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      Amid Outcry, Academy Museum to Revise Exhibit on Hollywood’s Jewish Roots

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      When the museum first opened, it was criticized for omitting Hollywood’s Jewish pioneers. Now it is under fire for what its new exhibit says about them.When the popular Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened in 2021 with exhibits celebrating the diversity of the film industry, the museum was criticized for having largely omitted one group: the Jewish founders of Hollywood.Last month, the museum aimed to correct that oversight by opening a permanent new exhibition highlighting the formative role that Jewish immigrants like Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer played in creating the American film industry.But the new exhibition, which turns a sometimes critical eye on Hollywood’s founders, ignited an uproar. An open letter that a group called United Jewish Writers sent to the museum on Monday objected to the use of words including “tyrant,” “oppressive,” “womanizer” and “predator” in its wall text, called the exhibit “antisemitic” and described it as “the only section of the museum that vilifies those it purports to celebrate.”In response to the growing outcry, the Academy Museum said in a statement Monday that it had “heard the concerns from members of the Jewish community” and that it was “committed to making changes to the exhibition to address them.”“We will be implementing the first set of changes immediately — they will allow us to tell these important stories without using phrasing that may unintentionally reinforce stereotypes,” the museum said.The museum announced the changes just before receiving the open letter, which was signed by more than 300 Hollywood professionals. “While we acknowledge the value in confronting Hollywood’s problematic past, the despicable double standard of the Jewish Founders exhibit, blaming only the Jews for that problematic past, is unacceptable and, whether intentional or not, antisemitic,” said the letter. “We call on the Academy Museum to thoroughly redo this exhibit so that it celebrates the Jewish founders of Hollywood with the same respect and enthusiasm granted to those celebrated throughout the rest of the museum.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Television

      Vanderpump’s New Sandwich Shop Is One of Los Angeles’ Anticipated Openings

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      The most hotly anticipated opening in the city this year might be a sandwich shop from two Bravo stars.The fans control everything in the “Vanderpump Rules” multiverse, and lately what the fans want are crisp, pressed turkey sandwiches and prebiotic sodas under the soft glow of shabby-chic chandeliers in West Hollywood.Something About Her, a new sandwich shop from the Bravo stars Ariana Madix and Katie Maloney, is a two-hour drive from Kim Mykitta’s home in Huntington Beach, so she took the day off from work as a social media manager and copywriter to turn up on its first day of business.Arriving an hour before the shop opened, Ms. Mykitta settled in as the 15th person in a line that grew steadily throughout the day, snaking down the block. And it wasn’t just a line, but a cultural phenomenon, tourist destination and social event covered in detailed play-by-plays in news stories, blog posts, podcast episodes and social media reels.Katie Maloney and Ariana Madix are fan favorites who opened their new sandwich shop in May.Dylan RileyMs. Mykitta runs Bravo Breaking News, an Instagram fan account that’s part of a complex cottage industry built around Bravo’s cultish reality shows and their stars. “We are die-hard and we are dedicated,” said Ms. Mykitta, who had been reporting on the ups and downs of the opening for about two years.It might seem hard to square the devotion of these crowds with a restaurant industry in crisis. The Los Angeles Times called 2023 “the year that killed L.A. restaurants.” The article mentioned, among the dozens and dozens of notable departed, the closing of Jean-Georges Beverly Hills and three spots from the acclaimed restaurateur Nancy Silverton.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Johnny Wactor, ‘General Hospital’ Actor, Reported Killed in Shooting in Los Angeles

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      Johnny Wactor was fatally shot when he interrupted a person who was stealing his vehicle’s catalytic converter, his mother told a news outlet.Johnny Wactor, an actor best known for his role in “General Hospital,” was shot and killed on Saturday, reports said, amid what his family described as an attempted theft of a catalytic converter in Los Angeles.The fatal shooting took place around 3 a.m. on Saturday, when Mr. Wactor approached three men in downtown Los Angeles, The Associated Press reported, citing the Los Angeles Police Department.His mother, Scarlett Wactor, told the local news station ABC7 that Mr. Wactor left the rooftop bar where he worked late in the evening and was walking with a co-worker toward his vehicle when he interrupted someone who was in the process of stealing the vehicle’s catalytic converter.Ms. Wactor said her son thought his car was being towed at first, and when he approached the person to ask, the person “looked up, he was wearing a mask, and opened fire.”Three men fled the scene in a vehicle, and Mr. Wactor was taken to a hospital, where he died, The A.P. reported. No arrests have been made.Representatives for the Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.Mr. Wactor had played Brando Corbin in more than 160 episodes of the soap opera “General Hospital,” according to his IMDB page. He also appeared in episodes of “Westworld,” “The OA” and “Station 19.”In a statement on social media, a page for “General Hospital” said the show’s cast and crew were “heartbroken to hear of Johnny Wactor’s untimely passing.”Many of Mr. Wactor’s co-stars from the show posted tributes on social media, including Kirsten Storms, who played the character Maxie Jones. Ms. Storms wrote in an Instagram post, “I just cannot believe that his life was stolen from him the way it was.”There has been a jump in the number of thefts of catalytic converters, or “cats” for short, in recent years. These critical emission-control devices are valuable because they contain rare metals, like palladium and rhodium, that can be extracted and resold. More

