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

Budd Schulberg, Screenwriter, Dies at 95

Budd Schulberg, who wrote the award-winning screenplay for “On the Waterfront” and created a classic American archetype of naked ambition, Sammy Glick, in his novel “What Makes Sammy Run?,” died on Wednesday. He was 95 and lived in the Brookside section of Westhampton Beach, N.Y. His death was confirmed by his wife, Betsy. Mr. Schulberg also wrote journalism, short stories, novels and biographies. He collaborated with F. Scott Fitzgerald, arrested the Nazi filmmaker Len

Katharine Hepburn's Oscars on View Aug. 4 at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery

Katharine Hepburn’s record four Best Actress Academy Awards will go on display at the National Portrait Gallery Aug. 4, offering visitors a unique, close-up look at the Oscar and how it has changed over the years. Hepburn won the first of her Best Actress Academy Awards for the 1933 film “Morning Glory.” This statuette on display is a legend in itself. A young Hollywood journalist named Sidney Skolsky, in writing his story about the proceedings of the 1934 Academy Awards, borrowed a colloquial s

International Slavery Museum, Liverpool, Reaches the Final of The National Lottery Awards

International Slavery Museum is celebrating reaching the finals of The National Lottery Awards 2009. The museum is the only project in Liverpool and the North West in the Best Heritage Project category and is competing against just two other projects for the chance to win the award, decided by a public vote. Richard Benjamin, head of the International Slavery Museum said: "To reach the final of The National Lottery Awards is a clear indication of the large amount

The 10 most historically inaccurate movies

Quentin Tarantino makes no apology for trading fact for fun in the finale of his Nazi thriller Inglourious Basterds. Caroline White presents ten more films whose makers felt they could improve on history. 1 U-571, 2000 Rather cynically, American screenwriter David Ayer depicted American rather than British naval officers capturing the first Enigma machine, “in order to drive the movie for an American audience.” The first Enigma machine was in fact seized by officers from HMS Bulldog in 1941 and by the time the USA joined the war later that year, Britain had cracked the code. The post-release furore led Tony Blair, Prime Minister at the time, to agree that it was “an affront to the memories” of those involved and Bill Clinton, then US President, to write a letter emphasising the film’s fictional nature. In 2006, Ayer told the BBC he had come to regret the alteration: “Both my grandparents were officers in World War II, and I would be personally offended if somebody distorted their achievements.” 2 Braveheart, 1995

Radiohead launch tribute song to First World War veteran Harry Patch

Radiohead today launched a sombre musical tribute to Harry Patch, Britain’s longest surviving soldier from the First World War, who died last month. The track, Harry Patch (In Memory Of), warns of the horrors of war. It was recorded live in an abbey a few weeks before the veteran’s death on July 25. The singer Thom Yorke said he was inspired to compose the piece after hearing an interview with Mr Patch - affectionately known as the “Last Tommy” - a few years ago...

Mona latte: Da Vinci's Lisa masterpiece recreated using cups of coffee

This stunning recreation of the Mona Lisa has been made with a staggering 3,604 cups of coffee - and 564 pints of milk. The different colours were created by adding varying amounts of milk to each cup of black coffee. It measures an impressive 20ft by13ft – nearly ten times the size of Leonardo da Vinci’s original masterpiece - and took a team of eight people three hours to complete. It was created for The Rocks Aroma Festival in Sydney, Australia, and was

Two exhibitions reveal how artists depicted a golden Britain even as the country sank into turmoil (UK)

In the early 19th century, the quality of London's air was so bad that acidic carbon fumes ate into the varnishes of oil paintings, scarring great masterpieces for ever. If you had a Rubens or two, it was wise to get them out into the country, away from the effects of the industrial revolution. It was this that made the art dealer Noel Desenfans and his companion Francis Bourgeois choose Dulwich – a sleepy place then, outside the capital – as a permanent home for their collection. Today, the two

Artist to become darling of British cinema with loving portrait of John Lennon

Looking back, the producers of a new film about John Lennon must wonder what stopped them from hiring Sam Taylor-Wood straight away. Nowhere Boy will have its world premiere at The Times BFI London Film Festival in October, thanks in large part to the expectation surrounding the artist’s feature debut as a director. Taylor-Wood said yesterday that she was not the first choice for the project and had to “stalk” the producers until they caved in. “Ecosse Films knew it was a

Biographer Claire Tomalin to chronicle the life of Charles Dickens

An award-winning author who has written ground-breaking biographies of Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy and Samuel Pepys is turning her attention to another literary giant — Charles Dickens. Scholars said yesterday that Claire Tomalin was “the ideal person” to chronicle the novelist’s life. She is already revered by Dickens enthusiasts for her 1990 account of his relationship with the young actress Ellen Ternan, for which she won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. “I have

