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

TR subject of a new NY play

A wildlife conservationist? A union supporter? It’s sometimes hard to believe that Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican. But he was never one to reflexively conform to party ideology, as Michael O. Smith demonstrates in his informative one-man show, “The Bully Pulpit,” which he also wrote. Set almost a decade after Roosevelt left office, in 1918, at Sagamore Hill, his estate in Oyster Bay, N.Y., the play gives us a Roosevelt who, entertaining visitors in his study, reminisces about h

Smithsonian approves filming of "Night at the Museum II: Escape from the Smithsonian"

The Smithsonian Institution this week announced an agreement with 20th Century Fox to allow the use of its name and facilities for the filming of "Night at the Museum II: Escape from the Smithsonian." The movie is the sequel to the 2006 film "Night at the Museum" starring Ben Stiller that earned over $250 million at the box office in the U.S., and over $500 million worldwide. This is the first time in its 162-year history that the Smithsonian Institution has allowed its name

A film documenting the final weeks of the IRA gunman Bobby Sands has been defended by its makers at the Cannes Film Festival as a useful insight into the mindset of modern suicide bombers

Hunger, a 96-minute film by the artist Steve McQueen, in competition at Cannes and part-funded by Film4, tells the story of Sands who died on hunger strike at the Maze prison; some critics say it is creating a hero out of a terrorist. But Jan Younghusband, the executive producer of the film and commissioning editor of arts at Channel 4, said the harrowing story merely exposed the mentality of someone ready to die for a cause, such as the London suicide bombers. "You look at sui

Back to the London of Jack the Ripper (Exhibit/London)

A new exhibition debunks the myths surrounding Jack the Ripper and paints a vivid portait of Victorian London. Nigel Richardson reports. ### It is a repulsive and fascinating item and true obsessives will make a beeline for it. “This is the original 'Dear Boss’ letter,” confirmed Julia Hoffbrand, the co-curator of a new exhibition dedicated to Jack the Ripper. The letter marks the point in the Ripper story at which reality turned into myth. It was sent to t

Persecuted to Powerful: Exhibiting a History of New York’s Catholics

Hundreds of years ago, there was a tiny religious minority so despised and persecuted that it was forced to build its own educational, social-welfare and political infrastructure just to survive in the city of New York. Improbably enough, this subculture ultimately seized power from the entrenched majority, became the city’s largest Christian group, created institutions that affected everyone in the five boroughs and permanently changed what it meant to be a New Yorker. Yet a museum

Chicago fans want everyone to remember the Home of the Cubs' glory days

Mike Reischl, Chicago 10th District cop and chief of the Way Out in Left Field Society, understands if you're a die-hard Cubs fan but can't recall the Spuds, Orphans, Rainmakers, Trojans or Panamas—all former nicknames for Chicago's National League team. But that you've never heard of West Side Grounds—where the Cubs and their variants played before Wrigley Field—gets him in a lather of near Lou Piniella proportions. "If you go to the University of Pittsburgh, they

HBO Film About 2000 Recount Draws Protests From Democrats

Wounds from the Florida recount, still healing for many Democrats, are being ripped open again for some prominent former advisers to Al Gore. They say that a coming HBO film dramatizing the ballot battle after the 2000 election unfairly blames them for the Democrats’ failure to secure the White House. Warren Christopher, the former secretary of state who served as the public face of the Gore team in the early days of the recount effort, said this week that he believed the film, “Rec

Novelists ask: Did pope finance the Protestant invasion of England by King Billy?

On the streets of Rome the centuries stand still. Everything seems to have been here for ever, the tightly twisting cobbled lanes, the high tenements, the gorgeous piazzas, the baroque churches; yet nothing has ever been as it appears, and intrigue succeeds intrigue down the hidden passages of the centuries, the hand of power fleetingly discerned behind the arras of history. Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti are living out this uniquely Roman déjà vu. Historical novelists who happen

Nobel laureate Tutu celebrates award, portrait

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Archbishop Desmond Tutu pulled aside a red curtain and quickly stepped back to study the painting behind it -- a portrait of the Nobel Peace Prize winner seated in a wooden chair, hand on his chin, deep in thought. Finally, he spoke. "I think she got the nose right," Tutu said with a laugh as the crowd of nearly 100 clapped and cheered. The South African human rights activist has been awarded the Lincoln Leadership Prize. Hi

Russian Curator Subpoenaed Over Censored Art

MOSCOW — A museum director who helped organize an exhibition of censored Soviet and post-Soviet art in defense of Russian artistic freedom now faces censure himself. Prosecutors have summoned the director, Yuri V. Samodurov, to a hearing on Tuesday during which he will be charged for his role in organizing “Forbidden Art — 2006,” a March 2007 exhibition at the Andrei Sakharov Museum in Moscow, according to a subpoena delivered to Mr. Samodurov last week. The subpoena was the

