“Lucy, one of the puppet stars of the risque Broadway show ‘Avenue Q,’ won’t get [to show her cleavage] in the conservative bastion of Colorado Springs, Colo., where her ample — if also pink and fuzzy — endowment has proved too much for a billboard company.” Lucy’s puppet breasts have been — yes — banned from bus-stop ads.
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Lawyer: File-Sharing Damages Should Be $21, Not $675K
Imploring “a federal judge yesterday to slash the jury award or order a new trial … Harvard law professor Charles Nesson said the 1999 federal law applied by the jury to calculate damages caused by his client, Joel Tenenbaum, had ‘produced absurd results’ and a grossly excessive award that violated Tenenbaum’s constitutional rights.”
LA Gets Serious About Keeping Filmmakers At Home
Los Angeles “has been low key — some would say complacent — when it comes to singing the praises of filming close to home,” but an upcoming campaign will herald the economic benefits to the city. In addition to billboards and PSAs, “[e]xpect to see production trucks plastered with banners trumpeting how many jobs were created on a given show.”
With Twitter And Fan Sites, Spoilers Are Tough To Avoid
“On the one hand, a twist ending can turn a movie into a conversation piece since it is, quite literally, the last thing we see before we leave the theater. … But there’s undoubtedly a risk for a movie that relies on a surprise ending should that ending become known. And, increasingly, that’s a danger.”
DC Museum Aims To Alter Area With Public Sculpture
The National Museum of Women in the Arts hopes its New York Avenue Sculpture Project “will bring some much-needed zing to its sector of downtown and spark interest in the 23-year-old museum. … All the artists will be women, and the work will change every year or two.”
Alexie, Kingsolver Among PEN/Faulkner Fiction Finalists
“[Sherman] Alexie’s short-story collection ‘War Dances’ and [Barbara] Kingsolver’s historical novel ‘The Lacuna’ are in contention for the $15,000 prize along with [Lorraine M.] López’s ‘Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories,’ [Lorrie] Moore’s ‘A Gate at the Stairs’ and [Colson] Whitehead’s ‘Sag Harbor.'”
An Embassy Design As Embodiment Of US Psychic Turmoil
The proposed new American embassy in London “has all the glamour of a corporate office block.” And yet the project is “an eye-opening expression of the irresolvable tensions involved in trying to design an emblem of American values when you know it may become the next terrorist target.”
Old Vic, Public Will Swap Young Theatre Artists
“This April, 50 actors, writers, directors and producers, aged between 18 and 30, will travel from London to New York for a week-long placement in The Public Theatre. In May, 50 US artists will take part in a similar programme at the Old Vic.”
Long Beach, Calif., Tries To Make Itself Arts-Friendly
One proposal in a multi-pronged city council initiative “would excuse artists from having to pay the city’s annual business license fee unless their earnings topped a certain threshold.”
Does FCC Have Jurisdiction Over A Show That Never Aired?
“If ‘Our Little Genius’ had aired it’s a pretty safe bet that — if the allegations about the show are true — the show might have found itself in violation of government regulations. But the idea that it may look to penalize Fox for a show it decided was not worthy of broadcast has caught many Washington insiders by surprise.”