#ceo of john mcnamara

[ceo-of-masturbation]

Frontier

Frontier is a American manufacturing vehicles and various parts for both cars and, to extend, aircraft.

History

Frontier started making cars as far, as at the start of 20th century. It's first well-know model was Frontier Terry, although some other automobiles by this company came out before. Frontier Terry was one of first cars to be used to much bigger scale. Their use was also tested during the Great War. During this period however, a lawsuit was raised by Dalman brothers. They will later on form Dalman, another well known car company. To this day, Terry is one of the famous Frontier models.

During 20-30's, Frontier had rivalry with CE and Christer. Along with it, they got a luxury car branch, Washington and Jupiter, which was for more ''middle-class'' category. Along with the end of 1930's, a Great Deperession hit the America. Along with failing project in brazil ''Frontero'', it made Frontier cut corners and it even got several workers to go on a hunger march. Along with it, they've started to send some parts to Soviet Union to a company, that will become a well-known Soviet car manufacturer, BAG.

Roughly before start of World War 2, Frontier had a subsidiary in Germany. That plant played some importance, due to it's plant manager in Cologne was found out to be of jewish heritage and it was negociated to replace him with new german manager. Along with noticeable antisemitism of original founder of Frontier, Nazi Germany's goverment has asked for collaboration. During 1939, German goverment took over most of foreign factories and companies operating on their territories. Frontier was one of few, that managed to get a share of their assets (52%). There is also a speculation about Frontier giving nazis a access to some scarce resources, especially rubber.

During the start of World War 2, especially after attack on Pearl Harbor, Frontier started to produce a lot of parts for weapons, jeeps and even planes (mostly engines, although some parts like exhaust and smaller components as well). Along with it, they later on were resigned from jeep production, which was asigned to companies Gyyb and Waldo. Although, there was speculation about Frontier's collaboration with Third Reich, it was proven in 1990's (but most of nazi collaboratos still was on their old seats even after the lawsuits).

Around the end of 1940's, the original Frontier founder has died and he was buried in Detroit. Before his death, Frontier's new owner became his grandson known affectionately as ''the Deuce''. Along with 1950's, Frontier became a publicly traded corporation along with their company doing more and more progress with their safety, it got nominated ''Car of the Year'' by EngineDaily. Along with one of the chairmen being Robert McNamara, who will become one of more important persons in compary around 60's, helping with gaining popularity. He has later moved into political scene into position of Secretary of Defense and joined John F. Kennedy. Around 50's also a one of famous car of their manufacturing and became a ''face'' of their lineup at the time, Frontier Stormhawk along with new subcompany called ''Ernie'', which however will be closed in 60's. Then few other well known cars will be made, Eagle and Hurricane. along with it, Frontier Europe will appear in 1967.

In 1970's one of infamous cars to exist was made, Frontier Ponie. it's designed however, was fired for a diffrent reasons (one of which was disputing with several higher-ups). However, he got hired by Christer shortly after. Along with it, some of first lawsuits from laborers from Frontier's german plant started to appear. Although most cars manufacturers from former Third Reich, or collaborating with their goverment (at least those that managed to survive) paid their conpentsations, Frontier will ultimately pay them in 2000's.

There isn't that much to talk about, when it come to 80's or 90's, mostly it was CEO's being switched. However, in 2006 the great-grantson of original founder gave a name of successor, that was a CEO of Berring, a company well known producing planes, choppers, rockets and even satelites. In 2006, Frontier was also restructured to make company more flexible.

2. Current day

Frontier nowadays, has a lot of branches all over the world or invests in some other car manufacturers. It has even several lineups exlusive to neither europe, asia, both americas and even middle east. Their cars are usually popular, thanks to it's image as ''masculine, aggressive and rich'' company attributed by it's muscle cars and pickups. It's also popular for fairly cheap family-sized cars and good vans. Even some subsidaries which went defunct, like Oceanian ones are seen as good and competetive makers. Some of their cars were also featured on big screens, especially such models like Eastwood, Patriarch and even australian-made Outback V8 along with another famous other Frontier cars, like Bull Resourcerful, Jerry UT and Juicer. It even was seen with other famous car companies like Tsunami, Ahura, Bermuda, Gagaku, Lumia, Stogghert or Furrioso.

3. Behind the scenes.

-Frontier is based on Ford, along with it's cars replicating various cars made by Ford (Ponie = Pinto, Bull Resourceful = Ecoline, Eastwood = Torino, etc.)

-Name comes from term used for wild west around the times of colonization.

-Frontier has several clothes with their logo on them, those being cap, shirts, pins and parka.

-Frontier has the biggest number of muscle cars, second being Dalman (parody of Dodge) and third being Appanoosa (which is a in-universer counterpart of Pontiac). It is also a manufacturer with one of biggest car selection in universe.

[vesperione]

Anything I do now I do for John McNamara

[twh-news]

The 2020 Tony Awards Preview | Broadway Direct

Like the recent Olympics, the 2020 Tony Awards arrive after a lengthy delay necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. And amid enduring uncertainty, they are all the more eagerly anticipated by fans of Broadway theater and the industry serving them.

This year’s ceremony, set for September 26 at the Winter Garden Theatre, will be different on several counts. The number of productions recognized has been limited by the March 2020 shutdown, which prevented a bunch of high-profile shows from opening, and rendered others — including Ivo von Hove’s staging of West Side Story, and Girl From the North Country, the acclaimed musical weaving Bob Dylan songs into a book by Conor McPherson — ineligible, as many Tony voters had not been able to see them.

On the other hand, a new arrangement that will make the entire event available on Paramount Plus, beginning at 7 p.m. ET — with longtime Tonys home CBS broadcasting from 9 to 11 p.m. ET — will enable viewers at home to see awards given out in categories such as design, orchestration, and choreography. “We haven’t had all of our creatives and the awards recognizing them on the special since before my time,” notes Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League, which presents the Tonys with the American Theatre Wing.

“The whole point of the show is to set an optimistic and realistic tone,” adds Heather Hitchens, the Wing’s president and CEO. “The theme of this show is that Broadway’s back — theater is safe if protocols are followed — and we have exciting new work for people to see.”

Both St. Martin and Hitchens point to the diversity of shows represented both in nominations for the 2019–2020 season as well as those premiering in the new season, which launched in August with the arrival of Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s Pass Over. Slave Play, another work by a Black playwright that transferred after earning praise Off-Broadway, is up for 12 Tonys, making it the most nominated play to date. Author Jeremy O. Harris was tapped for his provocative look at the roles race, gender, and sexuality play in contemporary relationships; director Robert O’Hara, leading actress Joaquina Kalukango, featured actors Ato Blankson-Wood and James Cusati-Moyer, and featured actresses Chalia La Tour and Annie McNamara are among the other nominees.

Tina – The Tina Turner Musical is also a contender in 12 categories, with celebrated Black artists including Adrienne Warren, who won raves for her performance as the titular rock and R&B icon, and this year’s Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Katori Hall among the nominees. The other productions up for Best Musical, Jagged Little Pill and Moulin Rouge! The Musical respectively collected 15 and 14 nominations; both combine books by noted writers — Jagged Little Pill’s Diablo Cody and Moulin Rouge’s John Logan — with established music — Alanis Morissette’s for Jagged Little Pill, and various pop songs tracing several decades for Moulin Rouge!.

Consequently, none of the five candidates for best original score is a musical production. They include Slave Play and fellow Best Play nominees The Inheritance and The Sound Inside and new stagings of A Christmas Carol and Tennessee Williams’s The Rose Tattoo. (The theatrical concert David Byrne’s American Utopia is being honored with a Special Tony Award, as Springsteen on Broadway was in 2018.)

Only three revivals made the cut for Best Revival of a Play: a production of A Soldier’s Play showcasing Blair Underwood, a nominee for leading actor in a play, and David Alan Grier, up for featured actor; a Betrayal, featuring Tom Hiddleston, a contender for leading actor; and Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, starring six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald, nominated for leading actress.

Other stage and screen stars who are candidates at this year’s ceremony include Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge, both for leading actor in Best Play nominee Sea Wall/A Life, a pair of one-man pieces respectively written by Simon Stephens and Nick Payne, each told from the perspective of a young husband and father. In the category for leading actress in a play, Mary-Louise Parker is acknowledged for Adam Rapp’s The Sound Inside, an intimate mystery involving a cancer-stricken college professor and her alienated, prodigious student, also up for Best Play; and Laura Linney is nominated for My Name Is Lucy Barton, an adaptation of Alice Munro’s novel tracing a complex mother-daughter relationship.

Matthew López’s The Inheritance — up for 11 awards, and focused on gay men living in a New York haunted by a pandemic of the recent past, AIDS — yielded nominations for John Benjamin Hickey, for featured actor, and Lois Smith, for featured actress. (Cast members Andrew Burnap and Paul Hilton are nominees for leading and featured actor in turn, with Linda Vista’s Ian Barford also up for leading actor.) And a fifth Best Play contender, Grand Horizons — a comedy that dares to look at sex and marriage in the golden years — and the Broadway debut of Bess Wohl earned a nod for another duly cherished veteran, Jane Alexander, also for featured actress.

Musical theater favorites recognized include Danny Burstein, who earned a seventh Tony nomination for his featured performance in Moulin Rouge; Moulin Rouge’s Karen Olivo and Jagged Little Pill’s Elizabeth Stanley, completing the leading actress category; and Moulin Rouge’s Aaron Tveit, who, as a result of the relative dearth of musical productions in this abbreviated season, was the only performer nominated in the leading actor field. (He needs the approval of 60 percent of Tony voters to claim the prize.)

In vying for Best Direction of a Play, Slave Play’s O’Hara will face stiffer competition from lauded British directors Stephen Daldry (Inheritance) and Jamie Lloyd (Betrayal) and equally accomplished Americans David Cromer (Sound Inside) and Kenny Leon (Soldier’s Play). The directors tapped for their work on musicals are no less distinguished: British film and stage vet Phyllida Lloyd (TINA), Pill’s Diane Paulus, and Moulin Rouge’s Alex Timbers, who, between the two of them, have helmed some of the most admired musical productions of the past decade both on and Off-Broadway.

And thanks to this year’s multiplatform format, fans of the three musicals will get to see awards handed out to their choreographers and orchestrators — one of each, anyway. The nominees include Moulin Rouge’s Sonya Tayeh, whose collaborators have ranged from the Martha Graham Dance Company to Miley Cyrus, and Jagged Little Pill’s Tom Kitt, whose many credits as a composer include Next to Normal, for which he won both Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize.

Variety writer and podcast host Gordon Cox adds that the 2020 Tony nominations would likely have presented “an entirely different race” had the rush of productions originally scheduled to open in late March and April of last year had been able to do so. Still, he believes there are “a significant group of people who think the Tonys can be a celebration, not just of a season that got overshadowed by the pandemic, but of a return to performances — to being able to sit in theatres, knock on wood. There are people looking for an opportunity to celebrate theater in general.”

[hallmark-movie-fanatics]

Hallmark Actor Spotlight - Jill Wagner (Part 5)

Mystery 101: Dead Talk (2019) 

Directed by Winnifred Jong 

Written by John Christian Plummer and Jim Biederman 

Staring Jill Wagner, Kristoffer Polaha, Robin Thomas, Preston Vanderslice, Sarah Dugdale, Amanda Wong, Tegan Moss, Matthew James Dowden, Garrett Black, Mark Krysko, Donna Benedicto, Benjamin Wilkinson, Katherine Lough Haggquist, Lochlyn Munro, Isaiah Lehtinen, and Edwin Perez 

Premiered September 22, 2019 on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries 

Synopsis: 

Amy (Wagner) heads to the big city to give an address as part of a TEDTalk-style lectureseries run by Amy’s ex from grad school, Tim Bishop (Matthew James Dowden). When one of her fellow speakers, a genius inventor, is killed in a freak accident, Amy suspects foul play. But the local cops shut her out of the investigation so she calls upon Travis (Polaha) to help, and he is quick to suspect Tim (but Travis may have other reasons for not liking the man). After Amy and Travis discover the dead man was an informant in a corporate espionage case, Amy knows why the cops stonewalled her. She and Travis sniff out a motley collection of potential killers, including a corporate CEO, a trust fund kid, and the dead man’s wife. Amy will prove that you can take the crime-solver out of the small town, but that’s not going to stop her from solving crimes. 

Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses (2019) 

Directed by D.J. Viola 

Written by Liz Sczudlo, based on the novel by Jenny Hale

Starring Jill Wagner. Matthew Davis, Wyatt Hunt, Rachel Hendrix, Brandon Quinn Swierenga, Darby Hinton, Donna Mills, Marquita Goings, Charles Green, Bruce C. Taylor, Dorothy M. Steel, and Kenneth Israel

Premiered October 26, 2019 on the Hallmark Channel, part of Countdown to Christmas 

Synopsis: 

Single mother Abbey Fuller (Jill Wagner) may have shuttered her interior design firm for the security of a 9-5 job at a retirement village in Richmond, Virginia, but she still enjoys transforming an ordinary room into something special. She is in her element with the start of the Christmas season, pulling out all the decorative stops both at the retirement village and at the cozy home she shares with her ebullient five-year-old son, Max (Wyatt Hunt).

Abbey’s talents have hardly gone unnoticed. She has a devoted fan in her friend, Caroline Sinclair (Donna Mills), the down-to-earth widow of a prominent businessman. Eager to see Abbey resume her career, Caroline urges her to meet with her son, Nick (Matthew Davis), about taking on a major project: redecorating the family estate. While Abbey worries about how any job might interfere with her time with Wyatt, she can’t help but be excited by the prospect ofbeautifying a stately residence of impeccable architecture.

Abbey certainly understands why an interior designer is needed when she gets a tour of the gaudily furnished mansion. But the aesthetics are only part of the challenge. Abbey has less than four weeks to execute a complete makeover of the first floor, where Nick will host a Christmas Eve gala as CEO of Sinclair Enterprises. Adding to Abbey’s worries is the remoteness of her handsome client, who is intensely focused on launching the company’s new Southerndivision. With Nick largely unavailable, Abbey has to answer to his frosty second-in-command, Kate Newhall (Rachel Hendrix), who is openly dubious about her ability to handle the job.

Mustering her resolve, Abbey plunges into the task at hand, trusting her instincts to carry her in the right direction. With the help of her former assistant, Desiree (Marquita Goings), she begins to get a handle on transforming the Sinclair Estate. She has a tougher time getting a handle on her growing feelings for Nick, who is proving to be more helpful and interested in her work than anticipated. But even as their rapport deepens, neither one dares tell the truthabout what they want for Christmas... 

Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy (2019) 

Directed by Sean McNamara 

Written by Zac Hug 

Starring Maggie Lawson, Paul Greene, Rukiya Bernard, Holly Robinson Peete, Barbara Niven, Jill Wagner, Ashley Williams, Colin Lawrence, Marlon Kazadi, Antonio Cayonne, Patty McCormack, Keith Martin Gordey, Malcolm Stewart, Chris Cope, Michelle Martin, Laura Soltis, and Daryl Shuttleworth

Premiered November 29, 2019 on the Hallmark Channel, [art of Countdown to Christmas 

Synopsis: 

On the train headed to a Christmas retreat, novelist and freelance writer Katie (Maggie Lawson) meets Evergreen native Ben (Paul Greene), who tries to convince her that Evergreen is more than a tourist destination. When Katie’s magazine-editor mother assigns her an article about Evergreen, she researches this firsthand. Katie joins the historical club meeting with Ben, Hannah (Rukiya Bernard), Carol (Barbara Niven), Joe (Malcolm Stewart), Ezra (Chris Cope) and David (Marlon Kazadi), and they talk about the town’s hidden time capsule. Later, everyone bidsfarewell to Allie (Ashley Williams) as she leaves on a trip to Paris.

Hannah is devastated when she breaks the town’s snow globe and takes it to Elliott (Antonio Cayonne) to be fixed. There is a spark between them, but they are too shy to confess their feelings. Elliott discovers a key carved inside the snow globe, which eventually leads David to find the real one under the town’s sleigh. Katie grows closer to Ben and learns that he was a journalist before moving back to Evergreen to help his grandmother.

With Carol’s help, David finds the time capsule: a larger than life Advent calendar! Having kept the location secret for years, Nick (Keith Martin Gordey) and Nan (Patty McCormack) delight in sharing the story of how the time capsule came to be. Michelle (Holly Robinson Peete) leads the daily reveal by pulling names out of a hat. Later, Ben finds a draft of Katie’s newspaper article on the library printer and its cynical view of the town leads to their first argument. Katie and Ben quickly make peace while ice skating, each apologizing for being hard on the other. Michelle reunites with her boyfriend Thomas (Colin Lawrence), who has returned from logging, and is happier than ever in their relationship.

Despite Lisa (Jill Wagner) sharing how happy she is with her decision to move to Evergreen, Katie prepares to leave. She decides to stay one extra day when Ben asks and opens the next Advent gift: her choice of a Christmas activity for the whole town to do together. After making a snowman with the town, Hannah and Elliott find Hannah’s mother’s long-lost wedding ring. Hannah finally confesses her feelings for one Elliott, who feels the same way.

Katie leaves Evergreen, and begrudgingly turns in her article. Surprisingly, her mother encourages her to instead use her experience as inspiration for her next novel. Katie spends a wonderful time in the city sharing Christmas traditions with her mom. Back in Evergreen, Nan encourages Ben to apply for the job in the city, and even submits his resume for him.

As distance separates Katie and Ben, they must decide if their connection was just a holiday romance or a love everlasting. As they hope for a holiday miracle, Evergreen’s magic may have one more Christmas surprise in store for another special couple. 

[d-criss-news]

A who’s-who of Oscar nominees, A-listers and top Hollywood executives came out to support the Motion Picture & Television Fund at its 17th annual “Night Before” party, which raised $5 million in support of the MPTF.

One of the key events of Oscar weekend, the “Night Before” party, held Saturday on the Fox Studios lot in Los Angeles and co-sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter, drew past Oscar winners including Mahershala Ali (also a current nominee, who came with wife Amatus Sami-Karim), George Clooney, Viola Davis  (with husband Julius Tennon), Leonardo DiCaprio, Marcia Gay Harden, Allison Janney and Octavia Spencer.

Among the 2019 Oscar nominees who were at the event were Amy Adams (with husband Darren Le Gallo), Yalitza Aparicio, Glenn Close, Willem Dafoe (with wife Giada Colagrande), Adam Driver (with wife Joanne Tucker), Richard E. Grant, Sam Elliott, Regina King, Spike Lee, Rami Malek and Viggo Mortensen.

Close, Grant and King made their way to the party just a few hours after collecting Film Independent Spirit Awards earlier in the day for best actress, best supporting actor and best supporting actress, respectively.

The 2019 host committee included a lineup of talent including Adams and Le Gallo, Ali, Tanya Haden Black and Jack Black, Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg, Amal and George Clooney, Close, Colagrande and Dafoe, Bradley Cooper, Tom Cruise, DiCaprio, Lady Gaga, Janney, King, Malek, Mortensen, Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, Rachel Weisz, Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks, Reese Witherspoon and Jim Toth, and Constance Wu.

Other A-listers at the exclusive, invitation-only bash included event maestro Jeffrey Katzenberg, who serves as chairman of the MPTF Foundation, along with recent Golden Globe/Emmy/SAG Award winner Darren Criss (with new wife Mia Swier), Chris Evans, Tiffany Haddish, Jon Hamm, Mindy Kaling, Keegan-Michael Key and producer wife Elisa Pugliese, Helen Mirren, Mike Myers, Christopher Nolan and Taylor Swift with boyfriend (The Favourite actor) Joe Alwyn, in addition to past Oscar nominees Ava DuVernay, Samuel L. Jackson, Carey Mulligan, Anna Paquin with husband Stephen Moyer, Will Smith with wife Jada Pinkett Smith and Hailee Steinfeld.

Black Panther stars Angela Bassett, Chadwick Boseman, Danai Gurira, Michael B. Jordan also came out to support the cause, as did Crazy Rich Asians stars Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina, Henry Golding and Constance Wu.

Top executives including Disney CEO Bob Iger and studio chair Alan Horn, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts (with Universal’s Ron Meyer), WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey and Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos, Universal Pictures chair Donna Langley, Sony Pictures chair Tom Rothman and Paramount Pictures CEO Jim Gianopulos also were at the bash, where guests enjoyed specialty foods from Carmelized Productions by Jon Shook & Vinny Dotolo.

Funds raised during the “Night Before” party are used to support the MPTF, which assists industry members in Hollywood of all ages by providing financial assistance, crisis counseling, caregiving support and the retirement facility in Woodland Hills that film and TV veterans call “home.”

In total, the annual event has raised more than $85 million since its inception in 2003.

THR returned as one of the presenting sponsors of the event alongside Delta Air Lines, Ford Motor Company, L'Oréal USA, Target, Yahoo! and YouTube. This marked THR's sixth year as the sole media sponsor of the party.

“We’re incredibly grateful for the generosity of the presenting sponsors and donors for making the ‘Night Before’ an amazing evening, one that once again brings the industry together in the spirit of a community that truly takes care of its own,” Katzenberg said. 

The long list of stars at the party also included Malin Akerman, Joe Alwyn, Anthony Anderson, Billy Baldwin, Elizabeth Banks, Camilla Belle, Greg Berlanti, Julie Bowen, Amy Brenneman, Billy Brown, Dan Bucatinsky, Mark Burnett, Ty Burrell, Ross Butler, Linda Cardellini, Anthony Carrigan, Erika Christensen, Ciara, Chase Crawford, Terry Crews, Rory Culkin, Josh Dallas, Nina Dobrev, Winston Duke, Billy Eichner, Cynthia Erivo, Patrick Fabian, Taissa Farmiga, Fortune Feimster, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, America Ferrera, Andy Garcia, Danny Glover, Meagan Good, Ginnifer Goodwin, Topher Grace, Kat Graham, Kelsey Grammar, Max Greenfield, Jonathan Groff, Savannah Guthrie, Regina Hall, Ben Hardy, Laura Harrier, Patricia Heaton, Christina Hendricks, Sam Heughan, Cheryl Hines, Julianne Hough, Nicholas Hoult, Vanessa Hudgens, Gillian Jacobs, Jake Johnson, Zoe Kazan, Machine Gun Kelly, Jaime King, Heidi Klum, T.R. Knight, Nick Kroll, Christine Lahti, Sanaa Lathan, KiKi Layne, Gwilym Lee, Allen Leech, Judith Light, Hamish Linklater, Zoe Lister-Jones, Diego Luna, Melanie Lynskey, Danielle Macdonald, Andie MacDowell, Joel Madden, Ashley Madekwe, Jason Mantzoukas, Joe Mazello, Katherine McNamara, Shay Mitchell, Natalie Morales, Trevor Noah, Chord Overstreet, Adam Pally, Barbara Palvin, Zac Posen, Jack Quaid, Zachary Quinto, Lily Rabe, June Diane Raphael, Nikki Reed, Retta, Nicole Richie, Jason Ritter, Emma Roberts, Brit Robertson, Robbie Rogers, Ray Romano, Meg Ryan, Halston Sage, Rosa Salazar, Nico Santos, Paul Scheer, Maia Shibutani, Alex Shibutani, Ian Somerhalder, Abigail Spencer, Destry Allyn Spielberg, Cole Sprouse, Dylan Sprouse, Lakeith Stanfield, Sydney Sweeney, Jessica Szohr, Maura Tierney, Lorraine Toussaint, Michelle Trachtenberg, Gabrielle Union, Milo Ventimiglia, Diane Warren, Dominic West, Ed Westwick, Mae Whitman, Russell Wilson and Ali Wong.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Donald Trump is suing my publisher, and its response is magnificent

Henry Holt is a division of Macmillan (owners of Tor Books, who publish my novels); they're the folks who published Michael Wolff's bestselling Fire and Fury, which has so thoroughly embarrassed Donald Trump that the President of the United States has threatened to sue them.

