“Think Laurence Olivier was immune from awful? You’ve obviously never seen him in ‘The Betsy,’ where his auto tycoon sports an accent that’s equal parts Southern, Midwestern and Martian. Or what about his rabbi in the Neil Diamond remake of ‘The Jazz Singer’? Oy.” And Olivier has company — lots of it.
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Study: Spanish Piracy Worth $6 Billion In 2nd Half Of ’09
“Spain is responsible for an estimated 20% of worldwide downloads, securing it the dubious distinction of [being] one of the top pirating havens in the world. But until now, the industry has been hard-pressed to quantify the losses.” Illegal downloading of music, film and video games is huge, e-book piracy less so.
NJ’s American Repertory Ballet Cuts Artistic, Exec Directors
Graham “Lustig, 55, served as artistic director of the New Brunswick-based company for 11 years and had raised the profile of the ballet with new productions and innovative programs. His position — and that of executive director — were eliminated in a cost-cutting move….”
The Vatican Lets An Author Into Its Archives
“Just what the Vatican’s motivation was is none too clear. Scholars have been allowed in the archive since 2003, so long as they know exactly which document they’d like a look at – browsing is not allowed. Certainly, they haven’t always looked kindly on book proposals about the secret archive.”
Shakespeare Questions You Never Thought To Ask
“Shakespeare was a professional writer and writers have love affairs, rivalries, cash crises, prejudices, off-days, children and mortgages. The assumption is that we know very little about this side of his life. But it’s amazing just how much is known and how fascinating it is.” Question 1: “Was he gay, straight or just sex-mad?”
Aboriginal Painting Of Birds Could Be 40,000 Years Old
“The Genyornis – a heavy bird which had a broad, rounded beak and was about twice the size of an emu – became extinct about 40,000 years ago. If verified, the painting would pre-date rock art from parts of Europe which have been reliably dated to 30,000 years ago.”
Andrei Voznesensky, Poet Of USSR’s Thaw, Dies At 77
“The Moscow-born poet published his first poems in 1958 and became one of the iconic artists of the Thaw, the brief era of liberalism ushered in by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev after the death of dictator Joseph Stalin. In the 1960s, Voznesensky was one of several Soviet poets who gave poetry readings in stadiums and concert halls before huge crowds of transfixed listeners….”
Writing, Dame Agatha’s Included, May Hint At Alzheimer’s
“We can never know for sure if [Agatha] Christie actually had Alzheimer’s. But a separate study out of the University of Minnesota lends support to the idea that there might be signs in our writing of Alzheimer’s disease. And those signs might be there very early on.”
Garrison Keillor: Publishing Is At The Abyss
“Back in the day, we became writers through the laying on of hands. Some teacher who we worshipped touched our shoulder, and this benediction saw us through a hundred defeats. And then an editor smiled on us and wrote us a check and our babies got shoes. But in the New Era, writers will be self-anointed. No passing of the torch.”
For Miniature Theatre, Auschwitz Remade
“The complete installation, made mostly of plain gray corrugated cardboard, includes barracks, guard towers, crematoriums, gas chambers with buckets of gas pellets, a dining hall for the guards, a train and tracks, and the notorious gateway sign, ‘Arbeit Macht Frei,’ ‘Work Makes You Free.'”