No Man Is an Island but This Man Owns One

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People dream of going to a tropical island to get away from it all. Brady Brim-DeForest actually owns one.

The co-founder of L.A.-based Tubefilter, an Internet TV company, Brim-DeForest bought a seven-acre island in the Philippines about a year ago with

another investor. He likes to keep his island ownership low key, but, Go, the in-flight magazine of AirTran, quoted him as an island owner in a recent story, and Brim-DeForest

confirmed his status in an interview with the Business Journal.

“I’ve always had a very strong desire to escape from the trappings of the life I live, and I like the idea of being able to go somewhere off the grid,” said Brim-DeForest, who declined to give his age. He said the island cost between $500,000 and $1

million.

How off the grid is the island? It has no electricity or running water, and a population of about two dozen but they’re all wild boars. What’s the island’s name? “We haven’t gotten around to that yet,” Brim-DeForest said.


Shelter Alumna

When Kimberly Valentine serves her signature vanilla bean cheesecake at this week’s groundbreaking for the new Upward Bound

House family shelter in Culver City, it will be with a sense of d & #233;j & #341; vu.

Valentine, 25, first got the idea for her catering business while residing at Upward Bound’s Santa Monica shelter in 2003. That was after escaping, with her child, from an abusive relationship she said kept her down.

At the shelter, according to Valentine, she got some “structure, which you need to succeed.” She also spent time in the kitchen, where she discovered her culinary talent.

The result is Miss Valentine’s Katering, a company the young mother now runs from her Santa Monica home. Mainly thanks to word of mouth, her five-month-old catering service has slowly gained bookings including the groundbreaking Thursday.

“The moral is,” she said, “never surrender to hard times.”


Sci-Fi Chevy

Actor and Burbank restaurant owner Joe Mantegna was one of a lucky few who got to drive a Chevrolet Equinox for three months last summer as part of a field test of fuel cell cars, which harness the electricity created when hydrogen and oxygen combine.

“You felt like, in a way, this was the future,” said Mantegna, who owns Italian restaurant Taste Chicago and who stars on the CBS crime drama “Criminal Minds.”

“You couldn’t help but think that if every car was like this, you could solve the smog problem. It’s just water vapor coming out instead of carbon dioxide.”

The car reportedly cost $1.5 million to produce, so it’s no wonder that only 100 people were chosen for the test drives. But Mantegna discovered he wasn’t the only Burbank denizen who got to drive the car. One day comedian Jay Leno came by Mantegna’s restaurant driving his Equinox.


Staff reporters Charles Proctor, David Haldane and Maya Meinert contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles

Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].

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