Category: people

“At 15, he went to Harvard. At 19, he had a degree in government and politics. At 29, Ryan Leslie is a budding hip-hop mogul,” and a model for a new era in the music business.

Toronto’s David McFadden is one of three Canadian poets shortlisted for the Griffin Prize, a $50,000 award to be handed out this week. But even making the shortlist apparently sent McFadden into an extended anxiety attack. “So great was McFadden’s torment he privately began to fantasize the winning cheque would end up in the hands of one of this year’s other two Canadian nominees.”

“Sydney Pollack died Monday, and with him went a certain kind of Hollywood movie. His directorial signature was not as obvious as those of other filmmakers… Yet for some 40 years, the words ‘directed by Sydney Pollack’ stood for something, a level of quality, a degree of seriousness and an intelligent and almost instinctive sense of storytelling.

Michael Riedel says that Sydney Pollack’s hilarious turn as a New York theater agent in Tootsie launched a culture of behind-the-scenes celebrity that is still in place in Big Apple theatrical circles.

“Harvey Korman, the award-winning comedic actor who rose to fame playing second banana to Carol Burnett on her television variety series and who starred in hit movies like “Blazing Saddles” and “High Anxiety,” died on Thursday in Los Angeles… A tall man known for his outlandish characterizations, Mr. Korman was nominated for seven Emmys for his television work and won four.”

“Beryl Cook, the artist known for her saucy, seaside postcard-style portraits of fat ladies in colourful costumes, died at home in Plymouth yesterday… Her inspiration came from pub life – especially the spit-and-sawdust Dolphin in Plymouth – and cartoons. The comedian Victoria Wood once described her as ‘Rubens with jokes’.”

“The illustrious bard is believed by many to have personally penned the threat on a stone marker above his grave: It promises to bless anyone who spares the stones but curse any intruder who moves his bones. That’s all well and good, but the stones above his grave are starting to flake and fall apart.”

“Steve Lopez was walking to his downtown Los Angeles office when he saw a man dressed in rags playing Beethoven on a two-stringed violin. Beside him was a shopping cart filled with all his worldly possessions.” He was pretty good…

“In granting the honorary degree to McCartney — Sir Paul McCartney since he was knighted in 1996 — the university said no one compares with the legendary songwriter.”

Mr. Pollack’s career defined an era in which big stars (Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, Warren Beatty) and the filmmakers who knew how to wrangle them (Barry Levinson, Mike Nichols) retooled the Hollywood system. Savvy operators, they played studio against studio, staking their fortunes on pictures that served commerce without wholly abandoning art.