9
When Charlotte decided to go on a spending spree, she wasn’t exactly thinking about fast cars and lavish vacations. There was business to tend to first.
After she liquidated her stock, she immediately paid off the loan on the Go-Go’s sixty-seven acre estate in North Palm Springs. It was not one-hundred percent necessary, but it was weighing on her conscience and she wanted it off the books. Now, all she would have to do was pay the property taxes, which were exorbitant enough. Charlotte, however, had other, more underhanded ways to pay for those pesky things.
Once she took care of that bothersome task, Charlotte turned to something a little more fun. It was something that had also been weighing heavily on her mind and now it was time to pull the trigger. After doing the necessary research, Charlotte plunked down some heavy cash on an item that had become synonymous with clout and genuine folklore in the corporate world: The elegantly sophisticated and glorious — Learjet.
It was pure icing on the cake as far as the Go-Go’s public image was concerned. Now, they could tour in style without always having to ride on the tour bus, and use the jet for personal use as well. Charlotte was able to purchase a used model that had ceased production, but, received a great deal and the plane was in excellent shape. Needless to say, the Go-Go’s had a blast conducting a photo shoot in front of the thing out on the runway of the airport. Naturally, Charlotte had the Go-Go’s name and logo painted on the side and the girls were ecstatic with their new toy. Charlotte’s only concern was that some of her more snooty clients might feel foolish flying around with the Go-Go’s name splashed on the side of the plane. Luckily, that never turned out to be the case.
Contrary to her original intentions, the rest of the cash-out went towards collateral and not towards toys. Charlotte secured loans to purchase an eighteen-story commercial high-rise in downtown Los Angeles and a 600-unit apartment complex in Westwood. She even became a silent partner on a restaurant in Beverly Hills and a dilapidated horse farm in Tennessee.
Charlotte was now entering Phase Two of her financial portfolio— sheer madness.
She was in way over her head for a pop star and she knew it. How in the world would she be able to keep an eye on everything and still do her job at the studio? Surely, her management teams would start embezzling from her, she thought to herself. How could she keep an eye on everyone? She was advised constantly about growing too fast, too quickly.
And yet, she ignored that advise and did it anyway.
The commercial building on Wilshire Boulevard was easily the thing that she was the most excited about. At some point, she wanted to move her corporate headquarters into the building and out of the ridiculously inadequate offices that she was currently renting. As in previous moves, she got a great deal on the property. The former owners of the building, the Getzlaf Realty Group, were in the middle of foreclosure, and Charlotte’s newest subsidiary, New Wave Realty, which she dubbed after the style of music that the Go-Go’s were sometimes associated with, was able to purchase the building at 70% of its actual market valuation.
Unfortunately, some of the tenants had moved out during the previous ownership and Charlotte had to devise a way to lure some new tenants back into the building. After a lighthearted discussion with the girls, Jane came up with an intriguing idea that involved one other member of the band. Charlotte liked the idea immediately and jumped right in with the plan. She arranged a “Win A Date With Belinda” contest with the flagship restaurant on the first floor, which resulted in an avalanche of hoopla and craziness that quickly got out of hand. After the contest was announced, more than 20,000 men had signed up in the first week and the restaurant was flooded with reservations and lines going out the door.
The only problem was, Belinda had secretly reneged on the deal in private and basically had no intentions of actually going out on the date in the first place. About three days into the promotion, she suddenly turned to everyone and told the girls she was backing out, citing it was too dangerous and made her look like a bimbo.
After some luke-warm discussions and some mild begging about her participation, everyone eventually sided with Belinda, realizing that most of her positions were legitimately valid and that she really wasn’t consulted very much on the original idea.
Now, it was up to the gang to figure out how to weasel out of this sticky situation.