“Scarlett’s death raises many issues. Foremost has been a widespread unease about the way that many dance companies in recent years have seemed to hush up various scandals or crises that purportedly involve a range of alarming sexual matters, heterosexual and homosexual, adult and under-age, on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as cases of violent assault.” – Alastair Macaulay
How Your Movie Theatre Experience Will Likely Change
To survive beyond the pandemic, theaters must persuade moviegoers not just to come back, but to come back more frequently than they did—to start thinking of their local cinema as akin to their favorite coffee shop. Because a return to pre-pandemic habits isn’t enough, industry executives told me they’ve been spending this past year rethinking the role of theaters in the first place. – The Atlantic
Weston Sprott Speaks About Transforming Young Peoples’ Lives
The dean of Juilliard’s Preparatory Division and trombonist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra speaks about transforming young artists’ lives and incorporating diversity across the breadth of an institution’s programs. – Aaron Dworkin
Before The Pandemic, Jenny Odell Wrote A Book About Being Stuck In The Doomscroll
So how did the author of How to Do Nothing survive the various self-isolations, lockdowns, and other stay-at-home initiatives before vaccines got their start? For one thing, she remembered what she had learned about social media, “this way of engaging with the attention economy that feels toxic to me, that I talk about in the book, how much that’s driven by fear, shame, self-loathing, guilt, all of these very reactive emotions.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
How Oscar-Winning Director Chloe Zhao Gets Great Performances From Non-Actors
Basically, her subjects tell their stories; she works with those stories and fictionalizes them, and then the subjects act out their fictionalized lives. “The outcome is scripted but the raw material is fact. There’s a personal rediscovery for the men and women onscreen as they interpret themselves in Zhao’s fabricated versions of their realities.” – Los Angeles Times
The Guy Who’s Crashing Every Library’s Summer Reading Program
By 20-year-old Aaron Yang’s estimate, “he’s now contacted around a thousand libraries [around the country] and acquired untold numbers of pencils, stickers and awards.” Is … is this OK? Librarians are torn. – NPR
Hollywood’s Anti-Black Bias Is Costing It Billions Of Dollars A Year
For a supposedly capitalist industry, what the heck? A study found that “America’s film industry is the country’s least diverse business sector and that its systemic anti-Black biases cost it at least $10 billion in annual revenue. Black content is undervalued, underdistributed and underfunded, the analysis found. It also found that Black talent has been systematically shut out of creator, producer, director and writer positions. That is despite the fact that films with two or more Black people working in those roles made 10 percent more at the box office per dollar invested than films with no or only one Black person in those capacities.” – The New York Times
The Oscars, Intimate And Sometimes Surprising
Here are the live updates and the winners list as it happens. – Los Angeles Times
What Math Says About Who Will Win The Oscars Tonight
A dubious proposition, but a possible one: “If numbers or data or statistics can provide any ounce of entertainment, there’s no better time than the present.” (If you’re a betting person, bet on Nomadland to take it all.) – The Hollywood Reporter
How To Enjoy Yet Another Online-Ish Awards Show
Embrace the absurdity: “Look, things are going to get weird. There was a small fire within the first 15 minutes of the Emmys. (It started as a bit, but then a slightly panicked Jennifer Aniston could not put out the flames with an extinguisher.) In the closing moments at the MTV Video Music Awards, the Black Eyed Peas wore pants with glowing crotches as they belted out ‘I Gotta Feeling,’ with lyrics encouraging everyone to ‘party every day.’ (Not something anyone should do in a pandemic.)” – Washington Post
The Real Nomads Of Nomadland
One says, “It’s kind of simpatico with Fern’s story [in the movie]. My husband died, and we don’t have kids, so I just sold everything and just thought that I would travel for a bit, and fell in love with it.” And, just like Fern, she says, “I can’t see me living a different way now.” – BBC
American Ballet Theatre Dancers Spend A Month In A Bubble In Southern California
It was both arduous and oddly pleasant for the dancers, used to touring – and to playing for packed houses; only 10 percent of the theatre can be sold in this case (but the ballets are available to stream online). “Jose Sebastian, one of the eight dancers performing Lovette’s ‘La Follia Variations,’ said the experience of living and rehearsing in the bubble has had its upsides. Typically performers fly into a new city for a show and rehearse on the stage for one day, he said. Having so much more time to get comfortable with the stage, lights and theater ‘has been such a gift,’ he said,” and the dancers have truly bonded as well. – Orange County Register
When A Lot More Of Us Are Vaccinated, What Will Moviegoing Look Like?
Probably there will still be a lot of private showings, now that we’re somewhat used to the idea. And then … a return to Moviepass, or something like it? “To survive beyond the pandemic, theaters must persuade moviegoers not just to come back, but to come back more frequently than they did—to start thinking of their local cinema as akin to their favorite coffee shop. Because a return to pre-pandemic habits isn’t enough.” – The Atlantic
Scott Rudin’s Decades Of Power And Damage On Broadway And In Hollywood
At the crux of the matter, there are hints at rottenness that extends far beyond Rudin and his protegés: “Many wondered how artists who consider themselves politically enlightened could be so eager to work with Mr. Rudin, knowing how badly he treated his employees. ‘People are acting like the industry is changing, but the fact that someone like Scott is still in power makes me doubtful of that,’ said Josh Arnon, 25, who worked at Mr. Rudin’s office from October 2018 to August 2019. ‘It’s crazy that so many in the industry know about it and nothing has changed.'”- The New York Times
What To Expect From The Oscars Red Carpet
According to Laverne Cox, it can’t all be fashion – but then it can’t all be politics, either. “There’s so, so much work that goes into a look. This is the sad thing about there not being red carpets. It’s a whole cottage industry of stylists and hair and makeup people. I think we can celebrate that and also do something else. I can shout out the designers that I’m wearing and also talk about something that is important to me.” – The New York Times