“SURVIVOR”

Some 6000 people answered CBS’ call for participants for the real-life “Gilligan’s Island” game show. Who would want to be dropped on an island to survive the elements and each other? The show is being described as MTV’s “The Real World” meets “Lord of the Flies,” and this week 50 of those still in contention met to try and impress producers. – Philadelphia Inquirer 01/12/00

RETHINKING THE 20TH CENTURY

The Royal Academy’s fascinating new show looking at what was happening in art at the turn of 1900 recreates the famed Exposition Universelle, that most glamorous of art fairs in Paris. “The idea is to show what was happening in Tokyo and Melbourne, Helsinki and New York at the very moment when Monet was painting Charing Cross Bridge and Picasso was exploring the dives and dance halls of Montmartre.” – The Telegraph (UK)

TOO HOT TO PUBLISH?

The libel suit between Penguin books and David Irving, the controversial second world war historian, over his version of the Holocaust, began on Tuesday in the High Court in London. “The case raises a number of questions: When are the ideas of historians or academics so appalling that their work should be forever banned from public consumption? What limits do you place on free speech? And what makes a good historian anyway, especially when their subject is that most emotive one in 20th century history?” –Financial Times

HE SAID, SHE SAID

The New Yorker is 75 in February and no fewer than seven books about the legendary magazine are about to grace the world. Who didn’t like someone’s writing, who cut another one’s article…these people keep their grudges. – New York Times