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

At 'Frost/Nixon' Debut, It Became About Bush and Nixon

No wonder British screenwriter Peter Morgan said he was nervous to have his new flick Frost/Nixon debut in front of a D.C. crowd. He realized that with a house packed full of Washington journos, the audience surely knew more about former President Nixon than he did. And the discussion could get heated. That's why he mainly stuck to dissing the British half of the Frost/Nixon duo: "I still think I wasn't tough enough on Frost," he says. Morgan wrote a play, and then the film, shown at a

HBO's "Rome" might not be history, series creator says

The creator of CBS' red-hot police procedural "The Mentalist" has unfinished business in Italy. Bruno Heller says he wants to produce a theatrical wrap-up to his critically beloved and prematurely canceled HBO drama "Rome." "There is talk of doing a movie version," he said. "It's moving along. It's not there until it is there. I would love to round that show off." The lavish period drama ran for two seasons on HBO, wh

Mary Pickford Oscar fate to be determined by jury

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the film industry's most prestigious awards, has gone to court in a bid to stop the sale of the golden statuette which, according to a handwritten will, was to be auctioned off for charity. The Academy, however, argues that under a long-held policy, it has the right to buy back any Oscar which is put up for sale for a fee of $10 and that Pickford herself signed away the right to sell the statuette. Pickfo

CNN documentary about modern genocides

They share a deep sorrow: an idealistic American who tried to protect the Kurds of Iraq, a Canadian general who refused to follow orders in Rwanda, a French priest who fought for the soul of Cambodia. Each one tried to focus the world's attention on the world's most heinous crime: genocide. Each time, they were shunned, ignored or told it was someone else's problem. To understand why, CNN's Christiane Amanpour traveled to the killing fields of Europe, Africa and Asia f

How Did That Vase Wind Up in the Metropolitan?

THE imminent arrival of Thomas Campbell as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is much more than a simple changing of the guard after the long tenure of his predecessor, Philippe de Montebello. Mr. Campbell, who will take over one month from today, is a 46-year-old curator from the Met’s department of European sculpture and decorative arts, and he has a unique opportunity to shift the tone of an enduring and increasingly hostile debate in the world of art and museums: Who should own t

Could "Milk" have changed the Prop 8 vote?

Harvey Milk was gunned down on Nov. 27, 1978, three weeks after his biggest political victory. The San Francisco city supervisor, the first openly gay man elected to a major public position in this country, had been in office less than a year when he spearheaded a statewide campaign to defeat Proposition 6, a ballot initiative that called for the mandatory firing of gay teachers in California. Milk, Gus Van Sant's film about this unlikely politician's brief but brilliant career, marks the 30th a

Red color said to rule fashion world 15,000 years ago

The color red, which represents luck, happiness and passion in China, could have been used in clothing 15,000 years ago. Li Zhanyang, a researcher with Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said in an interview with Xinhua on Wednesday. Li has been leading an eight-member archaeological team doing excavation and related research on lake-based ruins in Xuchang, central China's Henan Province, in recent years. The Xuchang

Photographs of the Cuban Revolution on dispaly in London

The night of New Year’s Eve, 1958, began promisingly for the 33-year-old Magnum photographer Burt Glinn, who was at a black-tie party thrown by a New York Times reporter on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. As the drink flowed, talk focused on the US-supported Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Word had it that he was on his way into exile. Glinn, who died in April this year, knew that Fidel Castro, the leader of the revolutionaries, was up in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra and would be reachabl

Donatello bronze statue of David slaying Goliath gets makeover

Cutting-edge laser technology was used to clean more than a century of grime from the statue of the boy who killed Goliath, created by the artist Donatello in the 15th century. “The David is incomparably more beautiful now than ever before, even though it would seem impossible,” said Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi, director of the Bargello Museum that hosts the statue. “We could only intervene now with the newest laser techniques; even the most delicate mechanical procedur

Caine reveals Italian Job ending

The 1969 film ends with a gang of gold thieves hanging over a ravine in a bus. Every step they take towards the loot threatens to tip them into the abyss. "Hang on lads, I've got a great idea," says Sir Michael's character, Charlie Croker... and then the credits roll. The star says he would have saved them by "switching on the engine", burning off petrol until it righted itself. "I crawl up, switch on the engine and stay there fo

Frost/Nixon star Frank Langella's skills with outsiders lead to presidential role; at age 70, Oscar talk

