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Marlee Matlin Won An Oscar, But Had To Wait Years For More Good Work In Hollywood

And - despite CODA co-star Troy Kotsur’s Oscar win in 2022 - that hasn’t changed. “'It’s hard to find work,’ she said, but still insists: ‘This is something I love to do. This is a business that I love being in. I love acting. I love it all.’” - The Guardian (UK)

Two Years After The British Museum Thefts Were Revealed, Big Questions About The Curator At The Center Of It

What might have motivated a respected professional to allegedly take such high risks for such low rewards? Why is the police investigation taking so long? How did the museum not notice the missing artefacts for so many years? And why did the thief, whoever it may be, make so little effort to cover his tracks? - The Observer

Journalist William Langewiesche, “Master Of The White-Knuckle Narrative,” Has Died At 70

“A globe-trotting correspondent for The Atlantic, Vanity Fair and The New York Times Magazine, … (he) worked as a commercial pilot before becoming one of the most acclaimed magazine writers of his generation, traveling around the world to report on plane crashes, shipwrecks, nuclear proliferation and war.” - The Washington Post (MSN)

Tom Bodett’s Commercials For Motel 6 Are Legends. Now He’s Suing To Get Paid For Making Them.

The hotel chain discovered Bodett through his spots on All Things Considered, and their relationship worked very well for almost 40 years. Then the Indian chain OYO bought Motel 6 — and its assets and debts, including the final year of Bodett’s $1.2 million annual contract, which OYO has refused to pay. - Tedium

Actor Hits Tyler Perry With $260 Million Sexual Assault Lawsuit

Derek Dixon, who appeared in 85 episodes of Perry’s BET series The Oval, alleges that Perry used his power to assault, harass, and exploit Dixon, promising career advancement and then using threats of professional retaliation to keep Dixon quiet. Perry maintains that Dixon has invented the entire thing to extort Perry. - AP

Pianist Alfred Brendel, 94

“His technique was sufficient but rarely dazzling, and his tone was full and generally attractive but not especially lustrous. ... What attracted listeners was his musicianship — his distinctive mixture of welling songfulness and formal rectitude, his willingness to take listeners deep into the heart of anything he played.” - The Washington Post (MSN)

Leonard Lauder, Major Philanthropist And Art Collector, Has Died At 92

The billionaire chief of the Estée Lauder cosmetics company had special relationships with the Whitney Museum (he was a former board chairman) and the Met Museum, to which he donated the Lauder Collection of more than 80 Cubist artworks collectively worth over $1 billion. - ARTnews

Dara Birnbaum, Who Transformed The Wonder Woman TV Show Into Art, Has Died At 78

“Television was a one-way medium, its audience tending to become passive. … I wanted to show the aggressive conditioning forced upon viewers by these programs.” - The New York Times

Joel Shapiro, Post-Minimalist Sculptor, Has Died At 83

“Shapiro’s best-known sculptures are easy to recognize. Constructed from wooden beams jutting in different directions, they typically suggest a human figure with outstretched arms, a blocky head and a torso shaped like a cereal box.” - NPR

Ocean Vuong Recounts The Death Of His Mother And Taking In His Young Brother

“It had been more than a decade since we lived together … a straight man with an affinity for collectible sneakers, basketball, sports cars, anime and first-person-shooter video games coming to live with his nerdy gay professor brother in a house full of books.” - The New York Times

Yes, No, And We Give Up: The Verdicts In Harvey Weinstein’s New York Retrial

After what were reported to be extremely contentious deliberations, the jury found the disgraced producer guilty of one count of sexual assault and not guilty of a second count. The judge declared a mistrial on a count of rape after the jury deadlocked and the foreman refused to continue deliberating. - AP

Günther Uecker, Who Made Art With Hammer And Nails Rather Than Paint, Has Died At 95

“In his art work, seemingly endless numbers of nails, which would by themselves perhaps be perceived as potentially aggressive and hurtful, turned into harmonic, almost organic creations. His reliefs with the tightly hewn nails are reminiscent of waving grasses or fields of algae in a marine landscape.” - AP

Brian Wilson, Creative Mastermind Of The Beach Boys, Is Dead At 82

“There was an abiding pathos in his best records — not merely the idealized scenes the songs depicted, but also that they were created by a depressed, socially awkward, partially-deaf young man who never surfed or much liked the beach and spent his time alone in his room.” - The Washington Post (MSN)

The Most Popular TikTok Star On The Planet Is Detained By ICE And Leaves The U.S.

Khaby Lame, a 25-year-old Senegalese-Italian influencer with 162 million followers on the video app, was detained at Las Vegas airport for (as an ICE spokesperson put it) “overstaying the terms of his visa.” He was allowed to depart the country without being held to wait for a deportation order. - AP

Barbara Holdridge, Co-Founder Of Caedmon Records (And The Entire Audiobook Industry), Has Died At 95

“Ms. Holdridge, along with her best friend, Marianne Mantell, built the label, Caedmon Records, into a recording industry dynamo by releasing LPs of such notable authors and poets as T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, Robert Frost, Eudora Welty, and Ernest Hemingway reading their own words.” - The New York Times

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