tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/hollywood-10549/articlesHollywood – The Conversation2024-03-14T17:07:50Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2240652024-03-14T17:07:50Z2024-03-14T17:07:50ZNine years after #OscarsSoWhite, a look at what’s changed<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/6e95de91-d1cf-4295-804b-8236faeb66fc?dark=true"></iframe>
<p>On Sunday, nine years after #OscarsSoWhite, millions of us tuned into watch the 96th annual Academy Awards — some to simply take in the spectacle. And some to see how much had changed. </p>
<p>The hashtag <a href="https://www.essence.com/news/nine-years-after-oscars-so-white/">#OscarsSoWhite</a> started after many people noticed that, for a second year in a row, all nominees for four of five major categories were white. The movement called on Hollywood to do better: to better reflect America’s demographic realities and also to expand its depiction of our histories. </p>
<p>The reason: representation in Hollywood matters. What gets put on screens and by whom has reverberating impacts on how all of us see each other and see ourselves. </p>
<p>So …. how did the Oscars do this year?</p>
<p>Let’s take a brief look at the evening, which started with the anti-war protests outside the theatre slowing down traffic and delaying the broadcast by a full five minutes.</p>
<p>Although there were only seven racialized actors up for nominations, there were some notable wins in that arena.</p>
<p>Cord Jefferson accepted his award for best adapted screenplay for <em>American Fiction</em>. When at the podium, he talked about how many people passed over the project — a Black film with a primary Black cast. To the producers out there listening, he made a plea to acknowledge and recognize the many talented Black playwrights out there that deserve similar opportunities. He suggested one way would be that producers fund 10 small projects instead of one $200 million dollar film. </p>
<p>Lily Gladstone, though she didn’t win, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2317306947668">was the first North American Indigenous woman to be nominated for best actress in its 96-year history</a>. </p>
<p>And Da'Vine Joy Randolph won best supporting actress for her role in <em>The Holdovers</em>, and made a memorable appearance and acceptance speech. </p>
<p>But one night at the Oscars doesn’t paint the full picture.</p>
<p>Just a few months ago, award-winning actor, Taraji P. Henson, broke down in tears <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/news/taraji-p-henson-cries-quitting-acting-pay-disparity-hollywood-1235847420/">in an interview with journalist Gayle King</a>. She was exhausted from breaking glass ceilings as a Black woman in film. “I’m just tired of working so hard being gracious at what I do getting paid a fraction of the cost,” she said. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over.”</p>
<p>Henson explained that in 2008’s <em>The Curious Case of Benjamin Button</em>, she was paid significantly less than her co-stars despite having third billing on the call sheet. Henson nearly turned down her role in <em>The Colour Purple</em> for similar reasons.</p>
<p>The pay disparity for Black and Indigenous women in comparison to white women in Hollywood is nothing new.</p>
<p>Here in Canada, the problem is just as pervasive.</p>
<p>Despite some recent wins, a report from Telefilm Canada revealed that <a href="https://www.screendaily.com/news/report-shows-drop-in-number-of-canadian-women-in-film-tv-compared-to-pre-pandemic-times-exclusive/5185452.article">Black women have the least representation in TV and film</a>.</p>
<p>They also lead the fewest projects and receive the least funding overall.</p>
<p>To shed some light on the issue, we spoke to two women well versed on the challenges of Black, Indigenous and other women of colour in film and TV.</p>
<p>Naila Keleta-Mae, a playright, poet and singer as well as the Canada Research Chair in Race, Gender and Performance and associate professor of communication arts at the University of Waterloo said that while we need more voices at the table, Black female artists have not been waiting for scraps: </p>
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<p>“We have been making the work all this time and will continue to regardless. While we insist on eating at the table, we will also simultaneously continue to nourish and feast on what we’ve been doing.”</p>
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<p>We also spoke with actor and director Mariah Inger, the chair of ACTRA National’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Committee.</p>
<p>Inger warned us to remember that the Oscars represent only one per cent of those working in the industry. And that while many working actors, writers, directors may look to the Oscars as a dream, the reality is that they show up every day because this is where they feel most called to contribute to the world. And she says, in that everyday world, things are shifting.</p>
<h2>Listen and follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/"><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_mJBLBznANz6ID9rBCUk7gv_ZRC4Og9-">YouTube</a> or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts. Full but unedited transcripts are available within seven days of publication.</p>
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It’s been nine years since #OscarsSoWhite called out a lack of diversity at the Oscars. Has anything changed? Prof. Naila Keleta-Mae and actress Mariah Inger unpack the progress.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientDannielle Piper, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me Resilient, The ConversationAteqah Khaki, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2235002024-03-08T22:16:27Z2024-03-08T22:16:27ZThe failures of ‘Oppenheimer’ and the ascent of the foreign film – 6 essential reads for the Oscars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580764/original/file-20240308-24-8d2882.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C4%2C2968%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Oscars will be handed out to winners across 24 categories, ranging from best picture to best costume design.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/oscars-are-displayed-at-meet-the-oscars-an-exhibit-news-photo/56822072?adppopup=true">Kevin Winter/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Because movies are so subjective, with views on the same performances and direction veering wildly from one critic to the next, determining the best of anything – whether it’s acting, direction or sound design – can be fraught. </p>
<p>But that controversy also makes for good drama and suspense – fitting for a ceremony celebrating the ways in which actors, directors and cinematographers captivate, move and thrill audiences.</p>
<p>So before you tune into Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, here are five recent stories – and one betting tip – about the films, fashion and actors who will be featured at this year’s show.</p>
<h2>1. Can you want an Oscar too much?</h2>
<p>As Michael Schulman, author of “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/oscar-wars-michael-schulman?variant=41063519387682">Oscar Wars</a>,” has written, the Academy Awards are not exactly a “barometer of artistic merit or worth.” </p>
<p>For that reason, in the months leading up to the Oscars, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes politicking as studios and producers make the case for why their writers, directors, cinematographers, costume designers and actors should win the top prize.</p>
<p>Sometimes the actors will make the case themselves. In recent years, more and more will promote the extent to which they prepared for their roles. </p>
<p>You may have heard that Cillian Murphy lost 20 pounds and took up smoking (fake) cigarettes to play nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, or that Bradley Cooper spent six years training in the art of conducting in order to film a key scene as Leonard Bernstein in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5535276/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_4_nm_3_q_maestro">Maestro</a>.”</p>
<p>The anecdotes are supposed to burnish their Oscar credentials. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/bradley-cooper-cillian-murphy-and-the-myths-of-method-acting-224340">Should they?</a></p>
<p>“Yes, the media loves these kinds of stories, and they can demonstrate a certain type of commitment,” writes Holy Cross theater professor <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/scott-malia-1468175">Scott Malia</a>. “But they can also paint actors as pampered and pretentious ‘artistes’ whose process is self-indulgent. A working actor struggling to pay the bills doesn’t have the luxury of, say, insisting that everyone address them by their character’s name.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bradley-cooper-cillian-murphy-and-the-myths-of-method-acting-224340">Bradley Cooper, Cillian Murphy and the myths of Method acting</a>
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<h2>2. The anti-‘Oppenheimer’ crowd</h2>
<p>Christopher Nolan’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/">Oppenheimer</a>” is the runaway favorite to be named best picture, <a href="https://www.vegasinsider.com/awards/odds/oscars/">according to Vegas Insider</a>. </p>
<p>But if The Conversation’s coverage of the film is any indication, it doesn’t deserve the win.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/charles-thorpe-1453180">Charles Thorpe</a> – a sociologist at the University of California, San Diego – explores why J. Robert Oppenheimer, in particular, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-american-culture-fixates-on-the-tragic-image-of-j-robert-oppenheimer-the-most-famous-man-behind-the-atomic-bomb-209365">has become the focus of so much writing on the bomb</a>.</p>
<p>On the one hand, it’s a lot easier to digest the complexities of science, politics and human suffering through an individual – “a human-scaled way to talk about an otherwise overwhelming topic,” as Thorpe puts it.</p>
<p>But on the other hand, Thorpe argues that American culture’s “fascination with the man behind the bomb often seems to eclipse the horrific reality of nuclear weapons themselves.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-american-culture-fixates-on-the-tragic-image-of-j-robert-oppenheimer-the-most-famous-man-behind-the-atomic-bomb-209365">Why American culture fixates on the tragic image of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the most famous man behind the atomic bomb</a>
