“Both festivals had a slow start due to the recession, a major leap forward once their shows opened and the government came through with additional marketing funds, but an ultimate downward turn by the time the curtain fell.” Stratford slipped 4.7 percent in attendance and 1.7 percent in revenue; Shaw was down 6.5 and 8 percent.
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Lion For Sale? MGM Looks To Be Headed To Auction
“Several sources say they expect that MGM will essentially be auctioned off within the next few weeks. This would mean that a major, such as Time Warner, could buy the MGM-UA library while another entity might acquire the logo, and yet another deal could be made for United Artists.”
Digital Media’s New Health Hazard: Secondhand Smut
“[T]he increasing popularity of laptops and handheld devices, and the prevalence of wireless Internet access, means there’s a greater chance of becoming a bystander to a complete stranger’s viewing proclivities.” Skeeved-out bystanders say they’re not prudes. “The trouble was knowing that they couldn’t escape [the porn], not until the plane landed or the Metro doors opened.”
Barbara Kingsolver: No, Really, I’m Not A Political Novelist
“There goes Kingsolver, inserting Nicaraguan contras into ‘Animal Dreams,’ a father-daughter story about Alzheimer’s. There she goes again, talking about Native American tribal rights, smack dab in the middle of ‘Pigs in Heaven.’ … ‘I never quite know what people mean by political,’ says Kingsolver, 54.”
At NY’s Scruffy Downtown Galleries, Art Is Selling Again
“The global financial crisis punctured the art bubble last year, drying up cash and driving up caution. Now the tide seems to be turning for young galleries of the East Village and Lower East Side,” which “can afford to charge less” than Chelsea galleries “because they have smaller staff and lower rent.”
A Warhol Goes For $43.8M, And Art Market Dares To Hope
“Five bidders vied for Warhol’s 1962 ‘200 One Dollar Bills’ at the Sotheby’s sale last night,” where competition for the painting “underscored returning buying confidence to the art market, pummeled a year ago by the world financial crisis.”
Linden MacIntyre Wins Canada’s $50K Giller Prize
“Mr. MacIntyre’s The Bishop’s Man chronicles the emerging crisis of conscience in a worldly priest who has been assigned to keep a lid on church-related sex scandals that are destroying the lives of the faithful in rural Cape Breton.”
In Gaza, A Women’s Film Festival Challenges Hamas
“Through The Eyes of Women, the three-day program that started Tuesday, includes 27 films, all by female directors, five of whom are from Gaza. Most of the rest hail from other Arab states, with eight from the West Bank.”
Can Chicago Lure Big Indoor Shoots From Hollywood?
“If all goes according to plan, the city will be home to an enormous new soundstage complex sometime next year, located in almost 50 acres of buildings that formerly housed Ryerson Steel…. In theory, it could mean Chicago will be a draw for the kinds of movies that necessitate large-scale special effects.”
Why Our Portrait Of World War I Is Rendered In Words
“Before 1914, of those who described war, painted it and wrote poetry about it, very few had seen battle themselves. Now a generation of the literary middle class had, and found it by turns mundane, draining and horrific.”