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      in Music

      Sean Combs Apologizes After Video Shows Him Assaulting Cassie

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      After footage surfaced of Mr. Combs striking, kicking and dragging Cassie, he apologized on social media, saying that “my behavior on that video is inexcusable.”Two days after CNN published video footage showing him striking, kicking and dragging his former girlfriend, Sean Combs posted a video on social media on Sunday calling his behavior “inexcusable.”The footage that surfaced on Friday showed Mr. Combs, the hip-hop mogul known as Puff Daddy and Diddy, kicking and dragging his former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, known as Cassie, in 2016.Last year Ms. Ventura filed and then quickly settled a lawsuit against Mr. Combs accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse. The footage shown Friday, which appeared to come from security cameras, was consistent with some of the allegations in her lawsuit, which accused Mr. Combs of assaulting her at an InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles in 2016 as she tried to leave.“It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you got to do that,” Mr. Combs said in his apology video, which he posted to Instagram. “I hit rock bottom — but I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”A lawyer for Mr. Combs had previously denied the allegations in Ms. Ventura’s lawsuit. In a statement following the suit, which was filed in November, the lawyer said that Combs “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations.” The next day, Mr. Combs said, “We have decided to resolve this matter amicably.”In her lawsuit, Ms. Ventura accused Mr. Combs of forcing her to have sex with male prostitutes in front of him in encounters that he called “freak offs,” which she said he instructed her to arrange. Her court filing said that the 2016 assault took place after a freak off during which she said Mr. Combs “became extremely intoxicated and punched Ms. Ventura in the face, giving her a black eye.” Ms. Ventura tried to leave the hotel room after Mr. Combs fell asleep, the lawsuit said, but he awoke and began screaming, following her down the hallway and picking up glass vases and throwing them at her.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares169 Views

      in Television

      Sam Rubin, Los Angeles TV Anchor and Entertainment Reporter, Dies at 64

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      Mr. Rubin began at the Los Angeles television news station KTLA in 1991 and became a staple of morning viewing through his interviews with celebrities.Sam Rubin, a journalist for the television station KTLA 5 in Los Angeles whose morning interviews with celebrities became requisite viewing for much of the entertainment industry and who endeared himself to Hollywood insiders with his geniality and knowledge of their work, died on Friday. He was 64.Mr. Rubin’s death was announced by a KTLA anchor, Frank Buckley. A tribute segment that aired on the station said the cause was a heart attack.In an industry known for its changing names and evolving trends, Mr. Rubin was for decades a mainstay for viewers across the city and an interview with him was considered a rite of passage for many stars.His ability to make celebrities feel comfortable as he asked them about their craft spanned generations.Although it was clear that Mr. Rubin was immersed in the minutiae of his beat, part of his enduring appeal came from the antics he himself brought to the studio and his ability to change the pace of what could be a rote interview.“Is it shampoo and conditioner, or just shampoo — what is the hair regimen, Jared?” he said in an interview with the actor Jared Leto.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      Film Academy Looks Overseas for Donors

