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OCBJ INSIDER

Glenn Stearns is an optimist—a fact made clear during an interview with our Peter J. Brennan—coming after his namesake mortgage lender filed for bankruptcy, an event that involves another notable OC finance firm, PIMCO (see his front-page story).

“I’ve been very blessed with many great investments,” said Stearns, who made out well in 2015 when he sold a 70% stake of Stearns Lending. Losing out his remaining stake because of the company’s recent issues won’t affect him too much, he said.

Another blessing: He said he’s recuperated from a recent battle with cancer. “I’m in a wonderful place.”

You’ll soon be seeing more of Stearns, who along with his wife, Mindy, played the parts of the millionaires in “The Real Gilligan’s Island” reality show in 2004.

He’s moved up the rich list since then.

Stearns is now involved in a new television show, “Undercover Billionaire,” which is scheduled to air next month on the Discovery Channel. It features Stearns arriving in Erie, Pa., with $100 in his pocket and seeing if he can build a million-dollar company in 90 days.

“I’m real proud of that show,” he said. “It shows the greatness of America—going from someone without any connections to building something doing what I did when I was 25 years old—starting from scratch.”

Crystal Cathedral, Garden Grove’s famed site of worship that is being renamed Christ Cathedral, remains an icon in Hollywood’s eyes.

Our A. Leigh Corbett saw production crews on site during a recent tour of the refurbished and soon-to-be rededicated campus, whose redevelopment was done through the efforts of numerous execs in the business community (see her front-page feature).

Campus officials said the work was for “Space Jam 2,” a follow-up to the 1996 Looney Tunes/Michael Jordan movie. The sequel stars LeBron James. Movie trades said filming was expected to begin in the latter half of June, although no specific locations in California were named.

The hoops movie appears to be the most notable film using the campus since some scenes for 2013’s “Star Trek Into Darkness” were set there.

Chapman University alum and trustee Lisa Argyros and Chapman President Daniele Struppa will be seeing more of each other this year.

The duo, along with Ming Hsieh, president of Temple City’s Fulgent Therapeutics, are the three new appointments to the Richard Nixon Foundation’s board, bringing the Yorba Linda board up to 22 voting directors and six non-voting directors emeritus.

On Oct. 9, Lisa is serving as dinner chair for the 20th Anniversary of the Chapman’s Argyros School, which is honoring her parents Julianne and George Argyros and featuring former President George W. Bush.

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Mark Mueller
Mark Mueller
Mark is the former Editor-in-Chief and current Community Editor of the Orange County Business Journal, one of the premier regional business newspapers in the country. He’s the fifth person to hold the editor’s position in the paper’s long history. He oversees a staff of about 15 people. The OCBJ is considered a must-read for area business executives. The print edition of the paper is the primary source of local news for most of the Business Journal’s subscribers, which includes most of OC’s major corporate and community players. Mark’s been with the paper since 2005, and long served as the real estate reporter for the paper, breaking hundreds of commercial and residential real estate stories. He took on the editor’s position in 2018.
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