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<h2>3. Few new insights</h2>
<p>Michigan State University historian <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/naoko-wake-1508370">Naoko Wake</a> also takes issue with what she calls the “inward-looking” nature of “Oppenheimer.”</p>
<p>Like so many other films about the bomb, Nolan applies a distinctly Western lens that, in Wake’s view, <a href="https://theconversation.com/oppenheimer-is-a-disappointment-and-a-lost-opportunity-222591">has become cloudy and cracked from overuse</a>. </p>
<p>In the end, the film’s tension hinges on decisions made by Americans, for Americans, offering “few, if any, new insights about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their repercussions.” </p>
<p>“Even if this film is seen purely through the lens of entertainment,” Wake adds, “Nolan could have chosen to recognize why the bombs are such a galvanizing subject to begin with: They have done much, much more than make white, middle-class Americans feel anxious or guilty.”</p>
<p>“Their blasts reverberated across the globe,” she continues, “tearing apart not only America’s wartime enemies but also colonized peoples and racial minorities.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/despite-its-big-night-at-the-oscars-oppenheimer-is-a-disappointment-and-a-lost-opportunity-222591">Despite its big night at the Oscars, 'Oppenheimer' is a disappointment and a lost opportunity</a>
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<h2>4. Foreign films take center stage</h2>
<p>But for all the concern about American perspectives dominating interpretations of history, there’s been a striking shift in the film industry, which has taken a decidedly international turn over the past decade.</p>
<p>This year, three non-English language films – “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Past Lives” and “The Zone of Interest” – have been nominated for best picture. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An Asian woman in a blue dress stands on a street in front of a big, bright billboard advertising a screening for 'Past Lives.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580768/original/file-20240308-24-ik5y2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Korean-Canadian filmmaker Celine Song wrote and directed ‘Past Lives,’ which is one of three non-English language films nominated for Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/writer-and-director-celine-song-of-the-film-past-lives-news-photo/1489366618?adppopup=true">Mat Hayward/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Miami University film studies scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kerry-hegarty-1508053">Kerry Hegarty</a> tells the story of how non-English cinema has been gradually folded in the ceremonies – boxed out at first, eventually given its own category and finally winning best picture in 2020, when “Parasite” won.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-non-english-language-cinema-is-reshaping-the-oscars-landscape-222484">Hegarty explains how this didn’t happen naturally</a>; it took work. State-sponsored programs supporting filmmakers in foreign countries played a big role, as did changes in the demographic makeup of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.</p>
<p>“Streaming distribution has also democratized access to non-English language cinema,” she adds, “which was previously limited only to niche audiences in art house theaters in large cities.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-non-english-language-cinema-is-reshaping-the-oscars-landscape-222484">How non-English language cinema is reshaping the Oscars landscape</a>
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<h2>5. The guardians of glamour</h2>
<p>In the early years of the Academy Awards, what people wore to the event received little attention. In fact, even after televisions landed in millions of living rooms across the U.S., movie fans couldn’t watch the Oscars on TV: The film industry resisted broadcasting the event on the medium it saw as its top competition.</p>
<p>That all changed once Hollywood ran into some financial trouble in the late 1940s and needed television networks to help pay for the annual event. All of a sudden, how movie stars appeared at the event mattered – <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-academy-awards-became-the-biggest-international-fashion-show-free-for-all-221477">and studios decided that this eccentric coterie needed some corralling</a>.</p>
<p>Enter Edith Head, guardian of glamour.</p>
<p>University of Southern California fashion scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/elizabeth-castaldo-lunden-1482727">Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén</a> tells the story of how Head – and, later, Fred Hayman – maintained boundaries of decorum, while also encouraging stars to showcase the latest luxury trends and attire, turning the event into a dazzling fashion spectacle.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-academy-awards-became-the-biggest-international-fashion-show-free-for-all-221477">How the Academy Awards became 'the biggest international fashion show free-for-all'</a>
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<h2>6. 92 years old, 54 nominations</h2>
<p>When 92-year-old composer John Williams strolls up to Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, he’ll be looking to secure his sixth gold statuette.</p>
<p>It’s been a while since Williams’ last win – exactly 30 years, when he won best original score for “Schindler’s List” in 1994. Nonetheless, Williams holds the record for most nominations for a living person, with 54. </p>
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<img alt="Elderly bald man with white beard conducts a concert." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580767/original/file-20240308-20-3z5nq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Composer John Williams will be looking to take home his sixth Academy Award. Williams holds the record for most nominations for a living person, with 54.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/composer-john-williams-conducts-the-concert-celebrating-the-news-photo/1549425746?adppopup=true">Shannon Finney/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Rice University music professor <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/arthur-gottschalk-1508701">Arthur Gottschalk</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-jaws-to-schindlers-list-john-williams-has-infused-movie-scores-with-adventure-and-emotion-222694">looks back on Williams’ illustrious career</a> and explains how the composer’s suite for “E.T.” burnished his reputation.</p>
<p>Not only was it Williams’ first score to be embraced by concert orchestras, but it also changed the way director Steven Spielberg edited the film, “inverting the normal relationship between director and composer,” Gottschalk writes.</p>
<p>“The scoring of the finale,” he continues, “in which protagonist Elliott and his friends help the alien escape captivity, is so effective that Spielberg re-cut the end of the film to match Williams’ music.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-jaws-to-schindlers-list-john-williams-has-infused-movie-scores-with-adventure-and-emotion-222694">From 'Jaws' to 'Schindler's List,' John Williams has infused movie scores with adventure and emotion</a>
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<p><em>This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223500/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Before you tune into Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, check out our coverage of the stars of this year’s show.Nick Lehr, Arts + Culture EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2245632024-03-05T16:34:19Z2024-03-05T16:34:19ZEarly Hollywood was financed by Italian immigrants – as our new documentary shows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578288/original/file-20240227-16-oa1sag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C4%2C2862%2C1612&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A. P. Giannini photographed in March 1927, and the Hollywood sign.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M._A._P._Giannini,_président_de_la_Banque_d%27Italie.jpg">Agence Rol. Agence photographique/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What do Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney and Frank Capra have in common? The same Italian banker.</p>
<p>Early Hollywood movies have been widely studied and investigated. But surprisingly little is known about their financing, and how the contributions of low-income immigrants helped shape the Hollywood film industry – especially Italians.</p>
<p>Approximately <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/df00972512508ffd6e0cd72cb6826337/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819447">4 million people</a> from disadvantaged backgrounds had arrived in the US via Ellis Island by 1920. They have <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/urban-history/article/abs/black-hands-and-white-hearts-italian-immigrants-as-urban-racial-types-in-early-american-film-culture/895A19920CDD8E55120426314ACFC5C9">often been portrayed</a> in film as delinquents of New York’s Lower East Side. This stereotypical character assigned to Italians persisted for decades, and was revived by the popularity of <a href="https://books.google.it/books?hl=it&lr=&id=2482tWkpfpQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA19&dq=mafia+movies+italians+in+america&ots=QgNWfZMFT1&sig=zA9LZ9WOs8DMg3KG-p6TWuhlwSM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=mafia%20movies%20italians%20in%20america&f=false">mafia movies</a> and TV shows such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3200/JPFT.32.2.49-73?casa_token=xkSBo6cXC4sAAAAA:vt_Va3IVhP9pvawmG8e08i3yRlQtleZzSf7ARzYoY3y9wu_9ma1BIk4XKjMDM0mxpO8uq4BmpNc">The Sopranos</a>.</p>
<p>These portrayals have progressively influenced <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/467405?saml_data=eyJzYW1sVG9rZW4iOiJmNTc4OWJiMi1kMGEzLTQ0ZjQtODAzNy02ZmZkMWY5NGMyZjYiLCJlbWFpbCI6InpvcHBlbGNAd21pbi5hYy51ayIsImluc3RpdHV0aW9uSWRzIjpbIjhhYzIyMzA2LTAzMjMtNGE0OS1hZTFlLTUwNzE1YjVmMjY4YSJdfQ">public perceptions and attitudes</a> toward Italian immigrants and their descendants. But in reality, early Italian immigrants were central to the establishment and growth of the American economy. One visionary financier, whose name is not (yet) as well known as it should be (and that our <a href="https://www.daitona.it/projects/feature/a-p-giannini-bank-to-the-future/">upcoming documentary research</a> aims to spotlight) saw an opportunity to change the narrative.</p>
