‘The Paperboy’ director Lee Daniels, who is fascinated by life’s down-and-outers, the people surviving on the fringes who will never manage to make it to the center of the arena, says he fell in love with Pete Dexter’s book, on which his new movie is based, when he first read it years ago. “Like ‘Precious’ and ‘Monster’s Ball’, the characters and the events stayed with me. It is a story that needs to be told. As a filmmaker, I like giving voices to characters that don’t ordinarily have them. I’m interested in depicting the people we don’t often see, even though they exist all around us.”

As he has for his previous films, Daniels assembled an ensemble of accomplished actors who each make unexpected departures in their roles. “It is a tribute to the material that we were able to assemble such a fantastic group of actors,” says producer Hilary Shor. “The cast became so much more than the sum of its parts. Every one of them saw the opportunity to do something great, even though it is a relatively small movie and they worked for less money than they usually command.”

In ‘The Paperboy’, Jack James, former swimming champion and current newspaper delivery boy, joins his hotshot investigative journalist brother in an effort to clear a local redneck, Hillary Van Wetter, of the murder of the town sheriff. To play the naïve Jack, who falls hopelessly in love with the death-row convict’s seductive fiancée, Daniels selected Zac Efron, best known as the wide-eyed heartthrob from the teen phenomenon ‘High School Musical’. “If all you know him from is ‘High School Musical’, he seems like an unexpected choice,” says Daniels. “But I saw Zac in a movie called ‘Me and Orson Welles’ and I recognized something very different in him. He is so right for this part.”

Shor believes the role could profoundly change the path of the young actor’s career. “This is going to be a transitional moment for Zac professionally,” she says. “We watched him become a man before our eyes. It is an extraordinary performance and it will surprise a lot of people to see him in this light.”

Efron was drawn to the quality of the script and the unusual nature of the story. “My initial reaction was simply ‘wow,’” he says. “The story was intense and the ending blew me away. It’s a big journey for a young man. It goes to some very dark, twisted places and some very funny places, too.”

Daniels’ genius as a writer and director lies in his innate understanding of what makes the characters human and how they relate to each other, says Efron. “Each relationship and every part of this story is grounded and real in the crazy way things actually are. He understands the spaces in between. He wants to turn everything on its ear and he’s not afraid to improvise.”

The young actor experienced some of the same growing pains as his character during the shoot. “Jack learns huge life lessons from each of these very important people in his life,” he says. “I felt the same way working on the movie. I came as a blank slate. I haven’t been doing this as long some of the other actors have and I’m still learning what it is to make a movie or be an actor. This cast was always challenging me in different ways.”

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A sexually and racially charged film noir from Oscar-nominated director Lee Daniels (‘Precious’), ‘The Paperboy’ takes audiences on a wild ride through the backwaters of steamy 1960s South Florida. Based on the provocative bestselling novel by Pete Dexter (‘Mulholland Falls’, ‘Rush’), the film stars Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, David Oyelowo, Macy Gray, John Cusack and Academy Award-winner Nicole Kidman.

Miami Times reporter Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey) returns to his sleepy hometown of Lately, Florida, where a decades-old façade of Southern gentility strains against the sweeping social changes of the 1960s. Accompanied by his writing partner Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo) and sultry death-row groupie Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman), Ward is chasing the career-making story of violent swamp rat Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack), who claims to have been framed for the murder of a corrupt local sheriff. Drafting his younger brother Jack (Zac Efron) to serve as his driver, Ward tries to unravel the mystery of the crime, aided by a mountain of evidence Charlotte has amassed to prove Van Wetter’s innocence.

As the prisoner awaits the electric chair, the Jansen family’s longtime maid Anita (Macy Gray) watches in alarm as Jack becomes more and more infatuated with the alluring Charlotte. But when Ward’s investigation reveals a web of deception, it sets off an explosive chain reaction that pulls everyone involved into a quagmire of evil as dark as a Florida bayou.

