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Arts News

Director Paul Mazursky dies at 84

BBC - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 11:38
Director and screenwriter Paul Mazursky, best known for the films An Unmarried Woman and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, dies at the age of 84.
Categories: Arts News

Tammy review - Melissa McCarthy and Susan Sarandon play gran theft auto

Guardian - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 11:31
The casting of Sarandon as McCarthy's grandmother threatens to veer this road movie off-track, but when its star is safely behind the wheel  cruising guys and robbing stores Tammy bowls along fine

Is there a sororpack to go with Hollywood's fratpack? Since her supporting turn in Bridesmaids, that smart comic Melissa McCarthy is emerging as a key equivalent (along with Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig and others); her latest movie happens to be co-produced by comedy's alpha-males Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.

McCarthy stars and co-writes with her husband Ben Falcone, who directs. That round, pretty face with its poignantly muppety nose and chin is well suited to a classic type of pre-emptive ironic disdain which fails to protect against life's humiliations: the tears of rage of a clown. It also expresses vulnerability and intelligence and those who remember McCarthy's performance in the cult movie The Nines with Ryan Reynolds will know that the same face can be sexy too. It's tempting to call it a female version of Seth Rogen's face or Jonah Hill's face: that is, their earlier, less sleek faces. Perhaps if Hollywood success exalts McCarthy in the same way, she'll get to glam up as well.

She is Tammy, a character whose name may be intended to convey, subliminally, the bluecollar trials sung about by Tammy Wynette although she is also, perhaps a bit worryingly, slightly similar to the sociopath crook she played in the ropey and far inferior comedy Identity Thief opposite Jason Bateman.

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Categories: Arts News

From Austin Powers to documentary maker

BBC - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 10:54
Mike Myers on why he's turned documentary maker
Categories: Arts News

Monty Python return to mixed reviews

BBC - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 10:53
Comedy group Monty Python get reviews ranging from two to five stars as they perform on stage together for the first time in decades at London's O2.
Categories: Arts News

Man vs Food star has show taken off air after 'thinspiration' rant

Guardian - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 10:46
Adam Richman, star of Man vs Food and new show Man Finds Food, attacked commenters online with foul-mouthed tirades

Adam Richman, the US TV host whose former show Man vs Food has become a cult hit in recent years, has seen his new series Man Finds Food "postponed indefinitely" after he sent abusive comments during an argument on Instagram.

The furore began when Richman posted an Instagram photo with the caption: "Had ordered this suit from a Saville Row tailor over a year ago. Think I'm gonna need to take it in a little " He added the hashtag #thinspiration.

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Categories: Arts News

ITV sorry as Benidorm refers to Rolf

BBC - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 10:01
ITV apologises after an episode of Benidorm which included references to Rolf Harris was repeated a day after the star was convicted of indecent assault.
Categories: Arts News

Oklahoma! musical memories 70 years on

BBC - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 08:53
Memories of the power of Oklahoma! 70 years on
Categories: Arts News

'Revenge pornography' could soon be outlawed, says Chris Grayling

Guardian - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 08:52
Justice secretary says government is open to debate on legality of uploading sexually explicit media on internet without consent

Publishing sexually explicit pictures of former partners known as "revenge pornography" could soon become a crime, the justice secretary has said.

Responding to calls for the practice to be outlawed, Chris Grayling said the government was very open to having a serious discussion about the practice with a view to taking appropriate action when parliament returns from the summer recess.

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Categories: Arts News

Robbie receives Freedom of Stoke

BBC - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 08:22
Singer Robbie Williams is presented with the Freedom of his hometown of Stoke-on-Trent.
Categories: Arts News

Upstairs at the Party by Linda Grant, review: 'straight-talking and subtly cynical'

telegraph - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 08:00
Seventies radicalism comes vividly to life in a compelling university novel, says Lucy Daniel






Categories: Arts News

VIDEO: Morph: The terracotta terror returns

BBC - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 08:00
After almost two decades off our screens, Morph is back as the star of series of new episodes being released online.
Categories: Arts News

The Fault in Our Stars bench missing

BBC - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 07:46
An iconic bench from the hit teen film The Fault in Our Stars goes missing from Amsterdam, a city spokesman confirms.
Categories: Arts News

Shia LaBeouf treated for alcoholism

BBC - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 07:38
The Transformers actor Shia LaBeouf is getting outpatient treatment for his addiction to alcohol, his publicist has confirmed.
Categories: Arts News

Jessye Norman: Dress size has nothing to do with opera singing

telegraph - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 07:00
Legendary soprano Jessye Norman talks weight, race and what it really takes to be an opera star






Categories: Arts News

Radio comedy's constant innuendo makes me wince

telegraph - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 07:00
As I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue makes its return to radio, Gillian Reynolds finds the smut hard to stomach






Categories: Arts News

Clare Presland - New Music

telegraph - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 07:00
Rupert Christiansen introduces mezzo-soprano Clare Presland, the winner of the 2014 Susan Chilcott Award






Categories: Arts News

Author Natalie Haynes on the glory of knitting

telegraph - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 07:00
My perfect weekend: We catch up with the comedian-turned-author ahead of her appearence at the Telegraph Ways with Words festival in Dartington






Categories: Arts News

Poet Lavinia Greenlaw: Why I love the artist Eva Hesse

Guardian - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 07:00
When Lavinia Greenlaw looks at the works of Eva Hesse, she is reminded of how a poem comes to her

I had known about Eva Hesse's work for years, but the moment I really paid attention was when I visited an exhibition of what she called "test pieces" in Edinburgh in 2009. Hesse, who was German-Jewish, emigrated with her family to New York in 1939 when she was three. She died from a brain tumour when she was just 34. "I would like the work to be non-work," she once wrote. "This means that it would find its way beyond my preconceptions."

The "test pieces" (also known as studioworks) are difficult to describe. They are small objects that initially appear to be offcuts, or abandoned starting points. They seem unrealised and unsustainable, not least because Hesse often used perishable materials such as latex, wax, string, cheesecloth and plaster, which she made luminously strange. This sense of incompleteness is amplified by the fact that many look as if they ought to contain something. They are almost envelopes, bottles, boxes or bowls things we usually discard on our way towards what matters.

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Categories: Arts News

VIDEO: Fans' verdict on Monty Python show

BBC - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 06:26
The surviving members of Monty Python have performed the first show in their reunion run at London's O2 arena.
Categories: Arts News

Classic books become London benches

BBC - Wed, 02/07/2014 - 05:18
Literary classics ranging from Peter Pan to The Day of the Triffids are being celebrated in a series of colourful illustrated benches.
Categories: Arts News

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