<h2>AP Giannini</h2>
<p>Amadeo Peter Giannini (1870-1949), commonly known as AP, was a popular figure in San Francisco. He was the son of Italian immigrants and the founder of the Bank of Italy, which he progressively grew into the Bank of America. Through this institution, Giannini contributed to the birth of projects such as the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goldengate-gianini/">Golden Gate Bridge</a> (1937), the 1948 <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/center/mm/eng/mm_dr_03.htm#:%7E:text=In%20the%20end%2C%20a%20total,exceeded%2C%20their%20prewar%20production%20levels/">Marshall Plan</a> (in which the US provided western European countries with economic aid following the second world war). He was also an important player in the birth of Hollywood.</p>
<p>Sometimes known as the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/A_P_Giannini.html?id=agBGtAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">“people’s banker”</a> or the <a href="https://www.newacademia.com/books/the-gentleman-banker-amadeo-peter-giannini-a-biographical-novel/">“gentleman banker”</a>, Giannini started out working in agriculture through his small family business. Having inherited some shares from his father-in-law in a small bank he was able to see that the system was constructed by and for the wealthy. </p>
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<img alt="A US national bank note issued by the Bank of Italy in 1927." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578300/original/file-20240227-20-bw4usc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">US national bank note issued by the Bank of Italy in 1927.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_$5_National_Bank_Note_from_Bank_of_Italy_NT%26SA,_San_Francisco.jpg">The Bureau of Engraving and Printing</a></span>
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<p>Giannini believed that immigrants chasing the American dream, like his own father and mother from Liguria, could be an important resource for the US. He believed that ethical banking would allow general social mobility, and with it the opportunity to finance young industries – such as cinema.</p>
<p>Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in 1904 as a small bank in San Francisco. There, minorities who were traditionally excluded from any form of financing, such as Italian, Chinese, Irish, Mexican and Portuguese people, could deposit their savings – no matter how modest. The bank was more than a place where to put your salary. It was an entry way into American institutions enabling such migrants to borrow money ethically, often on a handshake, and grow. </p>
<p>Not only did these deposits allow the migrant community to settle and flourish, but it meant that employment could be created by investing in immigrant businesses.</p>
<h2>Changing the game</h2>
<p>The most promising of these businesses was the movie studio system. The Bank of Italy began to lend money to young filmmakers and producers in Hollywood. Many of these filmmakers didn’t qualify for business loans, but as Giannini believed in building not only an industry, but a community, the bank would extend personal loans. </p>
<p>Producer Sol Lesser, best known for his Tarzan movies, is a case in point. While still a minor, he received a private loan undersigned by Giannini himself to buy seats for his first Nickelodeon movie theatre. This was the beginning of his path towards becoming an influential producer.</p>
<p>Giannini’s little bank figured out the lending system that has since become the industry standard. As Warren Sherk of the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences explains in our upcoming documentary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd-2KOQ6Mqg">AP Giannini: Bank to the future</a>, banks initially used film negatives as collateral, believing they held value since they could be used to make sellable prints and therefore allow them to recover their investment were the producers unable to fulfil the loan payments. But this approach prevented filmmakers from accessing, printing and distributing their own films. </p>
<p>As a solution, Giannini instead came up with a new protocol for film loans where the bank would secure the rights and distribution income of two films that had already been produced as security for the loan of the film financed by the bank. He also began what is now known as “attachment” – the practice of having a star attached to a film in order to secure ticket sales</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for our documentary, AP Giannini - Bank To The Future.</span></figcaption>
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<p>With this new financing model, the bank’s risk was minimised, the filmmakers were able to meet the conditions and the Hollywood industry thrived. Classics such as The Tramp (1915), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Gone With the Wind (1939) were financed through Giannini. Filmmakers including Charlie Chaplin, Frank Capra, Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, and organisations such as United Artists and even the Academy itself were backed by Giannini’s revolutionary vision.</p>
<p>The transparency of Giannini’s bank was central to his success and saved it during some of the most challenging financial times of the 20th century. Its stability was nourished by the constant influx of immigrant money, deposited by those yearning to become respected American citizens with a bank account, a privilege that was extended to women in 1920 when Bank of Italy opened the first women’s department in the country. </p>
<p>So much so that, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd-2KOQ6Mqg">as Sherk explains</a>, it was immigrants’ nickels and dimes, deposited in Bank of Italy and Bank of America, that funded the early Hollywood film industry. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How the son of Italian immigrants created the Bank of America, and funded early Hollywood in the process.Valentina Signorelli, Associate Professor in Film and TV, University of GreenwichCecilia Zoppelletto, Visiting lecturer in film studies, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2239332024-03-04T13:41:28Z2024-03-04T13:41:28ZStanley Kubrick redefined: recent research challenges myths to reveal the man behind the legend<p>Even 25 years after his death, Stanley Kubrick remains one of the most widely known directors of the 20th century. Many of the 13 films he made – including <a href="https://theconversation.com/2001-a-space-odyssey-still-leaves-an-indelible-mark-on-our-culture-55-years-on-209152">2001: A Space Odyssey</a> (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and <a href="https://theconversation.com/kafka-is-the-real-ghost-of-kubricks-the-shining-41853">The Shining</a> (1980) – are still revered today and remembered as some of the best movies ever produced. </p>
<p>To coincide with the anniversary of his death on March 7 1999, I have co-authored the first full-length <a href="https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571370368-kubrick/">biography of Kubrick</a> in more than two decades. Based on the latest <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/898140">research</a> into Kubrick, access to his <a href="https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/library-services/special-collections-and-archives/archives-and-special-collections-centre/the-stanley-kubrick-archive">archive</a> at the University of Arts London, other repositories around the world, family members, cast and creatives, we have delved into his life in detail that few others have achieved.</p>
<h2>Shy but not reclusive</h2>
<p>During his life Kubrick was famously shy with the media, and frequently <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2010/04/kubrick-199908">interpreted</a> as reclusive. He granted very few interviews, and only when he had a film to publicise. He learned early on that he was not good at promoting his films personally. In the few interviews with Kubrick that survive, he comes across as nervous and ill at ease. </p>
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<p>Kubrick was so shy and protective of his private life that few people recognised him publicly. Though born and brought up in New York, he settled in England in the 1960s and remained there. He could wander into Rymans in St Albans and buy stationery (he loved paper, pens and the like) or get a new pair of spectacles and no one would recognise him. It helped that he often used his brother-in-law’s name when doing so. </p>
<p>In fact, Kubrick was such an unfamiliar figure that an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/mar/14/andrewanthony">imposter</a> went around London’s clubs and bars in the early 1990s pretending to be him. The imposter was only found out when Kubrick started receiving strange phone calls from spurned lovers and bars with huge unpaid drinks tabs. </p>
<h2>Kubrick archive</h2>
<p>His archive only opened in 2007, but it provides an insight into this extremely private director’s world as never before. Kubrick was a hoarder and held on to the miscellany and detritus of his personal and professional worlds. This included high school yearbooks, photographs he took for Look magazine, receipts, bills, invoices, as well as the voluminous amount of material a film production (especially a Kubrick production) generated.</p>
<p>Through studying this archival material, combined with our new interviews, we learned about the human being behind the mythology. Kubrick was a film director but he was also a son, brother, husband, father and friend. </p>
<p>He liked to entertain, chat, make jokes and cook. He loved making American-style fast food and huge sandwiches, often using a microwave as he was a lover of gadgets, adopting new technology as soon as it became available. This was as true of his private life (where he used car phones, pagers and computers) as his working life where he was an early adopter of Steadicam cameras and the Avid editing system. </p>
