Category: people

“When Cooper talks about A Star Is Born being deeply personal, you can see why. It’s about art that crosses cultural lines, it’s about a love of music, and it’s about the conflict between art and fame, the way celebrity can box you in and interfere with artistic goals — like his desire to direct.” – Philadelphia Inquirer

Aras Amiri, a 33-year-old art student with Iranian nationality and British residence, worked for the British Council (roughly the equivalent of the Alliance Française or Goethe Institut). An Iranian official speaking on state television “claimed that she had confessed to working with Britain’s foreign intelligence agency on ‘cultural infiltration’ projects.” – Artforum

People in the field who were close to him, recalling him after his death, said that the warmth was innate and not for show. “You think of architects who seem to lead with their ego, and he was never like that,” said David Childs, a consulting design partner with SOM, a firm that often competed with Pei’s. “He was very generous to me when I was a 28-year-old kid.” – The New York Times

Shore, a stand-up comedian who opened for Elvis’ comeback and comeback tour, and for everyone from Barbra Streisand to Sammy Davis Jr. to Bobby Darin, spent the last 20 years touring with his son, comedian Pauly Shore. – Variety

Arkatov was “a child from Russia who landed in San Francisco, befriended violinist Isaac Stern — whose fame was still to come — took up the cello and decided to pour his life into making music.” He lived long enough to see the LA Chamber Orchestra’s 50th anniversary after it lived through a lot of adversity (and some earthquakes). – Los Angeles Times

Wouk shot to the top of the lists with The Caine Mutiny in 1951, and he remained there “for most of a career that extended past his 100th year thanks to page-turners like Marjorie Morningstar, Youngblood Hawke and the World War II epics The Winds of War and War and Remembrance.” – The New York Times

Nozkowski’s “small, insistent, richly hued abstractions upended the heroic scale of postwar New York art and helped push painting in a more accessible, personal and wryly self-aware direction.” – The New York Times

Kyo was discovered by a film scout in 1949 while she was performing in a dance revue. She worked with Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Teinosuke Kinugasa, and she continued to act until about 20 years ago. Kurosawa once said “he had been ‘left speechless’ by Ms. Kyo’s dedication to learning her craft.” – The New York Times

Performing at a comedy club in Naples, Fla., “[Egyptian-American comedian Ahmed] Ahmed asked if anyone of Middle Eastern descent was in the audience. After a few people clapped, Ahmed replied, ‘Hey, it only takes one of us’ followed by a pause. As the audience began to laugh, Ahmed added ‘to tell a joke.'” One audience member decided this was a threatening joke about terrorism and called 911. (includes audio of 911 call) – CBS Miami

When an early photo of this animal’s perpetual scowl appeared online and promptly went viral, her human, a Phoenix-area waitress named Tabatha Bundesen, was soon able to quit her job. Grumpy Cat — real name Tardar Sauce and reportedly very sweet and cuddly — became a meme-and-merchandise mini-industry. – The Washington Post