Christmas and holiday movies usually tend to centre around a key belief: that people need a romantic partner to live “happily ever after.” - The Conversation
One of the Met's stalwarts of the 1950s and '60s (especially as Cherubino and Octavian), she performed so many male mezzo parts that her young daughter once said, "My mommy is a boy." After retiring from the stage, she co-founded the company now known as Pittsburgh Festival Opera. - The New York Times
"This week (the union) released a letter of censure dated Nov. 20 in which Daniels was informed he was permanently barred from the guild. … The 57-year-old and his husband, Scott Walters, pleaded guilty to sexual assault of an adult, a second-degree felony, in Houston’s Harris County District Court on Aug. 4." - AP
Macron said that the 74-year-old star — facing multiple rape accusations and having been caught on camera sexually harassing a translator and making lewd remarks about a 10-year-old — is "a great actor … (who) makes France proud" and should not be stripped of the Legion of Honor. Predictable outrage has ensued. - BBC
"A best-selling author, essayist, playwright and screenwriter, (his) satirical prose examined Jewish angst, women and sex, and (he) later produced a series of humorous children’s books." - The New York Times
I was in Rimini as a thoroughly marginal person—however fine a speaker, however deserving of my medal, I would surely never have been invited to this conference in my own right, and in that sense had no right to be there—and the marginalized are prone to conspiracy theories. - The Point
"The 60-year-old (artist) was recently in Australia ... and was on her way back to the UK via Thailand when she fell ill. 'Not cancer but horrible complications with my intestines brought on by an infection, scar tissue and made a million times worse by flying,' she wrote." - The Guardian
"It’s hard to mint a new movie star these days, (so) people in Hollywood were high on Jonathan Majors, … (and) this was supposed to be the year that would turn him into an A-lister." Instead, his career collapsed within minutes of his conviction for assaulting his now-ex-girlfriend. - The New York Times
"More art than ever leans on the trust and authenticity of journalism, so it’s good for performers to think about the peculiar bargain they have struck with their audience and how to navigate it." - The New York Times
Hunt was the first Black artist with a solo retrospective at New York's MoMA, and he "recently completed a model for a monument to Till that is to be installed at the childhood home of the civil rights icon." - Chicago Sun-Times
Molnar "has been called the godmother of generative art for her ... digital work, which started with the hulking computers of the 1960s and evolved through the current age of NFTs." - The New York Times
Bishop "was best known for his award-winning science fiction, but ranged far beyond the genre, venturing into realism, noir mystery and even Southern Gothic." - The New York Times
“His innate belief that we’re better together — whether that’s through civic discourse, music, theater or any of the magic that happens in the Town Hall building — is the very spirit of Town Hall.” - Seattle Times
Isabelle Adjani — who has won five Best Actress César awards and gotten two Oscar nominations (in French-language films, no less) — was fined €250,000 and given a suspended two-year prison sentence for evading taxes by fraudulently claiming residence in Portugal and arguing that a €2,000,000 gift was only a loan. - Variety
The oil painting by Chicago artist Shawn Michael Warren presents the iconic talk show host-turned-media mogul in virtuosic detail, wearing a dramatic purple dress with a full skirt and standing amid a greenscape on the grounds of her California home. - Hyperallergic
