Stories

"The story I saw coming to a grim conclusion in that courtroom was about more than a failed media company. … Carlos Watson may have built Ozy with big dreams and 'diversity' in mind, but as those ideas became corrupted by the superseding desire for capitalistic success, it all came crashing down." - Slate (Yahoo!)

"Being violated and brought close to death is (a) psychological abyss, but living with the belief that actors and producers have exploited your rape for money, and that more than 5 million viewers, including some of your own friends, watch it for entertainment … will bring you dangerously close to becoming the Joker." - Slate (Yahoo!)

"The Walt Disney Co. has reached a California-record $233 million settlement with Disneyland workers over a 2019 class-action wage theft lawsuit. The settlement will provide back pay to workers at the Anaheim theme park, with interest dating back to the start of 2019," - TheWrap (Yahoo!)

Son of legendary tabla player Alla Rakha, who was drummer of choice for Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, Hussain grew up playing alongside those superstars. He was considered the greatest tabla player of his generation and collaborated widely with musicians in other genres, from Yo-Yo Ma to Mickey Hart. - BBC

Best-known to the wider public for his score to Godard's film Breathless, he was one of the first European jazz musicians to get enthusiastic support from the likes of Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson, and he went on to a nearly seven-decade career of world renown. - The Guardian

The decision by the city council — to redistribute the $248,000 previously allocated for DBDT to other organizations — comes just a few days after DBDT settled, by paying $560,000, a complaint brought to the National Labor Relations Board by the dancers DBDT fired last summer." - Dallas Observer

Fortnite “customers could ultimately receive $245 million for what the agency called Epic’s use of ‘dark patterns’ to trick millions of players into unwanted purchases. Another $275 million will settle accusations that the studio violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.” - The New York Times

Dancers at City Ballet go through about 7,000 pairs of pointe shoes every year. - Business Insider

At Montgomery Ward, Robert L. May’s “boss tapped him to write the children’s story and suggested it have an animal protagonist because Ferdinand the Bull, a popular animated short produced by Walt Disney Productions, had just been released.” - Fast Company

“While we can’t claim to know what was going through Callas’ mind as she neared the end, we can nevertheless examine how much the external world referenced in Maria resembles the real thing.” - Slate (MSN)

And why is it so exhausting to find out that, for instance, Cormac McCarthy was a total creep? - LitHub

Sometimes it works (Wim Wenders, possibly Pedro Almodóvar), and sometimes … hm, you get “European art films in American drag.” - The New York Times

Well: “Writers are not content for their talents and their hard work to be used to generate positive publicity for companies who are engaged in deeply harmful activities,” says one climate protest leader. Will the awards survive at all? - The Guardian (UK)

“When a movie has two primary characters, how do campaigns decide who goes in lead and who goes supporting?” - Vulture

And that’s “noodle boys” - young, white, floppy-haired, and un-pumped. “There is clearly an appetite for male stars who don’t look as if they could crush a car with their bare hands.” - The New York Times