<p>He had a fear of flying, but it was based on his own knowledge as a trained pilot and frequent monitoring of radio traffic control. It’s not true that he never went over 30mph in a car, as has been <a href="http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/faq/index3.html">claimed</a>. Rather, he loved cars – fast German ones in particular – but frequently crashed them.</p>
<h2>Kubrick at work</h2>
<p>We uncovered much about Kubrick’s working practices too. Kubrick was a master of the insurance claim. He never hesitated to file one following an accident or fire on set. Not only did this help him to recoup his budget but it also gave him precious time to regroup and think about his options. </p>
<p>We also discovered how Kubrick had to beg, borrow and virtually steal to get most of his projects greenlit. It wasn’t until he signed with Warner Brothers in the 1970s – from A Clockwork Orange onwards – that he had a permanent financial backer. But even then he wasn’t guaranteed funding if the project wasn’t right. </p>
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<img alt="A black and white close up of Stanley Kubrick's face." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577010/original/file-20240221-22-d3kke5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1789%2C1078&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577010/original/file-20240221-22-d3kke5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577010/original/file-20240221-22-d3kke5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577010/original/file-20240221-22-d3kke5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577010/original/file-20240221-22-d3kke5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577010/original/file-20240221-22-d3kke5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577010/original/file-20240221-22-d3kke5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Kubrick was famously shy in public.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stanley_Kubrick_in_Dr._Strangelove_Trailer_(1).jpg">Mayimbú/Wikimedia</a></span>
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<p>And those projects included the famously never made <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190808-was-napoleon-the-greatest-film-never-made">biopic of Napoleon</a> as the time wasn’t right, or his never-to-be-made Holocaust film, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/archive-fever-stanley-kubrick-and-the-aryan-papers">Aryan Papers</a>, which lacked a big star and came too close on the heels of Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/2001-a-space-odyssey-still-leaves-an-indelible-mark-on-our-culture-55-years-on-209152">2001: A Space Odyssey still leaves an indelible mark on our culture 55 years on</a>
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<p>It is also tempting to wonder what would have happened had he made the film <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/15/stanley-kubrick-lost-screenplay-burning-secret-found">Burning Secret</a> in 1956, with MGM studios, with whom he had signed a contract. Would he have become another studio stooge or been fired for being too much of a maverick? What would have been the implications for his career?</p>
<p>While we can only imagine how those projects would have turned out, what remains is an extraordinary body of work that includes thousands of photographs, three documentaries and 13 feature films. Stanley Kubrick may have shunned the limelight, but his films have had a profound influence on the movie and television industries, as well as a lasting impact on popular and political culture.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223933/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathan Abrams receives and has previously received external funding, including charity and research council grants.</span></em></p>25 years after the death of the legendary director, a new book offers fresh insights into Stanley Kubrick’s personal and professional life.Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film Studies, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2224842024-03-04T13:38:53Z2024-03-04T13:38:53ZHow non-English language cinema is reshaping the Oscars landscape<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579014/original/file-20240229-28-jndcqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C1%2C1153%2C715&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Best picture nominee 'Past Lives' was directed by South Korean-Canadian filmmaker Celine Song and has scenes in Korean and English.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gq.com/photos/64ea9f7905e3a8acb2fa7700/16:9/w_2560%2Cc_limit/MCDPALI_EC043.jpeg">A24/Everett Collection</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past few years, the Oscars have taken a decidedly international turn. </p>
<p>This year, of the 10 films nominated for an Academy Award for best picture, <a href="https://abc7news.com/oscars-2024-lily-gladstone-native-american-oppenheimer/14453217/">three of them</a> – “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17009710/">Anatomy of a Fall</a>,” “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13238346/">Past Lives</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7160372/">The Zone of Interest</a>” – are non-English language films. </p>
<p>In the first two decades of the Academy Awards, only three foreign films – all European – earned Oscar nominations: the 1938 French film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028950/">La Grande Illusion</a>,” which was <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/118332/world-war-i-film-la-grande-illusion">nominated for best picture</a>, or outstanding production, as it was then known; the 1944 Swiss film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037899/">Marie Louise</a>,” which was the <a href="https://collider.com/oscars-first-non-american-film-win-marie-louise/">first foreign film to win an Academy Award</a>, for best screenplay; and the 1932 French film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022599/">À nous la liberté</a>,” nominated for best production design.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://miamioh.edu/profiles/cas/kerry-hegarty.html">scholar of film history</a>, I see the recent recognition of non-English language films as the result of demographic changes in the industry and within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences itself. </p>
<h2>Hollywood’s dominance wanes</h2>
<p>During World War II, Hollywood experienced record financial success, with <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/motion-picture-industry-during-world-war-ii#Foreign_Markets">one-third of its revenue</a> coming from foreign markets – mainly the United Kingdom and Latin America. The industry leveraged the appeal of American movies to employ them as cultural ambassadors to promote democratic ideals. Notably, a popular film like “Casablanca” not only entertained audiences but also <a href="https://brightlightsfilm.com/casablanca-romance-propaganda/">served as potent anti-fascist propaganda</a>. </p>
<p>After the war, co-productions and distribution agreements with foreign studios opened new markets, <a href="https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/film-history-introduction-thompson-bordwell/M9781260837476.html">boosting Hollywood’s economic influence</a> and reinforcing English language cinema’s global dominance. </p>
<p>However, by the late 1940s, Hollywood experienced some challenges: Studios lost an anti-trust case that <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/paramount-decrees-antitrust-hollywood-1235581215/">challenged their monopoly</a> over producing, distributing and exhibiting films, while television threatened to siphon away theatergoers. With studios undergoing major budget and production cuts, a 1949 Fortune magazine article posed the question “<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/paramount-decrees-antitrust-hollywood-1235581215/">Movies: The End of an Era?</a>” </p>
<p>During that same period, <a href="https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/film-history-introduction-thompson-bordwell/M9781260837476.html">art film movements</a> in nations such as Sweden, France, Italy and Japan arose to contest Hollywood’s dominance, breathing new life into the cinematic arts. </p>
<p>These works <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/beyond/hollywood.html">contrasted sharply with Hollywood films</a>, many of which had become formulaic by the 1950s and were constrained by an outdated censorship code. </p>
<h2>A category of their own</h2>
<p>Between 1947 and 1956, foreign films received honorary Oscars, with <a href="https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/film-history-introduction-thompson-bordwell/M9781260837476.html">France and Italy dominating the accolades</a>. In 1956, the category of “best foreign language film” was officially established as an annual recognition, marking a pivotal moment in Oscars history. </p>
<p>However, any film nominated in that category is also <a href="https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/96o_complete_rules.pdf">eligible to be nominated</a> in the broader best picture category. The only stipulation is that it needs to have had a theatrical run in a Los Angeles County commercial movie theater for at least seven consecutive days. </p>
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<img alt="Black and white photo of a middle-aged man running his hands through his hair while sitting in a chair next to a large camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579017/original/file-20240229-25-5t3mij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Italian director Federico Fellini’s ‘La Strada’ won the first Academy Award for best foreign language film in 1957.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/federico-fellini-on-the-set-of-the-film-rome-shot-at-news-photo/956703168?adppopup=true">Louis Goldman/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Until this year, only 10 foreign films have garnered this dual nomination. </p>
<p>In 2020, the South Korean film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/">Parasite</a>” became the first non-English language film to win both best international feature film – formerly known as best foreign language film – and best picture. Director Bong Joon-Ho also won the award for best director that year. Accompanied by an interpreter, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekMl5VHBH4I&ab_channel=Oscars">he gave his acceptance speech in Korean</a>. </p>
