MCN Curated Headlines Archive for November, 2017

“Australian TV legend Don Burke has been accused of indecent assault, sexual harassment and bullying of women during his time as the star of Channel Nine’s ratings juggernaut ‘Burke’s Backyard.'”

“Now a major Fairfax Media/ABC investigation can reveal that behind the scenes those who worked with Burke claim he was a “psychotic bully”, a “misogynist” and a “sexual predator” who indecently assaulted, sexually harassed and bullied a string of female employees.”

“There are two sides to this coin. We have to own up to the fact that women, since time immemorial, have gone out of their way to make themselves attractive. And unfortunately it has backfired on us – and this is where we are today. We must sometimes take blame, women. I really do think that. Although it’s awful to say we can’t make ourselves look as attractive as possible without being knocked down and raped. Should women be prepared for this? No, they shouldn’t have to be. There’s no excuse for that. And I think it will stop now – it will have to. I think a lot of men must be very worried at this point.”
Angela Lansbury, At Greater Length

variety

Gary Goddard On Leave From The Goddard Group After Multiple Allegations Of Molestation

Thirty-Four More Canadian Publications To Be Shut; As Many As 300 More Jobs Junked 

indie wire

“Everything’s unacceptable now. Everything’s f—ed up. You can’t read the news. Everything is fast-forwarding and rewinding at the same time. Everything is like zooming in and dollying out. We’re all in Taxi Driver now, we’re in Network, we’re in Nashville, it’s like the seventies.”
John Cameron Mitchell Opens The Gothams

Gothams: Call Me By Your Name; Strong Island; James Franco, Saoirse Ronan; Audience, Best Screenplay, Get Out; Best Ensemble, Mudbound; Breakthrough, Timothée Chalamet

“I unequivocally deny the appalling allegations being peddled about me.”
CBS Cancels Jeremy Piven’s “Wisdom Of The Crowd”

Anthony Bourdain And Francis Coppola Have A Chat Over Food & Wine five short videos

hollywoodreporter.com

“Venit made a tearful apology to staff at the agency’s morning meeting.”
Agent Returns To William Morris After Month’s Suspension For Groping Terry Crews

“It is a mistake to assume that everything powerful about television in the last several years flowed directly from a small group of men, and is somehow compromised if they are compromised. “

Why It’s Nearly Impossible That A “Zack Snyder” Cut Of Justice League Would Exist

“Mr Weinstein denies allegations of non-consensual sex,” Weinstein’s spokesperson said. “Mr Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.”
Harvey Weinstein Sued For Alleged “Sex Trafficking” In Cannes

Lynden Barber On The Burst Of New And Refurbished Cinemas In Australia

NY Daily News

“It starts at the home. It starts at home. It starts with how you raise your children. If a young man doesn’t have a father figure, he’ll go find a father figure. So you know I can’t blame the system. It’s unfortunate that we make such easy work for them.”
Denzel Washington

Focus Features Takes Morgan Neville’s Fred Rogers Doc For Summer 2018

Mark Harris Surmises Which Oscar Pictures Might Speak to the Moment: Now, and Between Now And March 4

“Ultimately, the problem isn’t that Armie Hammer was given this many chances to happen. It’s that the system that ensured those chances — along with those given to so many other white men — also withholds chances, leeway, and faith from those who need and would benefit from them most.”
Anne Helen Petersen Does Not Dig Armie

“I remember almost getting in a fight with Harvey Weinstein and hitting him with my Oscar. It’s kind of a long story, but it has to do with Guillermo del Toro and how badly he was dealt with by Miramax on Mimic. Harvey came up glad-handing me, talking about how great they were for the artist, and I just read him chapter and verse about how great I thought he was for the artist based on my friend’s experience, and that led to an altercation.”

“Amazon Asks Indians To Hand Over Their Aadhaar, India’s Controversial Biometric ID, To Track Lost Packages”

“Hundreds of women DMed, PMed, or emailed their experiences: a tsunami of injustice. I asked whether they wanted counseling, legal or police support, before requesting they speak on background, off the record or on camera. It was – and remains – a protection racket. These are the initial findings of my investigation into sexual harassment and indecent assault in Australia’s media and entertainment sector.”