In response, Macmillan CEO John Sargent emailed all the Macmillan writers and staff a letter, vowing not to cave in to bullying and featuring such memorable passages as:

There is no ambiguity here. This is an underlying principle of our democracy. We cannot stand silent. We will not allow any president to achieve by intimidation what our Constitution precludes him or her from achieving in court. We need to respond strongly for Michael Wolff and his book, but also for all authors and all their books, now and in the future. And as citizens we must demand that President Trump understand and abide by the First Amendment of our Constitution.

But as eloquent as Sargent is, he takes a backseat to Macmillan's outside counsel, Elizabeth A McNamara, of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, whose reply to Trump lawyer Charles Harder (yes, the Charles Harder who shut down Gawker and failed to kill Techdirt for pointing out that email wasn't invented by Shiva Ayyadurai) is a fucking work of art.

   To briefly address a few of the additional substantive claims identified in your letter, we note that you understandably cite to New York as the governing law, yet we were surprised to see that President Trump plans on asserting a claim for "false light invasion of privacy." As you are no doubt aware, New York does not recognize such a cause of action. Messenger ex rel. Messenger v. Gruner Jahr Printing and Pub., 94 436, 448 (2000); Hurwitz v. US, 884 F.2d 684, 685 (2d Cir. 1989). Not only is this claim meritless; it is non-existent. In any event, it is patently ridiculous to claim that the privacy of the President of the United States has been violated by a book reporting on his campaign and his actions in office...

...    Next, your letter focuses on alleged claims for tortious interference with contractual relations and inducement of breach of contract. Yet, as your client will no doubt appreciate, timing is everything when it comes to these claims. And there is no dispute that Mr. Bannon had already communicated with Mr. Wolff freely and voluntarily well before the "notice" you have provided. Mr. Bannon plainly needed no cajoling or inducement to speak candidly with Mr. Wolff. And an after-the-fact lawyer's letter putting my clients "on notice" does not put the genie back in the bottle, much less subject Henry Holt or Mr. Wolff to liability. The law treats sources like Mr. Bannon as adults, and it is Mr. Bannon's responsibility -- not Henry Holt's or Mr. Wolff's -- to honor any contractual obligations. Indeed, your attempt to use private contracts to act as a blanket restriction on members of the government speaking to the press is a perversion of contract law and a gross violation of the First Amendment. No court would support such an attempt to silence public servants and the press.

https://boingboing.net/2018/01/09/unclear-on-the-constitution.html

[gwennmael]

La dott.ssa Mary Beth Leininger ha celebrato come veterinaria femminile AVMA durante la Giornata internazionale della donna

Celebrando le grandi donne nella medicina veterinaria e molto altro in arrivo Venerdì 8 marzo, in onore della Giornata internazionale della donna, l'American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) ha annunciato un elenco di donne note nell'ambito della professione veterinaria. Di particolare rilievo per la comunità di Goodnewsforpets è la dottoressa Mary Beth Leininger, la prima donna presidente dell'AVMA e una Germinder20 Power of Pink Honoree del 2018. La storia del dottor Leininger è stata pubblicata su Goodnewsforpets. Mary Beth Leininger, prima donna presidente dell'AVMA, si è diplomata alla scuola di veterinaria nel 1967.

Secondo un comunicato stampa dell'AVMA, nel 1975, le donne rappresentavano solo il 5% della professione, senza donne che prestavano servizio tra gli ufficiali, il consiglio esecutivo o i consigli di AVMA e solo una donna che prestava servizio nella Camera dei delegati di AVMA, composta da 126 membri. Nel 2010 le donne rappresentavano circa il 50% della professione e oggi, circa il 61% dei veterinari statunitensi sono donne e 6 dei 15 membri del Consiglio di amministrazione dell'AVMA e 58 dei 140 membri della Camera dei delegati dell'AVMA sono donne.

"L'impegno di AVMA per espandere la diversità all'interno della professione veterinaria e della leadership è evidente in tutto ciò che facciamo", ha affermato il dott. John de Jong, presidente di AVMA. "Dall'offerta di programmi mirati e borse di studio per leader emergenti e veterinari in gruppi sottorappresentati alla nostra Conferenza sulla leadership veterinaria e alla Convenzione AVMA al lavoro con e ai gruppi di supporto, come l'Iniziativa per lo sviluppo della leadership veterinaria delle donne, sappiamo che un 'migliore equilibrio' rafforzerà tutta la medicina veterinaria ", ha detto il dottor de Jong.

Di seguito è riportato l'elenco dell'AVMA di alcune delle donne rivoluzionarie che hanno dato un contributo significativo alla professione veterinaria e hanno contribuito a salvare la vita di animali e persone:

Dr. Mignon Nicholson: la prima veterinaria donna con formazione universitaria della nazione. Il dottor Nicholson si laureò nel 1903 al McKillip Veterinary College di Chicago. Elinor McGrath: laureata nel 1910 al Chicago Veterinary College, la dottoressa McGrath divenne il primo membro donna di AVMA. Helen Richt Irwin: segretaria della sezione del meeting AVMA sui piccoli animali nel 1937 e la prima donna a ricoprire un incarico nell'AVMA. Mary Knight Dunlap: laureata nel 1933 alla Michigan State University, la dottoressa Dunlap ha fondato l'Associazione per le donne veterinarie (AWV) nel 1947 nella speranza di evitare che le veterinarie donne dovessero sopportare da sole i problemi professionali, le molestie e la discriminazione che aveva subito. Dott. Maria von Maltzan: Poco dopo che i nazisti presero il potere in Germania nel 1933, il Dr. von Maltzan divenne un membro attivo della resistenza tedesca, aiutando centinaia di ebrei a evitare la cattura ea fuggire dal paese. Ha detto di aver appreso le abilità che ha usato per ingannare gli ufficiali dei servizi segreti tedeschi mentre studiava segretamente per diventare un veterinario contro i desideri di sua madre. Alfreda Johnson Webb e Jane Hinton: la dottoressa Webb, membro della classe inaugurale del 1945 presso la Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine, e la dottoressa Hinton, laureata presso l'Università della Pennsylvania, si laurearono entrambe nel 1949 per diventare le prime veterinarie nere della nazione .Dr. Mary Beth Leininger: Nel 1996, la dottoressa Leininger è diventata la prima presidente donna dell'AVMA. Tracey McNamara: Nel 1999, mentre prestava servizio come capo del dipartimento di patologia allo zoo del Bronx, al dottor McNamara è stata attribuita la scoperta del virus del Nilo occidentale nella sua principale epidemia iniziale negli Stati Uniti. Bernadette Dunham: la dottoressa Dunham è stata direttrice ad interim della divisione relazioni governative dell'AVMA prima di entrare a far parte della FDA nel 2002. Dal 2008 al 2016 è stata direttrice del Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) presso la Food and Drug Administration (FDA) che era responsabile di garantire la sicurezza e l'efficacia dei farmaci per animali e la sicurezza dei mangimi, compreso il cibo per animali domestici. Bonnie Beaver: La dottoressa Beaver è diventata la seconda donna a servire come presidente dell'AVMA nel 2004 ed è un membro fondatore dell'American College of Veterinary Behaviorists. René Carlson: La dott.ssa Carlson ha ricoperto due mandati come vicepresidente dell'AVMA (2004-2006) prima della sua elezione a terza donna a servire come presidente dell'AVMA nel 2011. Ha servito come presidente della World Veterinary Association dal 2014-2017. . Janet Donlin: La dott.ssa Donlin è stata selezionata come vicepresidente esecutivo e CEO dell'AVMA nel 2016, segnando la prima volta che una donna ha ricoperto la più alta posizione di leadership del personale nell'AVMA da quando l'ufficio è stato creato nel 1922. rilasciarlo è grato per questi veterinari rivoluzionari e rivoluzionari e per tutte le donne che hanno contribuito a spianare la strada ai veterinari che proteggono la salute umana, animale e ambientale oggi.

Visita il sito web di AVMA per ulteriori informazioni sulle iniziative e sulla politica di AVMA sulla diversità e l'inclusione. Per ulteriori informazioni sulla Giornata internazionale della donna, #balanceforbetter, visitareInternationalWomensDay.com.

Con così tanti veterinari che si diplomano alle scuole veterinarie oggi, aspettati che anche donne più favolose lascino il segno nella leadership. - nota dell'editore.

La dottoressa Mary Beth Leininger è stata nominata Germinder20 Power Of Pink Honoree

[sinemeter]

the post

“I always wanted to be part of a small rebellion.”

Ini adalah cerita tentang surat kabar The Washington Post yang nekat menerbitkan berita rahasia tentang keterlibatan AS di perang Vietnam, dan bagaimana pemerintah kemudian berusaha membungkam media.

Tahun 1971, dan perang Vietnam sudah memasuki tahun yang ke-16, surat kabar The New York Times berani menerbitkan artikel tentang dosa-dosa pemerintahan AS terkait perang tersebut. Dosa yang paling jadi sorotan utama adalah tentang bagaimana para presiden dari mulai Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, sampai Richard Nixon terus mengirim pasukan ke Vietnam meskipun tahu kalau AS tidak akan menang. Alasan utamanya adalah tentu saja menjaga nama besar AS agar tidak dipermalukan di mata dunia, maka peperangan harus terus dikobarkan sampai kemenangan itu datang.

Sumber berita The New York Times tidak main-main. Bukan dari gosip atau hoaks belaka tetapi dari dokumen rahasia resmi negara yang diberi judul Makalah Pentagon. Selain tentang kebijakan-kebijakan presiden tadi dokumen tersebut mengandung sebuah studi peperangan yang disusun oleh Menteri Pertahanan Bob McNamarra dan beberapa praktisi lapangan yang terjun langsung di perang Vietnam. Salah satu praktisi tersebut, Daniel Ellsberg, dengan kesadaran penuh sengaja memfotokopi seluruh berkas Makalah Pentagon karena tergerak untuk menguak kebenaran ke muka publik. Hasil fotokopian Ellsberg inilah yang kemudian sampai ke meja redaksi The New York Times, dan 3 tahun berselang dicetak di tajuk muka yang langsung membuat geger masyarakat dan memanaskan Gedung Putih.

Pemerintah langsung bereaksi keras dengan melakukan ancaman pembredelan, menyeret The New York Times ke meja hijau dengan tuduhan penghinaan dan pengkhianatan terhadap negara. Koran itu dipaksa berhenti beroperasi sampai proses peradilan beres. Salah satu surat kabar terbesar di AS dengan jutaan pembaca setia itu justru harus dihukum karena membeberkan kebenaran yang selalu ditutup-tutupi, meskipun pemerintah lebih dramatis menyebut perkara ini sebagai aksi fatal membocorkan rahasia negara.

