Salon.com > entertainment news http://www.salon.com Fri, 24 May 2013 01:55:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Watch the “Gravity” trailer http://www.salon.com/2013/05/09/watch_the_gravity_trailer/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/09/watch_the_gravity_trailer/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 23:59:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13294442 It's been six long years since Alfonso Cuarón's last feature film, "Children of Men," but today the trailer finally arrived for "Gravity," his ambitious follow-up. The film stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, and is scheduled to open October 4, 2013.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/09/watch_the_gravity_trailer/feed/ 13 Must do’s: What we like this week http://www.salon.com/2013/04/27/must_dos_what_we_like_this_week_8/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/27/must_dos_what_we_like_this_week_8/#comments Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13283273 BOOKS

Laura Miller, who generally does not have “patience for the touchstones of foodie literature,” was pleasantly surprised by Michael Pollan’s “Cooked,” written from the perspective of a journalist and gardener rather than a celebrity chef:

His effort to deepen his understanding of the process of turning food into meals is the subject of his latest book, “Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation.” I wish I could say “Cooked” is entirely free of moments of flabby philosophizing (“Isn’t it always precisely when we are most at risk of floating away on the sea of our own inventions and conceits that we seem to row our way back to the firm shore that is nature?”), but they are rare. Admittedly, the book’s thematic structure is also a shade precious. It’s divided into four sections according to what the ancients perceived to be the four elements — fire, water, air and earth — each attributed to a different cooking method — grilling, braising and other forms of cooking in liquids, baking and fermentation. As ever, Pollan makes each of these themes the occasion for real thought as well as some energetic reporting.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/27/must_dos_what_we_like_this_week_8/feed/ 1 “Game of Thrones” season 3, episode 2: A Branch conversation http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/%e2%80%9cgame_of_thrones%e2%80%9d_season_3_episode_2_a_branch_conversation/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/%e2%80%9cgame_of_thrones%e2%80%9d_season_3_episode_2_a_branch_conversation/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13263244 Season 3 of “Game of Thrones” is underway — and Margaery is getting closer to Joffrey despite Sansa's warning that he's "a monster," while Bran had strange visions. Salon’s writers are discussing episode 2 now!


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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/%e2%80%9cgame_of_thrones%e2%80%9d_season_3_episode_2_a_branch_conversation/feed/ 5 “Phil Spector”: Is fame a Faustian bargain? http://www.salon.com/2013/03/25/phil_spector_is_fame_a_faustian_bargain/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/25/phil_spector_is_fame_a_faustian_bargain/#comments Mon, 25 Mar 2013 02:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13248992 “Phil Spector,” starring Al Pacino and Helen Mirren and directed and written by David Mamet, is a supremely odd film, and not because Pacino dresses up in a wide variety of wigs and rambles sort of in character, like a set of Pacino ticks coming through Quaaludes. The movie, which premieres on HBO on Sunday night, has been disavowed by both Spector’s wife and the survivors of Lana Clarkson, the woman Spector is currently in jail for murdering, and should you watch, you will understand their concerns. “Phil Spector,” reflecting Mamet’s own take on the case, argues, fairly forcefully, that while the one-time wunderkind of ‘60s pop arrangements may have killed Clarkson, there was enough reasonable doubt to have set him free. He was not acquitted, however, because people perceive him as a freak. Spector was too much of an epic weirdo to get a fair trial.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/25/phil_spector_is_fame_a_faustian_bargain/feed/ 11 Is Jimmy Fallon NBC’s last best hope? http://www.salon.com/2013/03/21/is_jimmy_fallon_nbcs_last_best_hope/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/21/is_jimmy_fallon_nbcs_last_best_hope/#comments Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:22:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13247903 What a difference a few seasons makes. After a flurry of carefully placed leaks and scoops from inside sources, it appears NBC is preparing to anoint Jimmy Fallon the new host of "The Tonight Show" – and even move the show to its old home in the Big Apple.

