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Diana Kennedy, Who Popularized Mexican Cooking In The US With Her Cookbooks, Has Died At 99

Kennedy was a "British-born cookbook author and expatriate who became one of the world’s leading experts on authentic Mexican cuisine, influencing generations of chefs and deploring Americans’ fast-food experience of wan tacos and overseasoned enchiladas." - Washington Post

Tanya Kersey, Who Founded LA’s Black Film Festival, Has Died At 61

Kersey "founded the Hollywood Black Film Festival in 1998, with the goal of spotlighting independent films and filmmakers from the African diaspora." The festival was often called "The Black Sundance." - Los Angeles Times

Norman Lear At 100

“I think the big secret is never forgetting to wake up in the morning. It starts with getting out of bed,” Lear says. “But there isn’t a day when there aren’t stories to tell — exciting, relevant and of the moment stories.” - Variety

Playwright Christopher Durang Diagnosed With Progressive Aphasia

Specifically, logopenic primary progressive aphasia, a form of Alzheimer's disease described thus by one of Durang's medical specialists: "instead of starting in the memory parts of the brain, it's starting in the language parts of the brain."  His long-term memory and executive function are, so far, unaffected. - Broadway News

Russian Feminist-Queer Artist-Activist Acquitted Of Pornography Charges

"Yulia Tsvetkova, 29, spent months under house arrest after authorities in the remote city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur launched a criminal case into the 'spread of pornographic material' in 2019. She faced six years in prison for featuring abstract illustrations of female sexual organs of varying shapes and sizes." - The Moscow Times

2022 Kennedy Center Honors: Tania LeĂłn, Gladys Knight, George Clooney, U2, Amy Grant

"The performing artists recognized for their lifetime contributions to American culture include actor and filmmaker George Clooney; contemporary Christian and pop singer Amy Grant; venerable gospel, soul and R&B star Gladys Knight; Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, conductor and educator Tania LeĂłn; and four Irish musicians you may know as U2." - NPR

“He Is France Incarnate, In All Its Glory And Awfulness” — On GĂ©rard Depardieu (And Why The French Put Up With Him)

"(He) is firmly woven into the fabric of French cultural identity. As such, to condemn Depardieu amounts to a kind of self-harm. ... 'He is like a symbol of France, even the way Depardieu disregards and criticises his own country is so French.'" - The Guardian

Claes Oldenburg, 93

Mr. Oldenburg entered the New York art scene in earnest in the late 1950s, embracing the audience-participation “Happenings” then in vogue and expanding the boundaries of art with shows that incorporated things like street signs, wire-and-plaster clothing and even pieces of pie. - The New York Times

Jerome Eisenberg, Antiquities Expert, Has Died At 92

Eisenberg was "a leading New York antiquities dealer who in the murky world of tomb raiders and smugglers held himself up as a guardian against the illegal importation and sale of ancient art." - The New York Times

Crazy Rich Asians Star Constance Wu Says She Attempted Suicide After Social Media Backlash

Wu wrote that during the backlash to a tweet, "I started feeling like I didn’t even deserve to live anymore. That I was a disgrace to AsAms, and they’d be better off without me. ... Luckily, a friend found me and rushed me to the ER." - Variety

What Led Josephine Baker To Become A Spy And A French War Hero?

It wasn't only loyalty to France for having accepted her and taken her to heart.  She had some personal experience with Nazism. - Literary Hub

Janeane Garofalo, True To The Gen-X Ethos, Never Sold Out

A trailblazer for years, "Garofalo didn’t just help shift the comedy scene away from clubs. Her style represented a sea change from the polished, tight and desperately relatable bits ready-made to translate into a sitcom or a late-night appearance." - The New York Times

Meryl Streep’s One Weird Trick

You can never unsee this, so only click if you dare. - The New York Times

The Charming Actor Whose Star Power Has Grown Along With India’s

Why is Shah Rukh Khan so celebrated as he marks 30 years in the Hindi film industry? "He shows us a glimpse of a prosperous, plural and humane region - one that can laugh at itself without the inflamed nostrils of pious outrage." And he's the poster child for growth. - BBC

Beloved Conductor Bramwell Tovey Dead At 69

Artistic leader of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, and, as of the coming season, the Sarasota Orchestra, Tovey spent widely admired tenures at the Winnipeg and Vancouver Symphonies and was a regular visitor to the top American orchestras, known especially for his rapport with audiences. - CBC

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