James Frey’s literary agent has dropped him in the wake of the scandal over his fictionalized memoir. The agent, Kassie Evashevski, also acknowledged that Frey inquired into the possibility of publishing A Million Little Pieces as a novel rather than a non-fiction work, but she says that the reason he gave was his desire to spare his family any embarrassment, and that he never admitted that large chunks of the book weren’t true.
Tag: 02.01.06
When Is A Producer Not A Producer?
A minor uproar has broken out in Hollywood over new rules imposed on who can and cannot receive an Oscar in the production category. At issue is the old industry habit of giving producer credits to far more people than actually do serious production work on a given film. “The ad-hoc nature of moviemaking on the margins can lead to some hurt feelings or worse, and the situation is now compounded by growing fussiness about credits among those who grant awards, including the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.”
It’s The Venue, Stupid
“Classical music is defined, in part, by where it’s played. If it’s at Avery Fisher Hall, it’s probably classical; if it’s at CBGB, it’s probably not.” And while it might take more than a dingy club setting and a fully stocked bar to convince some audiences to give classical a try, an increasing number of young classical performers seem to believe that it really is the forbidding stodginess of concert halls that separates them from rock stars. “The studied formality of the concert hall is increasingly unfamiliar to today’s audience, not to mention ticket prices that can put off even diehard music lovers… In a club setting, people aren’t under the same social constraints as in a recital hall.”
Peru Not Happy With Yale Exhibit
“By any conventional measure, Yale’s exhibition about Machu Picchu would seem a windfall for Peru. As one of the most ambitious shows about the Inca ever presented in the United States, drawing over a million visitors while traveling to half a dozen cities and back again, it has riveted eyes on Peru’s leading tourist attraction. Yet instead of cementing an international partnership, the exhibition… has brought a low ebb in the university’s relations with Peru. At issue are a large group of artifacts that form the core of the show, excavated at Machu Picchu in a historic dig by a Yale explorer in 1912. The government of Peru wants all of those objects back.”
Andante.com Goes Dark
Five years after launching an ambitious mix of online music news, cultural coverage, and digital audio, the web site Andante.com has closed up shop. “The site’s mission was to be no less than the leading classical music site on the Internet—and the leading source for digital classical recordings, a position that was up for grabs in the pre-iTunes era.” Andante was bought by a French record label in 2003, and its demise followed an announcement from the label that it could no longer afford to support the site.
Frey Releases “Readers’ Note”
Not an apology, the note is James Frey’s “explanation for making up incidents in his memoir. “I wanted the stories in the book to ebb and flow, to have dramatic arcs, to have the tension that all great stories require,” Mr. Frey said, explaining the reason for the changes. “I altered events all the way through the book.”
Welsh Assembly To Clash Over Arts Funding
The Culture Minister of Wales has proposed to change the way the Welsh Assembly funds the arts, taking the task of funding of the six largest arts organizations away from the Welsh Arts Council and letting the assembly fund them directly. “But opposition parties claim this breaches the principle of ‘arms-length’ funding of the arts – separating the politicians who hold the purse strings from the artists who receive the money – and could lead to political interference. They plan to use Wednesday’s assembly debate to vote through an amendment which would force a public review and consultation process.”
Crafts Council On The Precipice Of Disaster
England’s Crafts Council “is in crisis, victim of a miasma of resignations, rows and inertia that swirls round one of the worst policy mistakes made by the arts establishment since Labour took power in 1997. Where did it all go wrong?”
KC PAC Falls Short Again
An interim fundraising campaign for Kansas City’s proposed new performing arts center has fallen well short of its $45 million goal, and backers aren’t sure whether they will have enough cash on hand to begin construction in the fall as originally planned. The center has been a long time in the planning process, and debates have sprung up over everything from its cost (somewhere north of $330 million) to its proposed downtown location.
What It All Means Beyond Oscar
Are there any, shall we say, larger societal meanings behind what movies snap up Oscar nominations? You know there had to be: “To some, Oscar night – and the movies it celebrates – has become a Rorschach test for a self-absorbed industry out of touch with mainstream tastes. Other culture watchers, though, insist that the cinematic tribute reflects, and even guides, America’s collective direction and values. As that debate rages on, at least one larger trend is evident in nominations of recent years, including this one: From biopics to message films, audiences and creators alike seem to be drawn to “reality”-based movies – both in content and technique.”