“How Whitney Houston Shaped The Biggest Movie Soundtrack Of All Time”

Meredith, Owner Of Better Homes & Gardens And allrecipes, Takes Time Inc. For $1.8 Billion With Koch Industries-Syndicated Deal

NY Times

“Some Koch allies said that the Kochs saw a potential moneymaker in Time Inc., rather than a megaphone for advancing their ideology. ‘Knowing the Kochs, I think they’d have to see it as a business that could at the same time further their political interests.'”
What Do The Billionaire Kochs Want From Time, Inc?

“The India media landscape is dominated by the campaign against Padmavati, a Bw’d film [financed by Viacom 18 and India’s richest man] which is ready for release – but cannot be shown because of protests. Not only is there a long and dishonourable tradition of curbing freedom of expression but fringe groups know that the protests – which at times turn violent – are the easiest way to attract media attention and gain national prominence.”

“Tribune Tower was conceived as a secular version of the spiritual vision of the Medievalists who created giant cathedrals in great cities: life was brief and fragile, but the church was timeless. You could close your eyes one last time, always safe in that knowledge. The sun will come up and the presses will roll, even if you’re asleep in the ground.”
Critic Chris Jones Says Goodbye To The Tribune Tower, Likely To Be Hollowed Out As Condos, Pricey Startup Offices And Buffet Space

Charting The State of Rupert Murdoch’s Empire

The Elite, Multibillionaire Koch Bros. Are Investing In Time, Inc. Via A $600 Million Infusion Into The Owner Of Better Homes & Gardens And Family Circle

“Bette Midler is outstanding – I was amazed by what she does. It’s beyond performance. I was speechless. She does something Chaplinesque sometimes, like a mime, with her face. The precision of her gestures, her looks, the way she moves her little finger – everything is expressive. Her body language technique is amazing, and of course so is her voice. I’m not necessarily a fan of musical theater, but I thought this was quite accomplished.”
Isabelle Huppert

Chan Is Missing‘s Wood Moy Was 99

Susan Sarandon: “I thought Hillary was very dangerous. If she’d won, we’d be at war… I’m not attacked from the right at all“

deadline

Maryland And Crew And Cast Of “House of Cards” Won’t Be Forced To Pay For Kevin Spacey Predations; Final Season Of “House of Cards” Will Finish Without Him

variety

Actor Rance Howard, 89, Father Of Clint Howard; Credits Include Chinatown, Nebraska, Grand Theft Auto

hollywoodreporter.com

Sofia Coppola on Creating “The Female Gaze”

variety

2022 Projections On Spending For “Original Content”: Amazon, $8.3 Billion; Netflix, $6.8 Billion; Apple, $4.2 Billion

“I am very sensitive to how I portray women. This is my ninth feature film and six have women in the lead role. The first Blade Runner was rough on the women; something about the noir aesthetic. What is cinema? Cinema is a mirror on society. Blade Runner is not about tomorrow; it’s about today. And I’m sorry, but the world is not kind on women. There’s a sense in American cinema: you want to portray an ideal world. You want to portray a utopia. That’s good—dreams for a better world, to advocate for something better, yes. But if you look at my movies, they are exploring today’s shadows. The first Blade Runner is the biggest dystopian statement of the last half century. I did the follow-up to that, so yes, it’s a dystopian vision of today. Which magnifies all the faults. That’s what I’ll say about that.”

LA Times

 

LAT Revises Headline: “Actors respond to Hollywood in crisis, want to be a part of change”

“What’s it like to be a man in Hollywood these days?” Asks Glenn Whipp Of James Franco, Timothee Chalamet, Gary Oldman, Jeremy Renner, Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal

“A bounty of $1.5 million has been offered for the beheading of Padmavati director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. It used to be loony fringe groups making the threats. Now, it is Suraj Pal Amu, a leader in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party who has put up the bounty. The space for free expression is shrinking. If it’s not some group that doesn’t like a book or film for a specific reason, it’s the vague objection is that it is ‘against Indian culture’– a blanket term that can encompass virtually anything in the arts. Mob bigotry is being allowed full rein.”

