Washington DC’s historic Old Patent Office building gets a $25 million gift to help transform it into a new museum complex. “The Kogod money will enable the museum to proceed with a dramatic glass enclosure over the courtyard of the building, which will reopen in 2006 as the restored home of both the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.”
Tag: 11.16.04
Threepeat – Coming To A Theatre, DVD and TV Near You
“Noel,” a Christmas movie starring Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz and Robin Williamshasn’t attracts interest from mainstream distribution companies. So the film’s distributor is staging a “trimultaneous” rollout, releasing the movie in a few dozen theatres around the US, making it available in the disposable EZ-D format for $4.99 on Amazon.com. On cable, it will air once, on TNT, during Thanksgiving weekend.
Hollywood’s Tyranny Of The Box Office Gross
Movies used to spend weeks and months in theatres building audiences. No more. That all important opening weekend box office pretty much defines whether or not a movie is a hit. “Over the years, America’s dream factory has sent thousands of different stories out into the world, but every weekend Hollywood itself endures exactly the same tale: One movie is crowned the box-office champ, another is tagged a big loser, and some of the city’s biggest actors and producers, watching years of work end in crashing commercial disappointment, reach for the Maalox.”
43 Cuban Actors Defect In Las Vegas
“Members of a theatrical production staged the largest mass defection of Cuban performers to date yesterday as 43 cast members of Havana Night Club applied for political asylum at a US federal court in Las Vegas… The performers said they had decided to stay in the US after the authorities told them they could be jailed or barred from performing in Cuba.”
MoMA’s Hard-To-Please Architect Likes What He Sees
MoMA’s sparkling new Manhattan home is getting mainly rave reviews from press and public. But what does Yoshio Taniguchi, the architect who designed the $855 million building, think about how his vision has taken shape? “I think I’m quite satisfied,” he said.
Dublin Longlist Packed With Big Names
The long list of nominees for the International Impac Dublin Literary Award has been released, and some big names are on it. Former Booker prizewinners DBC Pierre, Margaret Atwood, Anita Brookner, J M Coetzee, Graham Swift and Peter Carey are nominated, as are Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown and Whitbread winner Mark Haddon. The Dublin prize comes with €100,000, making it the second largest literary award in the world.
Putting Art On Layaway
England’s Arts Council is proposing a new program of interest-free loans to encourage aspiring art collectors to invest in works which they might otherwise consider beyond their price range. “The scheme, called Own Art, works through a network of 250 participating galleries, all of which have been vetted for quality, so punters cannot spend the loan on doing up the kitchen or going on a cruise. All that buyers have to do is possess a bank account which can handle direct debit, have proof of identity and address, and be over 18. The loan – between £100 and £2,000 – is paid back in 10 monthly instalments.”