PEOPLE

How Byron Allen Went From Standup Comic To Media Mogul To Stephen Colbert’s Time Slot

“He was one of the first entertainers to recognize that there was more money to be made in owning your content, rather than just performing it. Over the last three decades, he has built a multibillion-dollar business, Allen Media Group, which now has 2,000 employees across various media properties.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Rex Reed Hated Everything

In my ongoing conversations with him, along with the despairingly pungent emails he regularly sent from his AOL address Rex seemed to interpret the glut of mediocre films he was forced to endure as a highly personal affront to strict standards of taste, decency and class. - The Hollywood Reporter

Misty Copeland On Drive and Motivation

What people do not always see is the aspect of drive that is perhaps the hardest to name — the will to keep going in those moments when the path is unclear, when recognition may never come. You stay focused on the work while navigating a life on the public stage. - The New York Times

Film Critic Gene Shalit Dies At 100

Shalit started on Today in 1970, according to NBC's report on his passing, and became its arts editor in 1973, interviewing celebrities and reviewing books as well as films. His role on the show was reduced in his later years and he retired at age 84 in 2010, saying, "It's ​enough already." - CBC

Jazz Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim Dead At 91

“In an extraordinarily accomplished career that spanned eight decades, Ibrahim helped bring bebop stylings to South Africa, and he bonded with Duke Ellington, who produced one of his early, influential recordings. In his later years, he became an idol and an inspiration to new generations of jazz pianists.” - NPR

Jane Yolen, Award-Winning Author Of Some 450 Books, Has Died At 87

"Yolen never encountered a genre she didn’t like; among her early books was a history of kites. Yet running through almost all her writing was a strong through-line of deep psychological insight and a sense of wonder.” - The New York Times

Dito Van Reigersberg, Philly’s Beloved Theatre Founder And Performer, Has Died At 53

“Antic yet elegant, Mr. van Reigersberg was closely associated with two important strands of 21st-century performance: devised physical theater — in which an ensemble works together to create a script through improvisation — and a playful, let-the-chest-hair-show take on drag.” - The New York Times

Gene Shalit, Legendarily Moustached Today Show Film Critic, Has Died At 100

After moving over from the book critic desk, “Shalit proved to be a spirited counterbalance to the heavier news of the day, entertaining audiences with celebrity interviews and insights into moviegoing choices during his ‘Critic’s Corner’ segment.” - The Hollywood Reporter

What’s Behind The Intense Interest In Celebrity Estate Sales?

The growing trend for auctions of deceased famous people’s personal items – which has boomed ever since the hugely popular Marilyn Monroe estate sale in 1999 – has even attracted its own portmanteau: “deleb” as in dead celebrity. - The Guardian

David Hockney, 88

“Over a seven-decade career, Hockney explored and reimagined classical portraiture, landscape painting and pop art, working in painting, collage, photography and digital drawing. … One of the most popular and critically lauded British artists of his” — and perhaps any — “generation, his works sold for record prices at auction.” - AP

Photographer Duane Michals, 94

“In a career that spanned six decades and crisscrossed artistic and commercial contexts, Michals challenged photographic convention and innovated new forms; he is best known for building sequential, frame-by-frame narratives that pair photographs with handwritten text to poetic effect.” - Frieze

How Do You Prepare For The NBA Finals? Wembanyama Sketches In Gramercy Park

As seen in a viral video posted to Instagram on Tuesday, Wembanyama and his sister Eve, who also plays professional basketball, but in Europe, were spotted in Gramercy Park, one of just two private parks in New York City, sketching a statue of Edwin Booth. - ARTnews

Julio Le Parc, Pioneer Of Moving Op Art, Has Died At 97

“He focused on kinetic sculpture … and the geometric optical illusions of Op Art, infusing them with regional influences” — he was Argentine, though he spent his career in Paris — “and often overtly political content, … pioneer(ing) a form of socially conscious, audience-friendly sculpture and vibrantly colorful, politically engaged painting.” - The New York Times

French Superstar Patrick Bruel Detained By Police Over Multiple Sexual Assault Charges

“The singer became a major star across the French-speaking world in the 1980s and 1990s with a string of hits that became part of French popular culture. He also appeared in more than 40 film and television productions. … (He faces) allegations by at least 13 women of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.” - AP

Wilma “Billie” Tisch, 98, One Of New York’s Leading Cultural Philanthropists

The wife of Larry Tisch, one of the brothers who made Loews into a conglomerate, she oversaw the donation of millions of dollars to Jewish and cultural organizations, notable among them the WNYC Foundation, the Tisch Children’s Zoo in Central Park, and the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. - The New York Times

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