The producers won’t be releasing grosses, and they’ll be charging $450 for the best seats in the house, but wait! Impecunious Broadway fans have a shot at seeing Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein” from the front row for only $25, provided they don’t mind taking their chances in a lottery. Well, okay, it’ll cost ’em $26.50, counting the facility fee….
Tag: 09.06.07
Black Comedian Rapped Over Use Of N-Word
Comedian Eddie Griffin was pulled from the stage at a Black Enterprise magazine event in Miami mid-routine this week, after organizers became incensed by his repeated use of the word “nigger.” Black activists have been campaigning against the word in recent months, following a series of high-profile incidents in which white comedians and DJs came under fire for making racially insensitive remarks.
Justice Dept Inveighs Against Net Neutrality
The debate over “net neutrality” – the idea that internet service providers should have to provide equal access to all web sites, and not charge a fee for certain sites to be more accessible than others – is a hot topic all over the world these days. This week, the US Justice Department weighed in, saying to the Federal Communications Commission that any rule attempting to enforce net neutrality would “hamper development of the Internet and prevent service providers from upgrading or expanding their networks.”
Two New Electronic Book Initiatives
“In October, the online retailer Amazon.com will unveil the Kindle, an electronic book reader that has been the subject of industry speculation for a year. Also this fall, Google plans to start charging users for full online access to the digital copies of some books in its database.”
Why Do Big Female Stars Still Have To Expose All?
“I think what I find so incredibly discomfiting about these pictures is their suggestion that, no matter how talented a woman is, how many plaudits she has received, how intelligent her reputation, how garlanded she has been for depicting one of the most talented writers of the last century while sporting a huge prosthetic conk on her noggin, at the end of the day, if she wants to stay in the public eye, if she wants the magazine covers and the leading roles, she has to be willing to reduce herself to tits and arse.”
Broadway Arrives On MTV (Cool)
A Broadway performance of “Legally Blonde” is being broadcast on MTV. “Admittedly, securing that much airtime on MTV isn’t quite the seal of zeitgeist approval that it would have been 20 or even 10 years ago. MTV has strayed from the actual music business, now retailing lots of reality TV (and not the fun kind). But to have a Broadway musical reach a nationwide audience behind an MTV logo seems a big deal indeed.”
Novelist Jailed For Murder (Which He Then Wrote About)
A Polish writer has been convicted of a murder, the account of which he subsequently incorporated into a grisly novel. The case had been closed, but details in the novel matched exactly the crime and Krystian Bala was arrested.
Simon & Schuster Chief Retires
Simon & Schuster CEO Jack Romanos, who announced Thursday that he was retiring after a 40-year career in publishing, acknowledged that times are tight for the industry and anticipated an increasingly digital future.
The Shrinking Music Video
“When MTV’s award show kicked off 24 years ago, the network was ushering in a new era where the video was king: a branding tool and an art form rolled into one. Today, the channel broadcasts mostly reality shows while YouTube, iTunes, MTV.com and various other online destinations have become the dominant viewing platform for videos. Directors are gradually adapting to the smaller-sized medium.”
Remembering Pavarotti
Pavarotti was a great entertainer who didn’t always sing well in later years. But “for all the silly stuff, he was never a buffoon. He helped many young singers and raised a lot of money for good causes singing his medleys with the stars of rock and pop.”