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23 Superstar Architects, One Spanish Hotel

Twenty-three superstar architects work on building a hotel in Spain. “Among those greeted by the mayor of Madrid when the project was unveiled yesterday, and pursued by what seemed like the entire Spanish press corps, were London architects David Chipperfield, John Pawson and Ron Arad. The Japanese master Arata Isozaki was seated next to France’s Jean Nouvel, who has just completed a sparkling new addition to Madrid’s Reina Sofia art gallery. Norman Foster, who couldn’t be there, had made a video, and an ailing Zaha Hadid had sent her right-hand man to explain her contribution. I could go on, but suffice it to say, if architecture had Oscars, they would be like this.”

Well, You Know How Hard It Is To Find Unionized Blue Men

The popular and quirky Blue Man Group show is headed to Toronto this week, and the Canadian Actors Equity union isn’t happy about it, and is organizing a picket lin to protest the group’s lack of union participation. Blue Man Group’s non-union status has never run afoul of the American version of Actors Equity, because “their show doesn’t have a book (script) and consequently wouldn’t fall under our jurisdiction.” Blue Man’s organizers are reportedly stunned at the objections of the Canadian union.

So It’s Not A Good Show, Then?

Dodger Theatricals has a history of mounting some of the worst flops on Broadway, and Michael Riedel says that Good Vibrations, the company’s latest baby-boomer-magnet of a show is headed down the same path. ” Two telltale signs of trouble emerged last week. The director David Warren was brought onboard to help bail out his friend, John Carrafa, the ‘official’ director and choreographer of the show; and the opening night has been pushed back a week… Poor Carrafa is already getting most of the blame what one Broadway insider calls ‘the worst show ever booked in a theater.'”

A Most Ghostly Post-Poe Toast

“[Last night], for the 56th year, a man stole into a locked graveyard early on Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday and placed three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac on the writer’s grave… No one knows the identity of the so-called ‘Poe Toaster.’ The visit was first documented in 1949, a century after Poe’s death. This year, the visitor arrived at 1:10 a.m. in a heavy coat and obscured his face with a black pullover.” Dozens of spectators traditionally gather to watch the anonymous dropoff, and the current toaster is believed to be at least the second man to play the role.

All The Post-Globe Scuttlebutt That’s Fit To Print

The Golden Globe Awards may be a corrupt and frustrating institution, but they certainly provide plenty to talk about in the period leading up to Oscar night. Legitimate or not, a Golden Globe win makes a film, actor, or director into an instant Oscar contender, and this year’s Globes provided a vey murky glimpse of who’s in and who’s out in the race for the prized Academy Awards.

Healthy Music Industry? Look North.

“The Canadian recording industry, written off as obsolete after music downloading surged in popularity, has finally rebounded from a six-year slide. Record labels chalked up an increase in 2004 sales to everything from anti-piracy campaigns and consumers’ frustrations with the glitches of file sharing to lower CD price tags and a popular crop of new releases.”

UK Film Production Plummets

The number of films produced in the UK fell by 40% in 2004. The drop-off has been attributed to a cut in the subsidies provided to filmmakers as incentives to shoot in Britain, as well as to a tightening of the tax code. The British government has since introduced a new round of incentives, which it hopes will bring some studios back in 2005.