Category: media

For actresses who want a shot at a statuette, playing a sex worker, as Marisa Tomei does in “The Wrestler,” could be just the ticket. “Historically, there have been fewer edgy roles for women, and the world’s oldest profession — prostitution — offers a natural corollary to another time-tested role, the male criminal. Another reason: Inherently flawed characters, who possess what some might see as mental, moral or physical imperfections, make for more courageous acting performances.”

“They’re a little too old to give up potato chips, Guitar Hero or Red Bull for Lent. But as Christian parents ponder an appropriate sacrifice, they find themselves mulling a choice they’d have once seen as preposterous: A Facebook fast — not for their teens but for themselves.”

If the movie they came from was a hit, the props could have quite an afterlife. Nobody wants mementos of, say, Heaven’s Gate, but Dorothy’s ruby slippers and Rocky’s boxing gloves are in the Smithsonian; Steven Spielberg paid $60,500 for Rosebud and the Ten Commandments tablets went for $81,700. (Bargains can, however, be had.)

“Television ratings for awards shows are on the decline. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t interested at all in the spectacle of Hollywood congratulating itself. They’re just getting their awards-show information the same way they’re getting all their other news: online.”

“Elton John’s Rocket Pictures is developing a new spin on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this time featuring a nefarious seven-foot extraterrestrial with hideous mandibles and a penchant for human blood. Yes, it’s Pride and Predator.”

“Hollywood studios are bidding to turn a radical reworking of Austen’s most popular book, now called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a parody to be published in April, into a blockbuster movie. […] It has been made possible only because Austen is out of copyright.”

“Canadian arts groups say the time has come to protect homegrown content by making Internet distributors obey the same rules applied to radio and television broadcasters.” The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission “exempted new media from regulation in 1999, when few households had access to high-speed Internet connections and in 2007 it also gave a free pass to content broadcast to mobile devices.”

“Radio stations will pay lower fees through 2010 to recording artists and labels for streaming music on the Internet under an agreement with the organization that collects royalties. The deal between SoundExchange and the National Association of Broadcasters, announced yesterday, replaces government-set rates called too high by providers of music over the Internet.”

“In a jolt to the independent film world, Geoffrey Gilmore has resigned his longtime post as director of the Sundance Film Festival to become the creative director of Tribeca Enterprises, a New York company that includes the Tribeca Film Festival among its ventures. The move promises to realign two of independent cinema’s most powerful institutions.”