Atas dalil pembeberan kebenaran itu juga The Washington Post ikut menerjunkan diri ke pusaran konflik media vs. pemerintah yang apinya masih sangat hangat. Sang editor eksekutif, Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), menegaskan bahwa inilah kesempatan untuk menunjukkan kekuatan media sebagai pengawal demokrasi dan penjaga konstitusi negara yang tak bisa dilumpuhkan oleh otoritas. Pers memiliki kenetralan yang tak bisa ditembus lobi-lobi atau bahkan ancaman dalam menerbitkan berita. Sifatnya yang tak berpihak ini memang selalu berpotensi memercikkan masalah bagi penguasa beserta kepentingan-kepentingannya. Adalah integritas serta keberanian yang bisa membuat pers menegakkan kepalanya di sekeliling todongan pistol-pistol demi menjaga benteng terakhir kebenaran. Tidak ada harga yang bisa membeli itu selain harga diri orang-orang di dalamnya sebagai mata dan telinga peradaban.

Roger: “If the government wins and we’re convicted, the Washington Post as we know it will cease to exist.”

Ben: “Well, if we live in a world where the government could tell us what we can and cannot print, then the Washington Post as we know it has already ceased to exist.”

Yang lucu adalah sebenarnya semua ini diawali oleh sebuah rivalitas sengit antara 2 media raksasa AS. The Washington Post selalu merasa ketinggalan beberapa langkah dari The New York Times dalam meliput peristiwa-peristiwa teraktual. Segala cara dilakukan, termasuk menyusupkan mata-mata ke kantor New York demi mendapat bocoran tentang berita tajuk utama yang akan terbit esok hari. Ketika The Post merasa di atas angin dengan liputan spesial tentang pernikahan anak perempuan presiden Nixon, di hari yang sama The Times menyentak perhatian dunia dengan berita Makalah Pentagon. Semua orang membeli dan membaca The Times, lalu anak-anak muda turun ke jalan melakukan protes antiperang, satu negara tercekam oleh kenyataan betapa munafiknya sikap pemerintah AS terhadap perang di wilayah Indo-Cina itu.

Tak tinggal diam, hari itu juga pemerintah langsung mengambil tindakan hukum buat mengadili The Times. Maka otomatis surat kabar itu berhenti beroperasi untuk sementara waktu dan momentum itu dimanfaatkan The Post dengan menerbitkan lebih banyak berita dari Makalah Pentagon. Jika The Times membutuhkan waktu sekitar 3 tahun untuk akhirnya berani mempublikasikan kiriman dokumen fotokopian dari Ellsberg, The Post hanya punya waktu kurang dari 10 jam untuk menyusun, mengedit, dan mencetak skandal rahasia negara itu. Waktu semepet itu jadi ujian tersendiri bagi Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) sebagai CEO baru perusahaan sekaligus wanita pertama yang memimpin sebuah media cetak di AS. Kay harus membuktikan kalau dirinya punya kemampuan dalam mengambil keputusan penting di mana dirinya tidak lagi dipengaruhi oleh para lelaki di sekitarnya -- Kay yang selalu gugup saat bicara dan kebetulan mewarisi jabatan tinggi dari suaminya yang meninggal bunuh diri, dan Kay yang menjual saham The Post ke publik dengan risiko kerugian besar jika omset perusahaannya anjlok. The Post mengambil langkah yang sama dengan The Times berikut ancaman yang sama pula: pembredelan dari pemerintah (“The only way to protect the right to publish is to publish”).

Menjadi seorang Ben Bradlee di masa-masa ini berarti menggadaikan eksistensi diri kepada tekanan dan rasa malu yang datang bertubi-tubi. Reputasi The Post yang mulai menukik dibebankan ke pundaknya sebagai punggawa berita. Waktunya sebagian besar terkuras oleh pekerjaan, ketika ia baru sampai ruang tengah rumahnya sebuah panggilan telepon bisa membuatnya bergegas kembali ke pintu kantor. Gedung Putih di bawah Nixon memasukkan The Post dalam daftar hitam, reporter mereka dilarang meliput acara keluarga Nixon karena tulisan-tulisan sarkastik yang kerap mereka terbitkan. Bayangkan perasaan Ben di suatu pagi ketika korannya berhasil menaikkan cerita tentang pernikahan Nixon, sebagai kemenangan atas blokade pemerintah yang ternyata bisa ditembus oleh reporter yang menyamar, lalu The Times menerbitkan berita konspirasi politik AS sehingga ketika kedua koran itu disandingkan, The Post tampak seperti tabloid gosip selebritas. Dalam waktu kurang dari 2 hari Ben harus bisa menemukan narasumber dan dokumen utama yang mendukung headline The Times, karena tidak ada berita lain lagi yang tampaknya pantas diangkat.

Secara personal, berita tentang kebohongan yang dilakukan pemerintah AS terutama para presiden yang terlibat perang Vietnam sangat mempengaruhi kebangaannya sebagai warga negara. Ben cukup akrab dengan presiden Kennedy di masa-masa kepemimpinannya. Ia cukup sering diundang makan siang bersama di Gedung Putih, bahkan bersantai sambil menghisap cerutu berdua sambil berbagi cerita tentang apapun. Dalam pertemanan tersebut Ben merasa di sana ada rasa percaya yang saling terjalin. Maka setelah ia tahu bahwa di belakang itu semua Kennedy juga ikut andil menggodok terus perang Vietnam demi menutup-nutupi kekalahan AS, timbul jiwa patriotiknya justru untuk membongkar borok negeri adidaya tersebut. Ia merasa profesinya sebagai jurnalis selama ini telah dihina dengan terus menerbitkan berita-berita yang telah disamarkan dan dipugar oleh pemerintah. Terlebih lagi, ia merasa demokrasi AS telah dihina oleh rekayasa politik dari para pemimpinnya sendiri, langsung di depan muka rakyat.

Ben: “The night he was assassinated Tony and I were down at the Naval Hospital so we would be there to meet Jackie when she landed. She was bringing Jack’s body back on the plane from Dallas and she walked into the room. She was still wearing that pink suit with Jack’s blood all over it. She fell into Tony’s arms and they held each other for quite a long time. And then Jackie looked at me and said, ‘None of this, none of what you see, none of what I say, is ever going to be in your newspaper, Ben.’ And that just about broke my heart. I never thought of Jack as a source, I thought of him as friend. And that was my mistake. And it was something that Jack knew all along. The days of us all smoking cigars together down on Pennsylvania Avenue are over. Your friend McNamara’s study proves that. The way they lied. Those days have to be over. We have to be the check on their power. If we don’t hold them accountable, my God, who will?”

Ben kemudian menjadikan rumahnya ruang editorial dadakan. Beberapa wartawan senior hadir di situ menyaksikan datangnya dua dus tumpukan fotokopian Makalah Pentagon yang telah diserahkan langsung oleh Ellsberg kepada salah satu rekan kepercayaan Ben di sebuah tempat terpencil. Mereka bekerja sama menyusun lembar-lembar kertas fotokopian itu secara kronologis karena susunannya telah diacak Ellsberg demi alasan keamanan. Setelah melewati jam-jam yang melelahkan itu kemudian mereka masuk ke jam-jam stres menulis artikel yang akan diterbitkan The Post besok pagi. Jam 12 malam semuanya harus sudah naik cetak, artinya dalam waktu yang super padat itu para wartawan di rumah Ben harus menyelesaikan artikelnya, mengirimkan ke kantor The Post, disunting oleh editor, disusun huruf per hurufnya pada plat secara manual agar siap dicetak massal oleh mesin.

Beberapa blok dari rumah Ben, Kay Graham menimbang-nimbang keputusan untuk menerbitkan artikel Malakah Pentagon itu atau tidak. Ia dikelilingi oleh para dewan eksekutif The Post, seperti yang selalu terjadi, dan ialah satu-satunya perempuan yang ada. Masukan para eksekutif sudah jelas, bahwa The Post harus memperbaiki hubungannya dengan Gedung Putih khususnya di momen ini dan langkah radikal bukanlah skema yang bijak untuk perusahaan yang sahamnya baru saja go public. Kay setuju bahwa di tangannya nasib The Post berada dan keputusan yang ia ambil saat ini akan sangat menentukan keberlangsungan surat kabar itu. Tapi Kay mengingat bagaimana dulu ia sempat melepas putranya pergi ke Vietnam, sebuah niat tulus untuk memperjuangkan nama bangsa yang ternyata hanyalah permainan buruk yang sudah lama diketahui siapa pemenangnya. Kay akhirnya mengambil keputusan sendiri yaitu meminta Ben agar segera mencetak artikelnya pada tengah malam.

Keputusan Kay tentu saja bukan sekadar alasan personal, tetapi juga didasari atas tanggung jawabnya terhadap publik sebagai pemilik media. Bagaimanapun juga sudah jadi tugas media untuk berani menerbitkan berita dan tidak berpihak pada apapun atau siapapun selain kebenaran itu sendiri. Objektivitas media merupakan nilai moral yang menjamin bertahannya demokrasi serta melangsungkan jalannya peradaban manusia menuju tingkatan yang lebih baik.

Kay: “You know what my husband said about the news? He called it the first rough draft of history. That’s good, isn’t it? Well, we don’t always get it right, you know. We’re not always perfect, but I think if we just keep on it, you know. That’s the job, isn’t it?”

Maka bersama The Times, Kay dan Ben masuk ke gedung persidangan dengan kepala tegak. Mereka menghadapi ancaman nyata pembredelan tapi tidak ada ketakutan yang patut mereka hiraukan selain kegagalan mewartakan kebenaran di negara bebas ini. Anak-anak muda berkumpul mendukung mereka di luar gedung seraya meneruskan yel-yel antiperang yang mengobar semangat. Tak disangka-sangka surat kabar yang lain pun menunjukkan simpatinya dengan sengaja menerbitkan ulang artikel Makalah Pentagon dari The Times dan The Post di halaman depan mereka, semata-mata untuk meneriakkan besarnya kekuatan media yang tak akan sebanding dengan kuasa pemerintah sekalipun (“The press was to served the governed, not the governors”). Mungkin inilah yang membuat media selalu dibutuhkan, ia tidak hanya mewakili suara rakyat, suara pemerintah, atau bahkan suara Tuhan, tapi ia mewakili suara kebenaran; yang mana suaranya kerap dibungkam, wujudnya kerap tersembunyi, dan aromanya kerap tersamarkan, dan tetap ia selalu rela mengorbankan apa saja demi meraihnya lalu menyampaikannya ke depan pintu rumah orang-orang di pagi hari.

oleh: Ikra Amesta

[vesperione]

John McNamara Hates Musicals

Guys in TGWDLM it’s confirmed John McNamara doesn’t like musicals. Proof: “do you like coffee?” “No sir.” “Do you like musicals?” “No sir” “that’s a goddamn red blooded American.” So can you imagine his horror when he realises that he has to deal with a musical apocalypse? No? Let me set the scene:

John: *bursts in the office* Xander lee!

Xander: yes, John?

John: *tying hair up* I can not make this up. It’s a musical apocalypse

Xander: I know.

John: I hate musicals

Xander: I know.

John: I’m gonna die.

Okay but then can you imagine John realising that the doll he’s dealing with is also partnered with a musical jingle? Because if not:

John: screams

Xander: honey, are you okay?

John: it’s a FUCKING MUSICAL DOLL, XANDER

Xander: it’s okay-

John: IM GOING TO SHOVE A PENCIL SO FAR UP ITS ASS, ZEE-

(Also hi I’m the CEO of John McNamara/Xander lee iF you couldn’t tell)

[sserpicko]

Oscar: How Each 2018 Best Picture Nominee Got Here

There can only be one winner, but each of the Best Picture nominees overcame creative, financial and logistical hurdles to get this close to the finish line. Here are their war stories.