Robert Rauschenberg, Titan of American Art, Is Dead at 82

Robert Rauschenberg, the irrepressibly prolific American artist who time and again reshaped art in the 20th century, died on Monday night at his home on Captiva Island, Fla. He was 82. The cause was heart failure, said Arne Glimcher, chairman of PaceWildenstein, the Manhattan gallery that represents Mr. Rauschenberg. Mr. Rauschenberg’s work gave new meaning to sculpture. “Canyon,” for instance, consisted of a stuffed bald eagle attached to a canvas. “Monogram” was a stu

Steven Spurrier art rescued from rats

Hundreds of images by illustrator and artist Steven Spurrier spent more than three decades in the crumbling Hertfordshire barn before being re-discovered by relatives. Most of the archive, which depicted London life from the 1920s to the 1950s, had been reduced to chewed scraps of paper by the rodents. But 50 pictures that survived went on display on Monday night for a 17-day solo exhibition at Panter and Hall, a Mayfair fine art gallery.

1958: The War of the Intellectuals

Much has been made of 1968 — the student uprisings in Paris, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the full flowering of youth culture. But what of its more unassuming antecedent, 1958? Fifty years ago, Eisenhower was in the White House, the country was in a recession and the American intellectual scene was crackling with energy. The year saw the advent of everything from Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” and Dr. Seuss’ “Yertle the Turtle” to “Doctor Zhivag

Victorian erotica: the original cheeky girls

Ever wondered what our great grandparents got up to behind closed doors? A new collection of erotica leaves little doubt, says Guy Kennaway 'I bought my first erotic photograph in the mid-1980s,' Danny Moynihan tells me. 'I had come across some photos of Austrian origin of rather portly looking ladies in petticoats playing with sex toys. I thought they were rather amusing.' Moynihan is an artist and a curator. He has collaborated frequently with his friend Damien Hirst

Chinese filmmaker talks about his documentary, "Yasukuni"

Li Ying’s documentary film “Yasukuni” opened in Tokyo on May 3, without incident but under heavy police protection. The original launch of the film, scheduled for April 12, was postponed when four theaters in Tokyo and another in Osaka cancelled their screenings of the film after conservative members of the Japanese Diet raised questions about the film’s political stance (See also David McNeill and John Junkerman, Freedom Next Time. Japanese Neonationalists Seek to Silence Yasukuni Film.

New Indiana Jones movie embraces legend of Mayan crystal skulls

There is a legend that the ancient Maya possessed 13 crystal skulls which, when united, hold the power of saving the Earth — a tale so strange and fantastic that it inspired the latest Indiana Jones movie. Experts dismiss the hundreds of existing crystal skulls as fakes that were probably made by colorful antiquities traders in the 19th century. But Mayan priests worship the skulls, even today, and real-life skull hunters still search for them. The true story of the sku

Spielberg to do Lincoln biopic

Steven Spielberg's long-rumored Abraham Lincoln biopic will go into production in 2009. It may be the director's next project after "Tintin," which is expected to go into production in September. "I want to start 'Lincoln' in early 2009, because it's Lincoln's 200th anniversary," Spielberg told German magazine Focus while doing advance press for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." (Editor's note: German-to-English translation via Goog

Debut of NY play about Rose Mary Woods

When an actress is giving as commanding a performance as Kristin Griffith does in “Stretch (a Fantasia),” a new play about Rose Mary Woods, there is a danger that those who share the stage with her will disappear into her shadow. So credit Evan Thompson, Eric Clem and Brian Gerard Murray with making their own distinctive contributions to this inventive work by Susan Bernfield, staged by New Georges at the Living Theater. Mr. Thompson even pulls off the difficult feat of briefly stea

Unhappy With 'Confrontational' Image, U.S. Panel Wants King Statue Reworked

A powerful federal arts commission is urging that the sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. proposed for a memorial on the Tidal Basin be reworked because it is too "confrontational" and reminiscent of political art in totalitarian states. The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts thinks "the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed statue recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries," commission secretary Thoma

When America lived in fear of ... comic books?

World War II was over, but as the 1940s gave way to the 1950s, a new evil lurked in the land. The cover of David Hajdu's "Ten-Cent Plague," shown here, was drawn by Charles Burns. It attracted a youthful audience -- boys, mostly -- who fell victim to its colorful images, dripping in red, and gave money to its purveyors. Authorities took notice. The United States had a new menace, they said, one whose name started with "c" and whose firs