Yes, it's devastating all kinds of careers in the arts. One TV director: "The big question is ‘will I ever work again?’ And if not, how can I best say goodbye to an industry I have been part of for all my working life?" - The Guardian (UK)
Look ... "He wasn’t just a pro. If there were a fabulous comic-book A-team of character actors — an Expendables, a Wild Bunch, an Avengers Initiative — Christopher Plummer would have been the one you put in charge of it, the Reed Richards or Morpheus of the crew. And he would probably have designed and built the headquarters but...
Or from bad development, anyway. Now it's up for bids not for sale but for "sustainable longterm uses." The fight against a luxury hotel development galvanized Edinburgh preservationists. "For campaigners, the fate of the Royal High School, established as a free educational facility for rich and poor children alike with the ethos that all deserved to learn in an...
Nearly two years after screenwriters fired their agents in a fight against agency actions that were costing TV writers quite a bit of money, the Writers' Guild Union approved a new deal with WME. - Los Angeles Times
Jones dropped out of college, and yes, started his career working in the shipping room at 20th Century Fox. "The Los Angeles native scored Academy Award noms for his work on comedy film series It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and the Katharine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier-starring Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Jones also cut films such as...
The last big film festival from 2020 had its virtual tryout this year. It wasn't terrible, but, says one critic: "I’m usually whiny and cranky about Sundance. Why are we in the snow? Why January? I could see all you people in Los Angeles. But this year, I was so nostalgic for every bit of the experience. I wanted...
The Wallace Collection "is in internal consultation" about closing the library and archive that was left to the country in 1897. Is that even legal? Will anyone notice during the pandemic? (More than 10,000 people certainly have noticed.) - The Guardian (UK)
The Met's director, Max Hollein: "Every museum in the U.S. is having these conversations. ... For us not to discuss this now would be irresponsible." - The New York Times
This is not a democratic move: "The Muslim comic thrown in a Madhya Pradesh jail on January 1, 2021 with four others on suspicion that he might make some jokes about Hinduism." - Vice
A lot of science fiction and fantasy predicts the future - so why not a well-researched movie about a pandemic? (It's worth noting that Britain's vaccine response has been one of the fastest in the world.) - Irish Times
Peter Yarrow said Feeney was "joyous and fiery in her determination to use her music to elevate those who are most marginalised and to move towards greater justice in the land." - The Guardian (UK)
The director of Meek's Cutoff and First Cow is also feeling, well, a bit cynical. "There’s so much celebration of women and people of color this year and I’m thinking ‘that’s great,’ but a cynical part of me is thinking ‘Is this just Covid?’ Are they just thinking ‘Let’s just let women in and give them the awards this...
Gorman: "I love Black poets. I love that as a Black girl, I get to participate in that legacy. So that’s Yusef Komunyakaa, Sonia Sanchez, Tracy K. Smith, Phillis Wheatley. And then I look to artists who aren’t just poets. While I was writing the Inaugural poem, I was reading a lot of Frederick Douglass, a lot of Winston Churchill,...
If Instagram is about selling your moves - and your clothing line, your toe shoe line, your skin care routine, etc. - then TikTok is about being yourself. Kind of. "Casual, confessional and playful, TikTok offers a release for ballet dancers, particularly students, who spend their days chasing impossible perfection. TikTok is a place to laugh about the impossibility,...
The actor went through a particularly fertile creative period in his golden years, receiving his first Academy Award at the age 82 for his heart-warming supporting turn as a widower who embraces his homosexuality in “Beginners.” The trophy made him the oldest-ever Oscar winner in an acting category. - Toronto Star
