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PEOPLE

Google’s Most-Searched Celebrity Of 2023 (It Isn’t Taylor)

The person who prompted the most trending queries – i.e., had the highest spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2023 as compared to 2022 – was…  - Deadline

Three Months After A Fall Off Stage, Stephen Fry Is Back In The Public Eye

Fry said he "was left needing constant physiotherapy after breaking his leg, pelvis and a 'bunch of ribs.'" - BBC

Irish Playwright And Novelist Thomas Kilroy Has Died At 89

Kilroy was praised "for his role in modernising Irish theatre since his 1968 breakthrough play, The Death and Resurrection of Mr Roche," which included a gay character. - Irish Times

Poet And Professor Refaat Alareer Has Been Killed In Gaza By An Israeli Airstrike

The poem pinned to the popular creative writing teacher's Twitter/X account since November is called "If I must die, let it be a tale." - LitHub

Benjamin Zephaniah, Poet, Actor, Musician, And Activist, Has Died At 65

Zephaniah, who refused an OBE, "was heavily influenced by Jamaican music and poetry, and he was often classified as a dub poet." - The Guardian (UK)

Decoding Noam Chomsky

From the start of his academic career, no part of his scientific work would show up in his political activism, while no trace of his activism would be detectable in his science. Among the inevitable outcomes was a conception of language utterly divorced from what most of us mean by that term. - Aeon

Vera Molnár, A Pioneer Of Computer Art, Is Dead At 99

"Long before many others did so, Molnár embraced computers, which she used to create spare, minimalist drawings that were made according to sets of rules that she engineered. These drawings flirt with the points where order breaks down into chaos and chaos coheres into order." - ARTnews

Another Actress Accuses Gérard Depardieu Of Sexual Assault

Hélène Darras filed a complaint with law enforcement in Paris alleging that the veteran actor repeatedly groped her when she was an extra on the set of the 2007 film Disco. Depardieu is already under indictment for the alleged rape of actress Charlotte Arnould, a charge filed in 2018. - Variety

How Norman Lear Changed TV

If anyone knew how to watch, it was Lear. His great appreciation for the work of making television reflected his commitment to the less glamorous task of observing and attempting to understand other people. - The Atlantic

Norman Lear, Whose Sitcoms Revolutionized American Television, Is Dead At 101

"In an astonishingly prolific career that spanned more than six decades, Lear created or developed some of the most seminal comedies in television history, including All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons, (and) One Day at a Time, ... tackling hot-button issues long considered taboo." - NBC News

Remembering John Byrne, Scottish Polymath And Creative Force

His desire to create extraordinary pieces of work burned fiercely to the end. A cultural polymath, Byrne traversed a number of genres throughout his illustrious career, with successes as a playwright, painter, screenwriter, set designer, costume designer, illustrator, muralist and printmaker. - The Conversation

Nicholas Cage Says He’s Ready To Stop Acting in Films

"This would amount to a stark shift for Cage, who has appeared in at least one feature film for 37 consecutive years and … (has) racked up six credits in 2023 alone." He says, "I think I took film performance as far as I could," but is interested in television. - Vanity Fair

Susan Sarandon Apologizes For Her Remarks About Jews

Sarandon, whose agents dropped her after her remarks at a Nov. 17 rally in support of a cease-fire in Gaza, wrote on Instagram that her phrasing "was a terrible mistake." - The New York Times

John Nichols, Author Of The Milagro Beanfield War, Has Died At 83

The author, who moved from New York to New Mexico, fell for the state. His publisher: "A lot of his work might be characterized as a long slow-motion valentine to the mountains, mesas, high desert, sky and especially people of New Mexico." - The New York Times

Playwright And Artist John Byrne, 83

His much-loved BBC series Tutti Frutti, about an ageing rock’n’roll band attempting a tour of Scotland, starred Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson and won six Baftas. Byrne was also a masterful painter, known for his self-portraits, as well as designing theatre sets and album covers. - The Guardian

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