Category: people

Playwright Herb Gardner, who wrote hit Broadway comedies such as ‘A Thousand Clowns’ and the Tony-winning ‘I’m Not Rappaport,’ has died of lung cancer. He was 68.”

Mikhail Baryshnikov is selling his New Jersey home. “He has lowered the price on his 4-acre suburban retreat to $8 million from $9.5 million. The Palisades, N.Y., property, which went on the market in January, includes a 3,900-square-foot main house that dates to the 1870s. It has five bedrooms, 41/2 baths, a great room and sauna. “

“George Plimpton, the New York aristocrat and literary journalist whose career was a happy lifelong competition between scholarly pursuits and madcap attempts — chronicled in self-deprecating prose — to try his hand at glamorous jobs for which he was invariably unsuited, died yesterday at his home in Manhattan. He was 76.”

George Plimpton was an icon, but that’s not what makes his life so impressive, says Linton Weeks. What made Plimpton special was the way in which he could effortlessly bridge gaping cultural and societal divides, and in the process, become a respected figure to so many disparate elements of American society. He could hold his own in any intellectual discussion, and yet he had a rollicking sense of humor which is so often lacking in intellectuals. He could relate to the blue-collar nature of the NFL lineman, even as he prepared to lead a panel discussion on the New York literary scene. In short, Plimpton was a man for all seasons, in an era when such figures are increasingly rare.

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski is 80, and looks it. But the wiry little man, who has built a reputation as one of the world’s preeminent composers and conductors, is as full of energy as ever, and his latest symphony, which premieres this week in Minneapolis, has a decidedly angry bent, reflecting his frustration with the current lot of the arts in America. “For Skrowaczewski, the symphony reflects matters both public and private. In a recent conversation at Orchestra Hall, the conductor nearly exploded on hearing the name of President George W. Bush. ‘Stupid! He has spoiled the position of this country for decades,’ he said.”

Noted scholar Edward Said has died at the age of 67. “His writings have been translated into 26 languages and his most influential book, Orientalism (1978), was credited with forcing Westerners to re-examine their perceptions of the Islamic world. His works cover a plethora of other subjects, from English literature, his academic speciality, to music and culture.”

There is a long tradition, on the American political right, of taking potshots at academics, professors, and other assorted “eggheads.” In fact, mistrust of the academic elite is practically gospel amongst conservative opinion leaders, and former U.S. president Richard Nixon was no exception. Nixon was famous for his conviction that the “so-called intellectuals” were plotting against him. But Nixon had a decidedly intellectual side himself, as it turns out. Always resentful of the second-class education he had received, Nixon was a voracious reader throughout his life, and even struck up friendships with some of the “eggheads” he so publicly reviled.

The director of the National Gallery of Canada has come under fire for some $600,000 in travel expenses over the past six years. Questions are being raised by members of the Canadian Alliance party in parliament.

Singer Hayley Westenra is now 16, and “has a £3 million, five-album deal under her belt, to which, this week, she added the fastest selling debut classical record of all time. Pure, her third album (though the first to be released internationally) sold nearly 20,000 copies last week, beating anything Charlotte Church has managed – or Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli or Russell Watson, for that matter. She is also at number eight in the mainstream pop album charts, wedged between Daniel Bedingfield and the Black Eyed Peas.”

Jean-Paul Sartre is getting a fresh look in France these days. But which Satre? “More than two decades after his death, French intellectuals are trying to reconcile the two Sartres. In the cafes of Paris, the question ‘Êtes-vous Sartrien?’ is once again being heard. Recently, a new biography of Sartre and several homages to his career have become best sellers in France. One of them, Bernard-Henri Lévy’s Sartre: The Philosopher of the Twentieth Century, has just been brought out here in English. What is taking place is a rehabilitation of sorts, and it isn’t hard to see what’s behind it.”