So, Time and Newsweek have had to reinvent themselves in the face of flagging circulation numbers and built-in relevance issues (i.e., they were created at a time when there were too many newspapers, crazy as that sounds now), but as The Atlantic’s Michael Hirschorn notes, there’s one weekly news digest that’s going strong while others falter.
The renowned German choreographer Pina Bausch has died. The death of the artist, a revolutionary figure in dance, comes as a great loss to both the world of dance and the international arts community. “Pina Bausch continually pushed the boundaries of what we call dance,” said John Neumeier, director of the Hamburg Ballet. “I simply cannot imagine a successor. ... ”
A program at the New England Aquarium is aimed at inspiring obese children to get up and exercise by watching seals stretch, jump and swim. It’s hoped that the seals’ athleticism will move kids to get up and “you know ... run,” as one official put it.
Michael Jackson was rushed to an L.A. hospital Thursday, where he was pronounced dead. He was 50 years old. His astonishing musical career, perhaps unparalleled among solo artists, unraveled into a tabloid mess of child molestation, doctor-sanctioned self-mutilation, bizarre parenting and, ultimately, debt. He was about to launch a comeback tour.
Despite his fame, money and extraordinary résumé—he had been a Marine, pitchman, newsboy, ditch digger, talent show host and, of course, the most famous sidekick in the history of television—Ed McMahon came off as a likable everyday guy. Before his death Tuesday at the age of 86, McMahon even experienced the wrong end of the mortgage crisis, albeit with a Beverly Hills mansion.
Three Italian women academics have called upon the wives of world leaders attending the G-8 summit in Italy next month to boycott the gathering in a stance against Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi’s “sexist” and “offensive” attitude toward women. Could they be referring to his harem of call girls, his rumored affair with an 18-year-old, or his nominations of ex-showgirls to the European Parliament?
French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared that burqas worn by Muslim women are no longer welcome in France. The full-body veil, symbol of women’s “enslavement,” he said, is a threat to gender equality and to France’s long-standing secular democracy. Only a minority of women among the roughly 6 million Muslims in France wear such attire, but Sarkoz’s new hard line is sure to fan the debate.
Is China experiencing a pornography epidemic? Beijing’s obsession with porn blocking now rivals its attempts to stifle political dissent. On top of censorship software soon to be packaged with every computer sold in the country, China has told Google to limit its search functionality for fear of accidentally helping Chinese users find the good stuff.
On Thursday, the Senate adopted a resolution that apologizes for the evils of slavery on behalf of the people of the United States, and “acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery, and Jim Crow laws.” The resolution does not, however, offer any form of reparation for the descendants of slaves.
Sean Penn has pulled out of two upcoming film roles and may be taking a year off from acting. No word yet on his politicking schedule. The star had been set to appear in “Cartel” and “The Three Stooges.” Yes, those Three Stooges.
Kobe Bryant and the Lakers brought the NBA championship trophy back to Los Angeles and with it cause for celebration, but how can a city struggling to make ends meet justify the traditional $2 million victory parade? By making the team and private donors pay for it.
Iranian officials have cut off key communication conduits within the country and barred access to foreign news broadcasts as election protests rage on. But protesters have found ways to get information by other means: They have turned to social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook.
It seems that immigrant bashing isn’t the ratings fertilizer it used to be. Just ask CNN blowhard Lou Dobbs, who hitched his wagon to a xenophobia boomlet only to discover that angry white men are a fickle bunch.
After a year of haggling (and not much to show for it), the Screen Actors Guild has agreed to a two-year contract with the major studios. SAG President Alan Rosenberg dismissed the deal as “devastatingly unsatisfactory.” So dramatic.
Shepherd Johnson’s Flickr account, along with an estimated 1,200 photos, vanished shortly after he started hassling the president via the White House’s official photostream. Yahoo, which owns the popular photo sharing site, won’t comment, but Johnson says he lost access after posting 20 or so negative comments, complete with links to images of torture.
Apple unveiled a faster, more powerful version of its popular iPhone Monday, but the bigger news is that the company slashed the price of the current model to $99. That makes a robust portable computing experience available to a much bigger crowd, assuming they can handle AT&T’s horrendously overpriced service.
Dress the White House in purple and gold, the president is backing Los Angeles in the NBA finals. It’s probably because of his uncommonly good taste and high basketball IQ, but it could also have something to do with the 39 percentage points by which he won Los Angeles in the presidential election.
Two days before the 20th anniversary of the brutal military crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government has blocked popular Web sites aimed at the young, including Twitter, Flickr and Hotmail. It also has blocked message boards on some 6,000 sites associated with colleges and universities.
In the same month that the California Supreme Court voted to uphold a ban on gay marriage, seniors at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles voted Sergio Garcia as their prom queen, proving once again that if you wish to find more open-minded folk, you can always turn to the youth.
Fresh off a fundraising stop in Las Vegas, where he made an appearance at Caesars Palace, President Barack Obama swung through Hollywood Wednesday evening to pitch woo to a star-studded crowd for the first time since taking office—but, as The Wrap’s Dominic Patten points out, it was a bit of a tough crowd this time around.
With news that American health remains in general decline and more than one-third of adults are obese, consider this a public service announcement: Soup is the secret weapon against fat. Scientists have confirmed that soup keeps you fuller longer than other food.
Turns out that Red Bull Cola gives you more than just “wings,” according to scientists at The Health Institute in Germany’s North Rhine Westphalia who recently discovered that the fizzy drink contains small amounts of cocaine—very, very small amounts, in fact, but enough to cause a handful of German states to ban the beverage.
A royal chauffeur was suspended by Buckingham Palace on Monday after he allegedly allowed access to the queen’s fleet of official cars to tabloid reporters of the News World Press. It was the latest in a series of royal security breaches that famously include the intrusion of a man dressed as Osama bin Laden at Prince William’s birthday party and, creepier, in 1982 when a man broke into the queen’s room to watch her sleep.
Since President Obama took office a little over four months ago, we’ve heard little from our old pal Dubya. (Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the persistent and pugnacious Dick Cheney.) This week, however, the former president spoke to a high school class in New Mexico about when he first realized he was no longer running the United States.
It’s the first time that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s estate has officially approved a movie project about the late civil rights leader, and the MLK biopic will be helmed by none other than mega-director Steven Spielberg, who has acquired the “life rights” to Dr. King’s story, according to Variety.
The Age of Paine