<p>During the 2019 Oscars, Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón – introduced in Spanish by actor Javier Bardem – accepted the Academy Award for what was then still called best foreign language film for his film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6155172/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_3_nm_4_q_roma">Roma</a>.” During his speech, he joked that he had grown up “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHk957dxJsI&ab_channel=Oscars">watching foreign language films</a> and learning so much from them. … Films like ‘Citizen Kane,’ ‘Jaws,’ ‘Rashomon,’ ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Breathless.’” </p>
<h2>Breathing new life into film</h2>
<p>Cuarón’s comments wryly question why English is considered the default language of a global industry. They also highlight how the categories of “Hollywood film” and “foreign film” aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>As in the past, many of the filmmakers pushing the boundaries of the medium are from outside the U.S. This isn’t due to a lack of talent within the U.S.; instead, it’s <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/cj.2020.0041">largely due to a lack of institutional funding</a> for independent productions. </p>
<p>On the other hand, in countries such as France, Germany, Canada, South Korea and Iran, there are state-sponsored programs to support filmmakers. These programs, which aim to promote national cultural expression, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjr014">allow for more experimentation</a>. </p>
<p>In recent decades, the cinematic landscape has been revitalized by movements from abroad, such as Denmark’s <a href="https://www.artforum.com/columns/dogma-95-201300/">Dogma 95 collective</a>, <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Life-Arts/Arts/How-South-Korea-became-the-home-of-noir-film">South Korea’s IMF noir genre</a> and <a href="https://www.curzon.com/journal/greek-weird-wave/">Greek Weird Wave films</a>. Filmmakers associated with these movements often transition to making English language cinema.</p>
<p>Take Yorgos Lanthimos, director of the Best Picture nominee “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14230458/">Poor Things</a>.” Lanthimos <a href="https://collider.com/yorgos-lanthimos-greek-weird-wave/">first gained recognition</a> for his contributions to the Greek Weird Wave, a cinematic movement that uses absurdist humor to critique societal norms and power structures. It emerged during <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/24/greece-debt-crisis-timeline-it-all-started-in-2001.html">the country’s economic crisis in the 2010s</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/">Parasite</a>” director Bong Joon-ho, known for his earlier Korean language films, is emblematic of the IMF noir movement, which explored the profound repercussions of <a href="https://courses.washington.edu/globfut/req%20readings/KimFinchKoreanStudies.pdf">the late 1990s financial crisis in South Korea</a> that was caused by policies dictated by the International Monetary Fund.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Balding middle-aged man with beard and red jacket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579018/original/file-20240229-18-efk0yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/yorgos-lanthimos-attends-the-50th-telluride-film-festival-news-photo/1655989058?adppopup=true">Vivien Killilea/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>The nomination process</h2>
<p>As Michael Schulman, author of “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/oscar-wars-michael-schulman?variant=41063519387682">Oscar Wars</a>,” argues, viewing the Academy Awards as a “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/oscar-wars-michael-schulman?variant=41063519387682">pure barometer of artistic merit or worth</a>” is a mistake. </p>
<p>Numerous factors, including the aggressiveness of Oscar campaign strategists and publicists working around the clock, as well as the composition of the awards committee, exert great influence over the outcome. </p>
<p>In the case of foreign films, the process is twofold. To secure an Oscar nomination as a country’s entry, a foreign film must first gain approval from a committee in its native country. It is then submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and subjected to a vote by the academy. Only one entry is allowed per country. </p>
<p>The intricate dynamics of this process are illustrated by the case of the French film “Anatomy of a Fall,” which was nominated for a best picture Academy Award but not best international feature from France. This decision was <a href="https://variety.com/2024/film/global/france-dysfunctional-oscar-committee-anatomy-of-a-fall-1235880857/">influenced by France’s small national nominating committee</a>, which, disconnected from the current climate of the U.S. academy, favored the nostalgic, culinary romance “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19760052/">The Taste of Things</a>,” starring Juliette Binoche. </p>
<h2>A more diverse academy</h2>
<p>The role of the voting committee in determining which films even reach consideration cannot be overstated. Over the last few years, this is what has most radically changed in the academy. In 2012, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-unmasking-oscar-academy-project-20120219-story.html">its composition was 94% white, 77% male</a> and had a median age of 62.</p>
<p>As highlighted by Schulman, the #Oscarssowhite controversy in 2015 <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/oscar-wars-michael-schulman?variant=41063519387682">spurred changes</a> to the academy’s makeup, in the hopes of addressing the industry’s under-recognition of the achievements of people of color. </p>
<p>There was also a concerted effort to enhance geographical diversity and infuse the awards with a more global perspective. In 2016, the new invitees to the academy <a href="https://press.oscars.org/news/96th-oscarsr-nominations-announced">were more diverse</a>: 46% were female, 41% were nonwhite, and they came from 59 different countries. This year, a groundbreaking 93 countries submitted nomination ballots, signifying unprecedented global participation in the Oscars. </p>
<p>Perhaps most significantly, beginning in 2024, the academy has required that, for a film to qualify for a Best Picture nomination, it must meet <a href="https://www.oscars.org/awards/representation-and-inclusion-standards">two out of four standards</a> established by the academy. </p>
<p>The criteria include having at least one lead or significant supporting actor from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group, or centering the main storyline on an underrepresented group. They also require representation in creative leadership positions and crew roles, along with paid apprenticeships for underrepresented groups. Even senior marketing teams require representation. All of these requirements lend themselves to the inclusion of more international film nominees. </p>
<p>Streaming distribution has also <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/awards/oscar-international-film-category-name-change-1203393900/">democratized access</a> to non-English language cinema, which was previously limited only to niche audiences in art house theaters in large cities.</p>
<p>The distribution company Neon, established in 2017, has been another crucial factor in reshaping the Oscars landscape. Led by Elissa Federoff, Neon is <a href="https://cineuropa.org/en/interview/1369/432732/">committed to breaking industry barriers</a>, diversifying content, transcending language barriers and engaging with younger audiences through platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Neon distributed both “Parasite” and “Anatomy of a Fall.”</p>
<p>As the Oscars evolve into a more globally conscious platform, the future of film seems destined to be shaped by those who think beyond the limitations of what was once considered “foreign,” and remain advocates for the universal language of the cinema.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerry Hegarty does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Non-English language cinema – previously seen by niche audiences – is increasingly finding acceptance and recognition, reflecting the many demographic changes taking place within the academy.Kerry Hegarty, Associate Professor of Film Studies, Miami UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2240972024-02-22T12:21:30Z2024-02-22T12:21:30ZIt Happened One Night at 90: the film that defined the romantic comedy<p>The renowned British philosopher <a href="https://www.philosophersmag.com/footnotes-to-plato/57-introducing-footnotes-to-plato">A.N. Whitehead once said</a> the entire history of European philosophy can be described as a series of footnotes to Plato. I would argue the entire history of the romcom is a series of footnotes to Frank Capra’s cynical romantic fable, It Happened One Night. As the film celebrates its 90th anniversary, it’s due a revisit.</p>
<p>It Happened One Night tells the story of a mismatched pairing between wealthy heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) and cynical journalist Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who meet on a Greyhound bus in southern Florida bound for New York City. Ellie has abandoned her sheltered upbringing to elope with a playboy fiancé. Peter, on the other hand, is a down-on-his-luck journalist looking for his latest scoop. </p>
<p>In a move that will surprise absolutely nobody, Ellie and Peter don’t stay mismatched for long. Indeed, after a few shared adventures, the two start finding qualities in one another they hadn’t noticed before. </p>
<p>I shan’t spoil exactly how those events unfold, but it is unlikely to shock anyone with even a passing knowledge of romcom tropes. But don’t confuse familiarity for cliche. Far from drawing from well-worn tropes, It Happened One Night charts the terrain within which all modern romcoms now seek to journey.</p>
<h2>The secret to the film’s success</h2>
<p>The film was a sensation on its release in 1933, becoming a star-making vehicle for its director, Frank Capra (who would go on to direct other classics including It’s a Wonderful Life). It is one of only three films in history to nab the Oscar “big five”, winning prizes for best actor, actress, adapted screenplay, director and picture. </p>
