Category: people

“To be honest I don’t look back with great satisfaction at all the various people I’ve been over the decades,” he says. “In fact I often shake my head in dismay at the immaturity and puerile view of life and have the greatest compassion for young people who are going through these same stages.”

“Three men dragged him into a black car in the Caochangdi art district of north Beijing and drove away. Wen Tao, 38, has been missing for seven weeks now, his detention just a few hours shorter than that of the world-renowned artist. Yet his case has barely been reported. It has sparked no protests overseas; no politicians have stood up to condemn it.”

“Von Trier’s film Melancholia was already sold to most markets, on the basis of the director’s reputation and its acceptance in the Cannes competition. On Wednesday, its Argentine distributor reneged on its deal to distribute the film and issued a public statement.”

“Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier was booted out of the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday for a bizarre, rambling news conference in which he said he sympathizes with Adolf Hitler.” Von Trier’s current film remains in competition, but he will not be allowed to attend the awards ceremony.

“Long before it was trendy for pro athletes to dabble in training regimens outside their comfort zone,” the one-time New York City Ballet star and founding director of Miami City Ballet, “was the ultimate cross-trainer. A child dancing prodigy forced by his parents to put his ballet aspirations on hold … Villella needed a physical outlet. So [he] took up boxing.”

It’s one thing to titillate progressive theatergoers with scenes of physical abuse and psychological torture and lines like “You’re f–ing f–ed.” But David Mamet had at last gone too far. He’d turned into a f–ing Republican.

Gubaidulina’s substantial oeuvre — well over a hundred pieces to date — cannot be summed up succinctly, but her music has earned a reputation for earnestness since she first achieved international recognition in the 1980s.

“The 71-year-old actor, well known for his roles in hit Australian films Muriel’s Wedding, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Strictly Ballroom, was admitted to the hospice two days ago” with late-stage cancer.

The now-deposed First Lady of Egypt has a new (and apolitical) memoir out: “Read Me a Book: The Story of Egypt’s First Lady and Her Grandson. (That grandson, named Mohammed, died in 2009 at age 12.)

For many years an associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Gems became best known for a series of plays that “reconsidered the lives of iconic women” – works that included the international success Piaf as well as Queen Christina and an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s Camille.