Frank Langella has an affinity for playing outsiders and flawed individuals, he says. On Broadway, he's getting into trouble with King Henry VIII every night as Sir Thomas More in "A Man for All Seasons"; onscreen, he played a sexy, memorable "Dracula" in 1979, and his latest cinematic outlier is President Nixon in "Frost/Nixon." This adaptation of Peter Morgan's play revolves around the 1977 interviews between the disgraced former president and British talk-show ho

France returns Matisse painting stolen by Nazis

A Matisse painting stolen by the Nazis from a wealthy German Jewish businessman and kept in France for nearly 60 years was returned Thursday to the rightful owner's heirs. Culture Minister Christine Albanel presented "Le mur rose de l'hopital d'Ajaccio" (The Pink Wall at Ajaccio Hospital), painted by French master Henri Matisse in 1898, to the Israeli medical aid organisation Magen David Adom. The organisation has been identified as the heir to the collection

Always wanted a lightsaber? Make a bid

Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from Star Wars, Indiana Jones' hat and whip and Batman's cowl are going on the auction block. The iconic movie items are for sale as part of Profiles in History's Hollywood auction Dec. 11 in Calabasas, Calif.

Van Gogh's ear focus of Tehran show

Entitled “Van Gogh’s Ear”, the exhibition is displaying works in various art forms aimed at depicting some of the hardship in Van Gogh’s life, the 10 Gallery announced in a press release published by ISNA on Tuesday. The idea for holding the exhibit was proposed to the artists a few months ago and they have assembled the works exclusively for the show. Works by Abbas Kiarostami, Parviz Tanavoli, Parviz Kalantari, Gholam-Hossein Nami, Farideh Lashaii, Golnaz Fat’hi, Ba

Sean Penn's 'Milk' Is 20 Years Too Late

Gus Van Sant's Milk is not a bad movie. Star Sean Penn eschews his characteristic bluster, offering a powerful yet modest performance as Harvey Milk, the openly gay San Francisco supervisor who was assassinated in 1978. The supporting roles are also sharp, in particular Josh Brolin as Dan White, the disturbed former supervisor who killed Milk and Mayor George Moscone. And Van Sant's direction is generally smooth, if extremely conventional. (Apart from the men kissing, there's not much here likel

What if Hitler had a love child? A.N. Wilson's "Winnie and Wolf" is a chilling fictional tale of a clandestine affair.

For sheer number of innocent people exterminated under an infamous regime, Hitler is no match for Stalin. Yet our fascination with the fiery, scary Führer as "the incarnation of absolute evil," as Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel once called him, far surpasses our interest in practically all other hateful villains in modern history. In his highly imaginative novel "Winnie and Wolf," prolific British novelist and historian A.N. Wilson has taken an intriguingly dispassionate look at

Lucrezia Borgia is unmasked... in Australia

She was history's most notorious femme fatale, with three husbands, numerous lovers, and a rumoured penchant for poisoning men of whom she grew tired. Yet not a single portrait survives of Lucrezia Borgia, the infamous Italian Renaissance noblewoman – or so it was believed until now. After four years of detective work, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) announced yesterday that it had identified Borgia as the subject of a mystery painting held in its collection for more than fou

The Gospel of Harvey Milk (Movie Review)

While not up there in the annals of transformation with Robert De Niro’s poundage or Daniel Day-Lewis’s palsy, Sean Penn’s smile lines in Milk are a wonder. They’re not crinkles, they’re furrows; they seem to stretch all the way down to his soul. As the gay activist Harvey Milk, who was shot to death in 1978 along with the San Francisco mayor, George Moscone, the volatile Penn is unprecedentedly giddy. There’s anger in his Milk, but it never festers—it’s instantly channeled into political action

Adolf Hitler painting sold at 7,000 pounds loss by woman because she hated it

The watercolour of a church along the French-Belgian border bears the macabre signature 'AH' and dates back to the First World War when the future Nazi leader was stationed as a foot soldier. It was bought by the woman's son for £10,500 in 2006 along with a collection of 23 of Hitler's artwork in an auction condemned as "'grotesque" by Jewish leaders. The anonymous buyer fought off bidders from across the world for the 9ins by 11.5ins painting 'The Church of

500-year mystery finally solved as gallery reveals lady in its masterpiece is femme fatal Lucrezia Borgia

Her name has gone down in history as a byword for murder and debauchery. But Lucrezia Borgia’s face has always remained shrouded in myth and mystery. But an art historian has claimed to have solved the puzzle. A painting owned by the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia has been identified as a portrait of the notorious Italian Renaissance noblewoman painted by the artist Dosso Dossi. The National Gallery of Victoria paid £8,000 for the painting (right