Black Panther

Fifty years ago, the phrase ‘Black Panther’ carried more political baggage than it does today, immediately summoning up images of a militant African-American revolutionary, named after by the controversial civil rights party founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California, in 1966. Created by Stan Lee in a bid to deliver the world’s first non-stereotype black superhero, the comic book of the same name materialized around the same time. Unusually, The Black Panther wasn’t an alter ego—it was the formal title for T’Challa, King of Wakanda—but Lee described the overlapping of names as “a strange coincidence”, adding that “maybe if I had it to do over again, I’d have given him another name”. The sensitive politics of the next two decades might explain why the character lay dormant as a movie property until 1992, when Wesley Snipes began work on the concept, eventually securing support from Columbia in 1994.

Directors John Singleton and Mario Van Peebles showed interest, but the project stalled, only to be resurrected by Marvel Studios in 2005, when then-CEO Avi Arad announced it as one of ten new films on the company’s slate. This time development moved forward at a faster pace: a script was commissioned in 2011, and by 2013, elements of the story began to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the character, played by Chadwick Boseman, debuting in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. Ava DuVernay was briefly attached, then F. Gary Gray, and finally Creed director Ryan Coogler agreed to take the helm. Marvel President Kevin Feige acknowledges that it was a slow but sure process, and defends the timescale. “The only way we ever wanted to do this project was the right way,” he says, “and that meant finding a filmmaker who had something personal to say, who had a vision and could take this character into another arena, and showcase the power of representation on a canvas of this size.” —Damon Wise

BlacKkKlansman

When Jordan Peele pitched Spike Lee on the story that would become BlacKkKlansman, and lead to the iconic filmmaker’s first Oscar nomination for directing, Lee was sure he was making it up. “It was one of the greatest pitches ever,” Lee recalls. “Black man infiltrates Ku Klux Klan. That’s high concept. I said, ‘I’ve seen this a million times, it’s the Dave Chappelle skit.’ He went, ‘Nah, nah, this is real.’”

And real it is, even though Lee’s film bends the truth here and there to offer an engine to a story that seizes on the rhetorical parallels with the violence in Charlottesville last year, takes a sideways glance at the legacy of DW Griffith and Gone with the Wind, and revels in its 1970s setting to play on the tropes of Blaxploitation movies. Ron Stallworth, a black police officer in Colorado Springs, really did infiltrate the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. And really did interact with one-time Grand Wizard David Duke.

Lee turned to an old collaborator to play Stallworth. John David Washington was six years old when he was given a line in Lee’s Malcolm X. Reunited for BlacKkKlansman, Lee kept Washington away from the real Stallworth until the table read, determined that he find his own version of the character in prep. “It was my thinking that he would meet Ron and want to walk like him, talk like him,” Lee says. “It wasn’t like Malcolm X. No one knew who Ron Stallworth was, and that gives you freedom.”

Lee casts aside criticism of the film’s forthright allusions to current politics. “These are dangerous times. The film had to end the way it did,” he says, with footage of the Charlottesville rally and a tribute to Heather Hayer, who was murdered there.

And it took the commitment of all of his collaborators, including nominee Adam Driver and the iconic Harry Belafonte—a key player in the Civil Rights Movement—to fully realize it. “This film, the teamwork was amazing. We were like the Golden State Warriors, or the New York Knicks. We didn’t have to sit around saying, ‘Oh this is such an important film and we have to…’ It wasn’t even discussed. Everybody knew what we had to do.” —Joe Utichi

Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody is the miracle Oscar nominee this year. Typically when a production is mired with on-set problems, its doom is inevitable, but in the year-plus wake of director Bryan Singer’s firing, Bohemian Rhapsody has had immense luck, with the producers determined to buck sour Singer headlines, after he clashed with Oscar nominated star Rami Malek. Graham King shepherded Bohemian Rhapsody for eight years, and nothing was going to stop it now.

Sacha Baron Cohen expressed interest in the project early on, but dismissed it when King opted against a warts-and-all biopic.

Then King’s partner had a sense that Emmy-winning Mr. Robot star Rami Malek could do the trick, and indeed he did, with a dedication that went to masochistic measures.

“I told Graham King if he gave me this role, I’d bleed for it, and he showed me a picture of blood on the piano keys after the final day of our Live Aid shoot,” Malek says.

Editor John Ottman gets proper credit here with his first Oscar nomination, working with the producers to hammer an impressive first cut, before Dexter Fletcher stepped in for Singer to finish a handful of scenes. While a director always gets credit for a final cut, Bohemian Rhapsody is an example this season that there’s no ‘I’ in team.

The press has repeatedly asked the production team for their thoughts on Singer in the wake of the film’s success, especially on Golden Globes night when it won for Best Motion Picture, Drama and Best Actor.

King waved off the question, but Malek answered, “There was only one thing we needed to do: celebrate Freddie Mercury. He is a marvel. Nothing was going to compromise us. We’re giving him the love, celebration and adulation he deserves.” —Anthony D’Alessandro

The Favourite

It took two decades for Deborah Davis’s script for The Favourite to make it to screen. A searing three-hander based on the true history of the British Queen Anne and the two women who fought for her affections, Sarah Churchill and Abigail Masham, it was a tough sell even for a market in Britain that specializes in costume drama. A film in which three women rule the roost over their male counterparts, fall in love—and graphic lust—with one another and scheme their way to dominance? Whatever to make of that?

But Davis knew she had something groundbreaking, and producers Ceci Dempsey, Lee Magiday and Ed Guiney weren’t prepared to let the project go without a fight. In an inspired move, they showed the script to Yorgos Lanthimos, whose twisted and unique earlier features, including Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer seemed like an odd fit for a story based in true history. And yet, working on the script with Australian writer Tony McNamara, Lanthimos found a lens on the story through his own fascination with the more awkward aspects of human interaction.

“I was intrigued in trying to create these three very complicated and complex characters for women, and work with three great actresses,” Lanthimos says. “It was in my mind thinking you never see that: three female strong leads.”

For Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, the three actresses cast in these roles, all of whom picked up Oscar nominations, it was just as enticing a prospect. Lanthimos started them off with an unconventional rehearsal period, challenging them to play trust exercises, tie themselves up in knots and say one another’s lines.

“It’s strange and not strange,” Stone notes. “By the end, I think one of the most effective aspects of it was that we all felt very, very close to each other. We all touched each other, embarrassed ourselves in front of one another, and became more reliant on one another.” —Joe Utichi

Green Book

Nick Vallelonga had been carrying the story for Green Book in his head ever since he was five years old, and yet it was not until his 50s that he was able to see his dream become a reality. The plot came directly from a period of his father’s life, when, in the early ’60s, Tony “Lip” Vallelonga was hired by an African-American classical pianist named Don Shirley to be his driver and bodyguard during a potentially dangerous concert tour of the racially segregated southern states. “Even as a child, it struck me as something you’d see in a movie,” says Vallelonga. There was only only one problem: even though both subjects gave him their blessing, they also made Vallelonga give his word that the film would not be made in their lifetimes. After Tony and Don passed in 2013, within just three months of the other, Vallelonga began to map out this extraordinary road trip.

To help shape the script, Vallelonga turned to writer/actor Brian Currie. Then, two years later, during a chance encounter, Currie outlined the project to Peter Farrelly, and the idea stuck. “Home run!” exclaimed Farrelly. Together, all three began shaping the production, which passed through Focus Features and Participant Media before landing at Universal, with Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali as the leads. The result was Farrelly’s first non-comedy outside of the long-running partnership with his brother Bobby. “People had asked me over the years, ‘Do you think you’ll ever do a drama?’” Farrelly says. “And my answer was, ‘Sure, when it happens,’ because I never really planned. I probably should have, by the way, because I look at Rob Reiner’s career, and he was so smart. He did Spinal Tap, and then he did The Sure Thing, and then he goes off to do Stand by Me and A Few Good Men. He showed he could do everything. But we were just doing what came into our universe next, and we never really planned it. I didn’t plan this, but finally this dropped into my lap—I heard the story, and I thought, I gotta make this.” —Damon Wise

Roma

Alfonso Cuarón’s ode to his childhood in Mexico City, and in particular the domestic worker who helped made him, Roma was non-negotiable. “I had to do the film,” he says. “I told Carlos, my brother, ‘I don’t know if anybody is going to care about or like this movie. I have to do it because it’s something I need to do.’”

The notion started to form more than a decade ago, as Cuarón finished up 2006’s Children of Men. But there had been threads drawn from his youth in other projects—in his heralded Y Tu Mamá También, a voiceover for Diego Luna’s character tells a backstory that isn’t far off from Cuarón’s own—and he felt driven by a desire to tap more directly into that past.

Cuarón teamed up with Participant Media, who greenlit the $15 million the filmmaker needed; a tall order for a film that he knew he had to shoot primarily in Spanish, and in black-and-white. But so slavish was his desire to draw all this from his own very specific memories that Participant CEO David Linde would become one of the first and last people to ever see a script during production. He had intended to tap Emmanuel Lubezki to shoot the film, but ‘Chivo’ was unavailable when the dates finally set, and so Cuarón served as his own DP. He instructed his heads of department directly to get the details exactly as he saw them, rather than have them riff on the script. He gave his actors only what they needed for the scenes they shot, and then, only moments before they shot them. In the film’s lead, Cuarón found Yalitza Aparicio after an exhaustive search of Mexico. She was training to be a teacher when she heard about the audition. She is now an Oscar nominee.

Still, it was only after the process was completed that Cuarón understood the real challenge of Roma. With no stars, his black-and-white, Spanish-language opus was not built for the current realities of global theatrical distribution. Netflix came on board in April, when the film was looking set to debut at Cannes, and the controversy surrounding the streamer’s stance on theatrical put paid to a slot at the festival. It later debuted at Venice. But Cuarón is determined Netflix was the right home. “Our viewing habits are changing,” he says. “The challenge is now, how we can adapt ourselves, but present something that you believe is amazing and great cinema? It’s not so much about, ‘Let’s impose this kind of cinema on audiences.’ It’s also the conversation with them about how they want to watch.” —Joe Utichi

A Star Is Born

It’s hard to overstate the difficulty of shooting on stage in the middle of a music festival. Yet the cast and crew of A Star Is Born pulled off exactly that, with only a four-minute window for director and star Bradley Cooper to perform.

Serendipitously, it worked out thanks to the star of the film’s 1976 version. Kris Kristofferson happened to be playing Glastonbury on the planned shoot day, and offered a window of time in his own set.

“Bradley jumps on stage,” producer Lynette Howell Taylor recalls, “and says, ‘Hi, I’m Bradley Cooper. I’m here to perform a song from A Star Is Born, but you won’t be able to hear it. Please just look like you’re excited.’” With his vocal feed cut, only the front few rows could hear some of what Cooper sang. “We didn’t want the music to leak out.”

“There were many minutes along the way where we were running and gunning,” adds producer Bill Gerber, “But that one in particular wasn’t just a logistical threat, it was also incredible for Bradley to go from playing in controlled situations to all of a sudden literally singing live in front of 80,000 people.”

Gerber had been on the project since its early days, when, before timing got in the way, Clint Eastwood had been set to direct, with Beyoncé in the Lady Gaga role. Casting Gaga was initially a stretch for Warner Bros., Gerber says. “Even though Bradley and I were really blown away by the chemistry, the studio still wasn’t 100% sure. But to their credit, they said, ‘Do a test, spend what you have to spend, and let’s see.’”

