::HOT from Koch:: Motocross Champ Josh Hansen Signs With RPRT Communications

LOS ANGELES-- In the midst of his newly-supercharged career, two-time X Games motocross champion Josh Hansen has selected RPRT Communications to join the team of leading industry professionals who will supervise his career development. The announcement follows his recent signing of publicity veteran Eileen Koch to oversee his PR and marketing needs.

As a top talent/athlete management company that offers services in a variety of different market niches, RPRT will manage Hansen’s endorsements and contract negotiations. The Beverly Hills–based company prides itself on working within the framework of pop culture and young Hollywood and capitalizing on its diverse relationships to maximize client-branding opportunities. RPRT now adds Hansen to its esteemed client roster, which includes: Erik Ellington, Geoff Rowley, Curren Caples, Arto Saari, Pat Milbery, Jorge Gurgel, among others.

In January, renowned motocross coach Mitch Payton selected Hansen to ride the West Region for the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit team. Making what many have called a comeback, Hansen finished at the top of the season, winning the final round of the 2010 Supercross West Lites series at Salt Lake City, placing second at the AMA East/West Shootouts in Vegas, and concluding top 10 overall.

Since stepping into the limelight of professional motocross at the age of 17, Hansen’s career has exploded, receiving top honors in the AMA Lites Class, Full Factory Ride sponsorships and back-to-back X Games victories in 2008 and 2009. With inimitable drive and natural talent – inheriting the smooth riding style from his father, Donnie Hansen, former world supercross champion – Hansen’s professional campaign has placed him amongst the very best of the sport. Die-hard fans are hoping for a three-peat victory for Josh at this year's Summer X Games in Los Angeles (July 29-Aug 1).

Dr. Leslie Weighs in on Miley's Transition

EKC client Dr. Leslie Seppinni was quoted in yesterday's Observer, regarding Miley Cyrus' challenging and very public transition from innocent tween to sultry sex symbol. Read the article to see what Dr. Leslie had to say about Miley:

Miley Cyrus gambles $1bn in switch from sweet teen to raunchy star
Hannah Montana's alter ego is growing up, in public, and it's a risky transition
Paul Harris
The Observer, Sunday 20 June 2010

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Miley Cyrus performs at the Ciudad del Rock on June 6, 2010 in Arganda del Rey, Spain. Photograph: Fotonoticias/Fotonoticias/WireImage.com

It is the hardest transformation in Hollywood: the change from beloved child star to successful adult celebrity. Now Miley Cyrus, who as her alter ego Hannah Montana has been perhaps America's biggest ever child phenomenon, is attempting to walk that road. At stake is not only Cyrus's career, but an industry built around her that has been estimated to be worth a billion dollars.

Last week showed just how difficult Cyrus might find it. Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton tweeted a paparazzi photo of Cyrus that allegedly showed her without underwear, creating a storm of controversy, not least because, with Cyrus being just 17, such a photo could be seen as child pornography. The uproar led to at least one advertiser pulling its ads off Hilton's website, despite Hilton later denying the photo had showed what was alleged. "Sure I like to be controversial, but I don't want to go to jail," he said in a video statement.

The row was embarrassing for Cyrus and her management but it showed how delicate the transformation is between child and adult fame.

Cyrus has already outgrown the Hannah Montana role that made her globally famous and the star of her own TV show when she was just 12. She has cast off the image of a hapless innocent "tween" that won over a generation of young Americans and started to pursue a more adult singing and acting career, taking on controversial film roles and sexualising her pop music.

Her once wholesome girl-next-door image has been shed for increasingly risqué outfits. She has started dating an actor, Liam Hemsworth, who is three years older than her. She starred opposite him in a recent film, The Last Song, which included long kissing scenes. Her stage shows have started to look more like a Madonna concert than that of a tween star and one-time country music favourite. Her act has included a brief pole dance and a suggestion of a lesbian kiss. She even has several tattoos. (read more...)

RJ Williams, Young Hollywood Featured in the LA Times!

Following his recent profile in Hollywood Reporter, long-time EKC friend RJ Williams was featured in the LA Times today!

The paper wrote an article about Young Hollywood's swanky-but-cozy new studio at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Check it out--

Hotel bets on studio to attract Hollywood crowd

R.J. Williams' set up in a Four Seasons hotel suite is designed to make stars relax and linger.

By Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times

June 18, 2010

On an upper floor of the Four Seasons on the edge of Beverly Hills, guests stepping off the elevator see a typical high-end hotel hallway: thick carpeting, subdued lighting, numbered rooms.

But visitors who open a certain door find themselves in a high-tech studio that resembles a cozy living room from the 1960s or '70s, a place to settle in for a martini or two with friends. Thousands of dollars' worth of recording and editing equipment are there too, but are hard to notice at a glance.

"The set looks like my first apartment," quipped actor and comedian Arsenio Hall, soon after his first visit this month. He came to the studio to record an interview and stayed to hang out for a while. Coaxing celebrities to let down their guard and linger, it turns out, is the strategy behind the informal recording and broadcasting studio.

