Once December began, Hollywood's awards season kicked off in earnest. Of the two films Matthew starred in and released this year—dawn of the dead and national treasure—neither had any real connection to the awards circuit. More precisely, their genres and subject matter disqualified them from contention.
Still, Matthew continued to enjoy a certain level of exposure.
national treasure was still hot in North America, its box office climbing steadily. Even during awards season, the leading man and the movie itself attracted plenty of media attention.
After its third weekend in North America, the film seemed utterly unaffected by critics' negative reviews, holding remarkably steady. This weekend's drop was less than fifty percent, and its cumulative domestic gross had already passed 140 million dollars.
By now, no one doubted national treasure would ultimately break 200 million dollars at the North American box office.
Matthew had been rather busy lately: cheerleading for Johnny Depp's Oscar-bait film Finding Neverland, doing post-release promo rounds for national treasure, and—very publicly—attending Keanu Reeves's house-warming party.
Last year, on Charlize Theron's advice, Keanu Reeves bought a mansion for four-and-a-half million dollars, becoming neighbors with Leonardo DiCaprio.
At the party Matthew also ran into Leonardo DiCaprio.
"Leo, this is Matthew."
In the vast living room Keanu Reeves introduced them. "Matthew, this is Leo."
Matthew extended his hand with a smile. "Hey, Leo."
Leonardo DiCaprio gave it a quick shake. "Hey, Matthew."
They exchanged small talk, Matthew covertly sizing Leonardo up; the current Leo was still in decent shape—nowhere near heavy enough to sink a ship.
"I saw Kate at the Finding Neverland screening," Matthew said. "She mentioned you—your friendship's something to envy."
Leonardo DiCaprio grinned. "Kate didn't bad-mouth me, did she?"
Clearly,
he and Kate Winslet were exceptionally close.
Matthew shook his head. "Of course not."
Keanu Reeves returned with several beer cans, cutting in. "Leo, I've always wondered—why haven't you and Kate ever clicked?"
Leonardo DiCaprio deflected. "Why haven't you and Charlize Theron clicked?"
Keanu stuffed a can into Leonardo's hand. "We're just friends."
Matthew, newly acquainted, thought it best not to comment, though he suspected Leonardo and Kate's lack of chemistry stemmed mainly from Kate not fitting Leo's aesthetic.
Then again, any normal guy likes blond, long-legged young models.
Unfortunately Keanu's house-warming also included his sister's family; unlike typical Hollywood bashes, it wasn't wild.
Leonardo soon drifted off. Not knowing anyone else, Matthew let Keanu show him around the new place.
The house was huge: the living room alone topped a hundred square meters, plus five bedrooms, walk-in closets, a gym, entertainment room, collector's den—no sprawling estate, but definitely a mansion.
Down a long corridor they entered the collector's room, where Matthew spotted rows of heavy motorcycles—several Harleys especially eye-catching.
Matthew stepped closer. "Your collection?"
"Yeah." Keanu followed, fingers brushing a Harley's bars. "If not for these, I'd still live in hotels—much simpler."
He looked at Matthew. "Sally talked me into it; she said my stuff needed a proper home, so I bought this place."
"Having a home…" Matthew's obsession with real estate ran deep. "…is always good."
Keanu smiled. "Heard from Sally lately?"
Matthew nodded. "Called her a few days ago—she's in Germany, back after New Year." He changed the subject. "Now that you've got this mansion, those rumors should die."
"Wasn't my PR," Keanu said, waving it off. "Just tabloids gossiping, manufacturing hype."
Matthew chatted and browsed the collection.
The chatter had started after The Matrix trilogy, when Keanu shot to super-stardom and rags spun tales of him being some eccentric star.
The house they had just mentioned was one of the issues.
Before, plenty of tabloids and websites hyped that Keanu Reeves had lived in a motel for nine years, even after reaching adulthood. A photo circulated of him and his dog sleeping on the floor of that motel, heartbreaking to everyone who saw it.