Inspired by a true story, ‘The Paperboy’s tale of obsession, violence and ambition earned a nomination for the 2012 Cannes Film Festival’s highest prize, the coveted Palme d’ Or.

‘The Paperboy’ is written and directed by Lee Daniels based on the novel by Pete Dexter (‘Paris Trout’).

For more than 15 years, Lee Daniels has been challenging conventional Hollywood wisdom by making uncompromising films that shine a light onto the inner worlds of the forgotten, the unheralded and the downtrodden. First as the producer of startling and acclaimed films including ‘Monster’s Ball’ and ‘The Woodsman’, then as director of the poignant, shocking Oscar-winner ‘Precious’, Daniels has transformed characters rarely portrayed in mainstream films, including an illiterate, street-smart teen, a lonely racist prison guard and a conflicted and angry child molester, into sympathetic anti-heroes.

In his feature-film writing debut, Daniels adapted Pete Dexter’s hard-boiled crime thriller, ‘The Paperboy’, into a gritty, darkly funny and Byzantine journey set in an out-of-the-way Florida town in 1969. An incendiary mix of race, sex and deception, ‘The Paperboy’ turns a tense murder investigation into a fearless exploration of love, corruption and family bonds.

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It seems only a short time ago that Tom Cruise was jumping on Oprah’s couch screaming about how much he loved Katie Holmes; but alas, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ marriage has come to an end. The marriage between the famous couple has lasted for six years, and there is now speculation about what could have broken up their marriage; some sources claim the reason is Scientology.

Holmes turned down the invitation to Cruise’s fiftieth birthday party. He is currently in Iceland filming the movie ‘Oblivion.’

This is the third failure marriage for Tom Cruise. His first marriage was to Mimi Rogers in 1987 and lasted only three years. A few months later, in December of 1990, Cruise married actress Nicole Kidman and stayed with her for eleven years. Kidman and Cruise adopted two children before their divorce. In 2006, Cruise married Katie Holmes, another actress who is sixteen years his junior. Strangely enough, all of Cruise’s wivese were thirty-three years old when they divorced him. Even stranger is that the number 33 has significance in the church of Scientology because it is a number that represents an “increase of the positive energy”.

Katie Holmes filed for the divorce from Cruise. The reason has a name: Suri, their six years old daughter. It appears as though Holmes was worried that Cruise was sending their daughter to the Church of Scientology’s Sea Organization which is a religious order within the church. Holmes and her extremely Catholic parents prefer to have Suri raised in a different environment. Holmes is filing for sole custody of Suri.

Katie Holmes has recently hired body guards after some of the neighbors of her Chelsea apartment noticed unidentified men surrounding the building, possibly members from the church of Scientology. According to the Daily Mail it is possible that Holmes has been followed by these individuals for weeks. They may also be private investigators that Cruise has hired to keep tabs on Holmes. The lawyer for the Church of Scientology International, Gary Soter, stated, “there is no truth whatsoever to the TMZ.com report (or any other report) that the Chruch of Scientology has sent anyone to follow or surveil Katie Holmes.”

Holmes originally filed for divorce in New York, a state where judges seem to favor sole custody cases because it prevents the children from ending up in the middle of parental arguments. However, Cruise is trying to move the proceedings to California where joint custody is preferred.

Written in part by Francisco Fajardo.

Image Courtesy of  Phil Stafford / Shutterstock.com

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Director Philip Kaufman and executive producer Peter Kaufman became involved with ‘Hemingway & Gellhorn’ nine years ago. “I’m not really interested in making any film just for the sake of getting something made,” the director explains. “For me, it’s always been about having an adventure, falling in love, committing totally to something, for however many years.”

Executive producers Alex Ryan and Barbara Turner developed Turner’s script with the Kaufmans, ultimately bringing it to James Gandolfini, who became a producer and champion of the film, and brought it to HBO. Writer Jerry Stahl was then enlisted to further develop the screenplay.