During that test, Gerber saw the magic happen. “Bradley picked her up, and they walked out the doors of her house onto her lawn, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean. They looked at each other and it was undeniably brilliant. I thought, well, there’s our Gone with the Wind moment.” And the rest, of course, is history. —Antonia Blyth

Vice

Adam McKay probably wouldn’t have made Vice, his irreverent biopic of former Vice President Dick Cheney, if he hadn’t fallen ill for a couple of weeks at the end of 2015. The director had recently finished up The Big Short, an arch look at the financial crisis of 2008, and followed it immediately with a worldwide publicity tour, then a punishing awards season schedule. The net result was that McKay got sick, and while he was shivering with a particularly evil flu, he looked up at his bookshelves. “People give you books through the years,” McKay told the ACLU, “and you just shove them up there and don’t really think about them. And there was one about Dick Cheney, and it kind of struck me, like, ‘Wow, the book of history is about to close on that guy.’ I mean, you don’t really hear his name mentioned that much anymore, and you don’t hear [George] W. Bush’s name really mentioned, but, holy cow, those were a rough eight years.”

McKay started reading the book and found he couldn’t put it down. “I was amazed by what a large, epic American tale Cheney’s life story is—how far back it reaches, how many monumental moments in history he was around for. He had this Zelig-like presence in the ’70s through the ’80s. And then of course, I was amazed by how brilliant he was at manipulating the system.” The final impetus to tell Cheney’s story came in 2016. “Somewhere along that line,” recalled McKay, “Donald Trump got elected, and all of a sudden we started hearing people say, ‘Hey, I kinda miss George W. Bush. He wasn’t that bad, him and Cheney.’ And I really felt like I had to make the movie. I was like, ‘This is crazy that people are saying this.’ And that was it. We were off to the races.” —Damon Wise

Source: deadline

by Joe Utichi and Damon Wise and Anthony D’Alessandro and Antonia Blyth

[duaneodavila]

Newt Gingrich Leaves Biglaw Capping Wild Week For Republican Speakers Of The House

(Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images)

It’s been a busy week for Republican Speakers of the House. Paul Ryan announced that he will retire from Congress at the end of his term before he can get tagged with the massive deficit he created, John Boehner is a full-throated supporter of marijuana legalization after the industry paid him a metric ton of cash to whore for them engaging in deep reflection on the tragedy of non-violent drug offender convictions, and Dennis Hastert wondered if any cable news network would reach out and book him for an expert opinion on paying hush money. Not wanting to be left out of the action, former Speaker Newt Gingrich has leapt into the headlines with news that he’ll be leaving Dentons.

Gingrich, who is not a lawyer, worked with Dentons for three years as — functionally if not formally — a lobbyist. Ryan Lovelace of the National Law Journal reports:

“The firm and Speaker Gingrich have concluded a formal three year relationship. We thank Speaker Gingrich for his contributions to the Firm’s client service,” the firm said in a statement.

Mike McNamara, Dentons’ CEO in the U.S., delivered the news to the firm’s U.S. partnership in an internal email early Monday that also directed people on how to best address pending matters involving Gingrich.

Whether Dentons forced the issue or Gingrich decided to quit of his own accord is unknown, but in either event, Paul Ryan’s decision to step away from politics certainly played a role. Once you skirt past the platitudes about “spending more time with my family,” Ryan’s announcement basically let every lingering doubter know that they expect to lose control of the House, rendering Gingrich next to useless as a lobbyist. Boehner’s turn as a hippie at least gives him some bi-partisan credibility. Pending a comparably dramatic turn, Gingrich has nothing to bring to the table.

Until then, Gingrich can look forward to a starring role in “explain why this isn’t impeachable yet a blow job was?” his recurring tour de force performance on cable news.

Newt Gingrich Departs From Dentons [Law.com]

Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

Newt Gingrich Leaves Biglaw Capping Wild Week For Republican Speakers Of The House republished via Above the Law

[lucasdsimmonstx]

Boycott the Court of Master Sommeliers?

Is it Time to Boycott The Court of Master Sommeliers?

Is it time to say goodbye to the Court of Master Sommeliers? With eminent sommeliers quitting under protest and a wide array of accusations being leveled at the certification body, it’s time to consider the evidence. We’ve lain out what people in the wine industry are saying about the Court of Master Sommelier – Americas (CMSA). These include issues around racism, sexual violence, cheating, and political bias.

We also offer alternatives if you decide to not support the Court. There are equally good sommelier certification bodies available, so you can earn your sommelier pin with an agency that better aligns with your personal beliefs.

  The Court of Master Sommeliers has a Racism Problem

Tahiirah Habibi

“In order to speak, you need to call me master”

A Master Sommelier Examiner to Tahiirah Habibi

Tahiirah has recently published a heartbreaking recollection of blatant racism within the Court of Master Sommeliers.  We strongly recommend you listen to how the Court of Master Sommeliers nearly destroyed her love of wine and then callously exploited her.

It is unacceptable that in some CMSA circles there has been rhetoric around not being a political organization and wanting to remain neutral. There is no neutral. By doing nothing, one passively endorses the status quo — and the status quo for BIPOC in America has been, and remains, horrible.

-Richard Betts, MS

Such accusations have been lingering for a long time. Currently, less than 1% of all Master Sommeliers are black.

Diversity has long been an issue for the Court of Master Sommeliers, which skews the same way as most of the wine industry: male, and white. The problem, it seems, may not merely be about demographics.

Alder Yarrow, Vinography.

The Court of Master Sommeliers has a Sexual Violence Problem

In that past several years, we have had countless articles and two bestselling books that outline a disturbing and deeply ingrained culture of sexual violence within the sommelier world.

I no longer spend much time with the sommelier community because I find much of that culture to be toxic…For so long, I’d been obsessed with being part of this community of snobby, older (often white) men that just didn’t want me to join.

-Victoria James, author of Wine Girl in an interview with SevenFifty

In her book, James states that a restaurant owner raped her in the wine cellar. “I was young and insecure and thought that this was what women went through.” She is far from the only wine author to level deeply disturbing accusations. Bianca Bosker, the bestselling author of the book Cork Dork, recalled numerous examples of sexual violence and inappropriate behavior. She also pointed out that the restaurant industry accounts for more sexual harassment complaints than any other industry.

There was the blind tasting instructor who cracked off-color sexual double-entendres, nicknaming people who discussed a wine before savoring it “premature ejaculators,” or wondering“Did someone touch you inappropriately?” after a female classmate exclaimed at a wine’s aroma. There was the very senior sommelier who offered to let me stay in his “big” hotel room — not that I’d asked — and another who, while drunk, escalated from awkward attempts at flirting to full-out groping, despite knowing I was married.

Bianca Bosker, A Sommelier Opens Up About The Truly Gross Sexism She’s Faced In The Wine World, Refinery29

It doesn’t help that only 16% of all Master Sommeliers and only 14% of its board of directors are female. With women being the largest segment of wine consumers, it’s long past time for this to change.

I’ve come to understand that those by-laws have evolved in such a manner as to effectively prevent all but the old guard from running for the board of directors which is responsible for shaping policy. This is not the stance of a progressive or inclusive organization, it’s one of protectionism affording no reasonable opportunity for change.

-Richard Betts, MS

We call on the court to bring in a board of directors that more accurately reflects the community they serve, and that must include women as well as black and indigenous people of color.

The Court of Master Sommeliers has a Republican Problem

Just because a Master Sommelier is a Republican or is employed by one is not a cause to boycott the Court. Nor do we think it’s a problem if a Master Sommelier is a financial donors to the Republican party.  Everyone has the right to their own beliefs.

However, the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas (CMSA) is a nonprofit agency that claims to represent the industry as a whole.  If they appear to be a politically partisan group, that is a severe conflict of interest. In our reporting, we discovered that the  Board of Directors of the CMSA has a distinct Republican bias. Most of the board members are executives in businesses whose leadership donates heavily to right-wing causes.

Currently, 7% of the board either donated to or worked for someone who donated to Democratic Causes.  14% donated to both parties, and a whopping 57% donated solely to Republicans.  Dollar for dollar, the data is even worse. The money given to Democrats on average was less than $400, while the average donation to Republicans was over $10,000.  We believe this lack of representation of differing political views is one of the systemic problems facing the Court.

Republican Donors & The Master Sommeliers Board of Directors

Thomas Price, MS has worked for Jackson Family Wines for over six years. The company’s chairman Barbara Banke has donated over 2 million dollars to Republican candidates across the country.

Steven Poe, MS has worked for over a decade at the Big Canyon Country Club. This club is well known for being an exclusive bastion of  Republican politics in Orange County, California.

Ron Edwards, MS  is an executive at Winebow, which is owned by the Brazos Private Equity firm. Both co-founders (Randall Fojtasek and Jeff Fronterhouse) donate exclusively to the Republican party. Donations as of publishing are well over $10K.

Randall Bertao, MS has been an administrator at the Los Altos Golf & Country Club for over a decade.  His board of directors donates solely to Republicans. Of note is Andrew K Ludwick, the club’s Treasurer who has donated over $100,000 to Republican causes.

Christopher Bates, MS is now the owner of Element Winery. However, for 10 years he worked for Hotel Fauchère and Richard Snyder. Mr. Snyder had a long history of donating to Republican causes.

Virginia Philip, MS is the Vice-Chair of the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas. She is an executive at The Breakers hotel. CEO Paul Leone has ha long history of donating to the Republican party.

Devon Broglie, MS  is the current Chair of the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas. He has worked for Whole Foods Market since 2005. Mr. Broglie works with CEO John Mackey, a longtime Republican donor, including a Rand Paul Super PAC.

Democratic Donors & The Master Sommeliers Board of Directors

Peter Granoff, MS is the only member of the board to donate to a Democrat. He is the owner of Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant in San Fransisco.

Dual Donors & The Master Sommeliers Board of Directors

Brett Davis, MS works for Lux Wines, a division of E. & J. Gallo Winery. CEO Joseph E Gallo donates heavily to both parties.

Eric Entrikin, MS works for Germain-Robin California Brandy, a division of E. & J. Gallo Winery. CEO Joseph E Gallo donates heavily to both parties.

  The Court Accepts Big Contributions from a Far-Right Political Donor

The Court of Master Sommeliers has deep financial ties to  Barbara Banke,  the far-right political donor. She funds the CMS scholarship program under the name of her wine company, the Jackson Family Wines Scholarship.

We call on the court to sever ties with the Republican party and bring in a board of directors that more accurately reflects the communities they serve. 

The Court of Master Sommeliers Has A Cheating Problem

In 2018, a board member was caught giving answers to the Master Sommelier exam to one of his protegees.  This blatant cheating was uncovered because the protegee had second thoughts and consulted a lawyer after taking the exam, and passing.

Nobody knows how many people cheated on the September exam. The Court has only said a lawyer contacted them to say that a “member of the Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas disclosed confidential information pertinent to the tasting portion of the 2018 Master Sommelier Diploma Examination prior to the examination.”

-Frances Dinkelspiel, The Daily Beast

It is well-known that members of the board will tutor the very candidates they are supposed to be testing.  This type of advocacy is part of the Master Sommelier culture. While on the surface this may seem innocuous, consider that this gives the beneficiaries (who are mostly male and white) a huge competitive advantage over other candidates.

Master Sommelier and (Former) Board Member Andrew McNamara tutoring an Advanced Sommelier candidate – He and She On Wine.

This cronyism goes far beyond giving an unfair advantage to certain people: it has clearly encouraged outright cheating. It was a fluke that the fraud was exposed, and we have no way to know how long such cheating has been going on:  the Court continues to stonewall any outside investigation into the scandal.

This is not the only issue with cronyism. Board members are also allowed to change the scores after the exam to benefit certain applicants.

As highlighted in Uncorked, former CMSA board chairman Joseph Spellman, MS, wrote on social media that the CMSA exam committee “reserves the right to change the sequence or selection or point values/scoring of the wines”

Courtney Schiessl, SevenFiftyDaily

After clearly stating that the board will change scores for some candidates, he backtracked and claimed they would only do so “to adjust for exam flaws”.  After discussing this issue with multiple sommeliers who have conducted blind tasting exams, there seems to be no valid reason to ever change a grade after the exam has been conducted.