Matthew had known Keanu Reeves for two years and knew him fairly well. Before Keanu Reeves became a real star, he had indeed lived in a motel for four years, and afterward he still never bought a house.
It wasn't that he couldn't afford one; he simply didn't want to. Because acting kept him unsettled, Keanu Reeves told Matthew and Depp himself that staying in motels was incredibly convenient—someone made the bed and cleaned the room… In the later years, he wasn't in some shabby motel at all.
Keanu Reeves moved up to the upscale Chateau Marmont. The cost of that hotel was roughly the level where Keanu Reeves would spend a few thousand dollars treating Matthew and Depp to a decent dinner.
This spring, The Sun hyped a story about Keanu Reeves sitting unshaven and shabbily dressed on a roadside bench, eating a cupcake with a birthday candle stuck in it. When a fan came over to chat, he shared the cake with the fan.
The photos The Sun snapped circulated widely online, and Keanu Reeves's fans were especially moved… In fact, Keanu Reeves was filming a movie at the time; The Sun's paparazzi broke the tacit understanding between Crews and reporters, secretly taking that set of shots while shooting was underway.
Although Keanu Reeves is one of the more free-spirited stars, he wouldn't push himself to that extreme.
Stories like these, spread widely across the internet, actually improved Keanu Reeves's image and made his fame even greater, so Keanu Reeves's side never issued a statement.
It was the same strategy Matthew and Helen Herman used all the time: neither confirm nor deny, leaving plenty of room to maneuver.
When Matthew saw this hype at the time, he even remarked that Hollywood Star personas could be close to one's real public image, like his own, or involve acting crazy like Jessica Alba, or be forcibly pinned on someone from the outside, like what happened to Keanu Reeves.
As for why the tabloids painted him as so miserable, Matthew could figure it out with his toes: it was all to grab eyeballs. Hollywood Stars like him attract readers' attention very effectively.
Of course, Keanu Reeves really was a bit pitiful. Judged by some views from where Matthew once lived, Keanu Reeves had a bit of a lone-star fate, and he was usually someone who didn't sweat the small stuff.
After leaving the collection room, Keanu Reeves said, "There are still a few houses vacant to the south. Didn't you want to buy one? Move over and we'll be neighbors."
Matthew shrugged, a bit regretfully. "I'm out of money for now."
"Hmm?" Keanu Reeves looked puzzled. "Didn't you get ten million dollars for mr. & mrs. smith? Did they delay payment?"
"No." Matthew shook his head first, then added, "They paid in full once filming wrapped. I put it all into stocks."
While the iPhone hadn't shown any hint of appearing, he left only a small amount of cash and turned most of what he'd earned into scattered Apple shares on the market. Steve Jobs was still around; he, the biggest variable, had never interacted with Steve Jobs. With 9/11, the attack on Afghanistan, and the Iraq War all unfolding just as he remembered,
the iPhone couldn't possibly vanish.
He didn't understand investing and had never really cared about it; Apple was the safest choice in his memory.
Matthew didn't expect much gain from those scattered Apple shares; as long as they outran inflation and dollar depreciation, that was victory.
The two returned to the living room. A few more guests had arrived. Matthew didn't recognize their faces and guessed they weren't Hollywood insiders. Unlike Johnny Depp, Keanu Reeves wasn't eccentric, but the friends he made still came from every walk of life.
One of them turned out to be his fan, coming over mid-party for autographs and photos, leaving Matthew not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
After the party had gone on for a while, Leonardo DiCaprio left first; he'd shown up mostly out of courtesy, and his friendship with Keanu Reeves was far shallower than Matthew's.
But Leonardo had barely left when Matthew had to say goodbye too; he'd received a call from his Agent, Helen Herman.
Helen Herman phoned specifically to tell him that people from Mercedes-Benz had suddenly arrived in Los Angeles this afternoon and wanted to meet with him, the candidate, in two days; they needed to discuss it urgently tonight.