“The waif-like dancer has been off stage for almost a year, while rumours circulated that she had a broken neck. In fact, a whiplash injury suffered in rehearsal had threatened to end the 27-year-old’s dancing career.” This week she’s back onstage in her signature role, Giselle.
Tag: 04.22.09
Obama May Be Publishing’s Midas, But There’s A Catch
The book Hugo Chavez handed to President Obama on Saturday “went from No. 54,295 on Amazon to No. 2 in two days — after four, it remains strong, at No. 7. The implications, it seems, are a) that everything Obama touches turns to gold, and b) if a struggling author wants instant success, the surest route is to stand next to him and press her book into his presidential hands. The real problem here is the ‘stand next to him’ part.”
Roger Ebert Gives $1 Million For U. Of Illinois Film Studies
“Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert and his wife, Chaz, have made a gift of $1 million toward creation of the Roger Ebert Program for Film Studies Fund at the University of Illinois, his alma mater. The gift was announced during the 11th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival in Champaign.”
In Film-Production Slowdown, Workers Scavenge For Jobs
“Despite a box office that’s soared 17 percent so far this year, Hollywood’s year-long feature-film production dry spell has turned into a drought, leaving thousands of industry professionals above and below the line scrounging for work. According to IMDbPro, only 35 films are in production or have filmed in the U.S. since January, an 8.7 percent drop from last year, which was already low because of last year’s writer’s strike. And the slowdown is bad all over….”
Nelson-Atkins Museum’s Director To Retire After 28 Years
Marc Wilson, who took the helm of Kansas City’s top art institution in 1982, oversaw a massive transformation of the museum: the expansion of collections and launch of new departments, the growth of the board, the quadrupling of the staff, a new Learning Center, renovation of the Kansas City Sculpture Park, and the doubling of the museum’s space by opening the “luminous” Bloch Building, designed by Steven Holl.
Met Replaces Opera In The Parks With Outdoor Recitals, HD Festival
“With the economy in the state it’s in, it comes as no surprise that the Metropolitan Opera will not be returning to its former practice of touring complete opera performances out to the five boroughs and New Jersey this summer.” Instead of last summer’s Gheorghiu-Alagna one-off, the Met will present six vocal recitals in city parks and pre-Labor Day outdoor screenings of past “Live in HD” simulcasts.
PBS Launches Online Video Library
The new video portal “will aggregate thousands of full-length episodes from the network’s top series, along with complete seasons of current shows and full back-catalogues of classic series. Among the shows available on the new portal (PBS.org/video) are American Masters, Antiques Road Show, Masterpiece Theatre, Nature and Nova. Classic series, such as the various programs featuring cooking legend Julia Child, will also eventually be available in their entirety on the site.
Experimental Dance On Clear Channel’s Digital Billboards
This weekend in L.A., “[r]otating with the digital ads for fast food and auto insurance will be an eight-second spot promoting an experimental dance project. The advertisement will feature [still] images from Underwater Ballet, a digital film directed by Liz Goldwyn and starring dancer Deanna Beasom.” And for a week beginning May 1, Clear Channel will run the entire Underwater Ballet twice an hour on a billboard in New York’s Times Square.
Sacha Baron Cohen Prevails In Ali G Libel Case
A Los Angeles judge dismissed a suit against the actor and the UK’s Channel 4 (HBO settled) by a woman claiming that Baron Cohen “used her name in a defamatory way” during an interview in which his character Ali G asked Gore Vidal “why there was any point in amending the US Constitution.”
Blogs Turn Hollywood News Beat Into Bloody Battleground
“Variety ceded its grip on the town entirely, and now the Hollywood press corps is in a state of revolution. There is no power structure. It’s all turned inside out and upside down. Everyone claims victory, but no one seems to have it, nobody is powerful enough to measure it. And, above all, it’s one nasty, mean, shrill place.”