The Court of Master Sommeliers has refused to comment on these serious issues, despite being widely reported on in the media. At this point, it is illogical to assume there was only one case of cheating, or that altering final scores is only done “to adjust for exam flaws.”  It is entirely possible the premise of the Master Sommelier certification is a fabrication. 

The Court of Master Sommeliers Has A Money Problem

The Court is a nonprofit agency [501©(6)] under US law. In their filings with the IRS, it clearly shows that they make an average of five million dollars a year, almost all of it earned through entrance fees for sommelier exams.

Where does that money go?  According to the US government, nearly all that money goes to compensation and management expenses.

Compensation to the board and employees is 25% of their annual budget.

Management expenses (Including legal, accounting, occupancy, entertainment, and travel) are 44% of their total budget.

Having nearly 70% of a budget devoted to administration and expenses is a red flag, according to many nonprofit watchdogs.

The website SeriousGivers places nonprofits into three groups: green zone, yellow zone and red zone. The red zone is for nonprofits that spend more than 50 percent on fundraising and management. The green zone is for nonprofits that spend between 20 percent and 30 percent.

-Steve McDonnell, BizFluent

While these red flags are problematic, the Court is also not fulfilling its obligations as a non-profit.

The 501©(6) designation includes membership-based organizations or clubs that promote the business interests of their members… Typical ways that a 501©(6) nonprofit promotes the business interests of its members include gathering and presenting industry data to governmental bureaus and agencies and lobbying for legislation supportive of the group’s mutual interests…the organization must serve the “common interests” of those members and must not engage in business for profit.

Joanne Fritz, The Balance Small Business

According to its own documentation, the CSMSA  is not serving the common interests of the sommelier trade, as it is legally bound to.  It is only spending money to benefit its board of directors and employees. In its filings for 2018, the CMSA spent exactly zero dollars to support the sommelier community.

Alternatives to the Court of Master Sommeliers

Do you think it’s time to boycott the CMSA? There are several accreditation agencies in the wine trade that offer sommelier certification.  They offer the exact same level of certification as the Court.  You can check out a comparison chart of the three major wine trade certification bodies.

  The post Boycott the Court of Master Sommeliers? appeared first on SOMM • Reviews of Sommelier Courses and Wine Schools.

from SOMM • Reviews of Sommelier Courses and Wine Schools https://www.somm.us/boycott-master-sommeliers/ from SOMM https://somm3.tumblr.com/post/621399673203195904

[jessicakehoe]

12 Movies and TV Shows We’re Excited to Stream in May 2020

We’ve got a lot of time on our hands right now. Here are all the movies and television shows we can’t wait to stream in May 2020.

Netflix Canada

Hollywood This limited series from Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan follows a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers as they try to make it in post-World War II Hollywood, no matter the cost. Each character offers a peek behind the gilded curtain, spotlighting the unfair systems and racial, gender and sexuality biases of the film industry. The series stars Darren Criss, Laura Harrier, Dylan McDermott, Holland Taylor, Patti LuPone, Jim Parsons, Jeremy Pope and David Corenswet. Available May 1

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Becoming This documentary offers a rare and up-close look at Michelle Obama’s life, taking viewers behind the scenes of her 34-city book tour for her bestselling 2018 memoir Becoming. “Those months I spent traveling — meeting and connecting with people in cities across the globe — drove home the idea that what we share in common is deep and real and can’t be messed with,” said Obama in a statement. “I treasure the memories and that sense of connection now more than ever, as we struggle together to weather this pandemic, as we care for our loved ones, tend to our communities, and try to keep up with work and school while coping with huge amounts of loss, confusion, and uncertainty.” Available May 6

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Dead to Me: Season 2 Season 1 of this dramedy starring Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini closed with a dramatic cliffhanger, and the new season picks up in the aftermath of those shocking moments. The show’s leads start to unravel with the stress of having to keep their deadly secret, which becomes increasingly difficult with a detective hot on their heels. Available May 8

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Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which ran for four seasons on Netflix and ended in January 2019, is back for a special interactive episode. Kimmy’s getting married but she has to figure out how to foil the Reverend’s evil plot before her wedding, with viewers getting to determine the outcome in this choose-your-own-adventure episode. Series stars Ellie Kemper, Tituss Burgess, Jane Krakow­ski, Carol Kane, and Jon Hamm reprise their roles, in addition to a guest appearance by Daniel Radcliffe. Available May 12

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The Lovebirds Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae play a couple that accidentally gets caught up in a murder. In an effort to clear their names, they take off on a wild quest to find the killer before the police tracks them down. Over the course of one disastrous night, the pair end up in one bizarre, hilarious situation after another. Available May 22

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Space Force From the creators of The Office, this comedy series follows Steve Carell, who plays a four-star general in the US military, as he begrudgingly teams up with an eccentric scientist to get the armed forces’ new division, Space Force, off the ground. The goal of the new branch is to “defend satellites from attack” and “perform other space-related tasks.” The series also stars John Malkovich, Lisa Kudrow, Jimmy O Yang, Noah Emmerich and Fred Willard. Available May 29

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Crave

Betty This new HBO series is a spin-off of Skate Kitchen, a 2018 film about a group of female skateboarders in New York City. The story is inspired by a real-life group of teenage skaters, some of whom starred in both the film and the upcoming series. Focusing on the group’s efforts to stand out in New York’s predominantly male world of skateboarding, the series stars Dede Lovelace, Kabrina “Moonbear” Adams, Nina Moran, Ajani Russell and Rachelle Vinberg. Available May 1

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Parasite This South Korean film swept up at the Oscars earlier this year, taking home four Academy Awards, including one for Best Picture, a first for a non-English language film. The masterpiece by director Bong Joon Ho is a tale of class discrimination and disparity, told through the experience of a poor family that cons its way into the home of a wealthy family. Available May 29

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Ramy: Season 2 Created by and starring comedian Ramy Youssef, who won a Golden Globe for his performance earlier this year, the show about an Egyptian-American family in New Jersey returns for its second season. The series follows Ramy Hassan, played by Youssef, as he “delves further into his spiritual journey, finding a new Muslim community and embracing deeper commitment to his faith.” Two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali also joins the cast this season, playing Sheikh Ali, a mentor to Ramy. Available May 29

See the first look at Mahershala Ali in Ramy season 2 https://t.co/rn0xOvxD3B

— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) April 28, 2020

Amazon Prime Video

Hustlers “The game is rigged and it does not reward people who play by the rules,” says Jennifer Lopez’s character Ramona in this film about a group of strippers in New York who con wealthy stock traders and finance CEOs out of thousands of dollars. Based on a true story, Hustlers is adapted from a New York magazine article from 2015. In addition to Lopez, the film stars Constance Wu, Lili Reinhart, Keke Palmer and Julia Stiles, as well as Cardi B and Lizzo in cameo roles. Available May 1

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The Great This satirical drama follows the rise of Catherine the Great from outsider to the longest reigning female ruler in Russia’s history. Elle Fanning plays the lead role, with Nicholas Hoult, Phoebe Fox, Gwilym Lee and Sebastian de Souza as co-stars. “Sort of” based on historical facts, according to the trailer, the series is written by Tony McNamara, who was nominated for a screenwriting Oscar for The Favourite at the 2019 Academy Awards. Available May 16

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Homecoming: Season 2 The first season of this critically-acclaimed psychological thriller was adapted from a hit podcast, and featured Stephan James, Julia Roberts, Hong Chau and Bobby Canavale. The show returns for its second season with a new mystery revolving around veterans at the secretive Homecoming facility, and features James and Chau from the first season along with new stars Janelle Monáe, Joan Cusack and Chris Cooper. Available May 22

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The post 12 Movies and TV Shows We’re Excited to Stream in May 2020 appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

12 Movies and TV Shows We’re Excited to Stream in May 2020 published first on https://borboletabags.tumblr.com/

[ramrodd]

In organizational design, how long does the entire design process take?

In a healthy organization defined by Deming's Principles of Quality, incremental improvement based on Esprit de Corps never stops. At Amazon, the organizational design process is structured to suppress Esprit de Corps.

COMMENTARY:

In a healthy organization, it never stops.

George Marshall began reforms of the Army in 1942 and this latest uniform change, though somewhat frivolous, reflects that process. The “Be All You Can Be” recruiting slogan of the 70s is a direct result of the organizational reforms the Army undertook as a direct result of Vietnam and these reforms were underwritten by a general re-organization of the Army that McNamara authorized in 1962 that created Tradoc, which is a military think tank based on the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars to ensure a constant progressive agitation.

To be sure, most of these design changes amount to tweaks of the existing processes, such as when a new CEO takes over and fires a bunch of people for a pyrrhic improvement in the ROI resulting from looting the payroll budget, but without any actual performance improvement.

For example, during the 80s and 90s, the Deming Quality principles were employed with the advertised purpose of improving organizational performance by design , but were actually part of the on-going ideological assault against organized labor associated with the Public Decision agenda of Reaganomics. In this regards, “Neutron Jack” Welch’s tenure at GE can be understood as continuous design change which he rationalized as “cost cutting” but, in reality, was a process of systematic asset stripping from the corporation which has left the organization devastated in his wake. In this case, “design change” continues as the organization spirals into oblivion for no particular purpose except the enrichment of a narrow band of insider interests.

In contrast. Army Family Team Building is a program of continuous design change the US Army/Tradoc introduced in 1994 specifically to ensure constant readiness and community resilience that had been degraded by the reforms that McNamara had introduced based on the Harvard management model. This program has proven to be an essential force multiplier in the face of the high-cycle deployment milieu resulting from the cosmic blunder of the Iraqi invasion and the continuing distortions of American foreign policy arising from the “regime change” paradigm of the Project for the New American Century John Bolton and Mike Pompeo continue to promote in the name of national security. The design change that politicians, generally, haven’t absorbed in their military calculus is the impact on sustainable manpower requirements by the All Volunteer Military: without the draft, we don’t have the military necessary for an invasion of Iran. Army Family Team Building is just barely keeping the Regular US Army in the game.

On the positive side, the shifting in and out of theater of entire National Guard units is actually a very effective method of organization design up-grade, as an otherwise moribund operational catalogue is embedded in the velocities of the down-range task environment. To say the least, the operational design becomes sublimly modified by getting everybody shot at 24/7.

“Drive fear out of the system” is one of the design principles of Deming’s Quality agenda, the irony being that the fear of getting fired as a result of Deming’s Quality principles being adopted in organizational design has a detrimental effect on performance which most Harvard-trained executives simply do not acknowledge as factors in organizational performance, primarily because the default leadership style of the Harvard MBA paradigm is management by fear. “Neutron Jack” wWelch had a personnel policy of firing 10% of the white collar work force annually on the basis that it ensured only the best people were retained in the system, the result being that GE ended up running pretty much like the Trump wWhite House in terms of inappropriate competition and political gamesmanship. There are few models of organizational incompetence more profound than the GOP Deep State, generally, and the Trump administration, in particular, and, in the case of the Trump administraton, the dysfunctional nature of the culture is a reflection of the management style of the chief executive.

Amazon is an example of an organization with a culture defined by Jeff Bezos’s leadership style of management by fear. John Oliver’s Warehouse episode is a case study in the dystopian organizational performance culture created by Bezos’s 19th century theory of labor and the means of production (a paradigm refuted entirely by the Army Family Team Building program). The union busting nature of Amazon’s personnel policies are explicitly expressed at 16:16 - 16:43 in the video and reflect perfectly the deliberate suppression of the management principle of Esprit de Corps incorporated in the Harvard business model and this philosoph comes pretty directly from the political philosopy of the Koch brother’s social engineering reflected in the Reaganomics of the GOP Deep State since 1981. And Amazon’s anti-union advocacy is an on-going design feature of their operations.

