A new book about producer Harvey Weinstein details “with some appalled glee the food stains on Weinstein’s shirts, the thuggish threats to journalists, the thrown telephones, the impossible demands to directors, the bullying of staff. He talks of Weinstein as an ‘artist of anger’ and as ‘the 800lb gorilla in the corner’. Really, though, he is his Moby Dick, his white whale. No matter how often the journalist seems to have harpooned his target, Harvey keeps emerging from the deep, clutching a contract and a side order of fries.”
Blog
Baker: Parthenon Marbles – Send ‘Em Back
Kenneth Baker weighs in on repatriating the Parthenon Marbles to Greece: Few object when courts ordain the return of art treasures and other property confiscated from European Jews by the Nazis. But people seem to feel the ethical force of arguments for repatriation of valuable plunder less when they involve greater spans of time and differences in culture. After Tony Blair’s mortifying alliance with the “coalition of the willing,” an agreement to return to their origin the greatest surviving remnants of Greek classicism would go a long way to restore Britain’s international prestige.”
Broadway’s Golden Age?
Was there really such a thing as a Golden Age of Broadway? A filmmaker goes in search of the answer.
US Arts Funding Still Wobbly
It’s been three years of cuts in arts funding at the state and local level in America. So are things about to get better? A look around the country doesn’t give much reason for optimism.
Zagat On Broadway, 2004
“Perhaps there are no earth-shattering revelations in the recently released summer edition of the 2004 Zagat Survey New York City Theater Guide, covering 62 Broadway and Off-Broadway productions as reviewed by 15,760 theatregoers. Still, the public opinion poll, conceived as a consumer guide to theatre, does offer some interesting insights about the habits of audience members besides their ratings of plays and musicals.”
A Persistence Of Beauty
“A lot of art, especially of the past, has set out to be beautiful; a lot of art, especially of the present, has set out to be ugly. Or, if not ugly, then at least workaday in its surface sheen, for fear that too much beauty might distract from whatever hard truths the film or painting or composition wishes to tell us. And yet there has been a kind of semi-guilty underground cult of beauty that has persisted through our ugly times.”
Regis: Mr. TV – The Record Holder
TV personality Regis Philben set a record this week: “The boisterous co-host of ‘Live with Regis and Kelly’ was officially recognized as the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’ champion for ‘Most Hours on Camera,’ reaching 15,188 hours at a taping. For those without a calculator, that’s like working 90 weeks solid – no breaks. Hugh Downs held the previous record: 10,511 hours, set in 1997.”
Graffiti Lives! (And Will Continue)
The UK is cracking down on graffiti. But will threats of bigger penalties and stepped up enforcement deter graffiti? Not likely – the danger, the difficulty – it’s all part of the allure…
Danish Report: Ballet Is Popular
A Danish newspaper reports that ballet is undergoing a worldwide surge in interest. “Denmark’s three accredited ballet schools are turning down applicants like never before, and the Peter Schaufuss Ballet in Holstebro is regularly performing to packed houses.”
Georgia Science Museum To Close
“After years of declining attendance and contributions, the Science and Technology Museum of Georgia is suspending operations this weekend. SciTrek has struggled financially for years, although its recent tax forms show a balanced budget of about $2.6 million. About 70 percent of its financial contributions came from local businesses, with the rest from city and state government.”