Explains Ryan, “I was moved by the inextinguishable spirit of this woman who, despite her success, seemed to be relegated to live in Hemingway’s shadow, and I felt that many people could relate to Martha’s battles on and off the field.”

The passion with which Kaufman approached this story was due, in large part, to the passion within the story itself. “With Hemingway and Gellhorn, we have two strong, bright, sexy people who are filled with vigor and energy and competitiveness,” Kaufman says. “We have moments of heightened passion, of idealism, of beauty, of heroism and tragedy.”

To executive producer Peter Kaufman, the film is about “the passionate and turbulent love story between one of the world’s most famous novelists and one of the greatest war correspondents of the last century. It’s about the battle of the sexes, the battle with their inner demons, and the battle for freedom of the individual against the rise of Fascism all over the world at this time.”

“Martha Gellhorn is really the discovery of our film,” says director Kaufman. “Hemingway is legendary, but few people know of Gellhorn and the successful career she had after their marriage – being considered, by many, the greatest war correspondent of the 20th century.”

Adds executive producer Trish Hofmann, “I think this film is reminiscent of movies from the past with its romance and suspenseful drama, but the elements of the story are still very applicable today. Martha Gellhorn paved the way for modern women, showing that they can hold their own in a male-dominated arena, and are welcomed there, as well.”

Says Nicole Kidman, “Women like Martha Gellhorn were trailblazers who did things that weren’t the norm; who changed what professions women could aspire to; who changed the world. I think I’ll always seek out those women to play them, if given the chance.”

Faced with the challenge of portraying real people, both Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen came to the table prepared.

Kidman’s upbringing seems to have laid the groundwork for her portrayal of Martha Gellhorn. “I came from a strong, feminist mother who wanted her girls to go out into the world and take a bite out of it,” she explains. “I’m drawn to those women who do that, and Martha was definitely one of them. When you do a film that is based on a real person, it’s not a case of mimicking them or emulating them, it’s actually just trying to find their essence, their core and trying to bring some form of them through me to the screen.”

Owen had not read Hemingway extensively when the screenplay was presented to him. Instantly taken by the story and the role, he knew that considerable preparation and research would be necessary to portray such an iconic figure. “You can’t play somebody like Hemingway and treat it like you do every other film,” he says. “I just immersed myself for eight months with everything Hemingway – everything he wrote, everything that was written about him. I visited Madrid, Paris and Cuba. I saw all the places he went and lived.”

Discussing the role of Hemingway, Kaufman refers to one of his earlier films, observing, “‘The Right Stuff’ was about heroic men and grace under pressure, a concept originated by Hemingway. Clive Owen seemed to embody that quality.”

Kidman and Owen worked closely with world-renowned dialogue coach Tim Monich, perfecting the distinctive voices of their characters by listening to and watching hours of archival tapes of Hemingway and Gellhorn.

‘Hemingway & Gellhorn’ was shot entirely on location in and around San Francisco, where various parts of the city and its surroundings – Oakland, Livermore and Marin County – were used to represent Key West, Spain, China, Cuba, Finland, New York, London and Germany.

Says director Kaufman, “I knew I wanted to make this film in San Francisco because, of all the cities in the world, San Francisco had the most variable kinds of locations that could be molded and transformed into what I was looking for. I know this city. And there’s so much talent here, so many wonderful locations. The crews, the extras, the atmosphere, the food and the city’s cooperation all make it a great place to film.”

In addition, Kaufman tapped San Francisco-based visual effects supervisor Chris Morley and Tippett Studios to help expand on the kinds of visual techniques used years before in his films “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” and “The Right Stuff.” Through the magic of Morley, Tippett, editor and sound designer Walter Murch and the entire production team, Kaufman was able to “nest” his characters into actual archival footage, using recently developed enhanced digital effects.

