Category: media

The Local Television Satellite Solution that provided free service to Canadians who lost signals when TV transitioned from analog to digital in 2011 could end this year. – CBC

It’s the festival’s “sensibility” that must be maintained, after all. (Cue eyerolls.) “If your shoes are deemed unworthy of the Cannes red carpet, you can console yourself with the thought that not only the celebrities must dress up for occasion, but also the press photographers who crowd the adjacent gantries. Yes, they, too, have to wear black tie.” – The New York Times

The drama cleaned up in several categories, including best supporting actress, best actress, and best drama series. See the full list of winners, including Benedict Cumberbatch over Hugh Grant, at the link. – Variety

Gushi FM is a show that strains at the boundaries of acceptable in a highly censored society. “A worker for a Chinese construction company describes a harrowing escape from war in Libya in an episode titled ‘I Shot an AK-47 at Them.’ A young man recounts accompanying his ailing father to Switzerland to die by assisted suicide. A lesbian tells of her decision to enter a marriage of convenience to a gay man.” – The New York Times

Lillian Gish appeared in more than 100 movies, but one stands out as a dangerous, racist movie that inspired the spread of the Ku Klux Klan – The Birth of a Nation. And she never seemed to get what the problem was. So “the trustees of a student union in Ohio have voted unanimously to remove the name of Gish and her sister Dorothy from a university cinema” – with an explanatory display explaining the reasons for the change. – The Guardian (UK)

Whew, Friday’s cancellation news was intense, so bad that Vulture called it a “bloodbath.” What’s left? Fresh Off the Boat got renewed – but star Constance Wu flat-out stated that was nothing to be happy about. So everything’s great right now in sitcom land. – Vulture

This seems … weird: The fewer people watch, the more money comes in from ads? But OK: “A strong economy has sustained robust ad spending in recent years. But another reason the upfront pot keeps growing, analysts say, is that shrinking ratings drive up the price of reaching viewers who still watch the networks the old-fashioned way — now known in the industry as ‘linear television.'” – Los Angeles Times

While actual prop money is pretty well regulated, let’s just say there’s a lot of fake prop (or fake fake) money flooding the market. By the way, with prop money, “One type is for ‘fanning, flashing, raining, counting’; a more expensive variety is for close-ups” (& perhaps fooling cashiers). – The Atlantic

One Second, set during the Cultural Revolution, is said by people who’ve seen it to be Zhang’s best movie in years and a sure bet to take a prize in Berlin or Cannes. Yet, even though the completed film was approved by the censors of China’s national film board, officials have blocked it from being shown at festivals — because, say insiders, the government doesn’t want international attention drawn to the subject matter. – The Hollywood Reporter

Says one, who worked on Mortal Kombat 11 all through last year and came out of it with a PTSD diagnosis, “I’d have these extremely graphic dreams, very violent. I kind of just stopped wanting to go to sleep, so I’d just keep myself awake for days at a time, to avoid sleeping. … The scary part was always the point at which new people on the project got used to it.” – Kotaku