Uh ... "Muslim male characters outnumber female characters 174 to 1, and when women do appear, they are portrayed as 'fearful and submissive' or endangered." But things may be changing, partly thanks to Disney. - Los Angeles Review of Books
And also, make it so that the contestants don't know they're on a reality TV show - "This isn’t a documentary – it’s a competition. They are secretly being judged by two globally renowned maestros: classical virtuoso Lang Lang and pop star Mika." - The Guardian (UK)
The newly re-elected president "has reinstated the Ministry of Culture, created a new secretariat dedicated to books and literacy and unblocked nearly $200 million in funds allocated for cultural projects." - The New York Times
"Unlike the queens and witches who preceded her in English literature, Alison is not a flat allegorical figure. Her ordinariness makes her radical." - NPR
The Oscar-nominated actress says, "In the early 90s, I had to fake an orgasm in a room full of male ad execs at an audition for a chocolate bar ad. It was grim." - The Guardian (UK)
"The range of her poetry was vast. A 1978 collection was called The Five Stages of Grief. On the other end of the spectrum was A Dog Runs Through It (2018), poems that involved the various dogs, present and past, in her life." - The New York Times
What's the issue? A demand to return to in-person work ... for no real reason. "The contractors are paid as little as $19 an hour, making it difficult to afford the relocation, travel, or childcare costs that they didn’t have to pay when working remotely." - The Verge
Sure, people are mostly back to live theatre - but " a newly formed nonprofit organization is collaborating to bring nonprofit Broadway ... into homes, schools and community centers." With high-quality streaming, at that. - Los Angeles Times
His wife said at the time of his arrest "that his detention - several months before the ongoing anti-government protests erupted - amounted to a kidnapping." - BBC
One Netflix exec said, though, that it will be coming, and he added, "I think it’s worth noting that this will not be a universally popular move." - Wired
"My favorites are the games that have intricate plots, because many of them are cultural markers that reveal what fascinates us — and more important, what scares us." - The Atlantic
First of all, Beyoncé "needs three wins to tie, and four to beat the conductor Georg Solti, who holds the record for most overall wins." - The New York Times
And those heads aren't spinning in a "get rich podcasting!" kind of a way. "Call it a pivot, call it a withdrawal; ... whatever the nomenclature, the financial realities of Spotify needing its big podcast bets to pay off have been true for some time." - Vulture
You might not revile Sir Arthur Evans in the same breath that you do Lord Elgin - but the British archaeologist was a fabulist who spun tales and poured concrete into the palace he claimed was the site of the Minoan Labyrinth. - The Observer (UK)
