Category: people

He turned Munich’s struggling Constantin Film into a European powerhouse and produced an extraordinary range of films, from The Never-Ending Story to The Name of the Rose to Last Exit to Brooklyn to The Baader-Meinhof Gang to Smilla’s Sense of Snow to the controversial Hitler biopic Downfall.

“Among the 35 people killed in the bomb attack on Moscow’s Domodedovo airport … was the young playwright Anna Yablonskaya. She was travelling to Moscow from her home town, Odessa, to receive a prize for her most recent play, Pagans.“

“You know, if Lady Gaga and Dorothy Parker had a secret love child it would have been Gypsy. … Gypsy would show up at the Met wearing a full length cape made entirely of orchids and here Lady Gaga is showing up wearing a cloak made of meat.”

“It’s possible that Price’s lack of historical and/or sociological Big Themes hurt him with the critics; in academia, certainly, his books received far less attention than those by, say, Flannery O’Connor or Walker Percy … Considering Price’s career today, you feel a sense of slight disappointment or, if you prefer, underappreciation.”

Mr. Ai spends six to eight hours each day online, largely on Twitter. His blog was blocked long ago. “I’m totally banned in China. Nobody can talk about me or my work,” he says, stroking his signature beard. Then, with a grin, he adds: “At least, not officially.”

Jeff Weinstein: “For a few years, when I was becoming an adult, I fell in love with Susannah York. I suppose there should be quotes around my ‘love,’ because it was long-distance, admiring, and sexless, more like a warm fascination. But now that she’s gone, those childish yearnings have come back, and I have to wonder why.”

“National Ballet co-founder Celia Franca invited Smith to join the new National Ballet of Canada in 1951 as a principal dancer. … She danced 18 years with the National Ballet and became associated with many dances in its repertoire, including the works of Antony Tudor and Walter Gore.”

“He was one of the first conceptual land artists in the 1960s, and made his mark, too, on the Body Art and conceptual art movements. By the 1980s he was making complex constructions he called “machine works.” His art was always eclectic, taking on several manifestations, including installation, performance art and video.”

“Half a century and more than 3,000 productions later, she leaves behind a legacy that includes pioneering the Off Off Broadway movement, importing international theater work before it was popular, and providing a home in the East Village for experimentation. While an era has ended, her theater and its vast population of artists and admirers carry on.”

“The state charged Chris Drew with a Class 1 felony, not for selling art on the street, but for violating the Illinois Eavesdropping Act by recording his own arrest. He faces up to 15 years in prison.”