Heading in to new round of world trade talks, President Jacques Chirac says France supports the concept of cultural diversity and argues that this can only be achieved by acknowledging a cultural trade exemption that allowsnations to protect their cultures from being overwhelmed by competition from outside. CBC
Tag: 11.18.99
WHO, ME STAGNANT?
Movie theaters are on track to rack up 1.6 billion admissions this year, the most since 1959. Variety
WHEN BOOKS MEET MOVIES
Two years – that’s about the time it takes to get a movie made. “Literary material into movies usually only happens after there’s a disaster for the studios at Oscar night.” Thus a new crop of movies based on literature hits the screens. New York Times
BRITISH FILM PROMOTION
Global competition for movie production is heating up. Hollywood wants tax credits, Australia just built a movie production megaplex. And Britain has…made a DVD promoting the British industry. BBC
WHO HAS TIME FOR SCHOOL?
New study says kids between ages of 2 and 18 spend 5 1/2-hours on daily media entertainment – 2 hours, 46 minutes of television; 49 minutes of computer games and other computer uses; 48 minutes of recorded music; 44 minutes of reading; and 39 minutes of radio. (AP) Boston Globe
PETER MARKS
… to leave theater beat at the New York Times Playbill
MORE MOVEMENT AT THE MFA
Shakeups continue at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Wednesday, longtime star curator Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. abruptly resigned. “I have now worked long enough in this job, and have experienced enough of the restructured `one museum’ that is the MFA today, that in good faith I cannot continue,” he writes. Boston Globe
“ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT FINDS IN YEARS”
Cezanne stolen 21 years ago has been recovered in a police sweep. Prosecution of the thieves is said to be unlikely. The painting will be sold at auction in London – said to be “one of the most important paintings offered in London this decade. It was completed when Cezanne was at the peak of his powers.” BBC
EVEN AT THESE PRICES, A BARGAIN
Latest art auction scrum “a blast” to watch. Artnet.com
AND: LATEST AUCTION CONFIRMS BOOM: Wednesday’s contemporary sale “felt more solid” than the night before. New York Times 11/18/99
PREVIOUSLY: “LIKE SPOILED CHILDREN”: Bids at the Christie auction of contemporary art Tuesday night set record prices for 18 artists from Jeff Koons to Damien Hirst. Prices were so high and so reckless they were “unhealthy.” New York Times 11/17/99
AND: Click here for AJ’s fall auction stories archives
GLITTER MEETS LITER-
-ature at Wednesday night’s National Book Awards. The winners: Ha Jin in fiction for “Waiting,” John W. Dower in nonfiction for “Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II,” Ai in poetry for “Vice: New and Selected Poems” and Kimberly Willis Holt in young people’s literature for “When Zachary Beaver Came to Town.” Winners aside, it was a star-studded evening. – Washington Post
AND: New York Times account (one-time registration required)
AND: Publisher’s Weekly account