Category: people

“Sydney Pollack’s latest film is a study of the pioneering architect Frank Gehry, with whom he has been friends for 30 years.” Pollack, who is best known for directing such films as Tootsie and Out of Africa, says that “Frank may have a harder job than me, but I have a worse job. Because, while he really has three dimensions to create three dimensions, as a filmmaker, I have only two dimensions to represent three dimensions, and so everything I do has to be a trick and a lie.”

The uproar over Salman Rushdie’s pending knighthood begs one obvious question, says Michael White. “Why would a leftie who had abandoned Britain for New York in a huff want a [knighthood] from the British establishment?”

Newsday‘s Justin Davidson has been named the new classical music critic for New York magazine, which has been taking a lot of heat since firing its longtime classical critic, Peter G. Davis. Davidson won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002, and has previously written for The New Yorker, Slate.com, and Opera News, among other publications.

“Pakistan on Monday condemned Britain’s award of a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie as an affront to Islam, and a Cabinet minister said the honor provided a justification for suicide attacks.”

“Lola S. Wasserstein, whose larger-than-life personality provided inspiration for sprightly maternal characters in the plays of her daughter Wendy, died Saturday at her home in Manhattan. … Lola Wasserstein gave Wendy ample advice, which she eagerly passed on: ‘Always look nice when you throw out the garbage. You never know who you might meet.'”

“Ferré was one of the biggest names in Italian fashion during the 1980s and 1990s, known for his masculine-looking suits and austere gowns that often caused fashion show audiences to marvel over their elaborate construction. He placed a visible emphasis on the seams of his garments, a signature rooted in his early training not as a designer, but as an architect.”

Glenn Kurtz’s is “a story many of us know at some neurotic level, whether we’re musicians, ball players, painters, writers or tightrope walkers. Owing to a confluence of doting parents, late capitalism and a vague cloud of nurturing in the air, we’re told to pursue our ambitious passions, or maybe our passionate ambitions. Follow our hearts and we’ll eventually prevail, we’re told from an early age; over and over the movie music swells and the plucky hero beats the odds, and we drive home and think, “What does Ralph Macchio have that I don’t?” But then… what if I don’t?

“Iran has criticised the British government for its decision to give a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie. His book The Satanic Verses offended Muslims worldwide and led to Iran issuing a fatwa in 1989, ordering Sir Salman’s execution.” An Iranian official told the international press that “giving a medal to someone who is among the most detested figures in the Islamic community is… a blatant example of the anti-Islamism of senior British officials.”

David Hockney is one of Britain’s greatest living artists, and also one of its most outspoken. But in between sounding off on cigarette bans and the new prime minister, Hockney has been talking a lot about his obsession with JMW Turner, widely believed to be the best artist ever to come out of the UK.

Actor Kevin Spacey, who has been in charge of London’s Old Vic theatre since 2003, says in an interview that he’s done with film acting, and is only interested in “the remarkable experience of being able to be a part of bringing people together” in the theatre world.