Good Morning,
A TSA agent reportedly stopped Pavel Talankin — director of Mr. Nobody Against Putin — because the Oscar in his luggage “could be used as a weapon.” Lufthansa promptly lost it. International outcry recovered the statuette but the absurdity is harder to retrieve (CBC).
The cultural sector spent the week drawing lines. The Motion Picture Academy ruled that no AI-generated film will win an Oscar, and that screenplays must be “human-authored” (NPR). SAG-AFTRA reached a tentative deal with the studios on AI and streaming residuals, dodging another strike (Variety). And consumers filed suit to block the Paramount-Warner merger, arguing it shrinks choice and production (LA Times).
Meanwhile the squeeze keeps showing up. Indie labels like Sub Pop and Rough Trade are being absorbed by majors as vinyl plateaus and streaming, oddly, isn’t the worst option anymore (The Guardian). The proposed new White House ballroom is reading less like architecture than fortification (The Atlantic). Portland, ever Portland, has commissioned yet another study about whether it can support two concert halls (Oregon ArtsWatch).
A quieter note: pianist Seymour Bernstein — who quit performing at 50 over stage fright and was rediscovered at 88 by Ethan Hawke — died at 99 (The New York Times).
All of our stories below.
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