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      The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced a global $500 million campaign to shore up its financial future.The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Friday announced a global $500 million fund-raising effort to help diversify its base of support and ensure its financial future in a period of transformation for the film industry and the nonprofit cultural sector.“Both are going through radical business model shifts right now due to changing audience habits and revenue streams,” Bill Kramer, the chief executive of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said in an email. “As a nonprofit, and like any healthy organization or company, the academy needs a sustainable and diverse base of support to allow for solid long-term planning and fiscal certainty.”Announced during a news conference in Rome hosted by the Italian film studio Cinecittà, the campaign is called Academy100, in honor of the 100th Oscars ceremony in 2028. The academy plans to use about $300 million of the new funds to bring its endowment to $800 million; the remainder will go toward operating expenses and special projects.The academy currently has an annual operating budget of about $170 million, 70 percent of which comes from its Oscars broadcast deal with Disney and ABC, which runs through 2028. About $45 million of the operating expenses are used by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.Given the challenges experienced by many cultural organizations, the academy has reason to want to shore up its finances. In March, for example, Joana Vicente of the Sundance Film Festival resigned after less than three years as chief executive amid questions about her fund-raising abilities. Last summer, Center Theater Group in Los Angeles announced a series of sharp cutbacks — including suspending productions at the Mark Taper Forum — to deal with drops in revenue and attendance. And the Metropolitan Opera in New York has withdrawn emergency funds from its endowment.The academy said in its news release that the money raised “will endow and fund programs that recognize excellence in cinematic artistry and innovation; preserve our film history; enable the creation of world-class film exhibitions, screenings and publications; train and educate the next generation of diverse global film artists; and produce powerful digital content.”More than $100 million has already been committed to the campaign, the academy said, including support from Rolex, which is based in Switzerland.As part of the effort, the academy plans to host gatherings and events in locations around the world to “become increasingly global,” press materials said, and help develop a global “pool of new filmmakers and academy members and support the worldwide filmmaking community.”The academy said its “expanded international outreach” will include Buenos Aires; Johannesburg; Kyoto, Japan; Lagos, Nigeria; London; Marrakesh, Morocco; Melbourne, Australia; Mexico City; and Mumbai. More

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      ‘Poolman’ Review: In the Sun Too Long

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      Chris Pine’s shaggy debut feature has a charismatic cast that rambles along with him on a Los Angeles detective adventure.In “Poolman,” Chris Pine’s debut feature, he plays Darren, a distractible pool cleaner who becomes an amateur detective when he learns of a municipal conspiracy in Los Angeles. The sure-why-not plot, modeled on the California water grab in “Chinatown,” is less interesting than the charismatic cast that rambles along with Pine on his excellent adventure.Pine’s yarn was savaged when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, but the sour response is a bit like getting mad at a golden retriever for rolling around in the grass. A shaggy civic gadfly, Darren grandstands at City Council meetings and becomes so self-absorbed that he forgets what his girlfriend (Jennifer Jason Leigh) does for a living. His Jungian psychiatrist, Diane (Annette Bening), and her story-spouting filmmaker hubby, Jack (Danny DeVito), look after him like foster parents, while apparently overseeing some kind of movie about his life.Darren is clued into the unnecessarily confusing water scheme by June (DeWanda Wise, glamorous and gorgeously costumed), who’s an assistant to his nemesis on the City Council (Stephen Tobolowsky). But the amateur sleuthing through Los Angeles landmarks — smartly shot on film by Matthew Jensen (“Wonder Woman”) — plays second fiddle to what’s really a collection of warm character sketches and mild eccentricities punctuated by meditative visions.Pine wisely avoids winks to the audience. But he whiffs at making the mystery especially gripping, leaving one instead to savor the moments, like a note-perfect Bening calmly talking Pine’s befuddled pool man through his latest setback.PoolmanNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Barbara O. Jones, Actress Who Brought Black Cinema to Life, Dies at 82

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      Her arresting roles in movies like “Bush Mama” and “Daughters of the Dust” helped shape a generation of independent filmmakers.Barbara O. Jones, an actress whose captivating work in films like “Bush Mama” and “Daughters of the Dust” helped define the cerebral, experimental and highly influential Black cinema movement that emerged in Los Angeles in the 1970s, died on April 8 at her home in Dayton, Ohio. She was 82.Her brother Marlon Minor confirmed the death but said the cause had not been determined.Starting in the early 1970s just a few miles from Hollywood, a generation of students at the University of California, Los Angeles, began making films that pushed hard against many of the tropes of commercial moviemaking.Budding filmmakers like Charles Burnett, Julie Dash and Haile Gerima eschewed polished scripts and linear narratives in search of an authentic Black cinematic language. They relied on actors like Mrs. Jones, drawn from far outside the mainstream, to bring their work to life.Mrs. Jones was in some ways the typical Los Angeles transplant, having moved from the Midwest in search of a film career. She took acting classes, but, rather than gravitating toward Hollywood, she fell in with the politically charged, aesthetically adventurous scene around the U.C.L.A. film school, a movement that the film scholar Clyde Taylor called the L.A. Rebellion.She appeared in several short student films, including Mr. Gerima’s “Child of Resistance” (1973), in which she played an imprisoned activist loosely based on Angela Davis, and Ms. Dash’s “Diary of an African Nun” (1977), adapted from a short story by Alice Walker.Mrs. Jones in Ms. Dash’s short film “Diary of an African Nun” (1977), adapted from a story by Alice Walker.Julie DashWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More