Today: September 20, 2024
Today: September 20, 2024

Arts

Arts

'Hair,' 'Everwood' actor Treat Williams dies after Vermont motorcycle crash

Actor Treat Williams, whose nearly 50-year career included starring roles in the TV series “Everwood” and the movie “Hair,” died Monday after a motorcycle crash in Vermont, state police said. He was 71. Shortly before 5 p.m., a Honda SUV was turning left into a parking lot when it collided with Williams’ motorcycle in the town of Dorset, according to a statement from Vermont State Police. “Williams was unable to avoid a collision and was thrown from his motorcycle. He suffered critical injuries and was airlifted to Albany Medical Center in Albany, New York, where he

June 13, 2023
'Hair,' 'Everwood' actor Treat Williams dies after Vermont motorcycle crash
Arts

The Beatles are releasing their 'final' record. AI helped make it possible

Artificial intelligence has been used to extract John Lennon’s voice from an old demo to create “the last Beatles record,” decades after the band broke up, Paul McCartney said Tuesday. McCartney, 80, told the BBC that the technology was used to separate the Beatles’ voices from background sounds during the making of director Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary series, “The Beatles: Get Back.” The “new” song is set to be released later this year, he said. Jackson was “able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette and a piano,” McCartney told BBC radio. “He

June 13, 2023
The Beatles are releasing their 'final' record. AI helped make it possible
Arts

As a stolen silver sleuth, German curator returns heirlooms Jewish families lost in the Holocaust

An independent German commission on Tuesday recommended that a painting by Wassily Kandinsky currently owned by the Bavarian state bank be returned to the heirs of a Jewish family that originally owned the piece of art. The commission can be called on in cases of disputes over the restitution of Nazi-confiscated cultural property, especially Jewish property. In the case of the heirs of Hedwig Lewenstein Weyermann and Irma Lewenstein Klein versus Bayerische Landesbank, the commission advised that the 1907 painting “The Colorful Life” by Russian artist Kandinsky be returned to the heirs. The commission’s recommendations are non-binding

June 13, 2023
As a stolen silver sleuth, German curator returns heirlooms Jewish families lost in the Holocaust
Arts

After 'Rapper's Delight,' hip-hop went global – its impact has been massive; so too efforts to keep it real

MC Solaar, a pioneer of French rap Photo by Eric Catarina/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Soon after the fall 1979 release of “Rapper’s Delight,” versions of the first commercially successful rap recording began cropping up around the world. Two Portuguese-language versions, “Bons Tempos” and “Melô Do Tagarela,” were put out in Brazil. One version from Jamaica provided a relatively faithful recreation of the Sugarhill Gang original, while “Hotter Reggae Music” slowed down the track, transforming it into reggae. Other local language versions came from the Netherlands with “Hallo, Hallo, Hallo,” Venezuela with “La Cotorra Criolla” and Germany with “Rapper’s Deutsch.” ‘Rapper’s

June 13, 2023
After 'Rapper's Delight,' hip-hop went global – its impact has been massive; so too efforts to keep it real
Arts

How TV shows have grappled with a post-Dobbs America

In a March 2023 episode of ‘Accused,’ a teacher tries to help his student navigate the hurdles of getting an abortion. Steve Wilkie/FOX Two doctors sit, despondent, on the side of a busy road as they watch an EMT zip up the body of their patient into a body bag. The patient died as a direct result of a fatal ectopic pregnancy, which her OB-GYN refused to treat because of a new anti-abortion law in her home state. Tears in her eyes, one of the doctors responds to questions from the EMT about the death. Then she shouts: “It’s the

June 13, 2023
How TV shows have grappled with a post-Dobbs America
Arts

Tina Turner musical on national tour gains extra meaning in the wake of the rock icon's death

The national tour of Broadway’s “Tina — The Tina Turner Musical” makes its California debut this week, arriving as a poignant, posthumous celebration following the rock music icon’s death last month. “Tina” opens in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre on Wednesday, steps away from her Hollywood Walk of Fame star and where she recorded for Capitol Records. It plays there until July 9, followed by two weeks at Segerstrom Center the Arts in Costa Mesa and stops in San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose later this summer. “We have always wanted to put

