Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

Oliver Stone reveals 'Secret History'

Oliver Stone is making his most ambitious stab at American history yet. The controversial director is creating a 10-part documentary series for Showtime titled"Secret History of America." Narrated by Stone, the series promises to focus on events that"at the time went under-reported, but crucially shaped America's unique and complex history of the last 60 years," according to Showtime. Subjects will include President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, the origins o

'Steeped in History' exhibition at UCLA's Fowler Museum

The delicate, robin's-egg blue porcelain bowl perched on a display stand in the Fowler Museum at UCLA looks like something you might find at a lovely ladies' luncheon filled with silky vichyssoise soup. But this Qingbai bowl from China's Song Dynasty is actually a drinking cup, used in the late 11th century by working class citizens who enjoyed pu-erh, an aged tea pressed into a cake-like brick. The Qingbai vessel is one of dozens of Chinese cups, Japanese tea caddies a

Hope Diamond celebrates 50th anniversary with new setting design

The Hope Diamond is going bare to celebrate a half-century at the Smithsonian. The mysterious blue gem was donated to the National Museum of Natural History more than 50 years ago and the museum is celebrating by having a new setting designed. Starting in September, the 45.52 carat diamond will be exhibited as a stand-alone gem with no setting... ... "This is a rare and exciting opportunity for people to see the Hope Diamond as it has never been seen b

Strep throat may have killed Mozart

The death of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the age of 35 may have been caused by complications stemming from strep throat, according to a Dutch study published on Monday. Since the composer's death in 1791, there have been various theories about the cause of his untimely end, from intentional poisoning, to rheumatic fever, to trichinosis, a parasitic disease caused by eating raw or undercooked pork. On his death certificate it was officially recorded that the cause of death wa

Museum to highlight Louisiana's rich film history

A New Orleans movie buff is putting the spotlight on the memorabilia he has collected from some of the more than 400 major motion pictures, documentaries and television series that have been produced using Louisiana as the backdrop. Jeffrey Pipes Guice's Louisiana Film Museum is starting small. When it opens Sept. 1, it will occupy a 300-square-foot room in the existing Southern Food and Beverage Museum at the Riverwalk mall in New Orleans... ... The collection now incl

Neville Chamberlain's pocket diary goes on display in new exhibition

For most people a pocket diary is the place to record the minutiae and mundanity of life. A reminder to collect dry cleaning, perhaps. Or remember someone's birthday. For Neville Chamberlain it was the place to scribble in two words his most important decision: "war declared". The former prime minister's diary goes on display for the first time on Thursday at a new exhibition marking the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the second world war. Outbreak 1939,

Interpol Creates Online Access to Global Stolen Works of Art Database to Reduce Illicit Trade

INTERPOL has established direct online access to authorized users via a secure website to its international database on stolen works as part of its fight against the illicit trade of stolen cultural property. Online access will not be limited to the law enforcement community but will be open to all interested users who first have to apply for access to the database, which features the latest information on some 34,000 works of art stolen worldwide. Interested parties wishing to acc

BBC to show rare Beatles footage

Unheard out-takes from The Beatles’ final recording sessions in Abbey Road will be broadcast for the first time as part of a BBC Fab Four season. The programme, The Beatles On Record, will include studio chat from the band as they pieced together the album, which contained their final sessions as a band. It also features what the BBC says is “rare footage”, as well as excerpts from 60 songs. It will be screened next month during a week-long season as the world prepares

Matisse as Printmaker will Shed New Light on One of the Greatest Artists of the 20th Century

The Baltimore Museum of Art presents the first comprehensive exhibition on the printmaking of the great French artist Henri Matisse. On view October 25, 2009 – January 3, 2010, Matisse as Printmaker unites the BMA’s extraordinary collection of Matisse prints with a traveling exhibition organized by the American Federation of Arts, a non-profit arts organization, and the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation. The BMA’s exhibition features approximately 170 works of art spanning 50 years of Matisse’s

Film charting life at the Liverpool Daily Post in the 1970s to be screened

A film lifting the lid on life at the Daily Post in the mid-1970s will get its first public screening in decades tonight. Tomorrow’s Merseysiders, which was made about the Post and its sister paper the Liverpool Echo, was re-discovered, stored in old film tins and covered in dust, two years ago. It was transferred onto digital format by the experts at the North West Film Archive, at Manchester Metropolitan University. The footage will be shown as part of a

