Brian Grazer says if he and Eminem hadn't made eye contact, there wouldn't be an "8 Mile" film.
Grazer says people are so consistently distracted by their smartphones that they fail to meet eyes with people around them. Yet Grazer, the Oscar-winning producer behind films such as "A Beautiful Mind" and "Apollo 13," says eye contact is crucial to forming a connection.
The producer says that was the case with Eminem, who Grazer says he coaxed back to a meeting about the influential rap film "8 Mile." Grazer says the Detroit rapper opened up after he engaged with him, and they spoke looking at each other.
This Aug. 30, 2019 photo shows producer Brian Grazer posing for a portrait at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., to promote his book "Face to Face: The Art of Human Connection." (Photo by Chris PizzelloInvisionAP)
The encounter is one of the stories recounted in his new book, "Face to Face: The Art of Human Connection," which is out this week.
This Aug. 30, 2019 photo shows producer Brian Grazer posing for a portrait at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., to promote his book "Face to Face: The Art of Human Connection." (Photo by Chris PizzelloInvisionAP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn’t order the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, according to an official familiar with the determination.
While U.S. officials believe Putin was ultimately responsible for the death of Navalny, who endured brutal conditions during his confinement, the intelligence community has found “no smoking gun” that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death — which came soon before the Russian president's reelection — or directly ordered it, according to the official.
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
Soon after Navalny’s death, U.S. President Joe Biden said Putin was ultimately responsible but did not accuse the Russian president of directly ordering it.
At the time, Biden said the U.S. did not know exactly what had happened to Navalny but that “there is no doubt” that his death “was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”
Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician and Putin’s most persistent foe, died Feb. 16 in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated.
He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Russian officials have said only that Navalny died of natural causes and have vehemently denied involvement both in the poisoning and in his death.
In March, a month after Navalny’s death, Putin won a landslide reelection for a fifth term, an outcome that was never in doubt.
The Wall Street Journal first reported about the U.S. intelligence determination.
FILE - Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny gestures while speaking during his interview to the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia on Dec. 18, 2017. U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn't order the death of Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader, in February of 2024. An official says the U.S. intelligence community has found "no smoking gun" that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death or directly ordered it. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