<p>The two pictures with which it shares this accolade, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991), highlights its achievement even further. The film won over the hearts and minds of a critical establishment who have always privileged the wrought suffering of drama over the seemingly lighter pleasure of comedy.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k4fsS7Fjqzk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The original trailer for It Happened One Night.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The film’s success can be attributed to simple but important things like the quality of its script, the lightness of its direction, and the charisma of its two leads. But there were other factors at play as well, namely the social and economic context in which it was made.</p>
<p>Released during the height of the Great Depression, the film’s class consciousness struck a chord with audiences seeking light relief from difficult circumstances in the story of two young, attractive people trying to traverse the country with only four dollars to their name. Economic deprivation has never looked so fun.</p>
<h2>A classic screwball comedy</h2>
<p>It is also a classic screwball comedy, a genre noted for its <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jfilmvideo.63.3.0045">risque approach</a> to gender and sexuality. It was released only a few months before the implementation of the infamous <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/early-hollywood-and-hays-code/">Hays Code</a>, Hollywood’s strict rules on morality which censored what filmmakers could and could not show onscreen for decades. </p>
<p>Aware of the potential for scandal in having its two leads share a number of motel rooms, the film’s screenwriter, Robert Riskin, transformed this source of tension into one of the film’s most charming plot lines. </p>
<p>Every night, to appease Ellie’s worries, Peter constructs a makeshift curtain he labels “the walls of Jericho”. This literally splits their lodgings in half to keep the couple as far apart as possible. And the film’s climax doesn’t half have fun when those <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOkqSKhKd40">walls come tumbling down</a>, metaphorically and literally.</p>
<p>But if the film is timely, it is also timeless. There were plenty of screwball comedies made during this era, many of which are wonderful films in their own right. But It Happened One Night exceeds all others in terms of its lasting influence, setting a template not only for future romcoms, but establishing a precedent that the genre continues to try to live up to this day. </p>
<p>Romcoms might not quite be the same box office phenomena they once were. But, judging by Netflix’s <a href="https://arstechnica.com/culture/2023/12/netflix-finally-reveals-viewing-data-across-its-entire-catalog/#:%7E:text=Its%20first%20report%2C%20released%20on,2023%2C%20with%20812%20million%20hours.">recently published</a> viewing figures, it is interesting to see how films like Your Place or Mine (2023) and TV shows like <a href="https://theconversation.com/emily-in-paris-why-its-so-hard-to-admit-love-for-the-show-despite-it-being-so-popular-196606">Emily in Paris</a> (2020-2024) or the South Korean series Business Proposal (2022) rely on a template not too far away from Ellie and Peter’s famous journey. </p>
<p>Fans of such works, and the broader holistic healing powers of the romcom, would be wise to check out where it all began.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224097/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Sergeant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It Happened One Night is one of only three films to nab the Oscar “big five”, winning prizes for best actor, actress, adapted screenplay, director and picture.Alexander Sergeant, Senior Lecturer in Film & Media Studies, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2234962024-02-15T11:59:06Z2024-02-15T11:59:06ZI’ve researched Clara Bow – it’s no wonder the actress inspired Taylor Swift’s new album<p>While on stage collecting the award for album of the year (her fourth to date) at the 2024 Grammys earlier this month, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI1l2_zss3k">Taylor Swift announced</a> her 11th album: The Tortured Poets Department. </p>
<p>Moments later, Swift uploaded full details of her new record <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C28vsIzO_bL/?hl=en&img_index=1">to Instagram</a>, including the album artwork and track list. One of the 17 newly revealed tracks is titled Clara Bow. Actress Clara Bow (1905-1965) was the original “It girl”. And she had plenty in common with Swift. Adored and villainised throughout her career, her love life was constantly under scrutiny.</p>
<p>While news outlets instantly set about reporting on the excitement of Swift’s latest album, unveiling her new collaborations and praising her record-setting evening, an opposing maelstrom of hate was already on its way. </p>
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<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>You may be interested in:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/valentines-day-research-backed-tips-for-dating-app-success-199059?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Valentine’s Day: research-backed tips for dating app success</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/online-dating-fatigue-why-some-people-are-turning-to-face-to-face-apps-first-184910?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Online dating fatigue – why some people are turning to face-to-face apps first</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/love-island-what-the-show-can-teach-young-people-about-commitment-185459?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Love Island – what the show can teach young people about commitment</a></em></p>
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<p>Headlines branded Swift <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/us-celebrity-news/taylor-swift-branded-disrespectful-brutal-32047022">“disrespectful”</a> and <a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/awards/grammys/taylor-swift-labelled-classless-over-celine-dion-snub-at-the-grammys/news-story/f2a601ccaf089249d41664f887f6d810">“classless”</a> for appearing to snub music legend Celine Dion. SZA fans accused Swift of <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13046323/drake-grammys-sza-fans-taylor-swift-slam-speech.html">robbing SZA’s</a> SOS of album of the year. Twitter users called her <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniesoteriou/lana-del-rey-clarifies-taylor-swift-grammys-backlash">“disgusting”</a> for bringing her friend and collaborator Lana Del Rey on stage, after she’d lost out on her own award. </p>
<p>The tempestuous response to Swift’s win and subsequent album announcement is a reminder of the constantly fluctuating <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/sep/08/how-taylor-swift-became-the-worlds-biggest-pop-star-again">love/hate relationship</a> with the media that has persisted throughout her career.</p>
<p>While their backgrounds could not be more different, there is a clear experience that both Bow and Swift have shared: unrelenting scrutiny overshadowing their hard work and success.</p>
<h2>Who was Clara Bow?</h2>
<p>Clara Bow was an American silent and early sound film actress, whose tumultuous career spanned from 1922 to 1933. Bow’s best-known film, the 1926 silent romantic comedy It, <a href="https://archive.org/details/filmstarshollywo0000unse/page/8/mode/2up">secured her status</a> as a cultural icon who embodied the youth and liberation of the 1920s’ flapper. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Clips of Clara Bow’s hit movie It (1927) set to a song written about her in the same year, She’s Got It by Harry Reaser.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Bow’s rise to stardom is often framed as a variation on the Cinderella tale. An unassuming girl, brought up in the poverty-stricken tenements of Brooklyn and longing for a chance in the limelight, wins a contest and is catapulted to screen stardom. But that’s not the full story. </p>
<p>This sequence of events, which kick-started the ongoing mythicisation of Bow’s star image, skips over the work Bow herself put in. It erases the labour involved in starting and maintaining her own career. In fact, Bow’s life is bound up with misinformation, speculation and tales of exploitation, abuse and illicit love affairs. </p>
<h2>How Clara Bow inspired Taylor Swift</h2>
<p>During the height of her career, Bow’s love life was a point of constant ridicule in popular film fan magazines. Headlines branding her <a href="https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/photoplay3637movi_0471">“empty hearted”</a> and asking <a href="https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/silverscreen01unse_0039">“why can’t the It Girl keep her men?”</a> sought to psychoanalyse her broken engagements. The press labelled Bow an <a href="https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/silverscreen01unse_0039">“idiot”</a>, and wondered why <a href="https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/silverscreen01unse_0039">“no man [had] led her to the altar”</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575420/original/file-20240213-18-7dkgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Clara Bow in a black and white photo" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575420/original/file-20240213-18-7dkgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575420/original/file-20240213-18-7dkgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575420/original/file-20240213-18-7dkgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575420/original/file-20240213-18-7dkgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575420/original/file-20240213-18-7dkgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575420/original/file-20240213-18-7dkgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575420/original/file-20240213-18-7dkgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Clara Bow in 1932.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ClaraBow2.1.jpg">D.D.Teoli Jr.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bow’s reputation as a <a href="https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/photoplay3133movi_0769">“girl who burns ‘em up and then leaves ‘em cold”</a> was exacerbated even further when in 1931, she found herself embroiled in scandal. </p>
