There are people - mostly “men who think far too much about the Roman Empire” - freaking out about Denzel Washington’s accent in the Gladiator II trailer. “The films are historical fictions, which should render all critiques about accents moot. But let’s indulge the ignorance for a moment. What did Romans sound like?” - Hyperallergic
"A string of ministers have been tainted by claims of favouritism, corruption and elitist practices when it comes to funds. … We asked some arts policy researchers to tell us who (new minister Gayton) McKenzie is and what he should do to fix the department and grow the cultural industries." - The Conversation
“Phoenix was set to star opposite the Top Gun: Maverick actor Danny Ramirez in a 30s-set love story with ‘explicit sexual content.’” Director Haynes and producer Christine Vachon say the film was Phoenix’s idea from the beginning. - The Guardian (UK)
"When asked to make a mental note of the first number that comes into their heads, (people) … expect the frequencies of response to be more or less equal across the range of response options. In fact, ... responses tend to cluster in reliable and predictable ways, especially with large audiences." - The MIT Press Reader
At the American Players Theater, about an hour west of Madison, they do around nine mostly classic plays (no musicals) each season, running in repertory, with no microphones in a 1,075-seat amphitheater. Audiences love it, with many people returning season after season. - The New York Times
"Some, such as Yahoo, Puck, and New York Times Opinion, have launched new Reddit accounts in the last several months. Others, such as Rolling Stone, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Independent, the AP, and Newsweek, have restarted existing accounts or dedicated more resources to them." - Adweek
"The British Museum has finished investigating its own conduct and concluded … that it was not compliant with UK legislation dictating how national treasures should be kept. … Peter Higgs, a senior curator at the museum, was fired in July 2023 after the museum accused him of stealing 1,800 items." - ARTnews
Cartoonnetwork.com used to offer clips and even some full episodes of its shows such as We Bare Bears and Steven Universe. As of August 8, though, all the site now has is a pop-up message and redirect telling visitors to sign up for Max, the conglomerate's paid streaming service. - Variety
Many parts of the ancient Babylonian tale are still missing, and searching through hundreds of thousands of surviving cuneiform fragments to separate portions of the narrative from, say, private letters or sales receipts is slow and tedious. A new AI project has led to "extreme acceleration" in the field. - The New York Times
Company management posted on Instagram on Monday that last Friday's abrupt mass sacking happened because "a video surfaced that violated their contractual terms and our standards of artistic excellence." The union, AGMA, is not at all convinced and has issued a rare "do not work" order for DBDT. - KERA (Dallas)
This particular jackass is a 37-year-old British man who carved his initials and those of his two daughters on a wall at the House of the Vestals. He told police that he just wanted to leave some trace of his visit. - Artnet
Ilya Ram, a 33-year-old Israeli-American, is currently music director of the Akademische Philharmonie Heidelberg, a position he will keep. He begins his tenure in Tennessee this coming season. - Chattanooga Times Free Press
"The project, called 'Track(ed) Changes,' along with the related community events, jibes with the city’s promise to Chicagoans to broaden the limelight and to spread the economic impact of the convention through many of the city’s 77 neighborhoods." - The New York Times
Reasoning that he should not be held morally responsible for deaths from a drug (OxyContin) that his company (Purdue Pharma) brought to market years after he died, the Harvard Corporation decided not to rename the Sackler Art Museum and the Arthur M. Sackler Building. - AP
