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Silent-Film Superstar ‘Baby Peggy’, Diana Serra Cary, Dead At 101

“Born Peggy-Jean Montgomery, she became one of the country’s youngest self-made millionaires by age 4, then suffered a devastating reversal of fortune and fame in her adolescence. In adulthood, she rebounded with a new name, Diana Serra Cary, and became a respected author of books on Hollywood film history. In her autumnal years, at screenings of her few extant films, she found herself embraced as a movie pioneer.” – The Washington Post

David Mamet Tries Out A Play As Quietly As Possible In L.A. The L.A. Times’s Critic Found Out About It Anyway

Charles McNulty: “I’m going to respect the tacit wishes of Mamet and not review the play as I would if it had had an official press opening. A work that’s still being tinkered with before it’s shipped to New York deserves the chance to evolve in peace even if it’s charging $50 a ticket to L.A. theatergoers. But the experience reminded me of what I admire about Mamet’s talent — the vigor and cunning of voices in all-out attack — and what I have found so off-putting since Oleanna — the stacking of the deck in ideological blood battles.” – Los Angeles Times

The Real Problem With That Open Letter Supporting The Fired Lyon Ballet Director Wasn’t Who Did Or Didn’t Agree To Sign It

“Unthinkingly defending one’s powerful friends has real-life consequences. What [illegally fired dancer Karline] Marion, and other dancers who may find themselves in a similar situation, will take away from this letter is that there is no winning against a well-connected director. Even if you gather the necessary evidence, play by the rules, and wait, the people you most admire may still call you crazy and obfuscate.” – Dance Magazine

Philadelphia Museum Of Art Retail Exec Abused And Hit Staffers For Two Years Before He Was Fired

“After [James A.] Cincotta was hired as the museum’s retail director in 2015, staffers who worked for him began reporting what they said was routinely abusive behavior. Cincotta slapped, punched, pinched, shoved, grabbed, and verbally berated workers, according to interviews with 14 current and former museum employees.” The museum investigated complaints against him in 2016, but he was not dismissed until 2018. – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Plácido Domingo Sexually Harassed And Abused Power For More Than 20 Years, Inquiry Finds

“The investigation, conducted by lawyers hired by the American Guild of Musical Artists, concluded that the accounts from 27 people showed a clear pattern of sexual misconduct and abuse of power by Domingo spanning at least two decades … when he held senior management positions at Washington National Opera and Los Angeles Opera.” (Domingo has now issued a statement saying “I am truly sorry for the hurt that I caused them.”) – Yahoo! (AP)

Are You Sure The Person You’re Arguing With Online Is Real?

The sheer profusion of actors online has foreclosed their need to be real at all: the armies of bots and the Russian sockpuppets, the corporate tweeps and the AI deepfakes. One can just as easily get into a heated dispute with a bot account generating random replies, or with an automated customer-service agent matching inputs to outputs, as with a human foe who is frantically tapping words into a glass rectangle. – The Atlantic

Lind: Blame The Elite Managers For The Rise Of Global Populism

Once, Michael Lind observes, “trade unions, participatory political parties, and religious and civic organizations compelled university-educated managerial elites to share power with them or defer to their values.” But beginning in the 1970s, the managers “unilaterally abrogated” this power-sharing settlement. Now, “no longer restrained by working-class power,” the “metropolitan overclass” has, as Lind puts it, “run amok.” – Washington Post