Category: people

“I suppose it goes without saying that James Joyce, DH Lawrence and others were expanding the scope of literature and redrawing humanity’s picture of itself when they approached this subject in the earlier part of the 20th century. But by the time I came along, many of my friends were embarrassed on my behalf precisely because the topic I was writing about seemed so closely associated with an earlier era. So why have I stuck with it?”

Joyce Wadler: “I was working as a reporter at People magazine, back in 1988, when I saw the Broadway show the case inspired, David Henry Hwang’s wonderful M. Butterfly, and it raised many questions: How could a guy make love to another guy for months and not know? Where had the kid come from? How could I get to Paris, where the two men were now living after spending time in prison, on somebody else’s dime?”

“After all, in his day the French thought potatoes – fried or otherwise – were poisonous, or at the very least unpalatable, and Franklin took part in changing their minds about this New World vegetable.”

“Actor Kal Penn on Monday became White House wonk Kalpen Modi. … Now, instead of playing a slap-sticking stoner on the run from Guantanamo Bay prison, as he did in the 2008 ‘Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay,’ Modi will serve as an Obama liaison to Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, as well as the arts community.”

“Fans arriving at the Royal Opera House in London for tomorrow’s performance of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville are in for a surprise when the curtain goes up. In addition to the expected star cast, headed by the great Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez, they will see an unexpected performance by a star in a cast, after the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato decided to go ahead with her performance, despite fracturing her leg during Saturday’s first night.”

“Reflect for a moment on this pining for masscult idols: For whom was it good? Major record labels and Viacom-owned MTV? Unquestionably. Music fans, not to mention superstars themselves? Not so much.”

“The more than 1.6 million fans who registered for tickets to Michael Jackson’s memorial service will finally get word Sunday on whether they will be among the lucky few to get tickets for the ceremony.”

“[T]rained as an opera singer, [he] brought an imposing physical presence – he stood 6 feet 4 inches – and a resplendent voice to the Broadway stage, delivering a star-making performance as Leadville Johnny Brown in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” Unfortunately, “his triumphant debut led to unsatisfactory film roles and a somewhat stunted career appearing in national tours of Broadway musicals” until the “Coen brothers gave him a second Hollywood career as a character actor when they cast him in Fargo in 1996. That role led to a series of meaty film parts, including Gen. George C. Marshall in Saving Private Ryan.“

“Mr. Shi, who was convicted of espionage in France in 1986 along with his lover, Bernard Boursicot, was believed to be 70. He had also been believed for years to be a woman, at least by Mr. Boursicot, who served time in prison after the affair and became a laughingstock in France.”

Music was Thomas Jefferson’s “particular delight, ‘an enjoyment, the deprivation of which . . . cannot be calculated,’ he declared in 1785. From early boyhood, he pursued this ‘passion of my soul,’ studying the violin with a teacher in Williamsburg, Va. By the time he matriculated at the College of William and Mary in 1760, his playing was so fluent that he was invited for weekly chamber music gatherings with the royal governor of Virginia.”