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Arts & Entertainment
Designing Woman
Stacey Cohen competes for her own series on HGTV Design Star.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
W
hen former Michigander Stacey
Cohen decided to set up her var-
ied design business in Chicago,
she did not leave family members behind.
Using the connectivity of modern technol-
ogy, she found ways to employ their talents.
That connective technology was particu-
larly helpful as Cohen entered into a massive
project that is putting her on television.
Cohen will be seen as a competitor in the
fifth season of HGTV Design Star, a series
that begins 10 p.m. Sunday, June 13, on the
HGTV cable channel. Vying for their own
show HGTV show, the 12 finalists apply their
creativity and try to avoid being eliminated
during 11 weekly challenges.
As Cohen competed in New York with
interior designers, contractors, stylists, archi-
tects and artists, she could stay in touch with
business responsibilities long distance.
She counted on help from her mother,
Gloria Shenkman Cohen, who serves as
consultant and accessories buyer based in
West Bloomfield and Florida; and, based
in Florida and California, brother Steven
Cohen, 40, involved with business consulting
and development, and sister-in-law, Dena
Tanzman-Cohen, 36, handling public rela-
tions and marketing.
"This program gave me the chance to
break out of Chicago and get involved on
a national level with design and design
competition," says Cohen, 35, who heads
Jews
Allit
Or
up Stacey Cohen Interiors and advises cli-
ents interested in residential, commercial
and construction design, green approach-
es, art dealing, accessory buying and film
production.
"I do something completely different
for each challenge, putting on two or three
inspirations and tying a story together.
The first episode was a white-box chal-
lenge, and I used a pattern of repetition
that I had learned from architecture and
put into modular furniture."
Under the direction of Mark Burnett
Productions, the team responsible for
Survivor and The Apprentice reality shows,
HGTV Design Star contestants had access to
construction crews to assist with building
and installation. The judging panel — evalu-
ating work at diverse locations from fire-
houses to flower markets — included HGTV
personalities Genevieve Gorder, Candice
Olson and Vern Yip.
Cohen's recent challenges from Chicago
clients have involved her with an office at the
Chicago Board of Trade, an all-green home
and a hot dog stand.
"The beautiful thing about doing busi-
ness now is that we can talk over the
Internet and have conference calls," says
Cohen, urged to try out for the show by a
friend. "I have satellite teams?'
Cohen's interest in interior design devel-
oped from a fascination with her parents'
modern art collection. Although she first had
journalism aspirations and earned a degree
from Columbia College of Chicago, Cohen
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
Film Notes
Director/screenwriter
Nicole Holofcener's
new film, Please
Give, opening Friday,
June 11, focuses on
the lives of a group
of fairly ordinary
Nicole
women. In Please,
Holofcener
Kate (Catherine
Keener) is married to
Alex (Oliver Platt). They have a teen-
age daughter and think of themselves
as "nice liberals." Kate and Alex buy
the apartment next door to expand
their Manhattan apartment, but the
purchase has a catch: They cannot
occupy the unit until Audra (Ann
Guilbert), the cranky old lady living in
it, dies. Audra has two granddaughters:
54
June 10 • 2010
Rebecca (Rebecca Hall), a sweet young
woman who takes care of Audra, and
the highly cynical Mary (Amanda Peet,
38). Complications ensue when the two
families, including the teenage daugh-
ter, interact and everyone's feelings
about Audra are exposed.
World Of Soccer
The month-long
Soccer World Cup
tournament begins
in South Africa on
Friday, June 11.
The United States
National Team, ranked
Jonathan
14th in the world, is
Bornstein
one of 32 national
teams that played well enough in pre-
liminary rounds to make it to the Cup.
The U.S. is in a group of four coun-
tries that play their first three games
against one another.
The U.S. plays No. 9-ranked England
went on to the Parsons New School for
Design and interned with MTV, where she
concentrated on set design.
"I was driven into the film world so I tried
to work on a lot of independents, which gave
me the tools to run a show," explains the
HGTV contender, whose production design
leadership responsibilities included ward-
robe, makeup and construction.
"I really wanted to learn how to run
a strong business and worked for an art
dealer in New York. After learning about
being a sole proprietor, I returned to
Chicago and started working on a master's
in architecture."
With knowledge of mechanical, electrical,
engineering and plumbing aspects of design,
Cohen started attracting clients on her own
and pulled out of school.
"I worked with [architect] Stuart Fine in
the design of the Frankel Jewish Academy in
West Bloomfield," says Cohen, an Andover
High School graduate who had her bat
mitzvah and confirmation at Temple Israel
in West Bloomfield and now is active with
the Jewish United Fund in Chicagon did the
library and space planning for the office:'
Cohen's most personal project right now
will place her in new and combined liv-
ing-office space. She finds it convenient and
efficient working from home.
"I'm a minimalist, and my home is a
green build',' she says. "Everything is basi-
cally white, chrome, glass and Lucite. When
I design, I use a lot of color, but in my own
home and office, the palette is stark. I think
in its first match 2
p.m. Saturday, June
12, on ABC; then
Slovenia 9:30 a.m.
Friday, June 18, on
ESPN; and competes
against Algeria 9:30
'gbh.. „ad 1 a.m. Wednesday, June
Benny
23, on ESPN.
Feilhaber
The American
squad includes
Jonathan Bornstein, 25, a defender,
and Benny Feilhaber, 25, a midfielder.
Tony Time
The Tony Awards, for excellence on
Broadway, airs live 8-11 p.m. Sunday,
June 13, on CBS.
The Jewish nominees in the act-
ing categories include Liev Schreiber,
42, for best leading actor in a play (a
revival of Arthur Miller's A View from
the Bridge). Schreiber's co-stars in
Bridge, Scarlett Johansson, 25, and
Stacey Cohen in New York City, where this
season of HGTV Design Star was filmed.
more creatively when everything is clean
and clear. I use my white space as a surface
to develop ideas for other people Although
Cohen started accepting clients in 2002, she
decided to relaunch her business endeavors
last July, focusing on cutting-edge initiatives.
The single Cohen, who travels for work
and enjoys athletics from yoga to bik-
ing, writes a blog to inform people about
design on her website,
www.staceycoheninteriors.com.
"It's my way of thanking everybody I'm
involved with:' says Cohen, who supports
Parkinson's causes because her dad, Martin
Cohen, is coping with the disease.
"My blog runs Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday and tells about different places I
shop. I talk about initiatives, and there's a
place for information about the show."
The series will have its own blog at HGTV.
com/designstar. Site users will find interac-
tive features, design tips and reactions from
judges. 0
HGTV Design Star airs 10 p.m.
Sundays, June 13-Aug. 22, on HGTV.
Jessica Hecht, 44, both are nominated
for best featured actress in a play. Also
nominated is Linda Lavin, 72, for best
leading actress in a play (a revival of
Donald Margulies' Collected Stories).
Margulies' new play, Time Stands Still,
about the Iraq War, is nominated for
best original play.
Nominated for best
original score is the
musical Memphis.
David Bryan, 48, the
keyboardist for the
rock band Bon Jovi,
wrote the show's
music and is up for a
David Bryan
Tony.
Marian Seldes, 81,
will receive a Lifetime Achievement
Award. Seldes, whose father was
Jewish, is a top stage actress and the
widow of writer Garson Kanin, whom
she wed in 1990 after the death of his
first wife, actress Ruth Gordon.