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Bernard Hill, actor in 'Titanic' and 'Lord of the Rings,' dies at 79
NEW YORK, NY.- Bernard Hill, a British actor who incarnated a humble style of masculine leadership in three hugely successful Hollywood movies, “Titanic” and two films in the “Lord of the Rings” franchise, died Sunday. He was 79. His death was announced in a family statement sent by a representative of Lou Coulson Associates, a British talent agency. It did not say where he died or provide a cause. Hill drew praise from critics for his work in serious TV dramas, small-budget films and theater. But he was best known for playing the ship’s captain in “Titanic” (1997) and the ruler of a horsemen’s kingdom in the second and third installments of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “The Two Towers” (2002) and “The Return of the King” (2003). By appearing in “Titanic” and “The Return of the King,” Hill became the first actor to star in more than one film to ... More

New Orleans Museum of Art dedicates Japanese Art Galleries in honor of Kurt A. Gitter, MD and Alice Yelen Gitter
NEW ORLEANS, LA.- Today, the New Orleans Museum of Art announced the dedication of its third-floor Japanese art gallery in honor of longtime museum supporters and patrons. The Kurt A. Gitter, MD and Alice Yelen Gitter Gallery will open to the public on Friday, May 10, with a new installation Envisioning Japan: Transformational Gifts from Kurt A. Gitter, MD and Alice Yelen Gitter. “Kurt Gitter and Alice Yelen Gitter have had an indelible impact on NOMA’s permanent collection, exhibitions, and presentations of Japanese art,” said Susan M. Taylor, The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director of NOMA. “Their contributions solidified Edo period painting and contemporary Japanese ceramics as two important areas ... More

The romance novelist, his muse and a 'healing' plot twist
NEW YORK, NY.- When Kimberlee Stevenson married John Murray on April 30, 2021, “we thought the worst was behind us,” Murray said. “We were ready to start our lives together.” “We had both been through so much,” Stevenson said. And for the first six months, life was indeed good. The two first connected in March 2016, when Stevenson picked up one of Murray’s books, “Until I Saw Your Smile” at her library in Chesapeake, Virginia. Murray is the author of more than 40 romance novels, and Stevenson is a fan of the genre. Their commonality ended there. Stevenson, now 41, had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 2 1/2, and raised by her mother, and at the time, was single and did not have children. Murray, now 60, was 18 years older, divorced, had two sons from that ... More

'Time of the Heathen': Postwar life and death, an American tale
NEW YORK, NY.- Peter Kass’ “Time of the Heathen” is as much artifact as artwork. Symptomatizing both Cold War angst and the birth pangs of the New American Cinema, the movie premiered in late 1961 at the influential film society Cinema 16, where it received mixed reviews and dropped from sight. Newly excavated and restored, Kass’ “psychological drama of guilt and violence” (as it was blurbed at the time) gets its first New York run at Film at Lincoln Center, through May 16. An opening title sets the action four years after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. A gangly, odd-looking white man identified in the credits as Gaunt (John Heffernan) strides through a generic rural America, Bible in pocket — looking for what? After being questioned by police, he stumbles across ... More

What happens when a happening place becomes too hot
MILAN.- Packed bars with carousing revelers spilling onto clogged streets. Takeaway booze swigged by drunken tourists and students. Earsplitting volumes in once quiet residential neighborhoods long after midnight. When Milan’s authorities embarked years ago on plans to promote the city as a buzzy destination by building on its reputation as Italy’s hip fashion and design capital, the resulting noise and rowdy overcrowding were perhaps not quite what they had in mind. Now, after years of complaints and a series of lawsuits, the city has passed an ordinance to strictly limit the sale of takeaway food and beverages after midnight — and not much later on weekends — in “movida” areas, a Spanish term that Italians have adopted to describe outdoor nightlife. It will go into effect next week and be in force until Nov. 11. Outdoor seating for restaurants ... More

