Paramount Global planned to sell the Black-oriented cable network earlier this year but backed off after deciding that the purchase offers were too low. Now Byron Allen of Allen Media Group has offered $3.5 billion for the BET Media Group, which also includes studios and the cable channel VH1. - Variety
The Italian-born choreographer was a principal at La Scala Ballet, created works for that company's ballet school, and founded his own company, Heliopolis, before working as artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet (2014-17) and later co-founding the Sydney Choreographic Centre. - Calgary Herald
Li Cunxin, who found fame beyond the dance world with the memoir and documentary with that title, announced in June that he's retiring as artistic director of the Brisbane-based company due to health concerns. Succeeding him is the Queensland-born former Royal Ballet principal Leanne Benjamin. - ABC (Australia)
"This week (the union) released a letter of censure dated Nov. 20 in which Daniels was informed he was permanently barred from the guild. … The 57-year-old and his husband, Scott Walters, pleaded guilty to sexual assault of an adult, a second-degree felony, in Houston’s Harris County District Court on Aug. 4." - AP
Far higher than that of Americans as a whole, according to the Broadway League's demographic report on the 2022-23 season. Now we know why they can pay for those $200-and-up tickets. - TheaterMania
"A team led by scientists from England’s University of Bradford used artificial intelligence to determine that the face of Joseph in the Madonna della Rosa ('Madonna of the Rose') was painted by someone other than the Renaissance master." - CNN
Over all, dark, meditative productions prevailed, often with their sets literally sunk in shadow. The shows that drew us took place in primordial woods, or an ink-black night, or London in the smog—we spent a lot of 2023 peering. - The New Yorker
One of the big debates which lasted up to the Renaissance was about who invented writing. With both archaeology and chronology all but unknown, what thinkers had to go on was largely the Hebrew Bible and Graeco-Roman writers. - The Conversation
Today, discerning which Warhol pictures are genuine is the business of authenticators, whose trained eyes and in-depth knowledge are supposed to be bulwarks against forgeries. Sometimes authenticators make bad calls, prompting other experts to weigh in and correct the error. - The Wall Street Journal
The ratification follows 10 months of negotiations and multiple rejected contracts, including one proposed by Powell's management in August and another in November. - Publishers Weekly
The thefts took place over 30 years, and many of the 2,000 missing items were among millions in the museum’s collection that had not been catalogued or photographed. That last point wasn’t new: a scathing investigation about the British Museum identifying several of its security weaknesses had been published in 2002. - ARTnews
The average top-end ticket outside of London comes in at £49.19, compared with £141.37 for West End shows, while the average cheapest ticket in theatres outside of London was £21.27 – 16% less than in the West End in 2023. - The Stage
"(The 41-year-old LGBTQ+ festival's) dramatic reversal of fortune began with a series of clashes between board members and the group's former executive director over spending decisions that allegedly deepened financial woes faced by the organization, according to a Times review of internal emails, board-meeting minutes and interviews." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
The writers, including Pulitzer Prize winners Taylor Branch, Stacy Schiff and Kai Bird told the court on Tuesday that the companies infringed their copyrights by using their work to train OpenAI's GPT large language models. - Reuters
An author called Demetrious Polychron wrote and self-published a "pitch-perfect" (his word) sequel titled The Fellowship of the King. Then he sued Tolkien's estate and Amazon, claiming the streaming series The Rings of Power infringed his copyright. Oh, goodness, did that backfire … - The Washington Post (MSN)
