Category: people

“[S]ince the fraudulent election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June, [Mohsen Makhmalbaf has] set aside filmmaking to become spokesman for reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and, by extension, the democratic green movement. He’s written op-eds, given countless interviews and lobbied behind the scenes.” Too bad he hates politics.

“The leather and brass collar is inscribed with Dickens’ name. It had been estimated to sell for $4,000 to $6,000.”

“It has been nearly four years since [he] lost his lower jaw and his ability to speak. Now television’s most famous movie critic is rarely seen and never heard, but his words have never stopped.”

“In this second collection of conversations with [Ismene Brown] edited from interview transcripts from 1993, 1996, 1999 and 2004, Baryshnikov talks about his devotion to George Balanchine, global celebrity with ABT and beyond, and the voyage he took into modern dance, … [and acting on] TV’s Sex in the City.”

“According to Theodor Ebert, an academic at the University of Erlangen, Descartes died not through natural causes but from an arsenic-laced communion wafer given to him by a Catholic priest.”

“Filmmaker Kevin Smith, fresh from delivering a speech at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, unleashed his fury on Southwest Airlines after the pilot on Smith’s flight from Oakland to Burbank ejected him for being “too fat to fly” Saturday evening.”

“His conceptual breakthrough is to stop complaining that the cultural efforts of the federal government are disorganized and start actually organizing them.”

“McQueen, known to his friends as Lee, was renowned for the theatricality of his fashion shows, but thanks to his precision tailoring and attention to detail, the effect was often more beautiful than shocking. His catwalk shows – first in London and latterly in Paris – were never less than 10 minutes of pure theatrical energy.”

“One of the Bolshoi Theater’s greatest glories during the Soviet era, Irina Arkhipova was an artist whose voice – a magnificent, highly individual mezzo of impressive range, thrust and color – and bold, audacious performing style made her an international success during the prime years of career.”

“The letters … were written between 1951 and 1993, from one buddy, or ‘Buddyroo,’ to another. In sharp and familiar prose, laced with humor and biting wit, the writer gives an intimate peek into his life and thoughts at precise moments in time.” The letters are now held by the Morgan Library, which is preparing them for display.