"It’s hard to mint a new movie star these days, (so) people in Hollywood were high on Jonathan Majors, … (and) this was supposed to be the year that would turn him into an A-lister." Instead, his career collapsed within minutes of his conviction for assaulting his now-ex-girlfriend. - The New York Times
The German-born Schmidt, widely admired for his stewardship of the Uffizi in Florence, acquired Italian citizenship last month; he'll be replacing French national Sylvain Bellenger at the Capodimonte in Naples. The other nine new directors are Italian-born museum professionals. - Artnet
"David Landay, the only one of the 1982 show’s four writers who is alive, added a prologue and revised the plot so that the women foil the kidnapping attempt" - but the heirs of the other 1982 writers aren't on board. - The New York Times
Long before generative AI became widely available, people were making “cheapfakes” or “shallowfakes.” It can be as simple as mislabeling images, videos, or audio clips to imply they’re from a different time or location, or editing a piece of media to make it look like something happened that didn’t. - Wired
“Maestro” is a complete enough achievement that there is no point in dwelling on what it might have done differently. What’s most significant is the fundamental respect that the film shows for music and musicians—which is not the same as awe for Bernstein himself. - The New Yorker
On Halloween, 2023, the British Library suffered a massive cyberattack, which rendered its web presence nonexistent, its collections access disabled, and even its wifi fried. - Public Books
In 2022 alone, 1,266 non-physics authors published the equivalent of one paper every 5 days, including weekends, compared with 387 in 2016. The accelerated growth since 2016 was surprising because an earlier analysis showed that extreme productivity was beginning to plateau in 2014. - Nature
Disney in 2019 was hit with a suit accusing it of “rampant pay discrimination.” The case cleared a major hurdle Dec. 8 when a judge certified a diverse class of employees, who work across the company’s movie production arm, record labels, theme parks and home distribution subsidiaries, among various other units. - The Hollywood Reporter
The clip drew heavy criticism on Fox News and in The New York Post. It was shocking to see something as innocuous as “The Nutcracker” stir up such outrage. - The New York Times
Recent Disney films like the animated “Strange World,” with its gay teenage protagonist, have become cultural flash points. But “Pocahontas” prompted a full-blown fracas. - The New York Times
Born the year after Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975, Panaíbra Canda, 47, has used his art to offer searing critiques of his nation’s evolution through the independence struggle, socialism, civil war, democracy and corruption. He also has taken aim at Western domination and jaded perceptions of Africa. - The New York Times
You know what watching a movie felt like to my easily-distracted hamster brain? It felt like an accomplishment. It felt smart. It felt like a spa day for my skull. It felt like…finishing a book. - The Wall Street Journal
It seems odd to think that in a year with two massive strikes and 20 fewer movies released than in 2019, the industry might be looking profitable. But the "scheduling" of Christmas and New Year's has theatre owners stressed. - Variety
Amazon certainly doesn't seem to want to solve the issue by, say, verifying review writers. Now it's asking Goodreads users, along with a team of volunteers, to solve the one-star slams that can destroy writers' careers. - NPR
Van Gogh wasn't cooking with onions, the British Museum wasn't keeping good track of its items, and then, you know, Michelangelo's David wasn't actually pornographic. (And so, so much more.) - Hyperallergic
