Yael Stone, who plays Lorna on Orange Is the New Black, says the actor danced naked around her dressing room, watched her while she showered, and sent inappropriate text messages. (Rush says it was all about “the spirited enthusiasm I generally bring to my work.”) – The New York Times
Blog
This Year’s Movie Trend Is The Revival Of The Rom-Com
The teen rom-com, that is, revived by Netflix and Love, Simon to incorporate old tropes and new characters – including a Korean American nerd, a gay boy on the cusp of coming out, and a fat girl not as punchlines but as the protagonists of their own love stories. – BuzzFeed
Putin Says Russia Should ‘Take Charge Of’ Youth Culture And Rap Music
That’s not ominous or dictator-like at all. And of course, as the article says, “The Russian government has long had a complicated relationship with music.” – BBC
Bryan Tyree Henry’s Breakout Year
Though he was already a star in the TV show Atlanta, not to mention a turn in the movie Widows, Henry is finding acclaim in Moonlight director Barry Jenkins’ new movie, If Beale Street Could Talk. “He can be agile and profound, menacing and open, composed and undone. Put more plainly, Brian Tyree Henry has the range.” – The Atlantic
Spain’s Lost Decade Of The Arts
Since the economic crash, the arts in Spain have suffered massive hits – and then there’s the internet. “Between 2007 and 2017, one out of every three musical performances and a quarter of the film showings have disappeared, according to the SGAE 2018 report. There is no cultural activity that does not register a decrease in performances (from 17% of classical music to 57% of the dance) and tickets sold (between 7% and 47%).” – El País (Spain)
The Los Angeles School District Will Whitewash A Mural Accused Of Being Racist
The mural, by Brooklyn artist Beau Stanton, features Ava Gardner with a radiating starburst behind her head. And in a 16-page letter sent to the LA Unified School District last month, a neighborhood coalition president objected strenuously to the starburst as a symbol of Imperial Japan. The Times‘ art critic: “Given the motif’s architectural roots in Art Deco design, the prominence of stylized light beams in nostalgic wall murals is hardly surprising.” – Los Angeles Times
Is Netflix Going To Work As A Movie Studio?
It’s like Lifetime! Or Hallmark! But wait, it’s got prestige movies! And hey, there are documentaries! And animated movie! And … whoa, Netflix, what are you even doing? A lot. “The number of annual Netflix film releases climbs to about 90. To compare, Universal, one of Hollywood’s most prolific traditional studios, releases roughly 30 movies a year.” – The New York Times
A Writer On His Year Of Reading Fiction By African Women
At last year’s The Guardian holiday party, one of The Guardian‘s journalists realized that he was years behind in reading books by African women. So he dove in – and found stories of polygamy, migration, politics, and much more. – The Guardian (UK)
How Did Peter Jackson Make 100-Year-Old Black And White WWI Footage Look New?
The director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy was given about 100 hours of film from the time period – some of it sped up, some of it in terrible disrepair, all of it black and white. First, he and his team restored all of the footage. Then, they “retimed the footage, speeding up the frame rate, adding extra frames digitally and smoothing out the movement.” – The New York Times
The Artist Who Put Lighted Massive Slugs Outside Tate Britain Says She Wants To Keep People’s Morale Up
Monster Chetwynd wanted to undermine saccharine holiday art – and work with bioluminescence. “If you let people believe they can do something, it’s more likely to happen. Depressing people stops them taking action. A lot of what I do is deliberately uplifting for that reason.” – The Observer (UK)