<p><a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/star-studies-a-critical-guide/oclc/779873581">At the time</a>, information about the marriages and divorces of celebrities, as well as suggestions of extramarital affairs and sex scandals, were commonplace in the press. </p>
<p>Bow’s assistant and best friend, Daisy DeVoe, was accused of trying to embezzle money from her. A reporter colluded with DeVoe to <a href="https://www.betweenthecovers.com/pages/books/443014/devoe-daisy-as-told-to-frederic-h-girnau/secret-love-life-of-clara-as-told-by-daisy-to-frederic-h-girnau?soldItem=true">accuse Bow of</a>: “Promiscuity and exhibitionism, kinkiness and incest, lesbianism and bestiality, drug addiction and alcoholism, venereal disease and family insanity.” They then tried to <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mm3gQqcl20UC&redir_esc=y">blackmail the actress</a>, asking for USD$25,000 (£19,839) to cease printing the stories.</p>
<p>Before the trial, <a href="https://archive.org/details/clarabowrunninwi0000sten">it was alleged</a> that DeVoe had warned Bow: “I’ve got some letters and telegrams that that won’t do you any good if I turn ‘em over to the papers”. The reporter responsible for the blackmail received an <a href="https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureher104unse_0604">eight-year suspended sentence</a> and a fine for defaming her. But the trial had already done significant damage to Bow’s image.</p>
<p>In 2017, I visited the Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, which holds Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences archive. During my research trip, I was able to access the papers of Clara Bow, as well as those who knew her: including notable gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. </p>
<p>Within the archive, there is a letter from Bow to Hopper, revealing her desire to someday write the story of her life – a potential attempt to set the record straight and reclaim the narrative that other people had created. Unfortunately, Bow died before she was able to do so.</p>
<p>Perhaps Swift’s ode to Bow will offer some artistic justice for the often-misrepresented starlet. Or perhaps it will lament Swift’s own inability to control the media narrative. We will find out soon. But it’s not hard to see why Taylor Swift, a modern starlet whose every move is scrutinised and criticised, would find a rich seam of inspiration in the life of Clara Bow. </p>
<hr>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Voss receives funding from the AHRC-funded Midlands 4 Cities Post-Doctoral Fellowship Programme. </span></em></p>Bow and Swift have shared unrelenting scrutiny, overshadowing their hard work and success.Jennifer Voss, Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Humanities and Performing Arts, De Montfort UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2193572024-01-22T21:21:50Z2024-01-22T21:21:50ZThree trailblazing women in media who’ve been forgotten – until now<p>Men have had their empires. Everyone else has had the hushed, forgotten, erased or overlooked stories of the scientists, witches, explorers, artists, writers and scholars who didn’t fit the mould. </p>
<p>In the field of media studies, there are researchers, academics, journalists and public intellectuals who, often due to their gender, race or politics, have been ignored and marginalised in favour of recognising the “founding fathers” of the field.</p>
<p>Finally, these ghosts are making their way back into academic books, articles, teaching materials and popular culture. Our <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9781913380748/the-ghost-reader/#:%7E:text=The%20Ghost%20Reader%3A%20Recovering%20Women's,cultural%20studies%2C%20and%20communication%20studies.">new book</a>, co-edited with Carol Stabile, reclaims the original ideas, essays and scholarship of 19 women and provides an introduction by experts in the field, along with samples of their work. From that 19, here are three we think are particularly worth knowing about. </p>
<h2>Film theory</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/filmhistory.27.1.135">Mae D. Huettig</a> from Los Angeles was the first economist to explain how the US film industry functioned as a vertically integrated factory that was less about dreams and glamour and more about vulgar capitalism. <a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9781512812381/economic-control-of-the-motion-picture-industry/">Her book</a>, Economic Control of the Motion Picture Industry: A Study in Industrial Organization (1944), revealed how Hollywood movie studios produced films cheaply and used their own network of cinemas to screen them. </p>
<p>Huettig argued that Hollywood studios, just like automobile or coal factories, used the same economic model as any industry – dominate the competition and corner the market. Her work ultimately became a part of the 1948 federal case, the <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/334/131/">Paramount Decree</a>. This landmark case addressed the practice of film studios owning cinemas and controlling their film distribution. The decree ended the vertically integrated Hollywood studio system. Production studios could no longer own the cinemas that screened their films, and cinemas were no longer beholden to one studio only. </p>
<p>After a few semesters teaching at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and working at a think tank, Huettig became an activist. Following the <a href="https://crdl.usg.edu/events/watts_riots">1965 Watts rebellion</a>, a civil rights uprising in Los Angeles, she trained minority youths on how to use film to monitor police misconduct. She also campaigned against school racial segregation, police abuse and corruption.</p>
<h2>The importance of images</h2>
<p><a href="https://archives.nypl.org/mss/6197">Romana Javitz</a> from New York was the first librarian to develop an organised, browsable collection of pictures that anyone with a library card could check out from the <a href="https://www.nypl.org">New York Public Library</a> (NYPL). </p>
<p>As the NYPL superintendent of the picture collection between 1928 and 1968, Javitz and her staff collected as many items as they could by cutting out images from old books and magazines. These included photos, paintings, ads, pop art and images of everyday people, places and things. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A statue of a lion outside the grand entrance to the New York Public Library" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569264/original/file-20240115-29-mjbj2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Romana Javitz worked at the New York Public Library between 1928 and 1968.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-city-public-library-entrance-345087263">Ryan DeBerardinis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Essentially, Javitz foresaw the image-based browsing that search engines provide today. She also anticipated their commercial control but believed that images are an important public resource. In speeches, pamphlets and grant applications, Javitz acted by <a href="https://www.nypl.org/about/divisions/wallach-division/picture-collection/romana-javitz">urging</a> libraries to steward image collections. </p>
<h2>The media and civil rights</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.aaihs.org/surveillance-state-power-and-the-activism-of-shirley-graham-du-bois/">Shirley Graham DuBois</a> from Indiana was an activist, award-winning novelist, editor, and the first black female dramatist. In 1931, she produced the first black <a href="https://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/blog/finding-tom-tom">opera</a>, Tom-Tom: An Epic of Music and the Negro. Graham was committed to using literacy and popular media as tools to free people from race and sex discrimination, whether Black, white, or Native American. </p>
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<img alt="An old sepia photo of a woman facing the right hand side of the image and looking upwards." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569266/original/file-20240115-23-mz1qdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Shirley Graham DuBois played an instrumental role in civil rights activism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/079_vanv.html">Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>During the second world war, Graham worked on military bases giving courses on journalism and photography for black soldiers, helping them to produce their own literary magazines. She was founded the <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/freedomways-1961-1985/">journal</a>, Freedomways: A Quarterly Review of the Negro Freedom Movement in 1961. It provided a rare forum for discussing discrimination from the early years of the civil rights movement forward. </p>
<p>In 1961, Graham’s background in theatre and education caught the attention of the Ghanaian president, Kwame Nkrumah. He asked her to develop the nation’s first public noncommercial, indigenous television network to promote literacy countrywide. Graham and Nkrumah were forced to leave Ghana after a military coup in 1966, before the network was completed.</p>
<h2>Digging deeper</h2>
<p>The contributions of these women, and the 16 others featured in our book, range broadly from film economics, advertising and library science, to progressive anti-racist journalism, theatre, audience researchers, and more. They show us that there has always been the possibility for progressive, inclusive, intersectional, anti-capitalist, anti-racist and gender-equal thought and action.</p>
<p>Our goal is not to create a “new” canon of media studies. Instead, the goal is for academics and lecturers to use our book in their classes to track their own tradition taking different, more inclusive, and radical routes that could provide fresh insight into the world.</p>
<p>In fact, alongside media and communication scholars such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09612025.2021.1944345#:%7E:text=This%20silenced%20avenue%20of%20enquiry,and%20editing%20of%20broadcast%20sound.">Carolyn Birdsall and Elinor Carmi</a>, the book questions the need for a canon altogether.</p>
