“Gov. Sarah Palin has signed a book deal with HarperCollins Publishers for what is described as her memoir. … Neither Palin nor HarperCollins would … say how much she was being paid. Asked why, the governor and 2008 Republican nominee for vice president said she didn’t want to distract from the substance of the book.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
In Big-Budget Musicals, Female Directors Remain A Rarity
“It might be surprising that in 2009, women are still having to grope their way to the power seat in an artistic field such as theater. And the helm of a musical, with its complex and expensive working parts, is perhaps the most difficult and challenging position the theater has to offer. Yet for all the successes of a Julie Taymor (‘The Lion King’) or a Susan Stroman (‘The Producers’), women even today only occasionally receive the assignment to direct a big-budget, big-showcase musical.”
White House Poetry Jam A Spoken-Word Evening, With Jazz
“Perhaps for the first time ever, the White House jammed and slammed last night. Poets and playwrights, actors and musicians packed the ornate East Room, delivering cool jazz and glorious spoken-word poetry, sprinkling a bit of hip-hop and a bit of the heroic couplet. And through it all, the president and the first lady watched — and applauded. ‘We’re here to celebrate the power of words,’ President Obama said.”
Proceed With Caution Lest You Wreck LA’s New Arts School
“The spectacular new arts high school in downtown Los Angeles cost an equally spectacular $232 million. Now that the campus is complete, with its state-of-the-art theater, ceramics studios and other eye-popping amenities, the critical next step for school leaders is to avoid wrecking it.” One danger: diminishing “what could become a national beacon of arts education by turning it into a neighborhood school.”
Glimmer Of Hope Dept.: Soros Pledges $50 Million At Gala
“Billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros pledged $50 million to the Robin Hood Foundation at its New York gala dinner, helping the charity raise a record sum last night to help the city’s poor. The event took $72.7 million, the most Robin Hood has raised in a single night, defying the slump in charitable giving caused by the current recession. … To qualify for Soros’s gift of $50 million, Robin Hood has to raise an additional $150 million over two years.”
After The Boom: Sotheby’s Contemporary Tally Down 87%
“Actor Owen Wilson, billionaire Eli Broad and former Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz watched the art market take another knock last night as Sotheby’s posted its smallest New York contemporary auction since May 2003. The $47 million tally was down 87 percent, or $315 million, from Sotheby’s record a year ago….”
Prince Charles Omits Fireworks In Speech To Architects
“‘Abolish the monarchy!’ a tiny voice piped up at the end of the Prince of Wales’s lecture at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London last night. It was a distinctly solitary protest against Prince Charles’s first big speech on architecture for 20 years.” The prince — who even said “sorry” — was in fence-mending mode, “keen to stress that he was more concerned with ‘original, in the true sense’ and ‘organic’ architecture than with recreating past styles.”
Shakespeare Testing Gone, And With It Work For Theatres
“No sooner had the government announced last October that testing would no longer be compulsory at year 9 than phones began to ring at the RSC.” With cancellations, that is. “Less well known has been the devastating effect on smaller theatre companies that have been working in schools to make Shakespeare more accessible to 21st-century teenagers.”
Why Is Choreography So Male-Dominated?
“The contemporary dance world has been accused of ‘fawning over’ athletic, powerful images of masculinity as projected by artists such as Wayne McGregor and Hofesh Shechter, at the expense of promoting female choreographers.” Whose fault is this? Let the finger-pointing begin.
Citing ‘Character Assassination,’ Walcott Drops Oxford Bid
“Nobel prize winner Derek Walcott has withdrawn from the race to become Oxford’s professor of poetry following an anonymous letter campaign. The campaign saw up to 100 Oxford academics sent photocopied pages from a book detailing a sexual harassment claim made against Walcott by a Harvard student in 1982.”