Category: media

Ony Seven movies have earned as much. “With a box-office gross of $974,733,550 the 2001 film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the closest the young wizard has come to the billionaires club.”

The report “found that for each tax dollar allocated the local and state governments get back at least $1.13 in tax revenue, while the total GDP in the state will increase by $8.48.”

“Iran’s minister of cultural and Islamic guidance has attacked an upcoming BBC2 documentary series on the life of the founder of Islam, the prophet Muhammad, saying the ‘enemy’ was attempting to ‘ruin Muslims’ sanctity’.”

“The vaguely worded legislation that sought to impose punishments on stores selling violent video games to minors was shot down (destroyed by lasers?). While most of us would agree there are repulsive bits in many of the most popular video games (“Grand Theft Auto”) and watching too much is bad for children and other living things, we’ll decide for ourselves.”

It’s “the strangest prime time news line-up on cable television … a block of TV news that’s professionally produced, widely distributed – 20 million American cable subscribers can watch it if they like – and basically immune to market forces.”

“Where Egypt has its Sphinxes, Harlem has its theaters. Considering that the modern drama originated in the medieval church, and that nearly every star who ever headlined the Apollo Theater got his start singing in church, it’s appropriate that many of the great theaters of uptown have been preserved as houses of worship.”

“To go to a movie can feel, at times, like sitting for a test, as the images and stories unfold in a welter of information that lies just out of reach. Even spectacles that advertise their all-ages, universal accessibility — child-friendly animation sequels, say — traffic in winking allusions to various canons of cultural arcana.”

“Contrary to the old stereotype that older people are brand loyal, that’s not necessarily the case. The bottom line is, the 50-plus are watching TV and buying products and services, and advertisers ignore that at their peril.”

Current director James Mullighan had only four months to assemble ths year’s EFF, which has come under fire for a shrunken programme, fewer glamourous events and other issues. Mullighan would like to stay on, “but it is expected the post of artistic director will be advertised in early July.”

For television’s first couple of generations, detectives tended to be “a smug and self-assured bunch, comfortable in their mental, moral, and physical attributes and their obvious superiority over not only the bad guys, but everybody else, too. … Columbo was immediately relatable to us, to people the world over, in a way that no TV cop had ever been before … We’d all met guys like him. Many of us were guys like him.”