• Hooray For Hollywood! The Academy Museum Has Opened

    As anyone who has worked in Hollywood knows, it's a miracle when anything gets done. For each movie made, each series shown, there are thousands that didn"t; and no production journey is complete without having to jump through more hoops and face more setbacks (and studio notes) than imaginable. So, too, with the Academy Museum.More than 90 years ago, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the folks who bring you the Oscars) thought it would be…

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  • An Evening Of Qatari Culture Under The Stars At The "Desert Drive-In"

    Picture this: A evening under the stars, sitting on couches and deck chairs in a large open field, with ottomans on which a Middle Eastern feast was set, to watch a series of short films on a giant outdoor screen. Dubbed a "Desert Drive-In" the evening was organized by the Qatar-USA 2021 Year of Culture, an annual international cultural exchange and the Doha Film Institute (DFI), an independent, not-for-profit cultural organization that supports the growth of the local Qatari and…

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  • Another Tel Aviv: "Asylum City" Streaming on ChaiFlicks

    Asylum City is a gripping 2018-2019 Israeli one-hour drama series in Hebrew with English subtitles that debuted this week on ChaiFlicks, the streaming service devoted to Jewish interest content (available online or for viewing on the ChaiFlicks app on your favorite streaming platform).At its center is a murder mystery set in Tel Aviv. However, what makes Asylum City remarkable and distinctive is that it is shows parts of Tel Aviv that most of us have never seen or did not…

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  • Netflix Debuts "The Devil Next Door"

    Netflix's just-released documentary The Devil Next Door is a true crime mystery about John Demjanjuk, a Cleveland autoworker who was discovered to be a Nazi death camp guard and was tried over a 40-year period in the United States, Israel and Germany in a roller-coaster of convictions and appeals - as he denied any and all participation and guilt. Demjanjuk died in a German nursing home, in 2012, age 91, awaiting the appeal of his German conviction.As someone who covered…

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  • Myself and Maisel, a Documentary

    "Jay Myself," is a reverential documentary portrait of photographer Jay Maisel by noted photographer Stephen Wilkes, Maisel's one-time apprentice. The framing device for the story is Maisel's having to vacate the New York City building at 190 Bowery where he"d lived and worked for the last 48 years.What makes this "moving day" film all the more remarkable is that Maisel owned and occupied the entire six-story former bank building – all 72 rooms of the 1898 Germania Bank Building. Over…

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  • Springsteen On Netflix Showcases The Man Who Made The Music

    Last night I watched "Springsteen on Broadway" on Netflix. I had wanted to see the show during its run, but I couldn"t quite bring myself to pay the $800-$1000 a ticket cost on the open market.It's a good show. It's 2 ½ hours long and is compelling throughout. Springsteen performs his well-known songs in new ways with context supplied. He is humble at moments but boastful at other times, appropriately given his very real achievements. The Netflix show does not…

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  • Hollywood Makes History: Preview of Next Year's New Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

    A year from now, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, known more popularly as the people who brings us The Oscars, hope to open their long-gestating Academy Museum of Motion Picture.At a luncheon given by the Academy recently, Academy and Museum board members. executives and officials Ron Meyer, Dawn Hudson and Kerry Brougher offered a preview of their plans for the contents of the 300,000 square foot Renzo Piano designed Museum at the corner of Fairfax and Wilshire…

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  • Inarritu Receives Special Oscar for 'Carne Y Arena'

    Inarritu's VR project wins a special Oscar View Original Article

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  • Remembering Debbie Reynolds

    Remembering Debbie Reynolds View Original Article

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  • Zsa Zsa Gabor Dead - The Last Hungarian Actress of Her Generation

    Zsa Zsa Gabor has died at 99. As my fellow Hungarican wrote me: 'That's it. 2016 worse year ever.' Zsa Zsa was the last connection to my mother's world of Budapest and the glory of Hungarian women born before World War Two - a cosmopolitan, very clever, very adaptable, very assimilated, world of superficial beauty, sexual sophistication and a love of jewelry and luxury. A decade ago, when Zsa Zsa first was reported at death's door, I wrote the following…

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  • Kate Hudsons Fabletics: 21st Century Fashion Company Bets on Tech & Media

    A casual visitor to TechStyle’s sleek modern offices, located in El Segundo right off Rosecrans Avenue on a block of gleaming commercial buildings, might think he’d arrived at a digital fashion media powerhouse or a tech start up rather than a successful apparel retailer. Everywhere you look, company employees (overwhelmingly women) are cradling laptops as they go from glassed-in conference room, to high-ceilinged white-walled showroom to glass door offices and open-plan cubicles. There’s an in-house cafeteria, two photo studios, five…

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  • When reality was a joke: the making of Albert Brooks’ Real Life (1979)

    Today, reality TV is a genre for which they award Emmys, from which careers are born, love is found, and fortunes are made. Reality TV represents a huge share of the television industry, and we accept that these shows are cast, produced, and edited to enhance their drama. Yet if we see humor in the self-seriousness of the participants and delight in the outrageousness of their antics, if we see the irony in the genre’s ability to produce stars (and…

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