Category: issues

Pine is new to philanthropy, according to the donor, and did not set out to support any particular causes. “I was just thinking that I wanted to use my bitcoin for good in this world.” But several themes emerged. Pine made a point of showering largess on relatively obscure organizations, bestowing cash on a few high-profile groups — the American Civil Liberties Union’s political arm and Charity: Water each received $2 million — but mostly on small organizations and those working on complicated issues that might not attract average donors.

“[Jon Parrish] Peede, a scholar of Southern literature by training, was publisher of the Virginia Quarterly Review from 2011 to 2016, and has also worked in various capacities at the National Endowment for the Arts, the [National Endowment of the Humanities’] sister agency. He has been serving as the agency’s acting director since May.”

Lincoln Center announced in the fall that it was pulling the plug on the Lincoln Center Festival, the multidisciplinary summer festival it had presented since 1996. Officials said that the move was partly intended to save money, … but there was also a desire to consolidate programming: Lincoln Center Festival was in some ways essentially competing with Mostly Mozart, which had expanded its range in recent years.”

Pam Breaux of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies: Overall, state governments invest $357.5 million in state arts agencies; that represents about $1.08 per capita.  During fiscal year 2018, legislative appropriations to state arts agencies decreased by 2.4%; yet, there are distinctions among the states.  Twenty-two state arts agencies reported increases in 2018; fifteen reported flat funding, and nineteen reported decreases (50 states and 6 jurisdictions total).  The most significant revenue challenge faced by state arts agencies is that they’re inextricably linked to fluctuations in state tax coffers.

When she won for best actress in a motion picture, McDormand gave a short, fiery speech that ended with “I have two words for you: Inclusion rider.” Those two words sent millions to Google, but there wasn’t much there (at the time). An inclusion rider would be “something actors put into their contracts to ensure gender and racial equality in hiring on movie sets.”

Sheen, whose major roles include roles in Frost/Nixon and The Queen, “said the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns showed that there is ‘clearly a moment happening’ but ‘we have to make sure that this doesn’t just remain a moment'”

Yes, Ryan Seacrest has been accused of sexual harassment, which makes E!’s chances of getting good red carpet time at the Oscars slightly less good than they were before (actors appear to be planning not to talk to him, though we’ll see), but also? “A female producer is claiming employment discrimination after getting fired, she said, for letting a clip critical of the network air during the Golden Globes.” (And THAT clip was critical of the network for paying a woman co-host about half – half! – of what they paid her male counterpart.)

Her last lawsuit against Hollywood made case law, establishing protection for workers in personal services contracts – and helped break the studio system. Now, if this lawsuit against FX and Ryan Murphy goes anywhere, it will also be huge: “That upends the film industry, the TV industry, the video game industry. Anyone who is trying to make stories based on true events with real people are not going to be able to do so without permission.”

“For decades, artists have been using horror to speak to our deepest societal fears, from the wilderness (werewolves) to the unknown (aliens). With zombies, that fear is infection: the outbreak of some terrible epidemic that sweeps the world, rendering us all into the drooling, flesh-eating monster next door. … Why have these outbreak narratives infected the public conversation? And how have they affected the way we see the world?” (podcast)