What’s the top-rated morning radio program in the U.S.? No, it’s not Howard Stern, and it’s not some right-wing blowhard shrieking into the microphone about the evils of Dan Rather. It’s NPR’s quarter-century-old bastion of straight news, Morning Edition, which racked up an average of 13.2 million listeners per week in the latest ratings book. That’s actually an increase in listenership from the previous year, despite the bad publicity the program received after NPR dismissed longtime host Bob Edwards last year.
Tag: 03.30.05
Disney/Miramax Divorce Is Official
“Disney and fabled Miramax chieftains Harvey and Bob Weinstein wrapped up their divorce yesterday, putting an end to a 12-year marriage that yielded acclaimed hits like Chicago, and Shakespeare in Love, but ended with bitter feuds as the Weinsteins’ ambitions grew. The Weinsteins will exit their 25-year-old company named for their parents, Miriam and Max on Sept. 30, the same day their nemesis, Disney CEO Michael Eisner steps down.”
Will McEwan Be Allowed Back In US?
Ian McEwan has a new book. It’s a hit. But he wonders if he’ll be allowed into the US to promote it. “McEwan’s diplomatic woes began a year ago when U.S. officials turned him away from entering the country in error. But that error has remained on the books to haunt him still. ‘Once you have been refused entry to the States, you go into the computer and you are regarded with suspicion. It is a matter of enormous irritation. I only got in this time by the skin of my teeth. This could well be the very last time I ever get in’.”
Levy Wins Commonwealth Writers Prize
“Author Andrea Levy has won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Small Island, her novel about West Indian immigrants in postwar London. It is the third major literary prize for the best-selling book, which also took the Orange Prize and the Whitbread.”
Renoir Stolen From Auction House
A small Renoir painting valued at about 200,000 euros has been stolen from the auction house Tajan in Paris. “The theft of the artwork, entitled Tête de fillette (Head of a little girl), happened while it was displayed in a room of the auction house and not by breaking and entering the premises as police first reported.”
The Drama Of Authentication
A new play running in Boston focuses on what outsiders might consider an unlikely profession when it comes to the creation of dramatic sparks: art authentication. Of course, the play isn’t exactly an accurate depiction of the authetication business, any more than architects’ lives resemble that of Indiana Jones, but the production does call attention to a little-known, but vitally important, corner of the art world, and sheds some light on the rivalries and internal politics that can affect it.
Budapest’s Concert Hall: A New Model?
Budapest has a brilliant new concert hall, and it was built in a novel way, writes Norman Lebrecht. “What the Hungarians have done is tear up the rulebook and build a hall on the never-never. A patch of industrialised riverbank beside the faux-bourgeois national theatre (opened in 2002) was turned over to a local developer who, with cash from Hungarian expats in Canada, knocked up the new Palace of Arts – 1,700-seat concert hall, art gallery, small theatre – for a mere 31.3 billion Forints. That, by my reckoning, is about £87 million, or rather less than it is costing to restore London’s main concert hall to a semblance of its original inadequacy.”
Grokster Groupies Gather At The Court
The Supreme Court proceedings to determine the future of file-swapping technology are attracting a bit of a crowd. In fact, an unexpected array of file-sharing advocates and music fans have gathered at the court to hear the landmark case unfold, many passing out wearable reminders of an earlier copright case involving the entertainment industry: the 1984 Supreme Court ruling which declared video casette recorders to be legal, paving the way for the booming (and highly profitable) home video and DVD market.
This Blurb Brought To You By Spishak
Product placement took a giant leap forward this week with McDonald’s announcement that it would pay rap stars royalties in exchange for lyrical mentions of the Big Mac burger. But such guerrilla marketing tactics have been worming their way into unexpected corners of national culture for years, and the practice is likely to get bigger as traditional advertising becomes steadily less cost effective. “Last year, British ‘chick lit’ writer Carole Matthews [signed] a deal with Ford to mention its cars prominently in several of her works.” And now, Britain’s TV watchdog organization has offered a significant policy shift which could open the door for products to be inserted into the storylines of UK television programs.
BBC Dismisses Springer Opera Complaints
“The BBC board of governors has rejected thousands of complaints made over the showing of Jerry Springer – The Opera. The corporation received around 55,000 complaints prior to the screening of the hit West End show, in January, and 8,000 after it had been broadcast. But the governors’ Programme Complaints committee voted by a 4-1 majority not to uphold the complaints. They said the programme’s artistic significance outweighed any offence which might have been caused.”