June 13, 2023
Tina Turner musical on national tour gains extra meaning in the wake of the rock icon's death
Arts

'Avatar 3' pushed to 2025 and Disney sets two 'Star Wars' films for 2026

“Avatar: The Way of Water” may have finally arrived in theaters in 2022, but that long parade of “Avatar” delays isn’t done, yet. The Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday pushed the release of “Avatar 3” a year, bumping it from December 2024 to December 2025. The timeline is stretched even further for the next planned installments. “Avatar 4” is now slated to hit theaters in December 2029; “Avatar 5” is set to arrive in December 2031. If those dates hold, the “Avatar” film series will have stretched across the first four decades of the century. Director

June 13, 2023
'Avatar 3' pushed to 2025 and Disney sets two 'Star Wars' films for 2026
Arts

Grammys add new categories, including for pop dance recording and African music performance

More change is afoot at the Grammys. The Recording Academy announced Tuesday that three new categories will be added to the awards show in 2024: best pop dance recording, best African music performance, and best alternative jazz album. In addition, two existing categories have been moved to the general field, which means that all Grammy voters can participate in selecting the winners: producer of the year, non-classical, and songwriter of the year, non-classical, the latter of which was first introduced this year. Previously, the general categories were made up solely of the “Big Four” awards: best

June 14, 2023
Grammys add new categories, including for pop dance recording and African music performance
Arts

Trump's historic federal arraignment was virtually invisible to the public

Former President Donald Trump’s federal arraignment in Miami on Tuesday was historic — yet virtually invisible to the public. In an era when people are accustomed to instantly available images and sounds of important events, Trump’s not-guilty plea to charges of hoarding classified documents was a step back in time. Hundreds of photographers and television crews were at the courthouse — many broadcasting live from outside — but they couldn’t show the key moments inside the courtroom. Efforts by news organizations to loosen restrictions that generally prohibit cameras in federal courtrooms failed, despite the event’s unprecedented

June 14, 2023
Trump's historic federal arraignment was virtually invisible to the public
Arts

Prosecutors accuse weapons expert in Baldwin case of drinking, smoking

The weapons supervisor on the film set where Alec Baldwin shot and killed a cinematographer was drinking and smoking marijuana in the evenings during the filming of “Rust,” prosecutors are accusing, saying she was likely hungover when she loaded a live bullet into the revolver that the actor used. They leveled the accusations Friday in response to a motion filed last month by Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys that seeks to dismiss her involuntary manslaughter charge. The prosecutors accused her of having a history of reckless conduct and argued that it would be in the public interest for

June 14, 2023
Prosecutors accuse weapons expert in Baldwin case of drinking, smoking
Arts

Historic Boston church where the Revolution was sparked to host its first play

Old North Church played a pivotal role in the nation’s fight for independence and has continued to be an active house of worship for 300 years. Today, one of Boston’s most popular tourist attractions is also, for the first time, a theater hosting an original play. “Revolution’s Edge,” set the day before the start of the American Revolution, is a dramatic imagining of the interactions of three real people with different views whose lives are about to be upended by the impending war, and explores what the events will mean for their families. The play opening Thursday

June 14, 2023
Historic Boston church where the Revolution was sparked to host its first play
Arts

Klimt portrait 'Lady with a Fan' up for sale with $80M estimate

A late-life masterpiece by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt could become the most expensive painting ever sold in Europe when it is auctioned later this month. Auctioneer Sotheby’s said on Wednesday that “Dame mit Fächer” — Lady with a Fan — will go up for sale June 27 in London, with an estimated price of 65 million pounds ($80 million). The last portrait Klimt completed before his death in 1918, the painting shows an unidentified woman against a resplendent, China-influenced backdrop of dragons and lotus blossoms. It was last sold in 1994, going for $11.6 million at an

June 14, 2023
Klimt portrait 'Lady with a Fan' up for sale with $80M estimate
Arts

How Black Americans combated racism from beyond the grave

The addition of a simple ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.’ could be a quiet act of resistance. Rae Tucker/Find a Grave The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently published a story about a Black cemetery in Buckhead, a prosperous Atlanta community. The cemetery broke ground almost two centuries ago, in 1826, as the graveyard of Piney Grove Baptist Church. The church has been gone for decades; the cemetery now sits on the property of a townhouse development. It is overgrown, with most of its 300-plus graves unmarked. The article describes how some of the buried’s descendants and family members are trying to get the property

