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Good Art From Bad People And The Dangers Of The #MeToo Moment

Charles McNulty: “Directors who have taken advantage of the casting couch, actors who have grotesquely exploited their stardom, conductors who have preyed on their young charges deserve to have the rug pulled out from under them. If the work they’ve done lives on, it will do so apart from the memory of their shameful deeds. This will take time. … But like many who feel a pang of obligation to due process, I can’t help wondering if in the collective rush to right historical wrongs we aren’t in danger of losing sight of other values. Justice, as symbolized by the scales, is an art of delicate calibration. But watershed movements aren’t subtle. They can’t afford to be.”

Woman Who Created ‘Shitty Media Men’ Spreadsheet, About To Be Outed, Comes Forward, Reveals What’s Happened To Her Since

“A slew of think pieces ensued, with commentators alternately condemning the document as reckless, malicious, or puritanically anti-sex. Many called the document irresponsible, emphasizing that since it was anonymous, false accusations could be added without consequence. … Eventually, some media companies conducted investigations into employees who appeared on the spreadsheet; some of those men left their jobs or were fired. None of this was what I thought was going to happen. … It was intended specifically not to inflict consequences, not to be a weapon – and yet, once it became public, many people immediately saw it as exactly that.”

CBC Radio Bans Charles Dutoit’s Name But Not His Recordings

A spokeswoman for the national broadcaster wrote in response to a query, “While the allegations made towards Charles Dutoit are serious, we truly believe that removing these recordings entirely from our broadcasts would unjustly diminish the efforts of the many talented musicians who are featured in them. At this point, we are no longer crediting Mr. Dutoit as conductor.”

Gardner Museum Extends $10 Million Reward For Info About Stolen Art

“The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum … doubled the reward to $10 million last May, but said at the time it would revert back to $5 million on Jan. 1 if no one came forward to collect the windfall before then. When announcing the increased reward with an expiration date, museum officials said they hoped it would send an urgent message to anyone withholding information about the artwork’s whereabouts and dispel any doubts about their intention to pay it.” That tactic didn’t work, and so the offer has been extended indefinitely.

How Josie Rourke Changed The Donmar, London’s Little Theatre Powerhouse

“Her predecessors at the Donmar, Michael Grandage and Sam Mendes, had turned the 251-seat venue in Covent Garden into an international player, through movie-star casting and regular West End and Broadway transfers. Although thrilled to be the first woman to run a central London theatre, Rourke knew the risk of becoming a theatrical equivalent of John Major after Margaret Thatcher or Gordon Brown after Tony Blair. After a nervous start, she made the theatre her own with a programme that forefronted women – notably Phyllida Lloyd’s magnificent trilogy imagining Shakespeare tragedies as performed by female prisoners – and politics.”