To keep actors safe - and, of course, to cover their own liability - some productions are now employing intimacy coordinators. But contracts can go farther, and the #TimesUp group has suggested that "a so-called 'nudity rider' or 'simulated sex waiver' should be in place before filming begins." - BBC
Lucky statues! "Without themselves needing to organise, these historically neglected members of the inanimate community have within the last few months secured privileges, protections and high-level advocacy that, in addition to their existing plinth status, falls only narrowly short of full suffrage – and even that cannot confidently be ruled out." - The Guardian (UK)
The easiest part of being an extra, ahem, a background artist, is that you just have to be there. "Being an extra requires no experience, no acting talent and no talking." - Los Angeles Times
The monument, stolen (or "liberated," if you prefer) from a cemetery in Alabama, will now be returned to its former owners, United Daughters of the Confederacy. "'Everything about the South is painfully polite, even the racism, that is, until it’s not. We don’t have the luxury of being polite,' the activists said in a statement. 'We aren’t doing this...
Despite what every podcast host says (is forced to say?) and what your author friends tell you, it's not five-star reviews. Those are literally a dime a dozen. This is a different appeal, according to a study, and it explains why people crying about books on TikTok can juice those books' sales. - Fast Company
Art museums sometimes have difficulties responding to the current moment, by design. A new show in Louisville might change some of that. "Conventional encyclopedic museums like the Speed, the largest and oldest art museum in Kentucky, are glacial machines. Their major exhibitions are usually years in the planning. Borrowing objects from other museums can be a red tape tangle."...
Beatts helped shape the early days of Saturday Night Live. "'It was pretty much any adjective you want to throw at it,' she told the Orange County Register in 2013. 'It was exciting, stimulating and fabulous. It was also horrible, boring and exhausting.'" - Washington Post
The art fest was planned for February, then July, and at locations all over the city (supposedly to promote social distancing). But as July get closer, organizers decided to move it once again - to an online-only location, and to try a 2022 restart in real life. Pandemic uncertainty strikes again. - Los Angeles Times
It's not easy for a woman in comedy, and that's doubly true for a Black woman. Ask Ziwe (who now has a series on Netflix). "You really have to create for yourself and create in that vacuum because you’re not going to get the instant gratification and validation." - Variety
The rush of documentaries - they are cheaper to make, and especially if they're true crime, there's a willing and eager audience - has some aesthetic issues. "Cornball fuzzy re-creations lack credibility. ... It doesn’t have to be like this. Plenty of recent shows and movies have made compelling artistic choices that enliven the storytelling." - The New York...
The business side of music can be vicious for its musicians, and when a label owned by a man you loathe gets to profit off your music? Well. "The debut this week of the now 31-year-old Swift’s full rerecording of that album she made at 18, under the title Fearless (Taylor’s Version), is a reminder of how inextricably blurred the creative...
The Small Business Association opened a grant portal for arts venues closed down by the pandemic - and, after a few hours of deep misery for every arts venue trying to apply, took it all offline, indefinitely. "Anyone who tried to log on to apply for grants when the portal first opened was met with different error messages at...
In 2016, 25 queer women characters on TV died on scripted TV and streaming shows. But Wynonna Earp promised to be different. With the choices the writers' room and showrunner made, viewers saw "an acknowledgement of — and a direct rebuke to — a hurtful trope." They rewarded the producer with trust and increased interest. - Los Angeles Times
It's every art dealer's nightmare, but if a fake is a beautiful painting, what's our problem with it? We care about authorship is why - but humans didn't always care. "What mattered before the Renaissance was the meaning of an image, not the ineffable singularity of the image-maker’s touch." - Hyperallergic
Ahmed, whose performance in The Sound of Metal has been nominated for countless awards this season, doesn't prefer the easy life. When he was a kid, he says, "I wanted to perform in some way, but I didn’t think it was viable. Teachers told me I should be a barrister, because I was always arguing with them." - The...
