Actors’ Equity Expels Former Artistic Director Of The Citadel Theatre

“Acting on the findings of a Disciplinary Committee relating to a safe and respectful workplace complaint, Equity’s national Council ratified the recommendation of the Committee and expelled Bob Baker from Equity membership on June 23, 2019,” a notice on Equity’s website reads. “A possible appeal period has now closed.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

Independent Moviehouses Are Having A Hell Of A Time Surviving

In Seattle, the Columbia City moviehouse Ark Lodge Cinemas has seen box office receipts drop by as much as 60 percent this year. “Its struggles illustrate the challenges of operating an independent moviehouse at a time when audiences are changing and competition is fierce from shiny multiplexes that increasingly boast amenities like beer and wine, reclining seats and expanded food menus.” Can the indies survive? – Seattle Times

The Problem With (Book) Pirates

Instead of the royalties authors might expect from book sales, “what comes trickling back are mostly email alerts about websites in brazen violation of copyright law, offering free downloads of books the authors have spent years of their lives producing. At the moment, I have about 400 such offers of my own books in an email folder labeled ‘Thieves.'” – The New York Times

What Is The Deal With Jeremy Renner, And By Extension, Hollywood?

Celebrity in the 21st century: The actor Jeremy Renner was nominated for Oscars two years in a row, with The Hurt Locker and The Town. Then Marvel came calling. Then he got his own app. Then things went off the rails in all kinds of ways. “The sheer existence — and vertiginous decline — of the Jeremy Renner Official app is weird and inexplicably hilarious. But like the rest of Renner’s current image, it’s also a symptom of our current, confusing moment in pop culture and the economy built around it, where it’s unclear if the truly massive Hollywood star is increasingly a relic of the past.” – BuzzFeed

Sculptor Wendy Taylor Wants Pro-Leave Brexiters To Stop Using Her Work As A Symbol

Taylor’s sundial sculpture Timepiece has been used – or, as she thinks of it, co-opted – by a pro-Brexit party called the Time Party, who are using it both on their website and in their merchandise. Taylor said, “I was bloody livid when I found out. … Quite frankly it feels like my work is being manipulated without my permission.” – The Observer (UK)

The Girl Who Published Her First Novel At 12, And Then Disappeared At 25

Barbara Newhall Follett saw her first book – about a wild little girl who longs to be free from structures of brick and glass – published when she was 12. By the time she was 25, “Barbara began to feel her dreams slipping away to the familiar tune of work and domesticity. She still wrote, but her work was no longer in favour with publishers and the rejections hurt. And then, in 1939, on 7 December, Barbara Rogers, née Newhall Follett, walked out of the apartment she shared with her husband. She left no note, took only a few dollars and some shorthand notes. She was never seen again.” – The Guardian (UK)