It's been over three years now since NBC had its last very public and emotional meltdown over the throne of "The Tonight Show." Conan O'Brien had moved to Hollywood and assumed the helm for a brief, fateful seven months before a network-wide attack of tsuris that gave the world the gloating late night return of Jay Leno and the phrase "Team Coco." It was not the first time the Peacock had displayed its unwavering fixation on Leno as the One True successor to Carson – as anyone who's watched Letterman play the droll role of jilted lover over the past two decades knows. But the O'Brien affair seemed to solidify NBC's romance with Leno even further, planting him as firmly and permanently as host of "The Tonight Show" as a pope in the chair of St. Peter. And we all know how that turned out. 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/21/is_jimmy_fallon_nbcs_last_best_hope/feed/ 12 What do you think of Mark Rylance as Cromwell in “Wolf Hall” TV adaption? http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/what_do_you_think_of_mark_rylance_as_cromwell_in_wolf_hall_tv_adaption/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/what_do_you_think_of_mark_rylance_as_cromwell_in_wolf_hall_tv_adaption/#comments Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:30:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13223168 This morning, Variety reported that actor Mark Rylance, who won Tonys for "Boeing-Boeing" and "Jerusalem," was cast as Cromwell in the BBC-HBO adaptation of Hilary Mantel's award-winning, best-selling novels "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies."  Mantel's pen is a bit more generous in her portrait of Henry VII's merciless adviser, but Cromwell is no less manipulative — a fun, meaty role for an actor. But is Ryland the right man for the job? We put the question to the Blue Glow Award critics. Here's what they had to say:

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/what_do_you_think_of_mark_rylance_as_cromwell_in_wolf_hall_tv_adaption/feed/ 3 Was an ex-girlfriend trying to out Whitney Houston? http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/whitney_houston_had_even_more_drama_than_we_knew/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/whitney_houston_had_even_more_drama_than_we_knew/#comments Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:55:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13218954 As if it weren't enough that she had an overbearing mother who shooed away her best friend (and possible girlfriend), an erratic husband, and an out-of-control drug problem, the troubled late singer Whitney Houston was also battling a crazed fan and a blackmail plot that threatened to expose personal details about her private life, it was revealed on Monday, when the FBI released and posted 128 pages from its file.

The FBI file on the cases — which were opened at the pinnacle of the Grammy winner's career — was released through a Freedom of Information Act request, reports Reuters, documenting over a decade's worth of threats against the singer, from 1988 to 1999. The pages, however, are so heavily redacted — names and details — that they're nearly inscrutable.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/whitney_houston_had_even_more_drama_than_we_knew/feed/ 5 The ballad of John and Yoko — and Paul — continues more than 40 years later http://www.salon.com/2013/03/03/the_ballad_of_john_and_yoko_%e2%80%94_and_paul_%e2%80%94_continues_more_than_40_years_later/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/03/the_ballad_of_john_and_yoko_%e2%80%94_and_paul_%e2%80%94_continues_more_than_40_years_later/#comments Sun, 03 Mar 2013 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13215560 In 2000, a New York-based architect named Cass Calder Smith was helping his father move into a new apartment, when he discovered a tremendous inventory of interview tapes — hundreds of hours of conversations with the biggest rock legends. His journalist father, Howard Smith, had enviable gigs as both a New York City radio personality (for WABC, later WPLJ) and a star columnist at the Village Voice during its heyday, in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, when every revolution — sexual, anti-war, civil rights, gay liberation— was not only at its height, but converging. Unflappable, immensely knowledgeable, and sharp-witted, he earned the confidence of his subjects — people like Mick Jagger, Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda (freshly returned from Cannes, after the premiere of "Easy Rider"), Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton, Lou