Murch, Kaufman’s long-time collaborator, notes, “This was a film with a huge number of moving parts, like a very complicated machine. It has all the scope and breadth and challenges that a feature film has, but done in less time on a smaller budget. Plus, there’s the artistic and technical challenge of using the archival footage and finding ways to get into that historic world and integrating our actors into it, going in and out of color and grained imagery, wanting those transitions to be both visceral and unnoticeable, to look and feel very natural.”

Image Courtesy of    HBO

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Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman play the title roles in HBO Films’ ‘Hemingway & Gellhorn’, debuting Monday, May 28 exclusively on HBO. The combined magnetism of Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn ushered them into social circles that included the elite of Hollywood, the aristocracy of the literary world and the First Family of the United States. As witnesses to history, they covered all the great conflicts of their time, but the war they couldn’t survive was the war between themselves.

Story Continued

With no official press credential, the ever-resourceful Gellhorn manages to talk her way onto a hospital ship bound for Omaha Beach, becomes a stowaway and, disguised as a nurse, is among the first reporters on shore during the historic D-Day landing.

Meanwhile, in a London pub, Hemingway meets a woman named Mary Welsh [Parker Posey]. A drunken car accident lands him in the hospital and Gellhorn is called back from the front in France. She arrives to find a bandaged Hemingway entertaining his friends, with Welsh cozied up to him on his hospital bed. Hemingway asks Gellhorn sarcastically, “What are you doing here?” She responds, “I guess I just stopped by for a divorce.”

“I want to be myself and alone and free to breathe, live, look upon the world and find it however it is…I want my own name back, most violently, as if getting it back would give me some of myself…And do not worry and do not feel badly. We are, basically, two tough people and we were born to survive.” – Martha Gellhorn

“If two people love each other, there can be no happy end to it.” – Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway’s life rapidly accelerated into paranoia and depression. Prior to his suicide in 1961, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Following Hemingway’s death, history seemed to forget Gellhorn. She was relegated to being “the third Mrs. Hemingway,” a mere footnote in the great writer’s life.

Undeterred, Gellhorn continued to cover all the major world conflicts, from the Dachau concentration camp, to the Vietnam War, the Six-Day War in the Middle East, the civil wars in Central America and, finally, at age 81, the U.S. invasion of Panama. She did not listen to “official drivel” and told the truth as she saw it. She was a pioneer. As the London Daily Telegraph wrote, Gellhorn was “one of the great war correspondents of the century; brave, fierce and wholly committed to the truth of the situation.”

Coda

Following Gellhorn’s death in 1998, noted writer and editor Bill Buford wrote, “Martha was passionate, glamorous and exciting. She was hugely entertaining. She was motivated by a deep-hearted, deep-seated concern for justice; she was a friend of the dispossessed, the oppressed, the neglected…Gellhorn was blonde and thin and sassy, a starlet of the highest order, a young Lauren Bacall…There was a glamour about Martha Gellhorn, the glamour of black-and-white movies. It was in her manner and her way with the ways of the world. She was a dame…and she was a good writer.”

Gellhorn’s remarkable contributions and pioneering efforts anticipated such reporters as Christiane Amanpour, Lara Logan and the late Marie Colvin, who died recently in war-torn Syria. Colvin, who has been called “the Martha Gellhorn of her time,” narrated the 2003 BBC documentary “Martha Gellhorn: On the Record.”

In addition to her war reporting, Gellhorn wrote numerous books, including “The Face of War” and “Travels with Myself and Another,” an account of her solo travels and her trip to China with Hemingway.

The year after her death, the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism was established to award journalists “whose work has penetrated the established version of events and told an unpalatable truth that exposes establishment propaganda.” In 2008, Gellhorn was honored by the United States Postal Service with a first-class postage stamp.

Image Courtesy of    HBO

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Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Clive Owen and Academy Award and three-time Golden Globe winner Nicole Kidman star in the title roles of HBO Films’ ‘Hemingway & Gellhorn’, under the direction of Academy Award nominee Philip Kaufman.

