in North America in just ten days, reaching a total of $301.6 million.
This box office success meant that a host of new records had been set in the North American film market.
Fastest to $200 million in North America, fastest to $300 million in North America, highest-grossing second weekend for a film in North America, widest theatrical release in North America, and so on.
"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" had ignited an unprecedented pirate craze in the film world, and it seemed the entire world had fallen in love with Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and Elizabeth Swann.
The film's overseas box office continued to soar. In its second week of international release, "Dead Man's Chest" was playing in over ninety countries and territories. After grossing over $198 million abroad in its first week, it added another $155 million in its second week, continuing to outperform all other films released during the same period.
Ultimately, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" had amassed a total global gross of $605.5 million.
And everyone knew that "Dead Man's Chest" would eventually break the $1 billion barrier at the worldwide box office.
As one of the film's three main stars, Matthew was attracting more attention than any other Hollywood star that summer, with the sole exception of Johnny Depp.
He lived in the spotlight almost every day. Forget his two-night rendezvous with Sofia—what he bought and what he ate was fodder for most media outlets.