Warehouses: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

 Here’s the thing  no matter how minimal the skill sets necessary for the incumbant worker to successfully complete his or her tasks, they represent a cumlative capital investment measured by their hourly wage. There is a learning curve for everything that ensures sustainable performance. The Amazon managers may believe that their entire training investment in each worker amounts to the time it takes to orient them to the geography of the warehouse and the operation of the dispatch gizmos, but workers are continually figuring out how to optimize their personal interface with the parameters of the mandated contribution and, over time, these personal design processes are reflected in the overall Quality of the organizational performance.

Every time someone is fired at any level of the organization, this learning curve investment is thrown away. High turn-over rates are a blatant metric of systemic inefficiencies. The synergies that are lost are incalcuable and a high-turn over tate is an element of a continuous process of organizational design merely to maintain the baseline operational standard.

In short, the organizational design philosophy of Amazon’s union busting policies and management by fear are the antithesis to the Army Family Team Bulding program of perpetual readiness and community resilience. Army Family Team Building originates directly from the management principle of Esprit de Corps while Amazon’s personnel policies are designed to suppress it.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Jeff Bezos is using a performance model that was state of the art when women began to play half-court basketball and his structural process of organization design will never end and never advance.

[skiinggray5-blog]

This Week in Superlatives: Most Dramatic First Kiss, Biggest Cameo Party and the Stunt That Almost Gave Us a Heart Attack

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Watch This Now – Feb. 4-10, 2019

Afraid you might've missed something major on TV this week? Not to fear! Here, we break down all the biggest moments of the week, for better and for worse, by dishing out some prizes to those small screen moments that stood out the most.

The preview we can't stop thinking about: Thanks to the Super Bowl, there were a lot of new commercials and trailers to savor this week, but the one that has stuck with us most is the first-look at Jordan Peele's The Twilight Zone. If this series reboot wasn't exciting enough with all of its buzzy cast members and what storylines we know we can expect, this spoiler-free and rather simple preview really sent the message home that this take would have exactly the right tone and texture to serve as an eerie socio-commentary of our time. Game of Thrones might've upped its WTF factor a bit with that completely unexpected Bud Light crossover, and The Handmaid's Tale's melting record-style sound effect was well-played, but Peele was the secret hero of the whole Super Bowl with this trailer (and the one for Us, AND the one for Toy Story 4).

The stunt that almost gave us a heart attack: The first two episodes of CBS' new reality competition series The World's Best had everyone holding their breath as British daredevil Matt Johnson, aka "The Drowning Man," decided to lock himself into a water-filled tank so that they could prove himself a bona fide escape artist. As time ticked past the 2-minute mark on his submersion, and he proceeded to fumble for the dropped key that would save him, the expressions on James Corden, Drew Barrymore, Rupaul and Faith Hill's faces said it all: This guy is either really brave or completely nuts (or both), and it's not clear if he's going to pull this off or die right now. The good news is, he ultimately made it out. Gasping, but still alive. Phew.

Most GIFable moment: Terry Crews shaking his stuff on America's Got Talent is one of the best things that happened all week.

Terry Crews, America's Got Talent

Pettiest company drama: Here we go again with Netflix getting more shade from its competitors. This time, it was FX CEO John Landgraf who cast some doubt on all those jaw-dropping viewership numbers the streaming service has been touting lately. Hmmm.

Biggest groan: Speaking of Netflix, the company has decided to transform itself into Goop TV this fall for some reason.

The most awkward first kiss: The Bachelor really outdid itself this week by having Heather receive her first kiss EVER on the show. Unlike Elyse, who didn't seem to get the memo that she'd have to share Colton Underwood (or that he hadn't proposed to her yet), Heather was happy to swap spit with Colton in Thailand... after what felt like 20 minutes of tension-building awkward silence, of course.

Best first kiss: Shout out to Riverdale for finally getting Archie (KJ Apa) and Josie (Ashleigh Murray) to go there (hopefully this has no bearing on Josie's decision to move to New York), but we gotta give the best first kiss of the week prize to DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) and Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) on Grey's Anatomy. This is the thing MerLuca fans have been waiting for, after that straight-up mean elevator tease. DeLuca got pretty spicy in the build-up to it, though, no?

The coolest cameo onslaught: Arrow's 150th episode was straight-up bananas with the key character cameos. The docu-style episode featured Oliver (Stephen Amell) being followed around by the film crew, with interviews of Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne), Thea Queen (Willa Holland), Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), Sin (Bex Taylor-Klaus), Rory Regan (Joe DiNicol), Roy Harper (Colton Haynes), Diggle (David Ramsey) and Barry Allen (Grant Gustin). Plus, the episode's action got Rene (Rick Gonzalez), Curtis (Echo Kellum) and Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) back into their vigilante masks without them ending up in prison. Hooray! All was well until we got a look at the future, as Blackstar (Katherine McNamara) and Connor Hawke (Joseph David Jones) visited the now-run-down Arrow cave and hinted that there are some dark days ahead for our heroes.

Valuable lesson time: Like its parent program, Grown-ish decided to slow down and try and teach us all a little something with its latest episode centered around a thoughtful and nuanced discussion of the college's new policy about consent. Good talk.

grown-ish

The unsurprising surprise: The Masked Singer has certainly surprised us before, but not this week. The revelation that the Raven was Ricki Lake was a surprise to exactly zero people who'd been paying attention to her little clues.

Biggest letdown: Chicago P.D.'s second effort to address the Black Lives Matter movement was a well-intentioned mess and blew yet another opportunity to take a stand.

Manliest man tears: Supernatural's 300th episode was full of attractive grown men crying. Jeffrey Dean Morgan made his first appearance as John Winchester since Season 2, and the family reunion that ensued was cathartic for both Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles). But once everyone realized that John couldn't stay because it screwed up the timeline, there wasn't just a Single Man Tear™ trickling down a chiseled jawline. Oh no, there were lots and lots of man tears flowing. And OK, maybe we shed some tears too. It was emotional, all right?

Binge(s) of the week: Once again, we gotta give this one to Netflix as they roll out their new sci-fi fantasy series The Umbrella Academy and the third season of One Day at a Time. But props are also due to Amazon Prime, which adds The Expanse's third season its streaming offerings this week as well.

PHOTOS: Galentine's Day Gift Guide

Parks and Recreation

Source: https://www.tvguide.com/news/tv-guide-superlatives-february-8/?rss=breakingnews

[ashleydpalmerusa]

Here Is More Proof That EY Switzerland Is a Total Frat House

Well, guys, we learned today that at an EY Switzerland holiday party a few years ago, Santa Claus got an erotic lap dance on stage in front of about 200 people. And the man dressed like jolly ol’ Saint Nick is a partner in the firm’s banking practice, and the woman grinding on his lap was his secretary.

This little holiday performance was reported today by Zurich financial news website Inside Paradeplatz and confirmed to Going Concern by a person who said they attended that party. Another tipster told us:

“[This] is probably the stupidest thing to do for your career at EY except hitting Mr. Weinberger in the face with a baseball bat.

“It seemed like this stupid fuck could get away with his stupidity, due to his excellent relationship with the CEO of EY Switzerland, Mr. [Marcel] Stalder.”

While neither the partner nor the secretary were disciplined by the firm (that we’re aware of), the partner is reportedly leaving EY for a job at management consulting firm Bain & Company, where he has connections, we were told.

And today’s lap-dance revelation comes at a time when sexual harassment allegations made by a former EY Switzerland female associate are being investigated by an independent law firm. Kinda makes you wonder about the culture, or “ecosystem,” Stalder’s got going on at EY Switzerland. One of our tipsters believes Stalder is “dead meat due to his idiotic attempt to cover up the harassment case.”

According to Inside Paradeplatz, the 2015 holiday party lap dance is still being talked about by people at EY Switzerland, and not in a good way, as some employees found it “tasteless”:

[Article translated from German to English]

Three years ago in December, EY Switzerland threw one of their legendary parties for employees in a restaurant in Zurich-Nord. There were around 150 to 200 EY employees. There was an official part with speeches and performances by the chefs before going over to drinking and dancing.

One of EY’s best-known partners dressed as Samichlaus was sitting on a chair on stage. Then his secretary sat on his lap, and the two performed a role-playing game … .

The leadership of EY found nothing wrong. … Otherwise, after the spectacle, photos of the scene would not have been hung for weeks in the EY building at Prime Tower in Circle 5.

The secretary posted several photos of the lap dance “all over” the fourth floor of EY’s offices in Zurich, we were told, and they weren’t taken down for several weeks until some employees complained to management.

One of our sources told us:

“This behavior is totally out of line in Switzerland corporate culture. In 20 professional years, I have not heard of a similar public event in consulting or financial services.”

When asked about the holiday party lap dance, Yvonne Diaz, EY’s global media relations director, emailed Going Concern the following statement:

“EY is committed to a workplace free of discrimination and harassment of any kind. We are currently thoroughly investigating allegations concerning a Swiss partner and former employee. All new information brought to our attention in relation with these matters will form part of this investigation. We take all allegations of sexual harassment seriously. Once we conclude our investigation, strong disciplinary actions will be taken against anyone we determine to have violated our policies and/or our Code of Conduct.”

An outside law firm is currently investigating sexual harassment allegations made against a managing partner/chief talent officer at EY Switzerland, who was suspended by the firm last December pending the outcome of the investigation. A former female associate claims that in 2016, the male executive made inappropriate comments about her breasts, made sexual advances toward her, and then bullied her when she rejected him.

The sexual harassment claims were investigated by EY Switzerland in 2016 and also reviewed in 2018 following a report to the firm’s ethics hotline. The firm found the allegations to be not credible at that time but reopened the investigation after “recent news coverage has presented new claims and allegations,” the firm said in an internal email.

We learned that Stefan Marc Schmid is the chief talent officer at EY Switzerland. An Inside Paradeplatz report in December did not name Schmid as the EY executive accused of sexual harassment, but it did refer to him as “S.” and said, “As the talent officer of EY Switzerland, he was in charge of all personnel matters. He sat on the management board of the Swiss national company.”

According to Schmid’s LinkedIn profile, which has since been deleted, he is a managing partner and the chief talent officer at EY Switzerland, and it states that he is a member of the Swiss executive management team at EY.

The sexual harassment allegations at EY Switzerland came to light just days after EY in the United Kingdom revealed that the firm had fired five partners over the past four years for inappropriate behavior, including sexual harassment and bullying.

EY U.S. was also at the center of two sexual harassment complaints last year by former female partners.

Last April, Jessica Casucci filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, accusing fellow partner John Martinkat of sexually assaulting her in front of two other male partners in a hotel bar in Orlando while they were on a business trip in 2015.

After the encounter, Martinkat continued the harassment with calls, texts, and emails asking Casucci to come to his hotel room to have sex.

Casucci and EY reached a settlement in May. As part of the settlement, Casucci agreed to leave the firm. Monetary terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Martinkat was eventually fired by EY.

Then in September 2018, Karen Ward filed a complaint with the EEOC, accusing EY of sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and retaliation. She alleges that her first supervisor at EY, principal Michael McNamara, made lewd comments about her breasts, frequently suggested that she accompany him to strip clubs, texted her at 2 a.m. while on a work trip asking her to meet him for drinks, and regularly used offensive language around her.

McNamara was fired by EY in 2015.

The post Here Is More Proof That EY Switzerland Is a Total Frat House appeared first on Going Concern.

from Accounting News https://goingconcern.com/here-is-more-proof-that-ey-switzerland-is-a-total-frat-house/