Kaufman directs from a script by Jerry Stahl and Barbara Turner. Debuting Monday, May 28 (9:00-11:40 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO, ‘Hemingway & Gellhorn’ recounts one of the greatest romances of the last century – the passionate love affair and tumultuous marriage of literary master Ernest Hemingway and trailblazing war correspondent Martha Gellhorn – as it follows the adventurous writers through the Spanish Civil War and beyond.

‘Hemingway & Gellhorn’ also stars Academy Award nominee David Strathairn (‘Goodnight, and Good Luck’, HBO’s ‘Temple Grandin’), Rodrigo Santoro (‘I Love You Philip Morris’, ‘300’), SAG Award nominee Molly Parker (‘The Road’, HBO’s ‘Deadwood’), Golden Globe nominee Parker Posey (‘Superman Returns’, ‘A Mighty Wind’), Santiago Cabrera (‘Che: Part 1’), actor-musician Lars Ulrich (‘Get Him to the Greek’, founding member of Metallica), Saverio Guerra (‘Lucky You’), Emmy nominee Peter Coyote (‘Erin Brockovich’, ‘Law & Order: LA’), Joan Chen (‘The Last Emperor’) and Emmy and Golden Globe winner Tony Shalhoub (‘Monk’, HBO’s ‘Too Big to Fail’).

The whirlwind story 1936: Ernest Hemingway [Clive Owen] falls under the spell of the beautiful novelist and assured magazine writer Martha Gellhorn [Nicole Kidman] when he first meets her in Sloppy Joe’s, a bar in Key West, Fla. They meet again in Spain, when she persuades a friend at Collier’s Weekly to give her credentials as a special correspondent, covering the Spanish Civil War and the attempt by Franco and the Fascists, with the aid of Hitler and Mussolini, to overthrow the democratically elected government.

Hemingway has left behind his wife, Pauline [Molly Parker], and their two sons in Key West and has come to Spain to help his friends Joris Ivens [Lars Ulrich], John Dos Passos [David Strathairn] and Robert Capa [Santiago Cabrera] shoot the documentary “The Spanish Earth,” about the struggle to defeat Fascism. Gellhorn joins them.

Hemingway watches over and tutors Gellhorn, as the fledgling reporter discovers her voice and learns from him the essence of the Hemingway code of behavior: honor, courage, bravery and endurance in a life of stress, misfortune and pain. In short, grace under pressure.

To Hemingway, having these qualities makes a man become a man and proves his worth. Gellhorn comes to embody these principles, perhaps even outdoing Hemingway. In a crucial situation where Gellhorn evidences her heroism, Hemingway is prompted to say, “She is the bravest woman I ever saw.”

Back from the war, Hemingway and Gellhorn settle in Cuba, where she finds the run-down villa Finca Vigia. There they begin a new life together. Hemingway writes “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” which he dedicates to Gellhorn. When Collier’s offers her a job to cover the Russian invasion of Finland, Hemingway wants her to stay, but Gellhorn feels she must go and bear witness to the world’s upheaval. She later wrote, “I followed the war wherever I could reach it.”

Gellhorn longs to return to Hemingway and in their passionate correspondences the two of them vow that they will never leave each other again. She arrives home to find her beloved Finca Vigia in total disarray, strewn with Hemingway’s hangers-on. But a surprise awaits her as Hemingway proudly displays signed divorce papers from Pauline. Gellhorn, who never asked to be married, consents to becoming his third wife.

As the Japanese invade China, Gellhorn is offered an assignment to do an interview with the most powerful political couple in the world: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek [Larry Tse] and the “Empress of China,” Madame Chiang [Joan Chen]. After some cajoling by Gellhorn to look at it as a paid honeymoon, Hemingway reluctantly agrees to accompany her.

While there, Hemingway and Gellhorn are taken blindfolded by boat to a secret meeting with Communist leader Chou En-lai [Anthony Brandon Wong], whom they find impressive and believe to be the wave of the future. They report their findings to Gellhorn’s old friends, President Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, and the State Department swiftly brands Hemingway and Gellhorn “fellow travelers.”

