When Will Space Traveler Finally Fly?

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Rene Kaerskov is hoping the Federal Aviation Administration will soon clear Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to take tourists to space.

Kaerskov had been training for a trip to space with Branson’s company for the past eight years. The 47-year-old took zero-gravity flights and flew jets in preparation. He’s also been running marathons on all seven continents to keep in shape.

Kaerskov, co-chief executive of Santa Monica hotel design firm Hirsch Bedner Associates, said he never had childhood aspirations for space travel. But he became intrigued about the idea after reading a story about Branson’s venture in 2006. So he wrote to Branson hoping to get a chance to fly with his company. After paying about $200,000, Kaerskov was in.

“I thought this was something that was very fantastic, to be among the first group of humans to do it,” he said. “That is not every day you can come across an opportunity like this. It doesn’t take a superman to be an astronaut; it takes a guy in decent shape with $200,000.”

Right Connection

It turns out awards season winners aren’t always as shocked as they appear.

Take independent TV producer Angela Shelley, 56, who won her sixth Golden Mike award last month for producing an episode of KCETLink’s “SoCal Connected” about concussions in youth sports.

Shelley had known weeks before the show that she was going to win. That’s because the event’s host, the Radio & Television News Association in Long Beach, notifies its winners in advance – unlike the Emmys or Los Angeles Press Club awards.

While knowing ahead of time that she would win did cut down on the excitement of the evening, Shelley said, at least not having acceptance speeches helped to keep the evening from dragging on.

“They play a little clip (of your show) and you go to the side where the awards are hanging and you pose for a picture,” she said.

Shelley will also be watching the Oscars closely next month – not for herself – but because the on-air reporter in that Golden Mike-winning episode of “SoCal Connected” was John Ridley – who was recently nominated for an Academy Award for writing the screenplay for “12 Years a Slave.”

Pajama Time

Doug Morris, the new head of communications at downtown L.A. asset manager TCW Group Inc., hasn’t been in town long enough to make friends in the entertainment industry just yet.

But when he does, he thinks he’ll actually be able to spend time with them. That wasn’t the case when he lived in New York and had friends in that city’s entertainment business – Broadway theater.

Being an early riser and having friends who work until 10 p.m. or later – and on weekends – made it hard to schedule much of anything.

“They’d say, ‘Hey, let’s grab drinks – how about 11 p.m. on Tuesday?’” said Morris, 41, who until a few months ago worked in the Big Apple as head of media relations for JPMorgan Private Bank. “That is not going to work. If I’m not in my pajamas at 10 p.m., I start to go into a panic.”

Staff reporters Justin Yang, James Rufus Koren and Jonathan Polakoff contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at ccrumpley@
labusinessjournal.com.