Production Manager

* Brian Penderghast has joined Electronic Mortgage Banc Ltd. in Costa Mesa as production manager. He was formerly a senior loan officer and marketing manager for Financial Services Mortgage. In addition, Daniel Perez was appointed account executive for Electronic Mortgage, a subsidiary of Pacific International Inc. Before joining the company, he was a sales associate for Re/Max Golden Home. * Linda F.

The gig: Chief executive and creative director of the company that bears her name, Eva Franco designs chic and whimsical dresses that have been featured on television shows including "New Girl" and "The Carrie Diaries. " Coming to America: The designer was born in Romania to Hungarian parents. The family fled during a political uprising in the late 1980s and lived in Greece before arriving in Connecticut when Franco was 10. "I very quickly learned that Americans judge you by the way you dress.

John D. "Johnny" Benson, 80, versatile veteran of half a century in the entertainment industry. A native of St. Paul, Minn., Benson studied drama in New York and performed in plays there. Moving to Hollywood, he found character roles in films and became a stuntman for several major stars. During World War II, he served as a flight instructor for the Royal Canadian Air Force, then joined the U.S. Navy. He returned to Hollywood and bit parts in movies, radio and television.

Imagine the heart of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson beating within the body of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, and you'll have a sense of Danish documentarian Mads Brügger. In his 2009 film, "The Red Chapel," he invented a cross-cultural comedy troupe as subterfuge to enter North Korea and examine conditions there. In his latest, "The Ambassador," opening Friday in Los Angeles, Brügger travels to Liberia and the Central African Republic, where, posing as a businessman with a penchant for safari jackets and riding boots, he exposes widespread government corruption and complicity in diamond smuggling.

Imagine the heart of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson beating within the body of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, and you'll have a sense of Danish documentarian Mads Brügger. In his 2009 film, "The Red Chapel," he invented a cross-cultural comedy troupe as subterfuge to enter North Korea and examine conditions there. In his latest, "The Ambassador," opening Friday in Los Angeles, Brügger travels to Liberia and the Central African Republic, where, posing as a businessman with a penchant for safari jackets and riding boots, he exposes widespread government corruption and complicity in diamond smuggling.

The gig: Chief executive and creative director of the company that bears her name, Eva Franco designs chic and whimsical dresses that have been featured on television shows including "New Girl" and "The Carrie Diaries. " Coming to America: The designer was born in Romania to Hungarian parents. The family fled during a political uprising in the late 1980s and lived in Greece before arriving in Connecticut when Franco was 10. "I very quickly learned that Americans judge you by the way you dress.

Angus Maddison Economist studied wealth differences between nations Angus Maddison, 83, an economist whose research revealed the causes of wealth differences between nations, died April 24 in Thourotte, France, according to an announcement from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, where he was professor emeritus of economic sociology. No cause of death was given. Maddison's research quantified national growth for long time spans, in some cases from the year 1 A.D. The author of more than 20 books, Maddison also studied economic policy and development issues, as well as social policy and labor markets, at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Former WB Chief Executive Jordan Levin plans to launch a new production and talent management company to supply entertainment for television, mobile phones and the Internet. The Santa Monica company, named Generate, is a partnership between Levin, 38, and four other industry veterans: Pete Aronson, former president of Regency Television; producer Mike Karz; and talent managers Dave Rath and Kara Welker. Rath and Welker represent such clients as Janeane Garofalo and Andy Milonakis.

Set it and forget it. It sounds like the slogan on a ubiquitous late-night TV infomercial, but it's also the main selling point of a relatively new breed of mutual fund that promises to put your investment plan on automatic pilot. These funds -- variously called "life-cycle," "target-date" or "target-maturity" products -- are aimed at correcting a common investment mistake: the failure to adjust your portfolio as you age.

Peter Livingston, a former production manager in Hollywood, is taking three major studios to federal court in San Francisco, charging that they refused to let him use clips from their films in "Over Nine Billion Dead Served," his antiwar documentary chronicling the portrayal of death and violence in the 25 most popular movies of all time.

Widening their crackdown on alleged political corruption in South Gate, authorities have charged a printing company owner with conspiring to distribute illegal "hit piece" mailers during the last election. The owner of Los Angeles-based Pyramid Press, Angel Gonzalez, and his production manager, Katrina Jackson, are suspected of falsely claiming in a flier that a City Council candidate had been disqualified from the ballot.

* Codexa Corp., a Pasadena-based online information provider for Wall Street professionals, has named Gary Ghazarian product manager. He is a former executive at Wilshire Associates. * Burbank-based TVN Entertainment Corp., a digital content distributor and rights manager of TV-quality video and CD-quality audio, has appointed Ian B. Aaron president and chief executive. Aaron is a former president of SoftNet Systems Inc., a broadband services company. * Donald W. Kelley Jr.

Daryl Lynn Sparks has joined the Knoth & Meads Co. as production manager.

Entertainment lawyer Jonathan Liebman has been named vice chairman of Samax Inc., the holding company owned by Brad Grey that operates the Brillstein-Grey production and management companies. Samax operates Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, the television partnership with Universal Studios that produces "Just Shoot Me" and "NewsRadio" for NBC, and Brillstein-Grey Enterprises, which manages the careers of Nicolas Cage, Brad Pitt, Dennis Miller, Adam Sandler and others.

Stan Bickman, 66, producer and production manager for more than 50 motion pictures. A graduate of the USC film school, Bickman began his career working for Roger Corman on such films as "Machine-Gun Kelly," starring Charles Bronson; "Wild in the Streets," starring Richard Pryor; and "The Intruder," with William Shatner.