Though he came out of the theater – he attended Yale Drama and the Actors Studio and directed on Broadway – his greatest impact was in opera: he was renowned (and occasionally infamous) for his daring interpretations and the high level of acting he drew from singers, especially at New York City Opera during its glory years.
Category: people
How Josephine Baker Spied On The Nazis
“Baker flitted back and forth between Casablanca and Lisbon, Seville, Madrid, and Barcelona. Between performances, she accepted invitations to parties and embassy functions, where she hobnobbed with the elite and diplomats. And as she bantered over champagne and twirled around the dance floor, she continued her intelligence gathering.”
Martin Amis In America: “I’ve Mellowed Somewhat”
If America is, for Amis, an easier place in which to grow old – fewer critics, for a start – he retains an expectation that he and his wife will move home one day. “I miss the English,” he says. “I miss Londoners. I miss the wit. Americans, they’re very, well, de Tocqueville saw this coming in about 1850 – he said, it’s a marvellous thing, American democracy, but don’t they know how it’s going to end up? It’s going to be so mushy that no one will dare say anything for fear of offending someone else.
Liz Smith, Longtime Tabloid Queen Of Gossip, Has Died At 94
Basically, she knew it all, at least everything in New York. “From hardscrabble nights writing snippets for a Hearst newspaper in the 1950s to golden afternoons at Le Cirque with Sinatra or Hepburn and tête-à-tête dinners with Madonna to gather material for columns that ran six days a week, Ms. Smith captivated millions with her tattletale chitchat and, over time, ascended to fame and wealth that rivaled those of the celebrities she covered.”
How Should Hollywood Stop Abusers And The Culture Of Abuse?
Judd Apatow: “How are we going to decide who we shouldn’t work with? But in the most extreme cases, it seems pretty clear. We shouldn’t be making TV shows with Bill Cosby. We shouldn’t be putting on new shows with Bill O’Reilly. We shouldn’t be starring in movies produced by Harvey Weinstein. There are cases which are also complicated, and everybody has their own set of ethics about it, and those debates will continue. But there are very clear cases where people are getting hurt, and their lives are being ruined by people.”
Louis C.K. Accused By Five Women Of Sexual Misbehavior Unfit For Headlines (Ick)
“Now, after years of unsubstantiated rumors about [the star comedian]masturbating in front of associates, women are coming forward to describe what they experienced. Even amid the current burst of sexual misconduct accusations against powerful men, the stories about Louis C.K. stand out because he has so few equals in comedy. … And [he] built a reputation as the unlikely conscience of the comedy scene, by making audiences laugh about hypocrisy – especially male hypocrisy.”
On Tour With The Muslim World’s Number-One Teen Idol Pop Star
From Lebanon to Sweden to England to Indonesia to Turkey (President Erdoğan is a fan), 36-year-old Maher Zain draws enormous, cheering crowds and 100 million YouTube views every month. All this with music that’s as wholesome, in its Muslim way, as Donny Osmond or Amy Grant. “I don’t want to live this life, basically. I really don’t,” he says. “I believe I’m on a mission and you cannot turn it down, you know what I mean? I’ve been chosen.”
Director Of New York’s Armory Show Ousted After Complaints By Eight Women
“In interviews, a total of eight who had worked with him at the Armory Show, Artnet and Louise Blouin Media said he made sexually inappropriate comments to them, and an additional 11 people said they had observed or knew about Mr. Genocchio making these comments, often in the workplace.”
Here’s Pakistan’s Martha Stewart (Only More Famous)
“Zubaida Aapa – the Urdu honorific for elder sister- is a homemaker, turned TV star, turned domestic goddess, and the closest thing Pakistan has to Martha Stewart, but with Stewart’s fame dialed up to 11. Since the nineties, … [Zubaida] Tariq has taught generations of homemakers how to raise their children, clean their homes, and make parathas. She has authored at least six cookbooks, doled out countless home remedies (totkas in Urdu) for kitchen, home, and child, and left satire in the wake of her outsize celebrity.”
The Highs And Lows Of Shepard Fairey’s Eventful Decade
Mr. Fairey has gone from great heights to dramatic lows in the last decade. He’s risen from cult figure to cultural reference point on “The Simpsons” to committing what he now calls his biggest blunder during the course of the A.P. lawsuit when he lied to his lawyers about exactly which A.P. photograph he used as the source of the “Hope” image and deleted files from his computer to cover up the truth.