Hemingway is deeply stung by the charge of being unpatriotic and becomes increasingly agitated. Back in Cuba, Hemingway arms his boat, the Pilar, to patrol the Caribbean for Nazi U-boats, while carousing with his cronies. Gellhorn is restless, feeling isolated from the world-shaking events she longs to be a part of.

They quarrel frequently. Hemingway wants a stay-at-home wife to share his bed, while she realizes that the greatest enemy of marriage is boredom. Gellhorn wants to cover the impending Allied invasion in Europe, but Hemingway selfishly compromises her assignment from Collier’s. Their marriage falls apart.

Image Courtesy of    HBO

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Silver Spring, U.SA. – Investigation Discovery’s new series Reel Crime/Real Story, hosted by legal champion and biopic subject Erin Brockovich, uncovers the true facts and real personalities behind iconic crime-and-justice movies that have become a part of our pop culture.

Featuring the headline-stealing homicides that inspired Hollywood hits, Reel Crime/Real Story reveals the true tales on which award-winning films Selena, Monster, and To Die For were based, with never-before-seen interviews, crime scene reconstructions, and footage gathered from the actual investigations. Reel Crime/Real Story premieres as a three-part series on Tuesday, May 29 at 10 PM E/P on Investigation Discovery.

“Box office numbers and industry accolades are a testament to the fact that Hollywood continues to be fascinated by true-life crimes,” said Henry Schleiff, president and general manager of Investigation Discovery. “Our new series, Reel Crime/Real Story is further evidence of what Investigation Discovery’s growing audience already knows: truth is often stranger and more interesting than fiction!”
Each episode of Reel Crime/Real Story reveals how art imitated life in some of the world’s most notorious cases:

Monster premieres Tuesday, May 29 at 10 PM E/P
The media dubbed her the “Damsel of Death” and Hollywood immortalized her as “Monster.” This episode explores the life and crimes of Aileen Wuornos, America’s first female serial killer. Though executed in 2002, her story was immortalized by actress Charlize Theron, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of the prostitute turned femme fatale in 2003′s Monster.

In a never-before-seen interview shot before Wuornos became one of only 11 women executed in the past two decades, she comes clean and reveals intimate details of the lesbian love affair that led her to kill seven men. This episode also includes the first ever on-screen interview with the undercover detective who brought Wuornos into custody.

Selena premieres Tuesday, June 5 at 10 PM E/P
Latin music sensation Selena Quintanilla Perez found new life in a posthumous biopic starring Jennifer Lopez in her career-launching role. Lovingly nicknamed the “Mexican Madonna,” Selena was just 23 years old when her personal assistant and the president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, gunned her down in a cheap motel room in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The 1997 film, Selena, tracks the star’s meteoric rise to chart-topping stardom and her whirlwind romance with band member and husband Chris Perez. Through interviews with Perez, law enforcement, and the hotel manager in whose arms Selena died, Reel Crime/Real Story explores the story beyond the movie: a shocking and senseless crime that snuffed out a bright young star’s life and career.

To Die For premieres Tuesday, June 12 at 10 PM E/P
Pamela Smart lives on in Hollywood history as the woman whose salacious story inspired Nicole Kidman to win her first Golden Globe. The real-life scandal of a teacher who used sex to entice her 15-year-old student boyfriend to murder her husband rocked the small town of Derry, N.H. before exploding into a national media frenzy.

The 1995 film To Die For parodies Smart as an ambitious, cold-hearted seductress out for her husband’s blood, but who is the real Pamela Smart? Family members, local law enforcement, lawyers, and media who followed the case from day one attempt to piece together the profile of a woman who thought murder was the only answer to an unhappy marriage.

Reel Crime/Real Story is produced by ITV Studios America for Investigation Discovery. For ITV Studios, John X. Kim is executive producer. For Investigation Discovery, Eugenie Vink is executive producer, Sara Kozak is senior vice president of production, and Henry Schleiff is president and general manager.

