PEOPLE

How Jonah Hill Went From Shlubby Comic Actor To Oscar Nominee To Film Auteur

His new movie, Outcome — which he directed- co-wrote, and co-stars in — “is difficult to watch without drawing parallels to Hill’s odd and unexpected arc, as well as to the real-life controversies that could have sunk his career.” - The Hollywood Reporter

Helen DeWitt Declined A Prestigious $175,000 Prize. Is She Principled Or Crazy?

Opinions on her recent stance are strongly divided: some have praised her principled refusal to play the self-promotion game that takes so much out of writers, while others have called her a spoilt, entitled nightmare. - The Guardian

At This Point, Alec Baldwin Just Wants To Retire

The accidental shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust, the two (unsuccessful) prosecutions in New Mexico, finishing the film in another state — it all took a huge toll on Baldwin, financially as well as psychologically and physically. - The Hollywood Reporter

Finnish Violinist Says He Won’t Perform In The US Due To The Political Situation

’I would like to, with utmost sensitivity and respect, suggest to the administrations of the major American orchestras to consider using your voices... I’m quite convinced that the situation would get easier, faster, if the arts community came together to say “no more” in unison, in a way that inspires.’ - The Strad

Sid Krofft, Co-Producer Of “H.R. Pufnstuf” And A Slew Of Other Children’s TV Shows, Is Dead At 96

A puppeteer since childhood, Sid, with his younger brother Marty (who died 2½ years ago), produced H.R. Pufnstuf, Land of the Lost, The Bugaloos, Lidsville and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters and created the look of The Banana Splits — all using a psychedelic 1970s day-glo style and flashes of knowing grownup humor. - Deadline

Asha Bhosle, 92, The Voice Of Bollywood

Bhosle, who recorded more than 12,000 songs, became her country’s pre-eminent exponent of playback singing – recording tracks that were then lip-synced on film by actors. She also boldly embraced cabaret and western-influenced melodies to forge a distinctive musical identity. - The Guardian

Hilde Limondjian, Longtime Met Museum Music Curator, 89

Hilde Limondjian, who spent more than four decades bringing music to the auditorium — and the galleries — of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, died on Jan. 24. She was 89. - The New York Times

One Of France’s Most Prominent Writers Had A Past As A Failed Antiquities Looter

André Malraux went on to fight in the WWII resistance, write celebrated novels, get nominated repeatedly for the Nobel Prize, and serve as de Gaulle’s culture minister. In his 20s, however, he and his wife decided they could get rich quick by going to Cambodia and stealing ancient statuary. - Smithsonian Magazine

Hip-Hop Pioneer Afrika Bambaataa, 68

Bambaataa and the parties where he DJ'ed swelled in popularity throughout the decade and well into the 1980s, when he released a series of electro tracks that helped shaped the burgeoning hip-hop and electro-funk music movements. - NPR

Sean “Diddy” Combs’s Attorneys Argue His Prostitution Conviction Should Be Reversed On First Amendment Grounds

“Combs’s lawyers repeated claims they made before the trial judge, including an assertion that Combs’ films of sexual encounters between his girlfriends and male sex workers amounted to ‘amateur pornography’ and (were) protected by the First Amendment.” - AP

Nathan Lane On Being Half-Outed By Oprah On Live TV

“In those days, you might as well say: ‘And by the way, I love cock,’” he said about his 1996 interview to promote The Birdcage. “But I wasn’t ready; I wasn’t brave enough. I was a character actor. I wasn’t thinking I was going to become a leading man.” - The Guardian

UK Bans Ye (Kanye West) From Entering Country

“The rapper formerly known as Kanye West was barred Tuesday from entering the U.K., where he was scheduled to headline the Wireless Festival in July, after a backlash over Ye’s history of antisemitic remarks.” - AP

Melvin Edwards, Sculptor Who Welded The African Diaspora, Has Died At 88

“Edwards rose to prominence in 1963 with the first works of what would become his most notable series, ‘Lynch Fragments.’ … He combined fragments of found and recycled steel and welded them into forms of chains, sharp tools, barbed wire and other metal objects.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

German Artist Sentenced To Jail In Absentia In Moscow For Art Mocking Putin In Germany

A German artist who created carnival displays mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin was sentenced in absentia on Thursday to 8 1/2 years in prison by a court In Moscow. - AP News

For Better And (Definitely) For Worse, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Life Reflected His Architecture

“As the architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable once noted: ‘There is a kind of collective schadenfreude in the revelation of defects in great buildings and flaws in great men.’ Few figures bear this out more fully than Wright.” - Aeon

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