Well, why not? “‘Come and convince our showrunners that they can’t just make six episodes of things. Like you guys, they should make 200 episodes,’ she recalled him saying. Fey rejected the request, however, explaining that US writers were, in fact, jealous of the less-is-more British approach.” – BBC
Blog
From ‘Audition From Hell’ To Tony Nominee
Amber Gray auditioned as well as she could for the Broadway-bound Hadestown: She “couldn’t read sheet music but had prepared for the tryout by diligently listening to the assigned song from the production’s buzzy concept album — which had since been tweaked.” Oops. – Los Angeles Times
Let’s Take A Little Closer Look At This Claim That A Netflix Show Caused A Spike In Teens Dying By Suicide
Did the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why *cause* the spike? Bit of an issue with a recent study that claims it did: “Importantly, the researchers don’t know if the people who died by suicide watched the show or not.” – Vice
Alex Trebek, Host Of ‘Jeopardy’ Who Recently Revealed He Has Cancer, Gets An Emotional Win At The Daytime Emmys
If you ignore the controversies surrounding some “sloppiness” in the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Emmy awards last year (and maybe this year too), you can just focus on the positive: Alex Trebek! Also, a lot of other winners (the whole list, indeed), in this post. – Variety
The Rockefeller Center Goes Back To The Land
Really. “The botanist David Hosack transformed this landscape into the country’s first public botanical garden in 1801. His creation, the 20-acre Elgin Botanic Garden, would come to contain about 3,000 species of plants. … It was a space where New York City residents were exposed to exotic flora and fauna like kumquats and figs.” And now? Well, it’s a garden again. – The New York Times
In Writer Helen Hoang’s World, Autism Is A Key To Love And Happiness
Hoang’s first novel, The Kiss Quotient, had an autistic main character – and so does her second. She says, “There was this website I looked at — I don’t want to tell you what it is, because I don’t want to drive traffic there — but it, basically they say that autistic people are heartless, and that we don’t experience empathy, we are selfish and cold, and anyone who’s had a relationship could go on there and kind of air their grievances and say how horrible it was. And I’m sure that those situations exist, but I can’t accept that that’s a rule.” Hence, her wildly popular romances. – NPR
The People Involved In NBC’s ‘Must-See TV’ Are Still Innovating And Changing The Media Landscape
The 1990s really did last into today: “Must See TV veterans have helped shape some of the most groundbreaking shows of the Peak TV era, including Homeland, The Handmaid’s Tale, Atlanta, The Americans, Orphan Black, Fargo and The Shield. And five executives from the Must See TV era, are currently running network TV entertainment operations. – Los Angeles Times
Ben Heller, Powerhouse Collector Of Abstract Art, Has Died At 93
Heller blurred the line between collector and dealer – and caused an international incident because of it. “Heller’s sale of Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles to the National Gallery of Australia, then under construction in Canberra, the nation’s capital, was announced in September 1973. The news caused an uproar in the New York art world; in Australia it nearly brought down the Labor government of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, who had to sign off on the $2 million sale.” – The New York Times
The Artist Who Painted Michelle Obama’s Portrait Is So In-Demand Now That She Has Assistants, And A Manager
Amy Sherald: “With a successful career, you have to hire some assistants to help, otherwise I can imagine that you would have to snort a lot of cocaine and drink a lot of coffee to just, like, get through life.” – The Cut
The Laryngectomy Survivors In The Choir
They’re learning to sing without a voice box, and they literally do have a choir. – BBC