“In this edited conversation, Ben Brantley, co-chief theater critic for The Times, and the critics Elisabeth Vincentelli and Jason Zinoman aim to make sense of Mr. van Hove’s ascent, from Off Broadway to a Tony Award, David Bowie to All About Eve.” — The New York Times
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Study: Older People Share More Fake News
Older users skewed the findings: 11 percent of users older than 65 shared a hoax, while just 3 percent of users 18 to 29 did. Facebook users ages 65 and older shared more than twice as many fake news articles than the next-oldest age group of 45 to 65, and nearly seven times as many fake news articles as the youngest age group (18 to 29). – The Verge
When The First Lesbian Novel Was Banned, Its Author Got Support From All Over The Globe
Following a particularly nasty campaign from certain book critics, Radclyffe Hall’s 1928 novel The Well of Loneliness was blocked from publication and circulation in the UK as “obscene libel.” But thousands of letters poured in to Hall from supporters; one such read, “No one could finish your book, Miss Hall, without donning a sword and shield forever in the cause of inverts.” — The Guardian
Hollywood’s Next Stage Theatre Closes After 30 Years
It was a theatre committed to helping theatre artists work. The theater would allow people to come in with their scripts and put them up with no upfront costs, which is an unusual approach in the L.A. theater scene. In return, the theater would take half of the door proceeds. – LAist
The Design Of A Book’s Interior Is As Important, And As Tricky, As That Of Its Cover
As print designer Jordan Wannemacher says, “You have to have a really strong grid, you have to consider the practical physical nature of the package (is there enough room for your hands to hold the pages on the margins? will the type of binding make elements close to the gutter disappear?), you have to design anywhere from 20-200+ unique elements while ensuring they are all cohesive and unified.” — Spine
The Truth Behind The Genesis Of Monty Python’s ‘Spamalot’ (An Oral History)
It all started years before, when Eric Idle told Mel Brooks he wanted to do a musical version of The Producers. Brooks rejected the idea — then. When he changed his mind later and made gobs of money, Idle decided he could do the same thing. (Well, that’s how Idle tells it …) — Vulture
Female Film Composers Are Even More Underrepresented Than Female Directors And Screenwriters
“A 2018 study … revealed that for the top 100 fictional films at the box office every year from 2007 to 2017, only 16 female composers were hired, compared with more than 1,200 men.” And yet, says composer Laura Karpman, a governor of the Motion Picture Academy, “The numbers are bleak, but the landscape isn’t. People are reaching out in a way that I’ve never seen it my whole career.” Reporter Tim Greiving meets a few of the women trying to break this particular glass ceiling. — The New York Times
Did Tony Soprano Die? The Two Guys Who Wrote ‘The Sopranos Sessions’ Hash It Out
Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall, who were the TV critics at Tony’s hometown paper (The Star-Ledger) when the series ran on HBO and who have just released a major book about the show for its 20th anniversary, lay their arguments over this subject on the line. — Vulture
‘Salvator Mundi’ And The Mueller Probe And Russian Collusion? Really??
Public TV Network In Oklahoma Cuts Ties With Foundation That Raises Money For It
“Yesterday, in a unanimous vote, the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA), a PBS affiliate, elected to cut ties with its thirty-year independent charitable fundraising partner, the OETA Foundation. … Their relationship has soured in a public enough fashion that the foundation believed it could take its case to court, suing OETA, its birth parent, over control of the foundation.” — Nonprofit Quarterly