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500 Broadway Artists Versus Patti LuPone

More than 500 Broadway artists are calling for "accountability, justice, and respect" after theater legend Patti LuPone received widespread pushback over recent comments she made about fellow stage icons Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis in a recent New Yorker profile. - Entertainment Weekly

Renee Victor, Voice Of Abuelita In Coco, Has Died At 88

“Victor appeared in a number of television series through her decades-long career, including as Lupita on the comedy Weeds” - but most people younger than 50 know her from her role voicing Abuelita in the 2017 movie Coco.  - The New York Times

Playing A Regal, Demanding Musician Doesn’t Make One Regal Or Demanding

Natalie Venitia Belcon "insists that in her downtime, offstage, away from journalists, she is an everyday sort of woman who prefers oversize T-shirts and yoga pants. She loves to put on her bunny slippers and watch the UFC.” - The New York Times

Chicago Art Institute Director Returns To Work After Airplane Incident

Rondeau has been on a voluntary leave since the April 18 incident in which police were called to a United Airlines flight after it landed in Munich from Chicago, following reports that Rondeau had stripped off his clothes after drinking alcohol and taking prescription medication. - The New York Times

Composer Per Nørgård, 92

“Nørgård’s solution was to pioneer a form of musical functionalism that breathed new life into symphonic form. He hit upon an architectural formula he referred to as the Infinity Series – a potentially infinite constellation of predetermined notes, mapped according to a mathematical pattern, that could generate its own polyphony.” - Gramophone

Barry Diller’s Juicy Memoir: Postcard From A Hollywood That No Longer Exists

These days, two factors are pushing the fun out of memoirs. For one, the entertainment business itself is, as has been much remarked, a far more conservative, risk-averse, vanilla place than it once was, when the personalities and tastes of its potentates defined and dictated its evolution. - The Hollywood Reporter

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, One Of Africa’s Leading Authors, Has Died At 89

“In dozens of fiction and nonfiction books,” the Kenyan writer “traced his country’s history from British imperialism to home-ruled tyranny and challenged not only the stories told but the language used to tell them.” - AP

Why Are Silicon Valley Tech Leaders So Obsessed With Tolkien?

How did a trilogy of novels about wizards and elves and furry-footed hobbits become a touchstone for right-wing power brokers? How did books that evince nostalgia for a pastoral, preindustrial past win an ardent following among the people who are shaping our digital future? - The New York Times

Robert Campbell, Former Pulitzer-Winning Architecture Critic For The Boston Globe, Is Dead At 88

For more than 40 years (he) wrote with clarity, wit and love about a city in transition from the era of “urban renewal” slum clearance and suburban flight into new ideals of urbanism. - The New York Times

Marcel Ophuls, Who Made The Documentary “The Sorrow And The Pity,” Has Died At 97

“The Sorrow and the Pity (1969), his documentary on the behaviour of the citizens of the French city of Clermont-Ferrand during the Second World War, and the Oscar-winning Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (1988) ... made any reference to his father, filmmaker Max Ophüls, an irrelevance.” - The Guardian

Photographer Sebastião Salgado, 81

“For decades, Mr. Salgado was on hand for many of the world’s major crises. ... He described his mission as seeking to convey a sense of the ordinary people caught, often helpless, in the tumult.” - The Washington Post (MSN)

Legendary Russian Choreography Yuri Grigorovich, 98

Grigorovich's productions of the Stone Flower, Ivan the Terrible and Romeo and Juliet redefined Soviet ballet. Praised for revitalising male dance, he created parts for men demanding exceptional strength and artistry. - BBC

Mark Twain’s Many Contradictions

Overall, Ron Chernow’s “Mark Twain” is less a literary biography than a deep dive into “the most original character in American history.” - Washington Post

After 37 Years, Bust Stolen From Jim Morrison’s Grave Is Recovered

“From 1981 to 1988, the bust sat at Morrison’s burial site at the Pére Lachaise cemetery. … French authorities stumbled on the sculpture when they were conducting a search related to a fraud investigation led by the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office.” - Artnet

Barry Diller On “Coming Out” At Age 83

“I wasn’t closeted — I just never declared. And yet the reaction to that New York magazine excerpt was wild. Suddenly I’m ‘coming out.’ At my age! Diane, my wife, and I laughed about it. ... If I was in a closet, it was made of glass and full of light.” - The Hollywood Reporter

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