dirac

Many thanks for putting this up, ABT Fan - I didn't know. The portrayal of de Havilland in "Feud" is not unflattering, as I remember - Zeta-Jones seemed to be working hard at appearing refined, and the de Havilland "character" is not malicious. On the other hand I can understand why she might not appreciate seeing herself portrayed as yakking to the press about old friends and she has an interest in reminding people that she's still around to take notice of such things. Very odd of Murphy to say that he didn't write to "Olivia" because he didn't want to be "disrespectful." How would soliciting her views on events and people she knew about be disrespectful? I suspect he realized she wouldn''t like the series' approach, however ostensibly sympathetic. Related.

True. Which is why in most workplaces there are rules about and against interoffice involvements. However, if those in management do not issue clear cut rules on the subject, or forbid such relationships outright, they should also be expected to demonstrate some sensitivity for a limited period. By the same token, the exes have to show maturity and professionalism. I suppose in the small and insular world of ballet such rules would be difficult or impossible to enforce.

I don’t know that I would go that far. Eliot has fallen out of fashion, but his work was far from pastiche. The Waste Land is accompanied by a set of notes and the use of fragmented quotations is a choice – he tells us so in case it wasn’t clear (“These fragments I have shored against my ruins.”) I can see how Mitchell would feel that way – directness and authenticity are important to her, and they are qualities that were a big part of the singer-songwriter ethos. She may have him dead to rights , but....there is nothing necessarily wrong with a performer inventing himself. He’s not under any special obligation to show us his “real self.” Correct. Eliot doesn’t sound like anyone but Eliot. I’m not unduly bothered that borrowed stuff shows up in Dylan’s lyrics, but by this point he has been accused convincingly of plagiarism in a number of different forms. This is only the most recent and embarrassing. It’s too bad because Dylan is an original in his own way, even if this award was, as I said upthread, a category error. Words spoken in defense: Sure doesn't. I’d like to see how the good professor reacts if a student of his decides to follow Dylan’s lordly example and crib from SparkNotes for a paper. Of course, his students aren't on the road all the time.

abatt sums up the dancing aspect well. I saw Eifman's Anna Karenina and he does have a certain dramatic flair which can become dramatic bad taste, not to say corniness, but he does keep you watching and the audience responded with enthusiasm at both performances I saw. His women are awfully thin even by ballet standards, at least they were when I saw the company. If you haven't the company you should probably go. I'd be curious to see "Red Giselle." Not sure if I could have sat through his Balanchine opus, though. Please tell us about it if you do go, would love to hear your opinion.

Quite right. Probably the original political subtext of the ballet would be less problematic if attempts at political rehabilitation of the Romanovs weren't very much ongoing.

Thanks, Lynette!

This is very sad news, Cygnet. Headly was a versatile actor, excellent in comedy and in drama. An untimely death -- Headly was only 62. She was an early member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Cause of death may have been related to blood clots. As I'm sure all the obits will note, she was once married to John Malkovich. My recollection of the gossip at the time was that his affair with Michelle Pfeiffer during the filming of Dangerous Liaisons busted it up. Piece of trivia: she was the voice of the Bavarian fencer's betrayed wife who calls into the radio show on the Frasier episode, "An Affair to Forget." I remember looking at the end credits to see who the actor was; she was very funny.

Happy families are nothing to sneeze at, but isolation in the family cocoon proved disastrous, tightly bound to his wife's apron strings as Nicholas was. Between his parents and Alexandra, I fear he didn't get much of a break.

Natalia, no offense was intended and I regret if any was given. Nicholas and Alexandra, prior to their translation, were political figures operating in an intensely politicized context that was also a cruel (and, in the last days, sleazy) one. I also admit that when I see unqualified statements like “Three cheers for Tsarist imperial splendor!” they trouble me, and surely it does not hurt to bear in mind the many generations of human suffering that said imperial splendor was built upon. Ballet, the art we all love, has sometimes been fostered and supported by cruel and tyrannical regimes on both left and right. Nonetheless, I could have been less flippant. My chains were yanked, but I am sure you were innocent of any intent to yank them, and I apologize for my tone. Alexandra thought that St. Petersburg society was frivolous, superficial, and out of touch with ordinary Russians. No doubt she had a point. As I said, looking forward to the movie. Imperial splendor does make for lots of decor and costuming eye candy, I have to say. Thank you, Helene, for the reminder, and sorry for your trouble.:)

True, Drew. I didn't mean to deny that technically, they are saints. That's not the only strange conclusion presented in this article,canbelto, so in this case I think you have to consider the source. Bishop Hilarion may be on to something, however, when he claims the affair was no more than youthful infatuation. Whatever the director may think and Kschessinskaya hinted, all evidence suggests that Nicholas was blissfully in love with his Alix.

Pfui. Nicholas and Alexandra are saints and I am Marie of Romania. Looking forward to the movie, though.

