The actors are OK with all of this: “The nudity has struck some theatergoers as so extreme and the sex so prolonged that the actors can hear members of the audience gasp when it begins. Occasionally someone will say, ‘Oh no, oh no, oh no! Cora Vander Broek says of the moment the stage lights rise on her character, Jules, straddling Wheeler (played by Ian Barford) in bed.” – Los Angeles Times
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Why Is There Such A Misstep-Filled Scramble To Make The Oscars Shorter?
The producer: “There are so many things to balance. Some viewers want to see glamour. You have to pay attention to where there is humor and where there is music. When do we guess that people at home might get up to make popcorn in the kitchen, and what can we have on right after that to bring them back?” – The New York Times
The Scandalously Mismanaged Garden Bridge
The Garden Bridge, somewhat, one might say, like Brexit, has so far not appeared (and the bridge, at least, never will). “An itemised bill for its failure has just arrived: £53m in total, of which £2.76m(including VAT) went to the designer Thomas Heatherwick; £12.7m to the engineers Arup; £2.3m to lawyers; and £1.7m went on the salaries of the executives who didn’t in the end execute the project. It cost £1.3m to survey the riverbed and look for unexploded wartime bombs. The project’s adequate but unexceptional website cost £161,000.” – The Guardian (UK)
Want To Read All Of The Oscar-Nominated Screenplays?
“Given the amount of time a modern human being spends watching film and television, a little familiarity with the form doesn’t seem like a bad thing.” So, here are all of the links. – Slate
City Opera Sounds An Ominous Note As Board Chair Steps Down
The chairman of the board also happens to be New York City Opera’s biggest benefactor. And: “Its board is down to a mere three members. It has largely spent the more than $5 million in bequests it received after emerging from bankruptcy, and its modest endowment is shrinking. The company’s most recent financial report notes that its difficulties ‘raise substantial doubt about New York City Opera, Inc.’s ability to continue as a going concern.'” – The New York Times
Robert Winter, Who Took Los Angeles Architecture And Its History Seriously, Has Died At 94
Winter made the city’s architecture come alive for the people he taught (at Occidental) and those he took on quirky, packed bus tours of the city he adopted. “Winter’s gift to the city was An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles, a field guide of sorts that identified, cheered and occasionally mocked L.A.’s diverse architecture. The book, now in its sixth edition, was embraced as a bible by many.” – Los Angeles Times
Blackface Was Never Harmless
Yes, minstrel shows started in the 19th century – and were one of the U.S.’s first popular forms of entertainment. But they were never seen as harmless, at least not by African Americans. “Frederick Douglass decried blackface performers as ‘the filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied to them by nature, in which to make money, and pander to the corrupt taste of their white fellow citizens.'” – The Atlantic
The Lincoln Memorial Is Iconic, But It Might Have Been Very Different
So many things could have gone wrong. For instance: “As ideally situated as it seems today, many officials charged with building the Memorial did not want to locate it at West Potomac Park, the once-marshy fringe of Washington’s National Mall. Bizarre alternative proposals included Virginia’s Arlington Cemetery—in the former Confederacy.” Then let’s talk about the statue. – The Wall Street Journal
It’s Great To Have A Diverse Cast, But What About The Writers?
The BBC has a new series about a Chinese family running a restaurant – but the writers aren’t from the community. Writers and actors from film, TV, and theatre have signed a letter that “calls for all scripts on the series, called Living With the Lams, to be authored by British East Asian Writers.” – The Stage (UK)
Dave Smith, Disney’s Archivist And The Keeper Of The Company’s Secrets, Has Died
The man with expert knowledge on everything in the company’s past has died at 78. “In an industry that’s notorious for neglecting its past, Smith stood out as perhaps the most respected, if unheralded, member of a small group of in-house studio historians. Smith is credited with helping Hollywood understand the cultural value of its past, starting at Disney in 1970 when rival studios were auctioning or dumping their histories.” – Los Angeles Times