Articles from Contributor
Which Pop Song Do You Want Played At Your Funeral?
If you pick which music you listen to every day of your life, why stop there? NME reported yesterday that fewer than a third of British funerals feature traditional hymns as a soundtrack to the event, according to Co-operative …
R. Kelly on His Single Ladies Tour, Bedroom Ballads and the Future of Trapped
On Oct. 13, R&B singer R. Kelly played the first stop of the fall-winter “Single Ladies Tour” in support of his latest album, Write Me Back. The best-selling artist behind hits like “Bump n’ Grind” and “Ignition (Remix)”—also …
Today’s Movie Trailer: Anthony Hopkins in Hitchcock
How better to keep Halloween celebrations going than with a scary movie—or, at least, a movie about a scary movie. The upcoming Hitchcock, debuting at the AFI Fest on Nov. 1 and due in theaters Nov. 23, goes behind the scenes for the making of Psycho. And if you didn’t already know that it was no ordinary movie shoot, the trailer …
The Iran Job Director on Sneaking Into Iran to Follow an American Basketball Player
German-American director Till Schauder spent five years following Kevin Sheppard, 33, a former American college basketball player who went to Iran to play as a journeyman athlete. The result, the documentary The Iran Job, is …
National Book Awards: Junot Díaz, Dave Eggers, Robert Caro Among Finalists
The 20 finalists for the 2012 National Book Awards were named this morning by David Steinberger, chairman of the board of the National Book Foundation. The winners in each of the four categories (fiction, nonfiction, poetry and …
Louis CK Delays Louie Season 4 Until 2014
Comedian Louis CK, mastermind behind the FX show Louie, announced today that the series—the third season of which ended last month—would not return to television in mid-2013 as planned. Instead, having requested “more time to …
Secret Lincoln Screening Generates Big Buzz
The Lincoln biopic from Steven Spielberg, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the President, got a surprise premiere last night at the New York Film Festival. The film’s stars came out for the event, according to the New York …
Sufjan Stevens—er, Surfjohn—er, Sirfjan—Announces Tour
UPDATE 10/11/12: Everybody was wrong. An official tour announcement this afternoon has cleared the question once and for all: the next Sufjan Stevens tour will be called: “The Sirfjam Stephanapolous Christmas Sing-A-Long Seasonal Affective Disorder Spectacular Music Pageant Variety Show Distaster.” The announcement also sheds light on …
Steve Martin’s Nebraska Political Ad—and DIY Tutorial
Comedian Steve Martin has joined the political fray with an Oct. 4 ad backing Nebraska Senate candidate Bob Kerrey. In the spot, Martin tells viewers that Kerrey—who, according to Entertainment Weekly, officiated at the actor’s wedding in 2007—is a man who “cares about the people of Nebraska” and who “is sane.”
Or, rather, an …
Margaret Atwood on Serial Fiction and the Future of the Book
Margaret Atwood, the author of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Blind Assassin (for which she won the Booker Prize), is no stranger to innovation. She writes about what the world could be—although it’s often what the world could …
Today’s Movie Trailer: New Lincoln Teaser Debuts During Presidential Debate
“Never trusted the President. Never trusted anyone.” That’s not a Mitt Romney zinger from last night’s first Presidential debate—it’s a line from the new trailer for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln biopic, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th President. The TV ad was shown to anyone watching the debate on ABC, CBS or CNN. Interestingly, …
Today’s Movie Trailer: The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger rides again! The trailer for the upcoming Gore Verbinski-directed take on the radio and TV classic The Lone Ranger, starring Armie Hammer as the ranger and Johnny Depp as his sidekick Tonto, is out today. The movie shoot took nearly twice as long as Raiders of the Lost Ark, according to the Hollywood Reporter, and cost …