Foster, who served in the Korean War and helped produce movies including the Oscar-nominated McCabe and Mrs. Miller, “was part of the migration from New York to L.A. where Hollywood was Shangri La. He was a classic poor kid from an immigrant family and he always felt really privileged and couldn’t believe he was in Hollywood.” – Los Angeles Times
Blog
On The Internet, Anyone Can Be A Catfish
But a new show (not so ironically called the same thing as Dave Eggers’ book satirizing social media) displays exactly how much we’re all implicated in a world filled with flurries of hashtags, emojis, and GIFs. – The New York Times
At The Beginning Of The Decade, Celebrities Were Worried About Paparazzi
In 2011, “the industry itself was broken, transformed from a system of honor and veneration into one of shame and denigration, which treated its products as little more than commodities to be bought and traded.” Then Instagram happened. “In the end, the solution was so straightforward. Celebrities simply became their own paparazzi.” – BuzzFeed
Are These Los Angeles Stereotypes A Silly Pastiche Or An Affectionate Sendup That Goes Deep?
On the Netflix show You, a character from New York moves to L.A. – and you can guess what happens next. (Macrobiotic coffee shops! Stand-up comedy moments! “Aspiring Instagrammers live-streaming on the streets!”) – Los Angeles Times
French Theatre’s Conflicts Are Starting To Fray The Humans On All Sides
This is bad. “From Bethune to Dijon, noted directors landed in the National Drama Centers – devoted to theatrical creation – thinking they were touching the Grail: a place and means to make their work exist on a large scale in the service of the greatest number. They discovered companies that were cumbersome to maneuver, using tools that were often obsolete or to renovate, and subsidies at half mast.” Now it’s all lawyers and consultants. – Le Monde
Audible And Publishers May Soon Reach A Deal About Those ‘Captions’
Remember when this lawsuit started, and we discovered that Audible was transcribing every word that its readers – who were, presumably, usually, reading the book word for word – read aloud, in other words, recreating the entire book through “captions”? Settlement may come as early as January 13. (Meanwhile, Audible – that is, Amazon – defends its right to do just this recreation of the book with its own service.) – Publishers Weekly
Europe’s Utter Failure To Protect Liberty In Hungary
Why hasn’t the EU acted to curb Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s clearly problematic takeover of the media? (Or theatre, for that matter?) Well. “European countries have dragged their feet with Hungary’s Article 7 investigation, reluctant to question a fellow member state over an issue—media policy and regulation—that many European governments believe is a national matter. Were they to carry out an aggressive inquiry, that could set a precedent for investigations into their own domestic issues.” – The Atlantic
The New York Times’ Highlights Of This Year In Books
There’s so much – so many Best lists, so many ideas about gifts, so many essays about types in books – and then … “What have tweets and emojis done to the novel? According to the writer Charles Finch, the digital age has ushered in new ways of reading — and revived old ones (the scroll and the ideogram). But could it also explain the rise of autofiction?” – The New York Times
Using Big Data To Compare The Various ‘Little Women’ Adaptations
Right off the bat, you can say that Greta Gerwig’s version will make the most money. Then there’s the height of the actors playing the little women. – Slate
The Bet: That Dancing On A Blind Date Is Inherently More Sexy, Or At Least More Flirty
Yes, it’s a made-for-reality-TV concept that indeed is reality TV in Britain and now in the US: “Without speaking, or even knowing each other’s names, two strangers share a choreographed dance — they learn their parts independently in advance — and get to know each other through movement alone.” – The New York Times