James Gray: “It’s hard to come up with another individual whose voice meant more in his time than Norman Mailer’s – he chronicled humanity in all its outrageous and ugly glory through a lens that was uniquely his own. I look forward to the exciting challenge of examining his wild legacy through this series.”

Foster Kamer: “If nothing else the Grammys coming so quickly on the heels of the Oscars are a good reminder that actors aren’t actually that talented”

BRAKING: Maureen Dowd Cites Shakespeare Cos She Can! (“Opinion crowns with an imperial voice. Opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects.”): “Let’s start with the fact that Academy officials bungled the whole ugly affair. David Rubin, the president of the academy, should have gone over to Smith during the break and insisted on talking with him backstage. Then, he should have explained the academy’s position and had security guards escort the actor out of the building. Instead, Hollywood’s big and powerful chickened out and asked Smith’s publicist to talk to him about leaving. His publicist! She no doubt told Smith to sit tight, which was, from a publicity point of view, good guidance. No wonder she was the first one he hugged when he walked offstage with his Oscar. Smith also got good advice from his team when on Friday he admitted he had “betrayed” the academy and resigned from the group — before he could be suspended. “I am heartbroken,” he said in a statement… I could only look at the Will Smith meltdown from the point of view of that earlier Will, because Shakespeare has so many characters who precipitate a steep and stunning downfall: Macbeth, Lear, Othello, Hamlet, Shylock. The title of Smith’s movie, in which he plays the father of Venus and Serena Williams, evokes a Shakespearean monarch; he rose from Fresh Prince to ‘King Richard.'”

Mark Manson: “Let’s get my biases out of the way. I am no longer professionally involved with Will Smith. We have no solid plans to work together on anything else at the moment. Other than a couple short texts, I have not seen or spoken to him since our book tour ended in mid-November. That said, I do really like the guy and consider him a friend. I also like many of the people who work for him and consider them friends. To the people who have written me long screeching emails asking why I associated myself with such a horrible person, who have claimed that I am now untrustworthy for working with him, who have criticized me for not publicly crucifying the guy: kindly go fuck yourself. To those of you who have claimed that his actions have now tarnished my body of work: you clearly have not understood anything about my work.”

“Of all the relationships that waxed and waned during the heart of the pandemic, one person I didn’t expect to create a meaningful friendship with was a dead movie critic… When everything shut down in March 2020, the volumes of ‘The Great Movies’ took on more significance. I wasn’t joining the sourdough movement, but what if I could watch every movie in these books? Suddenly, I had a project. I made a few guidelines for myself, but no hard and fast rules: I didn’t need to watch “in order”—Ebert never ranked the films; they were just his favorites, listed alphabetically. If I had already seen a movie, I need not watch it again (and I’d already seen around 30 to 40 by the time I started watching in earnest). I wouldn’t check off the movie before also reading Ebert’s writeup. As a cost-saving effort, I tried to avoid subscribing to any more streaming services but vowed to get creative. Ideally, I’d try to see every movie in all four volumes by the time the pandemic “ended”… whenever that might be.”

Lower Manhattan Alamo Drafthouse Absorbs Kim’s Video Stock

“I would like to thank all those who have accompanied me over the years and have given me great support, I hope that future actors can find in me an example not only in the workplace, but in everyday life, between victories and defeats. Thank you, Alain Delon.”

OPINION PAGE PITCHBOT FEVER!!!

“Opinion | What Will Smith and Joe Biden Have in Common – The New York Times”

Worst Ever | Opinion | Contribution Contender Of The Moment: “President Biden’s gaffe about Vladimir Putin and Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony were demonstrations of a single phenomenon.

Let me explain.“

Richard Rushfield: “To be crystal clear here — The Slap was the logical outcome, the punctuation point of the drift of the Academy and the larger industry around it. Years of self-absorbed indulgence, of shows built around indulging all our problems and angst, our narcissism, and treating the audience like pesky distractions, came right down to this. This was the natural conclusion, the denouement if you will, of the entire drift of the past two decades of Oscar and of the industry.”

