Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, delivered a pre-recorded message: "Our musicians wear body armour instead of tuxedos. ... They sing to the wounded in hospitals, even to those who can't hear them. But the music will break through." - BBC
How? Safety, actually: "Producers sought out more controlled environments for outdoor shooting. Even with a 87-day shutdown, the number of shoot days on backlots dropped only 15 % from 2019 to 2020." And now studios want more land. - Los Angeles Times
The composer changed musicals, yes, and he was generous with his work, allowing others to adapt it to the screen. Sometimes that worked well - Original Cast Album: Company - and sometimes (er, Into the Woods, 2014, anyone), not so much. - The New York Times
But he's not actor Will Smith. After the slap, "Will Smith — a podcaster, gamer and PR guy for indie game studio Stray Bombay who lives in San Francisco — girded for a new tweetstorm of commentary misdirected" at him.- Variety
In just the past half year, TikTok mobs have dived headlong into engagement-baiting investigations of recent murders, online “pedophile rings,” and the legitimacy of popular creators’ neurological or psychiatric conditions. - The Atlantic
“Doomscrolling is essentially an avoidance technique used to cope with anxiety, so wherever you are vulnerable to anxiety, doomscrolling can become an unhealthy coping mechanism.” - Wired
In 2021, just 20 revenue-sharing U.S. titles were released in Chinese cinemas, compared with 31 U.S. tentpole releases before the pandemic, in 2019. - The Hollywood Reporter
"Many of them seem tired of the demands of online celebrity and seem to be moving on from pushing for ever more shocking videos. And while it's made them a lot of money, it seems many of YouTube's biggest stars are facing reckonings about whether it's been worth it." - BuzzFeed
Meta, Mark Zuckerberg's umbrella corporation for Facebook and the companies it's bought, has been paying conservative consulting group Targeted Victory to place letters to the editor and op-ed essays portraying TikTok as a danger to American children and teens. - The Guardian
"Stations rose to the occasion to provide refuge from a world that felt scary and uncertain. That has translated into ratings records" — WDAV in Charlotte actually reached no. 1 in its market — "strong fundraising and a reminder of the value of classical stations to local arts organizations." - Current
In its annual plan, it also set out a target of 25 percent of staff being “from lower socio-economic backgrounds” by 2027 to “ensure our workforce is more representative of the audiences we serve.” - The Hollywood Reporter
"The fact is the Oscars are always political — just like Hollywood," writes J. Hoberman. Just ask Marlon Brando and Sacheen Littlefeather. Or Michael Moore. Or Oscar winner Al Gore. Or Ronald Reagan, who taped a message, just before he got shot, for the 1981 Oscars. - The Nation
Does it make sense to continue to threaten the major networks and their shrinking share of viewers with huge fines for the utterance of words that are legally permissible everywhere else in the universe of television? - Slate
Survey results show a divide between those who've been producing podcasts for more than five years and less than that — on censorship, false or dangerous content, the role of Apple, technical details, and even what makes a podcast a podcast. - Inside Radio
