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Authors Sue AI Companies Over Copyright (Again)

The group of authors, which includes two-time Pulitzer Prize winner John Carreyrou, are among those who opted out of the proposed $1.5 billion settlement of the lawsuit against Anthropic, announced in September. - Publishers Weekly

Movie Extras Are An Endangered Species

Central Casting — now so eponymous that its name has become a cultural phrase — celebrated its 100th anniversary earlier this month. Remember the long lines for casting calls? No more. - Los Angeles Times

Conductor Lorenzo Viotti Will Be Zurich Opera House’s Next Music Director

The Lausanne-born maestro will take up the position in August 2028 for two seasons; the short contract term aligns him with that of the house’s superintendent, Mathias Schulz. Viotti will succeed Gianandrea Noseda, who will remain at the company through the 2027-28 season. - Moto Perpetuo

Philadelphia Art Museum Doubles Down On Fired Director

“Arbitration clauses are interpreted literally, but not foolishly,” the new filing argues. It asks the court to enter an order compelling Suda to submit to arbitration, and to stay legal proceedings until the matter is resolved in arbitration. - Philadelphia Inquirer

British Museum’s Longterm Loans Program Doesn’t Remediate Colonial Looting

Long-term loans are not restitution. They do not acknowledge historical wrongdoing, nor do they restore agency to source communities. Instead, they reinforce a museum’s claim of ownership over objects it has no moral (and often legal) right to possess. - Hyperallergic

Ten Shirtless Men Compete To Star In A Christmas Movie: The Hallmark Channel Does Reality TV

The series is called Finding Mr. Christmas. “What is fascinating about the premise is that it’s television for women about men making television for women. It’s the hosts and judges evaluating, week by week, what makes a man appealing to a likely female Hallmark viewer.” - The Washington Post (Yahoo!)

You Can Now Go On A Hallmark Christmas Movie Tour

“Connecticut — the location for at least 22 holiday films by Hallmark, Lifetime and others — is promoting tours of the quaint Christmas-card cities and towns featured in this booming movie (genre).” You even get to watch the matching films while on the bus between stops. - AP

Mass Market Paperbacks Are About To Disappear From The US Market

“The decision made this winter by ReaderLink to stop distributing mass market paperback books at the end of 2025 was the latest blow to a format that has seen its popularity decline for years.” - Publishers Weekly

Florida Officials Tried To Stop “A Drag Queen Christmas” In Pensacola. Didn’t Work.

“The state attorney general has spent nearly two months lobbying Pensacola officials to cancel the show, to no avail. Instead, the 1,600-capacity tour stop is sold out.” - The Guardian

After Two Years Shut Down Due To War, Christmas Celebrations In Bethlehem Are Back

The traditional birthplace of Jesus is in the West Bank, and the livelihoods of thousands of people in the Palestinian town depend on visiting tourists and pilgrims. The war in Gaza brought activity in Bethlehem to a halt, and with a ceasefire signed, those pilgrims and tourists are gradually returning. - AP

Why Did Broadway’s “The Queen Of Versailles” Flop So Badly?

“The Queen of Versailles, the biggest-budget production to open on Broadway this fall and the only large-scale new musical, aspired to be a cautionary tale about consumption and greed. Instead, it wound up as a cautionary tale about Broadway.” - The New York Times

American Ballet Companies Really Need Their “Nutcracker”

It’s been a commonplace for decades that troupes depend on the income from Nutcracker ticket sales to support the rest of their seasons. For just one prominent example, New York City Ballet’s roughly 50 performances of Balanchine’s classic version of the work bring in 45% of the company’s ticket revenue for the year. - NPR

How A Linguist Constructed The Na’vi Language For The “Avatar” Films

Paul Frommer’s initial parameters were that the language had to sound “nice” (director James Cameron’s word), since they are a relatively peaceful race, and that it had to be feasibly easy for actors to learn to pronounce. Beyond those, almost everything — phonetics, grammar, vocabulary — was up to Frommer. - Deutsche Welle

Our Collapsing Attention And The Difficulty Of Story-Telling

When all time is flattened into the present, narrative form begins to erode. Instant communication collapses tenses into an interminable “now,” and live streams keep us there. Finally, storytelling demands leisure, or at least a relaxed mind, since immersion requires the mental margin to forget ourselves and linger in the unfolding. - LA Review of Books

How Director Gennadi Nedvigin Has Reshaped Atlanta Ballet

The key is hiring — in particular, hiring dancers proficient in both classical and contemporary techniques, since Nedvigin wants to present top-tier renditions of both classical and new repertoire with a relatively small roster of performers. - ArtsATL

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