For her Broadway debut, she sings Alicia Keys's story
NEW YORK, NY.- Maleah Joi Moon has come a long way in a short time. Just a few years ago, she was a theater kid in suburban New Jersey, listening to her dad’s Alicia Keys records, starring in a high school production of “Rent,” waiting outside a Broadway stage door hoping to meet the cast of “Waitress.” Now, at 21, she’s a Tony nominee for her Broadway debut as the star of the new Alicia Keys musical, “Hell’s Kitchen,” which opened last month. That means she is working alongside the people she had just been fangirling — getting vocal advice and the occasional breakfast with Keys; honing her acting instincts with the show’s director, Michael Greif, who directed “Rent” 28 years ago; and learning to manage an eight-show week from Shoshana Bean, the actress she stage-doored in “Waitress,” who has taken Moon under her wing while ... More

Apple's new iPad ad leaves its creative audience feeling... flat
NEW YORK, NY.- The trumpet is the first thing to be squished. Then the industrial compressor flattens a row of paint cans, buckles a piano and levels what appears to be a marble bust. In a final act of destruction, it pops the eyes out of a ball-shaped yellow emoji. When the compressor rises, it reveals Apple’s latest commodity: the updated iPad Pro. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, posted the advertisement, called “Crush,” on Tuesday after the company held an event to announce new tablets. “Meet the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created,” Cook wrote, adding, “Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create.” For decades, Apple has been the toast of the creative class. It has won over designers, musicians and film editors with promises that its products would help them “Think Different.” But some creators took a different message ... More

Contemporary Chinese ink art makes striking debut at Olympia
LONDON.- Anyone wanting to start or strengthen their collection of Contemporary Chinese Ink Art – in which artists wildly and variously subvert the ancient medium and its traditional forms - will find exhilarating works by eight very different artists in Olympia Auctions sale of Chinese and Japanese Works of Art on 14th May 2024. This private collection of nine lots dating from 2002 to 2010 comes originally from the well-known London-based Chinese art dealer Michael Goedhuis who did much to establish this new collecting area. Two were in The Ortigo Collection, formed by Goedhuis and sold at a landmark Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale in 2016. One of the most strikingly contemporary images is ‘Apple’ by Wei Qingji (b. 1971), estimated at £4,000 - £6,000. According to Goedhuis “Wei has utilized his profound knowledge of traditional brush ... More

Trent Riley named Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center's executive director
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK.- The Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center Board of Trustees announced the appointment of Trent Riley as its new executive director. Riley most recently served as Oklahoma Contemporary’s chief development officer. He is widely recognized for strategic leadership positions in arts development, membership engagement and community involvement and comes to his role of executive director with an impressive financial track record. Riley’s vision includes a renewed emphasis on mission, financial growth and providing contemporary art experiences to local, regional and national audiences. Riley holds a master’s degree in public history with an emphasis in museum studies and has written numerous articles for magazines and journals about art, history and culture. “Trent’s successful tenure as chief development ... More

Steve Albini, studio master of '90s rock and beyond, dies at 61
NEW YORK, NY.- Steve Albini, a rock musician and revered studio engineer who played a singular role in the development of the sound of alternative music in the 1980s, ’90s and beyond — recording acclaimed albums by Nirvana, PJ Harvey and Pixies, along with hundreds of others — while becoming an outspoken critic of the music industry, died Tuesday at his home in Chicago. He was 61. The cause was a heart attack, said Taylor Hales of Electrical Audio, the Chicago studio that Albini founded in 1997. With a sharp vision for how a band should be recorded — as raw as possible — and an even sharper tongue for anything he deemed mediocre or compromised, Albini was a visionary in the studio and one of rock’s most acerbic wits. On his own, he led the bands Big Black and Shellac, both of which venerated loud, abrasive guitars and snarling ... More

A star is born. She looks a bit like Amy Winehouse.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- On the third floor of the Edition hotel in West Hollywood, three chairs were pushed against a wall in a hallway, supporting a rotating cast of entertainment journalists. The interviewers made hushed small talk, waiting for their turns with the director and star of “Back to Black,” a new film about singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. A British man disclosed that he’d dreaded the movie, as if watching it would give him war flashbacks. He once lived near Winehouse in London, and they shared mutual acquaintances. An American woman held a notecard with a question that read: “Muh reese uh” — the phonetic pronunciation of Marisa — “not only was your portrayal of Amy beyond uncanny in every imaginable way, your performance was grounded in such truth and authenticity, and it was beautifully humanizing. Can you ... More