Roy Round, the maker of so many wonderful photographs, has died at age 88. This obit in the Telegraph is illustrated with a lovely pic of Gelsey Kirkland. An appreciation from 2012 by Barry Goralnick.

We had a discussion about the Times' changing focus in coverage in the long Macaulay thread, here. Long profiles of individual dancers did appear before the recent trend and I'm not sure I'd put this piece in the same category as those little Q&As where the dancers talk about eating plenty of yogurt or whatever. If you want to see more reviews, make sure you click on every one of them and if you are a subscriber, write and tell the Times you want to see more of them. If you're not a subscriber, tell them you'll take out a subscription, but it won't last long if they keep running the fluffy stuff and lots of photos in place of good criticism and serious coverage.

It’s going way off topic, but here’s another one you might like. The Washington firm of Arnold & Porter used to be Arnold, Fortas & Porter and during the second Red Scare the firm represented Owen Lattimore, among others. Paul Porter was bearded at a party by a conservative politician who said, “Mr. Porter, I hear your firm represents only Communists and homosexuals.” Porter came back with, “That’s right, and what can we do for you, Senator?” Speaking of Cold War matters, note how Kennedy worked in "we must regard artistic achievement and action as an integral part of our free society."

You're welcome. As a young person he was nicknamed "Fiddlin' Abe" in his hometown of Memphis.

A concert held to honor the late President, who would have been 100 years old today, features a special guest appearance by Pablo Casals' cello. Some background on the Casals concert at the White House. The article does not mention that the concert was arranged through Abe Fortas, Casals' friend and pro bono attorney. Fortas was an accomplished amateur violinist and with friends formed the N Street Strictly No Refunds String Quartet, which played every Sunday at his home. (Isaac Stern was an occasional member.) Those were the days.

Thank you for linking to that thread, Jane. Hard to believe that some of us have been hanging out here that long.

Thanks for posting, pherank.

Hmmmm.....I don't see why not, but leaving that aside, the OP referred specifically to the Times' motivation for publishing a piece discussing Copeland's performances rather than those of other dancers cast in the same roles, and I was commenting on that. No argument there, and such discussion is welcome.

Unless other evidence surfaces to the contrary, presumably Seibert wrote about Copeland's performances because they interested him, with or without encouragement from an editor who might think readers would be interested as well, and no slight to other dancers was intended by him or the Times.

Thanks for posting, pherank. Obviously it’s better to see a movie in a cinema than on a TV, no matter how large and high-def, or your tablet, or phone. On the other hand, if that’s where the audience is going, that’s where you go. However, the French continue to have a flourishing cinema culture and I can understand why Cannes would want to do its part to preserve that for both aesthetic and business reasons. I have no idea if this is the right way to go about it, though. IMO Netflix is not the most sympathetic of victims, if it is a victim. Not long ago I sampled some of its offerings through a Comcast trial offer. Apart from a few high-profile items, a lot of what was on offer was mediocre or worse.

It is true that the Administration wants to eliminate the NEH entirely, but so far the White House’s budget proposals have mostly been DOA at the Hill. Also, just his month Congress passed an appropriations act which increased funding by $2 million – a modest increase but still an increase, and Trump signed it. Keep contacting your senators and congresspersons. It could be that he really was resigning for personal reasons, but it can't help the agency to be without a head, no matter how capable the deputy, or so I should think. Will Trump appoint a new leader, in view of the fact that he sees no use for the agency?

Thanks for posting, Cygnet. Sorry to hear this. I was never a big James Bond fan, but when I did tune in I actually liked Moore better than Connery. Connery has acting credentials Moore never had, but I find his Bond rather unpleasant even if the movies are better overall. This preference was confirmed for me when I read that something Moore insisted on when he took over the role was a reduction in the brutality against women that was a staple of the Connery pictures. RIP. Yes, Moore also played the Saint, which character had been featured in a series of B pictures starring Louis Hayward and then George Sanders, with the material eventually migrating to television. Related.

Drew, I don’t think it has always been true that the audience for the arts has skewed older, but it is true that often people come to them later in life (and deeper in pocket). As I understand it, the concern arts organizations have these days is that younger people are no longer replacing older patrons as they die off in the same numbers they used to, hence the aggressive efforts to pull in younger people, as sandik notes. Pandering to whom, kfw?

When the term “lowest common denominator” is applied to public and consumer taste, it is generally taken as derogatory and it has been used to apply to people as well as their tastes and opinions. I don't want to make too much of this, but I suggest with all due respect that a less pejorative way of putting it would be “The Kennedy Center does not as a rule program pop and/or folk-derived music, with the exception of hip-hop.” I think a brief look at a usage reference will bear me out on this. Naturally you are free to use the term as you choose, but don’t be surprised if it’s taken in a way you may not intend. Copeland has danced with the Washington Ballet, so she does have a previous connection to the city. Aside from her celebrity status, which of course never hurts, I can see why her name came up. She's about five years older than Justin Peck, so she's seen at least as much as he has...............