Reed, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and Jerry Garcia (though Howard admits to John Lennon in an interview that he's not a fan of the Dead) — who spoke with him, on repeat occasions, often at a crucial juncture in history, or in their lives, and opened up at length and with rare candor. These original reels from the interviews, which were conducted for Howard Smith’s column and radio show, were packed away in boxes, untouched for 40 years, in the back of his West Village loft. Howard Smith, now 76, and fighting cancer,  confessed to Ben Sisario in the New York Times in November that he’d kept them around, half-hoping to use them for his memoirs, thinking they would be “a good memory jogger. Things were happening every day that were just incredible.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/03/the_ballad_of_john_and_yoko_%e2%80%94_and_paul_%e2%80%94_continues_more_than_40_years_later/feed/ 9 “Law & Order: SVU”: Dick Wolf has fatherly advice for Rihanna http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/rihanna_and_chris_brown_get_the_law_order_treatment/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/rihanna_and_chris_brown_get_the_law_order_treatment/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:12:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13214572 Last night, “Law & Order: SVU” aired a ham-handed, ridiculous-and-then-bleak episode based on the Rihanna and Chris Brown domestic violence saga. "SVU,” like all the “Law & Order” franchises, regularly uses plots “ripped from the headlines.” As with movies based on cartoons, TV shows and other movies, there’s a built-in audience for this kind of thing, for the restaging of a story we’re already familiar with. (I haven’t seen an episode of "SVU" in some years, but I watched this one.) There is also a built-in voyeurism: The show fleshes out a tale we only know from tabloids and social media. It takes a real-life soap opera and turns it into a more regularly formatted one. It dials up the entertainment value on any salacious, disturbing, riveting true-life crime, crimes we don’t much like to discuss in terms of entertainment value, even as they sell magazines and fill endless hours of cable news.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/rihanna_and_chris_brown_get_the_law_order_treatment/feed/ 1 Fifty shades of … beige? http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/fifty_shades_of_beige/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/fifty_shades_of_beige/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:12:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13213389 At Vanity Fair's famous Oscar party Sunday night, the New York Post was eager to find out from Fifty Shades of Grey” author E .L. James — the writer now famous for her "Twilight" fan-fic bodice whipper, I mean, ripper  —  who is being cast in the film adaptation of her internationally best-selling BDSM romance series. She told them, "We don’t even have a filmmaker … so we are still a long way away from casting. I have some ideas  … but it may not be who people expect.” She also told the Post that she's toning down the sex for her next book. "It won’t be nearly so raunchy — and I will probably write it under another name,” she said. The trilogy, the first novel of which was initially self-published as an e-book titled "Master of the Universe," and later repackaged as both an e-book and a trade paperback as "Fifty Shades of Grey" by Vintage Books, has sold over 65 million copies around the world, in over 37 countries, and was chosen book of the year by the public in the National Book Awards back in December.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/fifty_shades_of_beige/feed/ 3 Marlo Thomas: “It’s amazing the impact ‘Free to Be …’ had. Yet nobody followed it up. It’s gone bad” http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/marlo_thomas_its_amazing_the_impact_free_to_be_had_yet_nobody_followed_it_up_its_gone_bad/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/marlo_thomas_its_amazing_the_impact_free_to_be_had_yet_nobody_followed_it_up_its_gone_bad/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:45:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13179986 Before “Girls,” “New Girl” and “2 Broke Girls,” there was “That Girl.” First premiering in 1966, it was the first sitcom about a single woman who wanted a career — an unprecedented feminist concept for TV at the time —  pitched by its star, who just happened to be carrying a copy of "The Feminine Mystique" with her to the meeting.