The Discovery of Spain at the National Gallery of Scotland, review

I hate Edinburgh. Loathe it. Whatever the time of year, no city centre in Europe – not even Amsterdam’s – is anything like as sordid, but during the festival, which starts this week, it turns into my idea of hell-on-earth. From the instant you step off the train at Waverley station, the awfulness of the place hits you between the eyes: the teeth-clenching whine of bagpipes played for a surging tide of moronic tourists; the aggressive young beggars and organised gangs of down-and-outs assailing y

Hamas to make feature film

Its first feature movie, which opened in the Gaza Strip at the weekend, celebrates the short and violent life of one of its militants. Audiences reportedly cheered during its premiere at the weekend when one of the characters announced, "To kill Israeli soldiers is to worship God." The film, titled "Imad Aqel," was filmed on the grounds of Gnai Tal, one of the Jewish settlements evacuated in 2005 when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip. It tells the

Call of the Sea Exhibition - A Fresh Look at Britain's Marine Painters and Maritime Heritage (UK)

A new exhibition at St. Barbe Museum focuses on the work of two artists who capitalised on national pride and interest in a growing maritime empire to create the first truly British school of marine painting. Peter Monamy (1681 - 1749) and Charles Brooking (1723 - 1759) created timelessly evocative representation of Britain’s maritime power that combined atmospheric effect and accurately rendered ships. Britain produced a whole series of superb marine painters during the 18th centu

Renaissance Masterpiece Going to the Portland Art Museum

This October, the Portland Art Museum will present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view Raphael's renowned painting The Woman with a Veil. This single-painting exhibition will bring one of the most important paintings of the Renaissance to Oregon for the first time. The Woman with a Veil (la velata or la donna velata) was painted in 1516 and depicts a serene woman looking intently at the viewer. It is believed that the model for the painting is the same woman depicted in other

"Loss and Liberty" at Museum of London Docklands

Loss and Liberty, a powerful new collection of ceramic artworks and poems produced by offenders at Wandsworth Prison, goes on display at Museum of London Docklands in its London Sugar & Slavery gallery from 5 Aug – 30 Nov 2009. Inspired by the themes in the gallery, the display makes personal connections between the artists’ lives and the history of transatlantic enslavement. It builds on the long-term relationship between the Museum and Wandsworth prison. The 15 works on show

'Styled for the Road: The Art of Automobile Design, 1908-1948' Exhibition to Open at the Wolfsonian

The Wolfsonian–Florida International University presents Styled for the Road: The Art of Automobile Design, 1908-1948, an engaging exploration of automobile design in America from the 1900s through the 1940s. The exhibition, on view from October 16, 2009 through March 14, 2010, highlights the important role played by designers and visual artists in communicating the complex ideas that guided the development of automobiles, roadways, service stations, and advertising materials. More

Getty Exhibition Looks Closely at the Fanciful Images in the Margins of Medieval Manuscripts

Battles, celebrations, and fantastic creatures found in the margins of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts are closely examined in Out-of-Bounds: Images in the Margins of Medieval Manuscripts. On view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, September 1 through November 8, 2009, Out-of-Bounds explores the margins of medieval books and explains their wealth of subject matter: children playing games, romantic pursuits, men battling fantastic creatures, and composite figures—half-human, ha

Pictures Belonging to Lord and Lady Attenborough to be Offered for Sale at Sotheby's

Sotheby’s London announced that it will offer for sale a group of Pictures from the Collection of Lord and Lady Attenborough on Wednesday, November 11, 2009. A Life In Pictures: The Collection of Lord and Lady Attenborough will comprise a fine representative selection of 20th Century British Paintings, including works by leading artists such as LS Lowry, Edward Burra, Ivon Hitchens, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland and Christopher Wood amongst others. In addition,

Rick Noyes: Obama,Clinton Idolized on Time Covers more than GOP Presidents

[Rich Noyes is Research Director at the Media Research Center (a conservative media watchdog).] So how unusual is it for a new President to be featured seven times on Time's cover, as Barack Obama has been (with First Lady Michelle Obama snagging her own solo appearance)? A look back at Time's covers finds Bill Clinton matched Obama's celebrity in 1993 — seven covers for himself, one for Hillary. But the last three Republican Presidents — Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George

Evolution makes for inspired art

How do you picture evolution? The images that come to mind are probably not works by any of Darwin's great artistic contemporaries. No, they're a couple of 20th-century cartoons. There's Rudy Zallinger's illustration, The March of Progress, which first appeared in the Time-Life book Early Man (1970). It shows a line of primates walking, from left to right, evolving step by step from a knuckle-dragging ape to an upright, modern, Caucasian man. You know it well. It's an image that's become proverb

By royal approval: Buckingham Palace awarded blue plaque for jazz

After 90 years, a hitherto undetected early royal enthusiasm for jazz is being commemorated with the naming of Buckingham Palace as an unlikely venue in the British development of the music. It is doubtful that King George V was really a great fan, but a concert that he apparently enjoyed in 1919 has led to the palace's inclusion in a list of significant British jazz locations. The palace is listed among a dozen more widely recognised sites such as Ronnie Scott's club i