The Louvre has decided to allow producers to shoot scened for The Da Vinci Code in its galleries. Louvre director Henri Loyrette told France’s Inter Radio: “We have agreed in principle. There is really a very strong desire to see the film adaptation of this book, which is world famous, shot at the Louvre.”
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Protests Over Changing Linoln Center’s Landscaping
Preservationists are speaking out against plans to change the landscaping of Lincoln Center’s plazas as part of the huge redevelopment of Lincoln Center. They say that altering the landscaping significantly will ruin the original design by Dan Kiley, one of the leading landscape architects of the last century.
The “Porno-ization” Of The Book Industry
Sex seems to have taken over the book industry. It’s on the best-seller lists, and it’s in the bookstores. “Porn has long been a multibillion-dollar industry – in its Internet and direct-to-DVD ghetto. But rarely has “aboveground” publishing been so saturated with sex. It’s the ‘porno-ization of the culture’.”
Powell Stepping Down From FCC
Michael Powell is stepping down as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He has been under fire in the past year for imposing big fines on broadcasters whom he and fellow commissioners felt were “indecent.”
Actors Unions Make Deal With Hollywood
Hollywood’s two major actors unions have made a deal on new contracts. “Under the agreement, which still needs final approval, actors will get a nine per cent minimum pay raise over three years, increased money for the unions’ health and pension plans and greater protections for stunt actors and extras. However, actors did not get a larger share of DVD residuals, which unions representing writers and directors had tried unsuccessfully for in their recent contract negotiations.”
Trading Up: Indie Film Has Become Studio Film
“Independent film may be dead, as so many of its partisans continually proclaim, but if it is, it has been reincarnated in the shape of another much-mourned, perpetually misunderstood movie martyr, the studio system.”
Prediction: Legal Movie File-Sharing Will Be Big Business
For now, the movie industry is suing file-sharing services. But “once several high-profile legal cases against file-sharers are resolved this year, firms will be very keen to try and make money from P2P technology.”
Victorian Sci Fi That Accurately Predicted The Future
A little-known Victorian book book of science fiction published in 1892 appears to have predicted many of the technological advances that in fact happened. “Entitled Golf in the Year 2000 or What Are We Coming To, it follows the tale of avid 19th-century golfer Alexander J Gibson, who falls into a deep sleep on 24 March 1892 and wakes up Rip Van Winkle-style on 25 March 2000 to find a world transformed. Television, superfast trains, digital watches and female emancipation are all predicted in the tale, which envisages a world of leisure where golf is paramount.”
Radio Lives – On The Internet
“Thanks to broadband technology, the internet has created thousands of new radio stations that, generated simply by the home PCs of amateur DJs, cater to every music taste, no matter how obscure. These days, anyone can be a radio star. You don’t have to be a technical whiz to join this radio revolution – all you need is a PC and a subscription to a radio website, such as Shoutcast or Live365.”
Will Casting Agents Strike Shut Down Hollywood?
“America’s 500-or-so casting directors and associates—the unsung people-brokers who select actors for a film’s director or producer—are threatening to strike if the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) refuses to grant them union recognition and health and pension benefits.”