“Padmavati is a revered figure in India and she represents the national pride like Marianne in France and King Arthur in Great Britain.” 
“Hindu Activists Threaten Too Torch UK Cinemas in B’wd Film Row”

NY Times

Mary Adelman, 89, Fixer of Manhattan Broken Typewriters

hollywoodreporter.com

Seventy-Nine German Filmmakers Call for “New Beginning” at Berlin Festival
“We suggest an international gender equality commission… The aim must be to find an outstanding curatorial personality who is passionate about cinema, well-connected worldwide and capable of bringing the festival on an equal footing with Cannes and Venice into the future a transparent procedure and a fresh start. “
And – Their Letter im Deutsch

One Of Chinese Cinema’s Biggest Stars Is 14-Year-Old Vicky Chen

variety

Cronkite School Rescinding Walter Cronkite Award For Excellence In Journalism Given Charlie Rose In 2015

“Publishers that rely on social media as a distribution tool might pay to have their articles and videos shared by well-known figures or Facebook pages that have large, loyal followings.”
Behind George Takei’s Profitable Pay-To-Display Social Media Schemes, Revealed After Allegations

“Women are being believed and the men fired. This is breathtaking. I have never seen anything like this solidarity and call to action in my life. The more we speak out, the less it will happen. Trump’s gross display of macho domination and power is also a lightning rod of revulsion. Surely the pinnacle of the capitalist macho movement but also, I believe, the downfall. Never has the macho man been so exposed, so idiotic or so dangerous.”
Jane Campion

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“I don’t think it’s cruel to say this, because John himself would undoubtedly have turned it into a gleeful anecdote: When he had the stroke that killed him, he was at a local dinner theater. Hell of a review.”

“I am inclined to aver that every activity needs its critics, from narcissists bloviating in Washington to exhibitors of knee holes in their blue jeans by way of following a fad. So, too, tennis players and others wearing their caps backward. There is, to be sure, only fairly innocuous folly in puncturing pants or reversing caps, but for political or artistic or religious twisting of thought or harboring holes in the head there is rather less excuse. I have always inveighed against the bleary journalism practiced by newspaper reviewers, as opposed to the real criticism performed by, well, critics.”

“I often felt a twinge of grief at the idea that John Simon had devoted his life to a method of work that could only make him increasingly unhappy. Here was a man, elegant, articulate, and vastly knowledgeable, fluent in at least half a dozen languages, whose gifts of mind gave nothing back to the arts he wrote about except a few unkind remarks that made fun of someone’s performance, ethnicity, physical attributes, or, with a pun, on his target’s name. (“If this is Norman Wisdom, I’ll take Saxon folly.”) Other theatre critics keep such darts in their rucksacks for occasional use; John lived by them.”

“One person’s critic is another person’s crackpot. That they are not united in their opinions is ascribable to the Latin saying: quot homines, tot sententiae. I myself prefer being considered a creep, but that is what you get for having what Vladimir Nabokov called ‘Strong Opinions.’ It is odd that in a country so wallowing in negativity, starting with mass shootings and climaxing with Trump, such an unimportant matter as theater criticism should generate so much hostility. The only target patently more important is lead in the drinking water.”

The DVD Wrapup: Cold War, Betty Blue, Official Secrets, Demons, Olivia, American Dreamer, Land of Yik Yak

E. Scott Weinberg On Youthful Fangoria Encounters

Rome Bookstore Closes

With a Grauniad-Alleged $300 Million Budget, Could The Yet-Unseen But Surely Weird Cats Pass A Billion Dollars at The Box Office?

WEEKEND READS ON MEDIAQUAKE

Tribune Trolley Problem

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon