In late July, after the first allegations of Moonves’s sexual misconduct became public, a solid majority of the board backed him. (One member said in a meeting, “I don’t care if 30 more women come forward and allege this kind of stuff. Les is our leader and it wouldn’t change my opinion of him.”) A month later, they were ready to fire him for cause. James B. Stewart reports on how the turnaround happened.
Tag: 09.12.18
73,000-Year-Old Drawing, World’s Oldest, Found In South Africa
The relic — a piece of stone marked with a hashtag-type design in red ochre, discovered in an oceanside cave between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth — is roughly 30,000 years older than the oldest previously-known drawings, which were found in Spain and Indonesia.
China Cuts Off Tour Of Ibsen’s ‘Enemy Of The People’ After It Hits Too Close To Home
A troupe from Berlin’s Schaubühne was giving the first performance of a three-night run at The Egg in Beijing when one scene moved some audience members to shout out critical remarks about the Chinese government. Censors told the performers to remove that scene or have the tour cancelled, and they did; even so, the theater at the tour’s next destination, Nanjing, has suddenly experienced “technical difficulties.”
London’s WhatsOnStage Launches New Awards To Honor Theatre Workers Most Of Us Forget
To complement its more conventional WhatsOnStage Awards, the publication’s new WhatsOffStage Awards will have categories for best box office, stage door, theatre website, front-of-house staff, and so on.
In Buenos Aires, Art Basel Beta-Tests Its New Program To Make Cities Into Art Capitals
“A breezy, sunny week in Buenos Aires ushered in the inaugural initiative for Art Basel Cities, one of the latest endeavors from the eponymous art fair powerhouse. … Working essentially as long-term consultants for Buenos Aires, Art Basel hopes to strengthen the local cultural scene and create more global awareness of the city’s cultural offerings.”
NEA Study: Arts Participation In America Is Up
The report paints a generally positive picture for the arts in America. Attendance at both visual and performing arts events is up significantly over the past five years, although it has yet to climb back to 2002 levels. In the 2017 survey, 43.4 percent of American adults—nearly 107 million people—reported they attended a live arts performance during the previous 12 months. That’s up significantly from 40.2 percent in 2012.
Holistic Hollein: A Halting Conversation with the Metropolitan Museum’s New Director
Max Hollein, the Met’s new director, who spoke confidently and compellingly during our informal NYC lunches while he was directing three Frankfurt museums, twice surprised me in the space of one week with his uneasy, hesitant delivery during introductory remarks …
Plan For Giant Restaurant/Bar On Roof Of London’s Royal Festival Hall Shocks Preservationists
The idea is that the Pergola on the River, as it would be called, would be in place for three years. It would then be removed and the arts centre would go ahead with a long-held ambition to use the roof for open-air performances. But the Twentieth Century Society, a conservation group, said it was shocked by the proposals and would be objecting in the strongest terms.
A Much-Diminished Paris Biennale Opens
The contrast with the prestigious art fair even a decade ago was striking, with only 61 exhibitors this year, two thirds of them French. On Monday, the First Lady Brigitte Macron toured the stands for three hours, perhaps a salve for the dealers. But no significant historical work or masterpiece was unveiled.
Critical Opinion Increasingly Matters Less In The Era Of Social Media
“We’re not paid to be soothsayers; we’re paid to give our honest opinions on a particular time and day, based on our own long experience of writing about and loving theatre.” But “the new age of social media now means more than ever that critics are increasingly a reduced part of the equation.”