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The recently released Hollywood film TRESPASS starring Nicholas Cage and Nicole Kidman gave the public a glimpse of a chic new approach to collectible art, known as Desk Architecture.

The brainchild of leading design expert Vladymir Rogov, the exotic Desk Architecture collection focuses on everyday functional objects in social rituals and human interactions.

During the film’s pre-production phase, Rogov was contacted regarding the possibility of featuring an all-silver collection in select scenes of the film. The selections included a Letter Tray, Letter Holder and Opener, two Ashtrays, two Clocks and a Picture Frame.

The highly distinctive works of art impressed several interior designers who saw the movie, then subsequently traced them to Rogov and ordered several for their clients’ homes.

“I was very pleased when I got their calls,” Rogov stated, “because it validated the producer’s decision to include the pieces in the film, while giving collectors wider exposure to unique designs.”

Designed for an exclusive niche of collectors, Rogov’s Desk Architecture offers discrimination and differentiation. Desk Architecture is heirloom quality and will last for generations. The line is manufactured in Southern California in limited editions, and is available in black nickel, silver or 24-karat gold clad. Each piece ships with a signed and numbered certificate of authenticity.

Rogov is regarded as a master at developing distinctive impressions for a wide range of everyday items — from musical instruments for kids and luxury vehicles for grown-ups to medical instrumentation for healthcare providers, to rugged military equipment and exotic housewares.

He has designed for such mega-brands as Chrysler, Fiat, Ford, and Rank Xerox; sleek home products such as glassware for Cascade; lighting for Compagnie des Lampes, France; and home products for Marks & Spencer, Habitat and Conran stores.

His design expertise has also been applied to coolers for Coleman; luxurious bathroom systems for Boeing; exotic seating for Aston Martin; self-serve gas stations for Exxon; printers for Hewlett-Packard; motion capture cameras for Kodak; point-of-purchase displays for Yamaha; TVs for Samsung; and clocks and musical instruments for Casio.

Rogov’s designs have led to five U.S. patents and numerous international awards, including two “International Design Excellence Awards” (IDEA) from the Industrial Designers Society of America.

He is also an influential and entertaining speaker who’s amusing and enlightening insights on art, culture and business make him an audience favorite.

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Macy Gray, newly signed with 429 Records, is preparing for the release of her stunning new album “Covered”—a collection of all new recordings of handpicked songs she’s chosen to reinterpret in her own inimitable fashion.  Produced by Hal Willner (Lou Reed, Metallica), “Covered” tackles material largely drawn from indie rock songs from the last decade—interpretations her fans will be familiar with as she’s been performing them live over the years.

The album contains biting, dark signature tracks such as Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” or My Chemical Romance’s “Teenagers” which Gray subversively overhauls into something wholly her own.  Also included are short skits featuring J.B. Smoove, Nicole Scherzinger and a guest appearance by Idris Elba.

“Covered” will be released worldwide on 429 Records March 27th.In addition, Macy is planning a worldwide tour and has wrapped filming with director Lee Daniels (Precious) for his forthcoming film ‘The Paperboy” which also stars John Cusack, Zach Effron, Nicole Kidman and Matthew McConaughey. The film will debut at Cannes in May with confirmed worldwide distribution in October 2012.

Since her dazzling debut introduced this singular talent to the masses, Macy has forged an uncompromising musical path beholden to her own vision and garnering accolades at every juncture.  With “Covered” Macy has turned the cover album concept on its ear choosing edgy contemporary choices and approaching them in an innovative and uncompromising way. Not surprising considering she’s spent her career defying expectations and stretching musical boundaries.

Says Macy on being inspired by Nina Simone’s cover songs: “She didn’t worry about what people would think or how they would compare it to anybody else. I saw how she just took that song and every song she ever did and made them her own.  So I went in with the confidence that we could do whatever we wanted.”

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