Liverpool University has aquired a rare first edition of a science fiction novel

Liverpool University has acquired a rare first edition of an influential science fiction novel telling the story of an American soldier’s journey to Mars. The book, Lieut Gullivar Jones: His Vacation was so poorly received upon publication in 1905, it was the last book its author wrote before he died. But years later, after gaining popularity, the tale of romance on a distant planet has earned a reputation as one of the most important works of 20th-century science ficti

Kiss to Release New Album at Wal-Mart, Sam's Club

Wal-Mart is being embraced with a Kiss. The veteran heavy metal group, Kiss, is joining a growing list of classic acts putting out new music through the world's largest retailer. "Sonic Boom" is due to be released only at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club on Oct. 6. It will include a CD of the band's first new music in 11 years, re-recorded versions of famous Kiss hits and a live DVD.

Tarzan swings into Paris

Tarzan of the Apes, an Englishman who becomes king of the jungle, was created by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs a century ago. Now, the comic book hero is the subject of an exhibition at a new museum in Paris. Rice Burroughs wrote 24 Tarzan stories and there have been 42 Tarzan films. Clearly an icon if ever there was, Tarzan is now the star attraction at Paris's new and rather magnificent ethnological museum, the Quai Branly. The show brings toget

For sale on eBay: an eternity with Marilyn Monroe

When it comes to sleeping with a bona fide Hollywood sex symbol, death need not necessarily be an impediment. Thanks to Los Angeles widow Elsie Poncher, who is auctioning off a burial plot atop that occupied by Marilyn Monroe, it may even count as an advantage. Poncher's advertisment on eBay offers prospective corpses the chance to "spend eternity directly above Marilyn Monroe". Bidding opened last week at $500,000 (£300,000) and has already topped $4.5m, with more than se

Earthquake works banned from Beijing art show

Works about the Sichuan earthquake and other sensitive issues have been banned from a Beijing art show that was to involve controversial figures, its artistic director said today. The group exhibition at the 798 space, a former electronics factory in the Dashanzi art district, north-east of central Beijing, covered themes including the death of children in schools that collapsed in the quake. The show, the centrepiece of the Beijing 798 Biennale, reopened today but without some of t

Evelyn Waugh 'had three homosexual affairs at Oxford'

Two of the students with whom he was romantically involved formed the basis for his Brideshead character Sebastian Flyte, according to Paula Byrne in her book Mad World: Evelyn Waugh And The Secrets of Brideshead. She said he went through an "acute homosexual phase" while a student at Hertford College, Oxford, but rather like the character Charles Ryder in his most famous novel, put it behind him. While it has long been thought that Waugh, who died in 1966,

William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies 'tried to rape girl a 15-year-old girl'

He failed in his attempt to force himself on the girl, identified only as Dora, whom he had met when they both had music lessons in Marlborough, Wilts. Their violent encounter occurred two years after their first meeting, when he returned home as an 18-year-old first year undergraduate while at Brasenose College, Oxford. Golding wrote that they went for a walk and "felt sure she wanted heavy sex, as this was visibly written on her pert, ripe and desirable mouth&q

The Boston Athenaeum to Present George Pope Morris: Defining American Culture

The Boston Athenæum will present “George Pope Morris: Defining American Culture” an exhibition of paintings, prints, photographs, letters, books, periodicals, and sheet music representing Morris’s pioneering achievements as a writer, poet, critic, journalist, and publisher. The exhibition opens Sept. 23 and runs through Dec. 5, 2009. This exhibition will investigate the various aspects of Morris’s career and his role as a major force in cultivating American literary taste and provi

Elvis Presley's Personal Belongings from the Collection of Gary Pepper to Go on Sale

Leslie Hindman Auctioneers announces a once in a lifetime opportunity for Elvis Presley collectors and fans. Over the years many collectors have asked, “Whatever happened to the Gary Pepper collection of Elvis Presley memorabilia?” Early in his career, Presley befriended Gary Pepper, a young man with cerebral palsy, who ultimately became a close friend and the president of one of the King's first fan clubs, allowing him to amass a significant collection of personal effects gifted t

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Displays Eunice Kennedy's Portraits Photographed by Herb Ritts

In honor of Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921-2009) and her many accomplishments, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), has placed on view three iconic black and white photographs of Mrs. Shriver by renowned photographer Herb Ritts (1952–2002). These photographs― taken in Los Angeles in 1995―are displayed in the MFA’s Linde Family Wing outside of the Herb Ritts Gallery. The portraits, part of a gift of more than 200 works from Herb Ritts and the Herb Ritts Foundation, will be on