Category: people

A Q&A with Malaysian cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, known as Zunar, who’s facing nine charges of sedition (so far), and up to 40 years in prison, for cartoons about the country’s embattled prime minister.

He was the first male alto to make a solo career in the U.S.; in the 1950s and ’60s he was at the forefront of the early music revival, singing everything from 12th-century English music through Bach and Handel (not to mention Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream). And he didn’t use falsetto; alto was his natural range.

His soft-focus nudes of 12- and 13-year-old girls were for many years at the center of “Is it art or is it porn?” debates. Last week, one of his former subjects, now a radio presenter in France, publicly accused him of raping her and claimed that other former models of his had similar stories.

“At issue is whether the 50 works — which include an 1881 painting by Claude Monet — should go to thousands of victims of the now-dead dictator, to the current Philippine government or to the personal secretary to Imelda Marcos, who contends she was rightfully given some of the art as gifts.”

Rowling is an entire industry. Books, movies, theme parks… she’s created an international creative franchise and everyone seems to celebrate her success. And she’s been rewarded. “A close look at Ms. Rowling’s sources of income suggests that she’s worth more than $1 billion, even allowing for a large margin of error.”

The lawyer Nina L. Shaw plays a behind-the-scenes part at getting artists a voice in their films – and getting them a bigger piece of the pie as well. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay (Selma, 13th) says, “She’s really a bit of a consigliere in all things.”

A production designer like his twin brother Robert, who designed “Chinatown” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” Paul Sylbert obsessively designed movies ranging from “Rosewood” to “Prince of Tides” to the movie for which he won an Oscar, “Heaven Can Wait.”

The much-respected director of a University of British Columbia writing program “was fired as creative writing chairman in June under a veil of secrecy.” The action galvanized star Canadian writers who rose in his defense. “He said in the statement issued Wednesday by his lawyers that the ‘harm flowing from UBC’s conduct’ has reached such a level that he asked his counsel to provide clarity. Galloway confirms that he was accused of sexual assault but says the only complaint substantiated by a former judge’s investigation was that he had an affair with a student.”

Ron Glass played Shepherd Book on ‘Firefly’ and its sequel movie, ‘Serenity,’ and he was also well known for his role on ‘Barney Miller.’ Twitter was alight on Saturday with grief and reminiscences.