Hers is only one story from the huge, multifaceted women’s movement chronicled in the new three-hour documentary “Makers: Women Who Make America,” airing Tuesday night on PBS, which profiles women on the front lines of the 50-year struggle for women’s rights. Marlo Thomas, who starred as Anne Marie, the title role of ”That Girl,” appears in each of the three hours of the documentary — Hillary Clinton and Gloria Steinem are the other two stars of the documentary.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/marlo_thomas_its_amazing_the_impact_free_to_be_had_yet_nobody_followed_it_up_its_gone_bad/feed/ 17 How to mock a child http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/there_is_a_way_to_make_fun_of_a_child/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/there_is_a_way_to_make_fun_of_a_child/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:29:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13212442 Hey, everybody who thinks we're the PC police: It's not that you can't make a joke about a child. It's that the rules of comedy apply no matter the subject matter -- you have to be funny about it.

As we all well now know, Oscar night 2013 will be remembered as that time Seth MacFarlane made joshing reference to Quvenzhané Wallis as an imminent object of George Clooney's sexual attentions, and then the Onion drastically upped the ante by calling her "kind of a cunt." (They later deleted and apologized for it.) The backlash to both outbursts was swift and loud, followed inevitably by the "Can't you take a joke?" backlash to the backlash.

One of the most agonizing side effects of a controversial comedy routine – generally a crude one that involves violence, tragedy, or is at the expense a minority group  -- is the scramble to explain why some things are funny and some are not. And explaining a joke is only slightly more magic-defusing than watching how sausage is made. Comedy is alchemy. The minute we say, "That's not funny because…" we risk the approbation of those who'd call us humorless scolds, uptight and fussy party poopers.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/there_is_a_way_to_make_fun_of_a_child/feed/ 32 WATCH: New David Bowie video “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/watch_new_david_bowie_video_the_stars_are_out_tonight/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/watch_new_david_bowie_video_the_stars_are_out_tonight/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:56:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13212238 They may look alike and perhaps you've never seen the two in the same place at the same time until now, but androgynous doppelgängers David Bowie and actress Tilda Swinton appear together in the glam-rock icon's latest video, "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)," the second track to be released in advance of his long-anticipated album, "The Next Day," which comes out on March 12. (This joint appearance of Bowie and Swinton, reports The Guardian, is bad news for the bloggers at  Tilda Stardust, exploding their theory that the two are in fact the same person. Alas.) Early reviews, which so far have only appeared in the U.K., are resoundingly positive, praising Bowie's brave introspection and reflection on his past — musical and lyrical allusions to his Ziggy Stardust and Berlin years — and his dystopic view of the future.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/watch_new_david_bowie_video_the_stars_are_out_tonight/feed/ 2 The 2013 Oscars: All the winners http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/the_2013_oscar_awards_who_won/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/the_2013_oscar_awards_who_won/#comments Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13210273 BEST PICTURE
"Amour"
WINNER: "Argo"
"Beasts of the Southern Wild"
"Django Unchained"
"Les Misérables"
"Life of Pi"
"Lincoln"
"Silver Linings Playbook"
"Zero Dark Thirty"

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"
WINNER: Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln"
Hugh Jackman, "Les Misérables"
Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"
Denzel Washington, "Flight"

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Alan Arkin, "Argo"
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"
Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"
WINNER: Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"
WINNER: Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"
Quvenzhané Wallis, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
Naomi Watts, "The Impossible"

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adams, "The Master"
Sally Field, "Lincoln"
WINNER: Anne Hathaway, "Les Misérables"
Helen Hunt, "The Sessions"
Jacki Weaver, "Silver Linings Playbook"

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/the_2013_oscar_awards_who_won/feed/ 5 David Cameron defies Smiths ex-guitarist, Johnny Marr http://www.salon.com/2013/02/20/david_cameron_defies_smiths_ex_guitarist_johnny_marr/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/20/david_cameron_defies_smiths_ex_guitarist_johnny_marr/#comments Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:09:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13206379 The British prime minister is on a tear: First, he has gone after Hilary Mantel for her comments about Kate Middleton. Now, David Cameron has made a vow to defy Smiths ex-guitarist Johnny Marr, who has "banned" the Tory from listening to music by the Smiths, reports BBC News.

In a story that recalls Paul Ryan's uninvited and unrequited declaration of love for Rage Against the Machine (and, for that matter, Chris Christie's obsession with Bruce Springsteen), the prime minister is a longtime fan of the new wave band — who split in the 1980s, and are perhaps best known for their songs "How Soon Is Now" and "Heaven Knows (I'm Miserable Now) — and has said so on many occasions. Marr has voiced his disgust, telling the BBC that this is "not allowed." But Cameron, who was on a visit to India, declared he'd "go on and listen,"anyway. In 2006, Cameron chose the Smiths song "This Charming Man" on Desert Island Discs.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/20/david_cameron_defies_smiths_ex_guitarist_johnny_marr/feed/ 16 Alec Baldwin disputes claims he used racial epithets http://www.salon.com/2013/02/19/alec_baldwin_disputes_claims_he_used_racial_epithets/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/19/alec_baldwin_disputes_claims_he_used_racial_epithets/#comments Tue, 19 Feb 2013 01:44:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13205138 Another day, another face-off between Alec Baldwin and the New York Post, it seems.  Reports Ben Yakas of The Gothamist, the "30 Rock" star got into another altercation with the tabloid on Sunday. Baldwin told the New York City blog that a New York Post photographer assaulted him near his East Village apartment, and that he called the cops to file a formal complaint against him. But photographer G.N. Miller, who is black, went on counterattack, accusing Baldwin of calling him a "crackhead,"  a "drug dealer," and "a coon."

Baldwin told Yakas, "If you want to paint a picture of me that is a denigrating picture, I've seen that. If you want to put words in my mouth...I've certainly had my moments. But this is not one of them. I don't think I've ever uttered a racial epithet to someone in my lifetime."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/19/alec_baldwin_disputes_claims_he_used_racial_epithets/feed/ 3 “Downton Abbey” recap: “I just can’t see a happy ending” http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/%e2%80%9cdownton_abbey%e2%80%9d_finale_recap_%e2%80%9ci_just_can%e2%80%99t_see_a_happy_ending%e2%80%9d/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/%e2%80%9cdownton_abbey%e2%80%9d_finale_recap_%e2%80%9ci_just_can%e2%80%99t_see_a_happy_ending%e2%80%9d/#comments Mon, 18 Feb 2013 03:40:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13204146 All together now, let’s get this out of the way:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

That feels marginally better. Marginally.

