Heart of the Beholder & Karma

In 2000, Ken mainly earned his living by working as an actor in commercials until the Screen Actors Guild called a strike. He then found work as an armed bodyguard and limousine driver to support himself, his ex-wife, and four kids in St. Louis. Ken discovered an address book left in his limo listing many important people, including entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who was in the news after selling Broadcast.com for several billion dollars. Desperate to find a way to produce his family’s movie, Ken took a risk and called Cuban at his home.

Cuban answered Ken’s call, and he begged Mark to fund his family’s movie for $2 million, which is a very low budget for a feature film. Cuban was very polite and, as a fellow entrepreneur, listened to Ken’s pitch before declining. He believed Ken’s story was a movie worth making, and he urged him never to give up. The last thing Cuban said was, “You are on the right track by not waiting for your break. You must make your own breaks, anyway possible.” Ken thanked him for his advice and took it seriously the very next day, which led to him getting fired from his limo job.

As a licensed bodyguard with defensive driving training, Ken was assigned to many A-list celebrities and other VIPs as their limousine driver. One of his passengers was Academy Award winner Renee Zellweger. Some A-listers are rude and condescending, having forgotten how tough it was when they were first starting and trying to establish themselves in the entertainment industry. Renee was a wonderful passenger, and she struck up a conversation with Ken during the trip to LAX, where she was flying to England to begin work on a “Bridget Jones” movie. Renee is from Katy, Texas, and Ken is from El Paso, so they had the Lone Star State in common. “Dazed and Confused” was Renee’s first on-screen acting role and one of Ken’s favorite independent films. She was upset that she had to leave town because her boyfriend at the time was Jim Carrey, who was at the Screen Actors’ Guild Awards alone and was up for the top award for his portrayal of Andy Kaufman in the movie “Man on the Moon.”

During the limo ride, Jim talked to Renee several times by phone, updating her on who had won which awards. Jim mentioned that many indie movies were winning awards, and Ken heard her say that perhaps they should work on a gritty, low-budget independent film. This immediately caught Ken’s attention since he had an extraordinary true story ready to go. With talent like Renee’s and Carrey’s, funding the film would have been a very real possibility. Just before arriving at Terminal #1 for her Virgin Air trip to London, Renee learned that Jim did not win the Best Actor Award.

Ken parked in front of Virgin Air Terminal #1 and helped the limo company's Meet & Greeter with Renee’s luggage. LAX cops are known for ticketing cars and limos parked in front of terminals, and one was giving Ken the stink eye. Remembering that Mark Cuban had challenged Ken to “make your own breaks” just the day before, he took his shot. He handed a packet of information about his family’s movie to the Meet & Greeter and asked the Greeter to give it to Renee. At the same time, Ken dealt with the cop, since Renee was consoling Jim on the phone in the limo. This is where things went south. The limo company rep opened Renee’s luggage and placed Ken’s packet inside it just as Renee exited the limo for her trip. As Ken was getting back into the limo, the limo rep gave Ken the thumbs up, meaning that his packet had been given to Renee and that she had left a large tip for him.

The next day, Ken had just dropped off actress Katie Holmes at LAX when he was called into the limo office and asked if he had pitched his movie to Renee Zellweger. Not wanting to get the Meet and Greet representative in trouble, he took responsibility for the breach in company protocol and was fired. He later learned that it wasn’t Renee who filed a complaint; it was Jim Carrey. However, Jim had asked that Ken be counseled on respecting their customers' privacy and personal space and NOT be fired. Ken begged to keep the job but was escorted off the premises. So much for “making his break,” he thought. In fact, it turned out to be the best thing ever, leading Ken to write and direct his own movie and find his true life partner. Karma is extremely creative, and sometimes it takes its time coming around.

An indie film website called “Film Threat” published a story about Ken’s firing, which was read by Darlene Lieblich. Darlene was an executive at Fox Television in broadcast standards and practices, also known as the network TV censor. As a censor, she had to handle complaints about Fox programming from far-right religious groups, including the same one that destroyed Ken’s video business in St. Louis, “The National Federation for Decency,” run by Rev. Donald Wildmon. Darlene had dealt with Wildmon before when she was at CBS. Wildmon accused CBS of promoting drug abuse because “Mighty Mouse” was shown sniffing a flower his girlfriend gave him with a look of euphoria on his face. When CBS buckled under Rev. Wildmon’s ridiculous demand, Darlene quit and joined the newly formed Fox Broadcasting Company. While she is a professional TV censor, she remains strongly opposed to censorship by special interest groups, especially religious zealots.

After learning about Ken's dismissal and his efforts to make his family's story about religious censorship, Darlene visited his website and read the screenplay. The story was compelling, and despite having no prior experience in actual film production, she secured the rights to Ken's life story. Despite facing numerous challenges, Darlene and Ken successfully crowdfunded the movie with a budget of $300,000 and an 18-day shooting schedule, with Ken as a first-time writer and director. Their movie, “Heart of the Beholder,” won five consecutive Best Independent Feature Film awards and is now available on Netflix and Amazon.com. 

In Ken’s movie, “Heart of the Beholder”, Chuck Berry agreed to play himself, but was too sick when shooting began, so Chuck was portrayed by the star of “Candyman”, Tony Todd.

Ken and Darlene also did something no one had ever done before in Hollywood—they paid every penny back to their supporters, plus interest, before the movie had finished post-production. Sadly, Robert Wise died on the day “Heart of the Beholder” won its first of five Best Independent Feature Film awards. Additionally, Ken’s film marked the feature film debut of Chloe Grace Moretz. After Ken referred Chloe to the producers of the “Amityville Horror” remake starring Ryan Reynolds, her career took off, which led to her starring as “Hit Girl” in the action comedy “Kick Ass”. Chloe was later featured in Martin Scorsese’s five-time Academy Award-winning movie “Hugo”.

When Darlene acquired the rights to Ken's life story and received the screenplay for "Heart of the Beholder," Ken also gave her a book he had written in 1988 about his experiences as a child prostitute in an international pedophile ring run through the Boy Scouts of America. Ken asked that Darlene not release his book until after his death due to his overwhelming shame and guilt, and Darlene respected his request. However, after the birth of Ken and Darlene’s first grandchild, he destroyed the book.

In 2019, the Boy Scouts filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and established a fund to pay child sex abuse claims. Over 82,000 child sex abuse claims were filed against the Boy Scouts. Darlene then convinced Ken to rewrite his book for a 2026 release, along with the screenplay for his movie “Lost Valley – Lost Innocence.”

Here's where Karma kicks in. If Scorsese had never made “The Last Temptation of Christ,” Ken would not have lost his multi-million-dollar video chain and come to Hollywood to make his movie, where he met Darlene, made his film, and married Darlene, his true-life partner, in 2005. Also, Scorsese would not have been able to cast Chloe Grace Moretz in “Hugo” if she hadn’t made her screen debut in Ken’s movie.

As a side note, when Ken was 12, he had a huge crush on his 6th-grade teacher and gave her a bottle of Imprevu Perfume for Christmas. Ken loved the commercial featuring a sultry, seductive woman singing the jingle. It turned out the singer was actually a 12-year-old girl named Darlene Van Sant, who, 40 years later, became Ken’s wife.

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