June 14, 2023
How Black Americans combated racism from beyond the grave
Arts

Book Review: Christine Pride and Jo Piazza continue as dynamic duo with 'You Were Always Mine'

“You Were Always Mine” by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza (Simon & Schuster) I don’t know who introduced writers Christine Pride and Jo Piazza but I’d like to thank their literary matchmaker. Each talented on their own, a special magic happens when they co-author a book together. Their first novel, the 2021 release, “We Are Not Like Them” tackled Black Lives Matter, race relations, police brutality, journalism ethics, forgiveness and friendship between two women, one Black and one white. Written in alternate voices, the book was at times tough to read but it felt important and necessary. Their new book

June 14, 2023
Book Review: Christine Pride and Jo Piazza continue as dynamic duo with 'You Were Always Mine'
Arts

`Cats' returns at new Perelman Center, a $500 million building in downtown Manhattan

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s absence from New York City’s stages will be at most 14 months, with “Cats” returning in June 2024 at the World Trade Center’s new Perelman Performing Arts Center. The $500 million building, the next-to-last element of the World Trade Center redevelopment to open following the 2001 terrorist attacks, announced its inaugural season Wednesday. “Cats” will appear in June and July 2024 directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, with choreography by Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles. The musical will have reimagined staging set in Harlem’s drag Ballroom Culture. Bill Rauch, PAC’s artistic director,

June 15, 2023
`Cats' returns at new Perelman Center, a $500 million building in downtown Manhattan
Arts

Barbara Kingsolver wins Women's Prize for Fiction with Appalachian novel 'Demon Copperhead'

American novelist Barbara Kingsolver won the prestigious Women’s Prize for Fiction Wednesday with “Demon Copperhead,” the Dickens-inspired tale of a boy’s struggle against the odds in a corner of America scarred by opioid addiction. Kingsolver’s Appalachian coming-of-age tale was announced as winner of the 30,000 pounds ($38,000) award at a ceremony in London. Kingsolver, 68, also won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for the novel, which transplants Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield” to modern-day southwest Virginia, where the author lives. It was a second victory for Kingsolver, who previously won the Women’s Prize in 2010 for “The

June 15, 2023
Barbara Kingsolver wins Women's Prize for Fiction with Appalachian novel 'Demon Copperhead'
Arts

Robert Gottlieb, celebrated literary editor of Toni Morrison and Robert Caro, dies at 92

Robert Gottlieb, the inspired and eclectic literary editor whose brilliant career was launched with Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” and continued for decades with such Pulitzer Prize-winning classics as Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” and Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker,” has died at age 92. Gottlieb died Wednesday of natural causes at a New York hospital, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group announced. Caro, who had worked for decades with Gottlieb on his Lyndon Johnson biographies and was featured with him last year in the documentary “Turn Every Page,” said in a statement that he had never worked with an editor so

June 15, 2023
Robert Gottlieb, celebrated literary editor of Toni Morrison and Robert Caro, dies at 92
Arts

Met Opera box office has slight uptick in 2nd season after pandemic

The Metropolitan Opera saw a slight uptick in ticket sales in its second season following the coronavirus pandemic. The Met sold 66% of tickets during the season that ended Saturday, up from 61% during the 2021-22 season. Sales were lower than budgeted because of a cyberattack in mid-December that shut down the company’s website and box office for nine days and left operations limited for several weeks. Without the shutdown, the Met projected 68% attendance. The opera’s available dollar capacity, which takes into account the impact of discounts, ticked up a percent last year to 57%.