Sweet, floppy-haired Matthew is dead by the side of the road. Maybe in a few months this will fill me with sadness, for now I feel nothing but outrage. They killed Matthew? So soon after Sybil? Matthew has been a dull, eager drip for weeks and weeks and weeks and the actor who plays him, Dan Stevens, wanted out of his contract, but still. This is like killing Mr. Darcy. And why would you ever kill Mr. Darcy?! It solidifies for me the sense that “Downton Abbey” doesn’t know or care why I like to watch it: Needless to say, not for the tragedy.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/%e2%80%9cdownton_abbey%e2%80%9d_finale_recap_%e2%80%9ci_just_can%e2%80%99t_see_a_happy_ending%e2%80%9d/feed/ 85 “SNL” recap: Christoph Waltz plays God — Tarantino style http://www.salon.com/2013/02/17/snl_recap_christoph_waltz_plays_god_%e2%80%94_tarantino_style/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/17/snl_recap_christoph_waltz_plays_god_%e2%80%94_tarantino_style/#comments Sun, 17 Feb 2013 14:47:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13204379 The wonderfully talented comic actor Christoph Waltz has Tarantino to thank for writing two versions of the same memorable role — Nazi Colonel Hans Landa in "Inglourious Basterds" and bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in "Django Unchained" — both of which have earned him many awards, including an Oscar and a nomination for another, and "household name" status on this side of the Atlantic. If only "SNL's" writers could have gotten past their clichéd notions of Prussian humor — even as they made fun of their own limitations during Waltz's shrug-worthy monologue — and stopped forcing upon the poor actor one creepy, pervy, effete role after another then this could have been, well, if not great, than more fun, especially on this a bountiful week of insane news stories, each a gift bigger than the next: the first papal retirement since 1415, the State of the Union Address, the Carnival Cruise disaster, the horsemeat controversy in Europe, and the meteor that crashed into central Russia. I realize much of that newsiness responsibility falls to Seth Meyers on the ever-more-toothless "Weekend Update," but that sweet smile of his just looks sadder and sadder as it hangs in the air there like an abandoned high-five hand. (The man really does need an Amy.) Waltz gets Tarantino-like redemption when he puts on a crown of thorns, and gets resurrected as one seriously pissed off Jesus Christ.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/17/snl_recap_christoph_waltz_plays_god_%e2%80%94_tarantino_style/feed/ 2 Blacklisted screenwriter Richard Collins dies http://www.salon.com/2013/02/15/blacklisted_screenwriter_richard_collins_dies_2/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/15/blacklisted_screenwriter_richard_collins_dies_2/#comments Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:18:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13202872 LOS ANGELES -- A blacklisted screenwriter who later named names to Communist hunters during the McCarthy era has died in California. Richard Collins was 98.

His son, Michael Collins, tells the Los Angeles Times that Collins died Thursday of pneumonia in Ventura.

Collins was one of 19 writers and directors called by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 in a probe of supposed Communist subversion in Hollywood. He wasn't asked to testify but 10 who refused to answer questions about their beliefs were jailed in what has widely been called a witch hunt.

Collins was subpoenaed again in 1951 and identified more than 20 colleagues as Communist sympathizers. He later expressed regrets.

He went on to have a three-decade career in TV writer and producer on shows including "Bonanza" and "Matlock."

Read more here.

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/15/blacklisted_screenwriter_richard_collins_dies_2/feed/ 0 Lost T.S. Eliot letter turns up after 40 years http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/t_s_eliot_letter_turns_up_after_40_years/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/t_s_eliot_letter_turns_up_after_40_years/#comments Wed, 13 Feb 2013 12:24:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13199678 A letter written by T.S. Eliot — publisher, playwright, literary critic and one of the most important poets of the 20th century — has emerged, after being hidden for 40 years, reports BBC News.

The letter was addressed to his friend Jacob Isaacs, an author and lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London in 1957; the academic's archives, which were part of a collection donated to Queen Mary by Isaacs' wife upon his death in 1973, were being cataloged when Eliot's correspondence was discovered. In it, he asked Isaacs about an essay Eliot had written about Shakespeare. Eliot, a Shakespeare scholar, published his milestone essay on the Bard, "Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca," in 1927; it was originally written as an address he delivered before the Shakespeare Association in March of that year, which looked at the way the popularity of the Seneca's tragedies in Elizabethan England influenced Shakespeare's writing. The essay was due for a reissue in 1957, which is what prompted the poet/scholar to get in touch with Isaacs.

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