That's one reason it's in a posh hotel, said former child actor R.J. Williams, who came up with the concept of creating a celebrity-friendly nest and sold the Four Seasons on his idea. There he films interviews and off-the-cuff banter with entertainment and sports figures, which he sells to Yahoo and other sources or posts on his Young Hollywood website. (read more...)

Josh Hansen & Stephanie Pratt Are Too Cute!

Stephanie Pratt and EKC client Josh Hansen continue to be spotted around town lately having a blast together. Now that the two are officially together, we must say they make the cutest couple!
Earlier this week, they hit up the Runway Magazine Summer 2010 release party at Drai's in Hollywood. Steph is the cover girl for the summer issue of Runway. (That's her in the magazine Josh is holding-- looking good, girl!)

Movie Composer Robert Sprayberry Does Vegas

This past weekend, film score composer and EKC client Robert Sprayberry hit Las Vegas to hob-nob with producers and hotel execs alongside Emmy-winning actor Armand Assante.

Assante, best known for his role as John Gotti, was in town to pitch a show idea-- a mobster series perhaps?

We hope the guys had fun AND sealed the deal!

Microsoft TechEd Conference: Software Innovator is All About Charity This Year

Every year, Microsoft puts on a huge convention called TechEd, where some of the brightest minds in software development gather to show off their new products.

EKC has to give props to our client, major development tools company Developer Express, for stepping out of the spotlight this year in favor of drawing attention to an extremely worthy cause.

When the company found out TechEd would be held in New Orleans this year, and knowing how much the city is still suffering post-Katrina, it decided make local charities the focus of its attendance. DevExpress set aside the money it would normally spend on a flashy booth and used it to help Habitat for Humanity build a house for a local family. Meanwhile, the executives are currently raising money on the showroom floor by collecting signatures on a "welcome home" card, to be presented to the house recipient upon moving in. For every signature collected, DevExpress will donate $5 to the South East Louisiana branch of the Boys and Girls Club of America, for which the company is also conducting a computer drive.

Check out this blog post we just found, encouraging attendees to stick around for the cause:

A Great Reason Not to Leave TechEd Early

by David Worthington

As the week winds down, there are fewer people, parties, and principals are TechEd. But there is a very good reason to stay: helping rebuild the homes of victims of Hurricane Katrina. DevExpress is organizing a home building project on Friday in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Kudos to DevExpress for factoring people into its marketing plan for this week.

It has been five years since disaster struck the area, but the damage is still apparent in many of the city's poorest parishes. I spent approximately two hour tours the damage on Tuesday, and cannot understate how important it is that relief efforts continue. Many homes are rebuilt, but many others remain as they were after the floor. The 9th ward still has homes with holes punched out of their roofs; others are condemned or empty lots.

BP's oil spill may be dominating the headlines, but Katrina victims still need our help. The poorest people didn't have the choice to leave.

Congrats to DevExpress for taking the initiative to do their part while in New Orleans. Habitat for Humanity will host a wall-raising ceremony tomorrow to celebrate the completion of the house DevExpress helped build. Great work, guys : )

RJ Williams on Hollywood Rewired

Hollywood Reporter's Hollywood Rewired just posted this awesome profile of EKC friend and YoungHollywood.com founder, RJ Williams. Check it out:

RJ Williams | Young Hollywood - Digital Power Profile

by Andrew Wallenstein

As a vestige of old-school Hollywood, the Four Seasons Hotel is an odd choice to serve as a set for a premium-video content provider focused on young celebrities. So is paying to occupy four suites at a five-star hotel when most of his competitors are shooting in warehouses. But everything YoungHollywood.com CEO and founder RJ Williams does is counterintuitive–and effective.

While most start-ups gorge on venture capital, Williams has chosen to grow his business on his own. While amassing traffic to a destination site has been the prime directive for brand-building, he’s zagged by letting his dot-com take a backseat to providing his content to a who’s who of major partners including Hulu, Yahoo and People.com. But after quietly pursuing that strategy for seven years, Williams is now building up the destination site (he’s nearly quadrupled traffic to 2 million uniques in just six months) and teeing up a TV deal to boot–all while still maintaining those partnerships. “We’re trying to have it both ways,” said Williams, a 32-year-old former child actor who doubles as on-air talent for the site.

But the biggest way Williams goes against the grain is the style of the content. In the roiling sea of scandal and savagery that is celebrity gossip, he’s taking a talent-friendly high road. There’s no sifting through trash at YoungHollywood.com. What makes YoungHollywood.com even more of a standout is that it refuses to be the umpteenth media outlet shooting the same-old pictures on the red carpet–all of its content is exclusive, whether hanging out with Lady Gaga on her tour bus or chilling with “Glee” star Cory Monteith at his home. Young Hollywood doesn’t even necessarily stick to the “young” part of its brand, making time occasionally for oldsters like young-at-heart types like Dustin Hoffman. As Williams puts it, “It’s not about age, it’s about attitude.”

Very nice, RJ!

EKC Loves Amy Molen!

We are absolutely gushing over these beautiful shots of new EKC client, Amy Molen, from her recent photo shoot with Marcel Indik! What a stunner. We love how easily she pulls off sweet/vulnerable and sexy/fierce at the same time...

Amy is so photogenic, but she'll shine even brighter on the big screen. Can't wait to start production on her film projects : )