The group’s ever-expanding annual report – today’s release, “Inequality in 1,100 Popular Films,” covers the top 100 movies each year from 2007 through 2017 – shows no significant statistical improvement in the representation of women, people of color, LBGT characters or characters with disability over the past decade.
Tag: 07.31.18
Rare Bible Returned To Canterbury Cathedral Library After 500 Years
A 13th century bible, one of a handful of books which survived intact when the library of Canterbury Cathedral was broken up at the time of the Reformation, is back in the building after almost 500 years.
Theatre Company Decides To Cut Shows, Open Adult Trade School On Converted Bus Instead
“Award-winning Slung Low theatre company is known for staging epic outdoor theatre productions around the UK. Now it’s decided to cut back on the number of shows it makes and set up a ‘community college’ teaching astronomy, cooking and decorative blacksmithing. Artistic director Alan Lane said it was ‘the most useful and most interesting’ thing they could do with their subsidy.”
Completely Out Of Hand: Visiting A Ventriloquists’ Convention
Elisabeth Vincentelli meets the 525 performers (and even more dummies) at the Vent Haven International Ventriloquist Convention, held at a Kentucky Holiday Inn near the Cincinnati airport and (not incidentally) the world’s only museum dedicated to the art form.
Why MoviePass Was Utterly Doomed
Felix Salmon: “The easy answer is: It was selling dollars for a dime, and you can’t do that for very long until you go bust. … The company burned cash until it didn’t have any cash left to burn and fizzled out. But in the spirit of Chesterton’s fence, it’s worth looking at the thesis behind MoviePass, and to try to make a distinction between the calculated risks that just didn’t pan out, on the one hand, and the crazy ideas that were never going to work, on the other.”
Unseen Sketches For ‘Monty Python And The Holy Grail’ Surface
“Boxes of material deposited at the British Library and seen by The Times contain dozens of unused script ideas, including two sketches written for Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” (The early scripts had far more material than could fit in a feature film.) “One is about a Wild West bookshop and another features an amorous Pink Knight.” (includes transcripts of sketches)
Appeals Court Rules Norton Simon Museum May Keep Cranach Paintings, Ending 11-Year Legal Battle
“A federal appeals court has confirmed a lower court’s ruling that two contested 16th-century oil-on-panel paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder will not be returned to the heir of the legendary Dutch Jewish dealer Jacques Goudstikker … The July 30th ruling seems to put an end to an 11-year court battle over the Nazi-looted artworks, and means that they will stay in California at the Norton Simon Museum, on view to the public.”
L.A. MOCA Has A New Director: Klaus Biesenbach Of MOMA
“After months of turmoil, including the firing of its chief curator and the announced departure of its current director, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles has chosen its next director: Klaus Biesenbach, chief curator at large at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and director of its experimental satellite space, MoMA PS1.” (Biesenbach’s career at MOMA has not been without controversy of its own.)
Study: Do Sci-Fi Readers Make Better Lovers?
The cliché of fans of these genres being lonely geeks is clearly mistaken. No doubt they have difficulties with relationships like everyone else. But it apparently helps to have J.R.R. Tolkien or George R.R. Martin as your unofficial couples counselor.