June 15, 2023
Met Opera box office has slight uptick in 2nd season after pandemic
Arts

Chasing Horse charged with more sex crimes in new Canadian case

Nathan Chasing Horse has been charged in Alberta, Canada, with new sex crimes in the latest criminal case to be brought against the former “Dances With Wolves” actor, who remains jailed in Las Vegas as he awaits trial in a sweeping sexual abuse case that stunned Indian Country and has helped law enforcement in two countries corroborate long-standing allegations against him. At a virtual news conference Wednesday, Sgt. Nancy Farmer of the Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service acknowledged that the Alberta case is largely symbolic. Chasing Horse — who faces not only decades in a Nevada prison

June 15, 2023
Chasing Horse charged with more sex crimes in new Canadian case
Arts

Experts question prosecutors' strategy against weapons expert in Alec Baldwin case

More than a year and a half after Alec Baldwin shot and killed a cinematographer while rehearsing a scene on set in New Mexico, prosecutors have yet to solve the biggest mystery in the tragic case: How did live rounds get on the set? Prosecutors said in their latest court filing that they have some evidence to support the theory that weapons expert Hannah Gutierrez-Reed may be responsible for the introduction of the rounds. But they have offered no details, and barring more evidence, they’re now basing part of their case against her on the idea

June 15, 2023
Experts question prosecutors' strategy against weapons expert in Alec Baldwin case
Arts

Bill Cosby sued by 9 more women in Nevada for alleged decades-old sexual assaults

Nine more women are accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault in a lawsuit that alleges he used his “enormous power, fame and prestige” to victimize them. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Nevada alleges that the women were individually drugged and assaulted between approximately 1979 and 1992 in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe homes, dressing rooms and hotels. One woman alleges that Cosby, claiming to be her acting mentor, lured her from New York to Nevada, where he drugged her in a hotel room with what he had claimed to be non-alcoholic sparkling

June 15, 2023
Bill Cosby sued by 9 more women in Nevada for alleged decades-old sexual assaults
Arts

How the Unabomber's unique linguistic fingerprints led to his capture

Ted Kaczynski was arrested after the longest and most expensive investigation in the FBI’s history. Rich Pedroncelli/AFP via Getty Images Can the language someone uses be as unique as their fingerprints? As I describe in my forthcoming book, “Linguistic Fingerprints: How Language Creates and Reveals Identity,” that was true in the case of Theodore Kaczynski. Kaczynski, who was known as the Unabomber, died in a North Carolina prison on June 10, 2023, reportedly by suicide. Kaczynski had been a math prodigy and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, before he withdrew from society and declared war on the

June 15, 2023
How the Unabomber's unique linguistic fingerprints led to his capture
Arts

Songwriter, music industry entrepreneur sentenced to life in prison in girlfriend's death

A songwriter and music industry entrepreneur from Atlanta has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing his girlfriend in Iowa. Justin Wright was found guilty of first-degree murder in April in the death of 20-year-old Wilanna Bibbs, and was sentenced Wednesday, the Quad-City Times reported. Wright, 34, also known as J Wright, founded Camp Entertainment Worldwide in 2011. His company worked with artists that included Bow Wow, Timbaland, Kash Doll and DJ Khalid, and he became a multi-platinum songwriter working with those acts. Bibbs, an aspiring singer from Durham, North Carolina, was shot

June 15, 2023
Songwriter, music industry entrepreneur sentenced to life in prison in girlfriend's death
Arts

Noah Kahan writes songs about New England. His vulnerability has far wider appeal

Singer-songwriter Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” is about New England — a topic the Vermont native says he could write about for the rest of his life — but it’s also largely about in-between spaces. When resentment lingers but forgiveness feels possible. When a broken friendship is just beginning to mend. When homesickness clashes with a desire to leave. Or, in the case of the album’s title track, when fall hasn’t yet turned to winter. Writing the folk-pop album, he told The Associated Press, felt “like breathing.” Kahan revisits those themes through a new lens on the

June 15, 2023
Noah Kahan writes songs about New England. His vulnerability has far wider appeal
Arts

Peacock strikes naming rights deal with home of Emmy Awards in downtown Los Angeles

Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles is changing its name to Peacock Theater, and the open-air plaza next to it will be known as Peacock Place. The changes take effect July 11 as part of a multi-year naming rights deal between Peacock, NBCUniversal’s premium streaming service, and sports and live entertainment giant AEG. The deal announced Thursday is Peacock’s first naming rights agreement. The 7,100-seat theater hosts concerts and special events, including the Emmy Awards. The 40,000-square-foot plaza will change its name from XBOX Plaza. The deal includes adding a LED marquee at the corner of

June 15, 2023
Peacock strikes naming rights deal with home of Emmy Awards in downtown Los Angeles

Follow