Prescreen, a new venture launched by former Groupon exec Shawn Bercuson. The service offers a library of non-studio films, with one highlighted each day in an e-mail; users can stream movies for up to 60 days and earn points for sharing the films via social networking.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Title Fight: Chinua Achebe Defeats 50 Cent Over Name of Movie
“50 Cent has been undone by one of Africa’s greatest novelists, Chinua Achebe. The rapper’s latest movie has been renamed ahead of its release, due to a conflict with Achebe’s most famous work.”
Novelist Dumps Publisher At Her Own Book Launch Party
At the launch for It’s a Man’s World – the final title in a three-book deal with Avon, the women’s-fiction imprint of HarperCollins – Polly Courtney announced that she was breaking with the publisher for marketing her books as chick-lit, with “condescending and fluffy” covers.
Tony Kushner Talks About Angels In America, 20 Years On
“I feel, going back now, that the early ’90s, the late ’80s, for all the horrors of the AIDS epidemic, were comparatively innocent and carefree times compared to where we are now. … [The] play, and the times, both feel darker to me now than they did back then.”
Diller Scofidio + Renfro Design For Berkeley Art Museum Unveiled
“[The] busy New York firm has released the schematic design for a new facility for the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, known as BAM/PFA, in downtown Berkeley. The plans are classic DS+R, which is to say they are canny, sleekly attractive and conceptually overstuffed all at once.”
Britain’s NHS To Open Free Dance Injuries Clinic
“Dancers will be able to use the first specialist clinic within the NHS for injuries they sustain at work from next year. … Based at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, the London service will be free at the point of access for dancers and available to all.”
Opera Company of Philadelphia Names First Composer In Residence
“New York-based Lembit Beecher, 30, will spend stretches of several weeks at a time at the Opera Company, as well as Gotham Chamber Opera and Music-Theatre Group in New York, observing productions and developing ideas for potential projects.”
Two Great American Critics And Their Conflicts Of Interest
As his first play, Satchmo at the Waldorf, opens in Orlando, Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout reminds us that such legendary critics as art maven Clement Greenberg and composer Virgil Thomson were ethically compromised in ways that would not be accepted today.
How Will Shortz Edits A New York Times Crossword Puzzle
“Every crossword in the Times is a collaboration between the puzzle-maker and the puzzle editor. On average, about half the clues are mine. I may edit as few as five or ten percent of the clues, or as many as 95 percent for someone who does a great puzzle but not great clues.”
South Park Guys Promise A Book Of Mormon Movie
“Trey Parker and Matt Stone have confirmed … that they plan to adapt their Broadway hit The Book of Mormon for the big screen.” Says Parker, “Hopefully [the stage show] will have a big run and a big tour and then we can do the movie in several years.”