The satellite radio giant “has hired advisers to prepare for a possible bankruptcy filing, people involved in the process said… Service is unlikely to be interrupted, but the company might have to terminate contracts with high-priced talent like [Howard] Stern or Martha Stewart.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Don’t Mess With The Village People
“Maybe he should have been a lawyer instead: The performer Victor Willis, better known as the original police officer in the campy band the Village People, has filed suit against a resuscitated version of the group, saying it is using his likeness and voice in its performances.”
Diane Keaton Writes About Her Mother’s Struggle With Alzheimer’s
“Ms. Keaton’s mother, Dorothy Keaton Hall, kept some 90 notebooks during her life, chronicling the upbringing of her children and her frustrating marriage. Ms. Keaton read those journals back to her mother during her final years, and began writing [the] memoir soon after her mother’s death in 2008.”
The Downturn Finally Hits HarperCollins
“The industry had been expecting some news from HarperCollins, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, as it was one of the few major publishing houses not to have announced layoffs during the current punishing retail downturn.” The company is closing the Collins and Wiliam Morrow divisions and laying off two top executives as well as lower-level staffers.
National Ballet Of Canada Bids Farewell To 20-Year Veteran
“The company is also bidding farewell to principal dancer Chan Hon Goh, who is retiring in June after 20 years with the troupe, though not before she performs in Romeo and Juliet and Giselle later this season.”
U.S. Orchestras Launch Nationwide Food Drive
“The Soloist, the upcoming movie about a cellist who became homeless, has struck a chord with American orchestras. They are mobilizing to help feed the hungry. At least 163 orchestras in 45 states are expected to participate in food drives in late March, a month before the movie’s release on April 24, the League of American Orchestras said Tuesday.”
Why People Cheat (But Only Up To A Point)
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely: “[P]eople have two goals: We have a goal to look at ourselves in the mirror and feel good about ourselves, and we have a goal to cheat and benefit from cheating. And we find that there’s a balance between these two goals. That is, we cheat up to the level that we would find it comfortable [to still feel good about ourselves].”
The New President Gets The Peter Max Treatment
“Longtime pop artist Peter Max has done Obama times 44, in honor of the 44th president. This large installation – 15 feet wide and 6 feet tall – incorporates two Obama photos painted 44 ways by Max in his familiar brightly colored, neo-impressionistic style.”
James Whitmore, 87
While he had a long and very successful acting career in plays, films and television, “Whitmore was best known for his three one-man shows: as Truman in Give ‘Em Hell, Harry!, as [Theodore] Roosevelt in Bully and as Rogers in Will Rogers’ U.S.A.“
A Yiddish Gutenberg Project
“More than 10,000 works in Yiddish – perhaps more than half of all that was ever published in the language – are now accessible online as part of a joint project between the National Yiddish Book Center, based in Amherst, Mass., and the Internet Archive in San Francisco, the two institutions announced on Friday.”