Category: people

This is how it all began: “Ms. Hall was enjoying moderate success as a singer and songwriter when, developing an idea first hatched during a dinner party conversation, she, Peter Masterson and Larry L. King created Best Little Whorehouse, a comedy based on an article Mr. King had written in 1974 for Playboy. It concerned the moralistic efforts to close down a real-life Texas brothel known as the Chicken Ranch (because some customers paid in chickens) that had operated for years.”

Almeida had a signature technique of inserting herself into her art, whether that was video, photography, performance art or other media. “‘I turn myself into a drawing,’ she said by way of describing her art. ‘My body as a drawing, myself as my own work.'”

It’s been a hard year for the director, who shot to fame as the creator of Amazon’s Transparent, and whose star – Jeffrey Tambor – was fired last year, halting production on the series. But as Soloway and their sister Faith work on a musical version of Transparent, things have gotten back into gear: “So good. … Oh my God, that’s amazing. I’m feeling it! You guys did that so fast! Guys, it’s all happening.”

There were few details on how the company will depict the story of Messi, and his rise from a boy from Rosario, Argentina, who overcame a growth-hormone deficiency to a star at Spain’s F.C. Barcelona — and perhaps the best player in soccer history.

“[She] was widely considered one of Portugal’s most significant postwar artists, and … earned international recognition starting in the 1970s for her striking black-and-white images, which often portrayed impossible acts — the artist with pen making lines midair, or erasing herself with blue brushstrokes — to challenge the limitations of media.”

Ordinarily, the fact that a celebrated pop star would offer her thoughts on the political scene wouldn’t attract all that much attention. What is different in Swift’s case is that, at least until now, she has scrupulously avoided partisan politicking, to the point where she has been denounced for her “political silence.” In an Instagram post, she explained that recent events had led her to become more open about her political beliefs, and I’m sure that’s true. More interesting to me—I confess I’m not an expert on Swift’s inner life—is what her intervention tells us about the larger cultural and political landscape.

“I am exacting, and I push. If someone has the talent they have the RIGHT to be temperamental. They complained about Bette Midler when she was doing Dolly, but she wouldn’t be exciting if she wasn’t temperamental. It’s only the ones who don’t have the talent and are temperamental who make you say, ‘Just get out of here!'”

He made a number of well-regarded animated shorts (including one Oscar winner) and one feature film (The Adventures of Mark Twain), but the project that really made his career was the California Raisins, four Motown-singin’ dried grapes whose television commercials for the California Raisin Advisory Board in the 1980s’ and ’90s became huge pop-culture hits. (Michael Jackson even called Vinton to ask if he could be a raisin.)

The Globe is announcing today that it has finally replaced Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Sebastian Smee, who left for the Post nearly a year ago. The Globe’s new critic is Murray Whyte, currently at The Star of Toronto, whose arrival in Boston, I’m told, was delayed because of immigration issues.

“Richard Meier’s six-month leave of absence from the firm he founded, which began after five women came forward in March to accuse him of sexual misconduct, has become more permanent. Richard Meier & Partners Architects announced today that its founder would ‘step back from day-to-day activities’ at the firm.”