More Rushfield: “Will Smith is a goddamn genius… Or his publicist is. All the while the Academy dithers and takes three weeks to “investigate,” and consider appropropriate response, check with lawyers no doubt, comb the by-laws to see what guidance it gives for an act of violence by one member against another during the ceremony, consider precedents, take the temperature of the membership, etc. etc. Perhaps even appoint a blue-ribbon panel whydoncha! The Academy had one chance to redeem itself — by acting clearly and decisively in response to this. Making up for what they failed to do on the night with some fuzzy repercussions later. Of course they were never going to do that.  And now that rug has been pulled out from under them. Will Smith has slapped the Academy’s face once again…

“So where was ABC during all this? More to the point, where was Disney? And here’s where you get the problem of having someone at the helm who doesn’t come from production, and has never been in a mile of live entertainment production becomes a problem. As much as I think the Iger/Chapek comparisons are generally unfair and misleading, in this case there’s something to it. It’s hard to believe that Bob I, who made his way up overseeing Olympics coverage, would’ve sat on his hands while this was going on and not put in a call to the booth, to the Academy, and not said, get that man off my airwaves! So where was Disney television leadership (Chapek, Peter Rice, Dana Walden) during all this? Did they voice any concerns about what was happening in their broadcast?”

“The move reeks of crisis PR spin, some industry watchers noted. “Resigning allows [Smith] to avoid ‘AMPAS Expels Will Smith’ headlines… but he’s nowhere near out of the woods yet,” Tweeted Variety’s Andrew Wallenstein.

Sarah Ruhl: “Will Smith’s comic chops have evolved over time into a dramatic leading man sensibility. And one thing leading men seem to need to be able to perform in this culture is casual violence. And yet, one thing that upset and disoriented spectators was trying to parse whether the violence they saw on stage was casual at all, real or pretend. Smith is a consummate actor. He thinks deeply about how he walks. And there was nothing casual or out of control about how he walked onto the stage. That Smith was being honored for a role called King Richard seemed fitting. Who would cross the forbidding line of a proscenium but a king?”

Murdoch NewsCorp’s Fox News Goes All-In On Stigmatizing LGBTQ+ Americans And Demonizing Disney (Which Paid The Murdoch-Controlled Enterprise $71.3 Billion For Twentieth Century Fox Assets): “Fox mentioned ‘Disney’ more than 350 times and in over three hours of coverage this week. Its commentators claimed the company is ‘grooming’ and ‘sexualizing children’ in order to push a progressive LGBT agenda.'”

Reactionary Activist Mercy Schlapp Chimes In: “Disney has destroyed the innocence of our children. They have made a conscious decision to alienate our family friendly values on behalf of the radical woke activists at their company who want to push their divisive and inappropriate ideology on our kids… Now is the time to take on Disney.”

Plus, Randy Quaid: “Joe Biden and his administration will come to be remembered as an unprovoked full frontal assault against our democracy.”

Smith Quits

“My actions at the 94th Academy Awards presentation were shocking, painful, and inexcusable. The list of those I have hurt is long and includes Chris, his family, many of my dear friends and loved ones, all those in attendance, and global audiences at home. I betrayed the trust of the Academy. I deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work. I am heartbroken.”

David Rubin, Academy President: “We have received and accepted Mr. Will Smith’s immediate resignation. We will continue to move forward with our disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy’s Standards of Conduct.”

“If ever a movie begged for the resurrection of the drive-in, ‘Drive-Away Dykes” is it. A lesbian road-trip action sex comedy penned by writer-producer-director Ethan Coen and his wife, film editor Tricia Cooke, ‘Drive-Away’ promises all the laughs, thrills and mischief of the old double-bill sexploitation cinema. ‘Women on the road. All kinds of action,’ deadpans the tagline.”

“Focus and Working Title are keeping mum on the project, but sources indicate that the untitled feature is a lesbian road trip project that Ethan Coen and wife Tricia Cooke initially wrote in the mid-2000s. Titled ‘Drive-Away Dykes,’ the Russ Meyer-inspired romp was an action sex comedy that was initially to have been directed by Allison Anders, who made the 1990s indie hit Gas Food Lodging. The story concerned a party girl who takes a trip from Philadelphia to Miami with her buttoned-down friend. Cruising bars ensues as does the potpourri of a severed head in a hatbox, a bitter ex-girlfriend, a mystery briefcase and an evil senator.”

“Packer revealed details about the LAPD’s conversation with Rock on Sunday night. ‘They were saying, “This is battery.” That was the word they used in that moment,’ Packer told the ABC morning program’s host. ‘They said, “We will go get him. We are prepared. We will go get him right now. You can press charges. We can arrest him. They were laying out the options. And as they were talking, Chris was, he was being very dismissive of those options. He was like, “No, I’m fine.” He was like, “No, no, no.” And even to the point where I said, “Rock, let them finish.” The LAPD officers finish laying out what his options were. And they said, “Would you like us to take any action?” And he said, “No.”‘”

Dawn Hudson And David Rubin Zoom Privately With Will Smith

Apple TV Plus’ CODA Gets Theatrical Release With Open Captions

Think Like A Company Man: Will Packer To Testify Exclusively Friday On ABC’s “Good Morning America”

Fashion Photographer Patrick Demarchelier Was 78