The British Library has damaged a historic diary from the 1700s. “Its private owner, a descendant of Thomas Tyldesley, the diary’s author, has described how he ‘wanted to weep’ when he collected the 96-page manuscript last week and discovered that someone had spilt oil across its pages – staining them and making some of them completely illegible. Its original leather front cover had also been cut off.”
Tag: 05.14.07
Hytner: London Theatre Critics Are Dead White Males
Nicholas Hytner, director of London’s National Theatre says that London’s theatre critics are a “dead white male” club and that they don’t give female directors a chance. “He said that many of the daily newspaper critics were in their jobs when he was at university. ‘I won’t stay in my job for as long as they stay in theirs. When I become a dead white male I will only be hired to do dead white male theatre.’ Some critics could not help but notice that a play was directed by a woman, he said.”
Stoppard Play Rakes In Critics Awards
“Tom Stoppard’s Coast of Utopia trilogy won six awards, the most of any show of the season. Among its honors are Outstanding New Broadway Play, Outstanding Director of a Play (Jack O’Brien), Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Martha Plimpton), Outstanding Lighting Design (Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner and Natasha Katz), Outstanding Set Design (Bob Crowley and Scott Pask) and Outstanding Costume Design (Catherine Zuber).”
Indian Artists Protest Artist’s Arrest
“Indian artists have condemned last week’s arrest of a post-graduate student from a university campus in the state of Gujarat. The state is currently governed by the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The activists said that the work of Chandra Mohan is “obscene and distasteful” because it shows naked men. The dean of the arts faculty at the university was suspended for opposing the student’s arrest. Chandra Mohan was released on bail after being imprisoned for four days.”
The Anticipating-Harry Industry
The final Harry Potter installment doesn’t enter the world until this summer but until then, “publishers are capitalising on ‘Pottermania’, with titles that anticipate what will happen in the final volume or provide behind-the-scenes analysis.”
Recording Companies Attack Their Fans
Recording companies are suing individuals for possible illegal downloading. “Relying on deep pockets and prying into personal computers for evidence, the companies compel people to pay thousands in fines without ever presenting a case at trial. Many of the lawsuits are filed against people who can’t afford a long legal battle, and most people settle without a fight.”
Hollywood Speeds Up In Preparation For Possible Strike
“Hollywood studios are speeding production on movies and TV shows, preparing for a possible strike by writers and more trouble next year when contracts with actors and directors expire.”
Yeah, Uh-Huh… Our Viewers Still Love You
TV networks are anxious to convince advertisers that their audiences will still watch commercials. If the viewers go away, then…
Ratings War – Hollywood Against The Advertisers
“The big TV networks are on a collision course with the advertisers that subsidize their shows, including the big hits like ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” Fox’s “American Idol” and NBC’s “Heroes.” The battle has the potential to get very ugly indeed over the next few weeks. And it’s all about ratings — or, more specifically, how to measure and assign monetary values to the rapidly dwindling broadcast TV audience in our era of TiVo and the Internet. Why should you, the average viewer, care?”
The End Of Another Sitcom Era
“The end of ‘The King of Queens’ is another step toward the end of another kind of network comedy — those that are simply presented in a studio before a live audience, where the resulting laughs (sometimes enhanced after the fact) are as much a part of the show as the multiple-camera setup, shooting the action as if it were a play. Nowadays, comedies are much more sophisticated, without laugh tracks and shot like a movie or drama series. They’re called single-camera comedies, though they certainly involve more than that.”