<p>Other researchers and students need to get their hands dirty, too. They need to dig in archives, read original works and examine dismissed ideas that go against the grain. It is likely that researchers in any field will find important women (and their ideas) hidden as typists, transcribers, or editorial, lab, field, or research assistants. Sometimes they may be left out altogether; all that may be left is their name on a grant application. Finding them takes time and effort. But the results are worth it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Elena Hristova is Lecture in Film and Media at Bangor University, Wales. As part of the research for this book she received funding from the Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, and the Department of Communication Studies, University of Minnesota.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aimee-Marie Dorsten, Ph.D. works for Point Park University and is a member of the Union for Democratic Communication. </span></em></p>Mae D Huettig, Romana Javitz and Shirley Graham DuBois were instrumental in their respective media fields but very few of us will be aware of their individual contributions.Elena D. Hristova, Lecturer in Film and Media, Bangor UniversityAimee-Marie Dorsten, Associate Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, Point Park UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2200192023-12-20T01:28:46Z2023-12-20T01:28:46ZWith ‘White Christmas,’ Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby helped make Christmas a holiday that all Americans could celebrate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566447/original/file-20231218-29-3t65vi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=451%2C37%2C5721%2C3895&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">After Irving Berlin, left, penned 'White Christmas,' he pegged Bing Crosby as the ideal singer for what would become a holiday classic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-composer-lyricist-and-songwriter-irving-berlin-and-news-photo/1296904202?adppopup=true">Irving Haberman/IH Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/23/obituaries/irving-berlin-nation-s-songwriter-dies.html">Irving Berlin</a> was a Jewish immigrant who loved America. As his 1938 song “<a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200000007/">God Bless America</a>” suggests, he believed deeply in the nation’s potential for goodness, unity and global leadership. </p>
<p>In 1940, he wrote another quintessential American song, “<a href="https://achristmasclassic.org/">White Christmas</a>,” which the popular entertainer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/15/archives/bing-crosby-73-dies-in-madrid-at-golf-course-bing-crosby-73-dies-at.html">Bing Crosby</a> eventually made famous.</p>
<p>But this was a profoundly sad time for humanity. World War II – what would become <a href="https://www.highpointnc.gov/2111/World-War-II">the deadliest war in human history</a> – had begun in Europe and Asia, just as Americans were starting to pick up the pieces from the Great Depression.</p>
<p>Today, it can seem like humanity is at another tipping point: <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-depolarise-deeply-divided-societies-podcast-193427">political polarization</a>, war in <a href="https://theconversation.com/west-banks-settler-violence-problem-is-a-second-sign-that-israels-policy-of-ignoring-palestinians-drive-for-a-homeland-isnt-a-long-term-solution-217177">the Middle East</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/russian-attempt-to-control-narrative-in-ukraine-employs-age-old-tactic-of-othering-the-enemy-206154">and Europe</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/2023s-extreme-storms-heat-and-wildfires-broke-records-a-scientist-explains-how-global-warming-fuels-climate-disasters-217500">a global climate crisis</a>. Yet like other historians, I’ve long thought that <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pGEB0QIAAAAJ&hl=en">the study of the past</a> can help point the way forward.</p>
<p>“White Christmas” has resonated for more than 80 years, and I think the reasons why are worth understanding.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GJ36gbGlm8Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bing Crosby sings ‘White Christmas’ in the 1942 musical ‘Holiday Inn.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Yearning for unity</h2>
<p>Christmas in America had always reflected a mix of influences, from ancient Roman <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-christmas-tree-is-a-tradition-older-than-christmas-195636">celebrations of the winter solstice</a> to the Norse festival <a href="https://theconversation.com/yule-a-celebration-of-the-return-of-light-and-warmth-218779">known as Yule</a>. </p>
<p>Catholics in Europe had celebrated Christmas with public merriment since the Middle Ages, but Protestants often denounced the holiday as a vestige of paganism. These religious tensions <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-puritans-cracked-down-on-celebrating-christmas-151359">spilled over to the American colonies</a> and persisted after the Revolutionary War, when slavery divided the nation even further.</p>
<p>After the Civil War, many Americans pined for national traditions that could unify the country. Protestant opposition to Christmas celebrations had relaxed, so Congress finally <a href="https://time.com/4608452/christmas-america-national-holiday/">declared Christmas a federal holiday in 1870</a>. Millions of Americans soon adopted <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-christmas-tree-is-a-tradition-older-than-christmas-195636">the German tradition of decorating trees</a>. They also exchanged presents, sent cards and shared stories of Santa Claus, a figure whose image the cartoonist <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/civil-war-cartoonist-created-modern-image-santa-claus-union-propaganda-180971074/">Thomas Nast</a> perfected in the late 19th century.</p>
<p>The Christmases that Berlin and Crosby “used to know” were those of the 1910s and 1920s, when the season expanded to include <a href="https://madisonsquarepark.org/community/news/2021/04/holiday-tree/">the nation’s first public Christmas tree lighting ceremony</a> and <a href="https://www.history.com/news/the-first-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade">the appearance of Santa Claus</a> at the end of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. </p>
<p>Despite these evolving secular influences, Christmas music and entertainment continued to emphasize Christianity. Churchgoers and carolers often sang “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World.”</p>
<h2>‘The best song anybody ever wrote’</h2>
<p>Berlin’s inspiration for the song came in 1937, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/White-Christmas/Jody-Rosen/9780743218764">when he spent Christmas in Beverly Hills</a>. He was near the film studios where he worked but far from his wife, Ellin – a devout Catholic – and the New York City home in Manhattan where they had always celebrated the holiday with their three daughters. </p>
<p>Being apart from Ellin that Christmas was particularly difficult: Their infant son had died on Dec. 26, 1928. Irving knew his wife would have to make the annual visit to their son’s grave by herself.</p>
<p>By 1940, Berlin had come up with his lyrics. In his Manhattan office, he sat at his piano and asked his arranger to take down the notes.</p>
<p>“Not only is it the best song I ever wrote,” <a href="https://www.dacapopress.com/titles/laurence-bergreen/as-thousands-cheer/9780306806759/">he promised</a>, “it’s the best song anybody ever wrote.”</p>
<p>Berlin had connected his lonesome Christmas to the broader turmoil of the time, including the outbreak of World War II and fraught debates about America’s role in the world. </p>
<p>This new song reflected his response: a dream of better times and places. It evoked a small town of yesteryear in which horse-drawn sleighs crossed freshly fallen snow. It also imagined a future in which dark days would be “merry and bright” once again.</p>
<p>This was a new kind of Christmas carol. It did not mention the birth of Jesus, angels or wise men – and it was a song that all Americans, including Jewish immigrants, could embrace.</p>
<p>Berlin soon took “White Christmas” back to Hollywood. He wanted it to appear in his newest musical, one that would tell the story of a retired singer whose hotel offered rooms and entertainment, but only on American holidays. He titled the film “Holiday Inn” and pitched it to Paramount Pictures, with Crosby as the lead.</p>
<h2>Fighting for ‘the right to dream’</h2>
<p>Raised in Spokane, Washington, Crosby had launched his music career in the 1920s. A weekly radio show and a contract with Paramount led to stardom during the 1930s. </p>
<p>With his slim build and protruding ears, Crosby did not look the part of a leading man. But his easygoing demeanor and mellow voice made him immensely popular. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034862/">Holiday Inn</a>” premiered in August 1942. Reviewers barely mentioned the song, but ordinary Americans couldn’t get enough of it. By December it was on every radio, in every jukebox and, as the Christian Science Monitor newspaper noted, in nearly “every home and heart” in the country.</p>
<p>The key reason was the nation’s entry into World War II.</p>
<p>“White Christmas” was not overtly patriotic, but it made Americans think about why they fought, sacrificed and endured separation from their loved ones. <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/White-Christmas/Jody-Rosen/9780743218764">As an editorial</a> in the Buffalo Courier-Express concluded, the song “provided a forcible reminder that we are fighting for the right to dream and for memories to dream about.”</p>
<p>This made it a song all Americans could embrace, including those not always treated like Americans.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Painting of Santa Clause wearing a stars-and-stripes hat as a young boy and girl sit on his lap." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566453/original/file-20231219-15-3zn321.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">During World War II, aspects of the Christmas holiday – family, home, comfort and safety – took on greater meaning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/retro-santa-claus-wearing-a-stars-and-stripes-tophat-with-a-news-photo/525363617?adppopup=true">GraphicaArtis/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Affirming faith in humanity</h2>
<p>Berlin and Crosby didn’t set out to change how Americans celebrate Christmas. But that’s what they ended up doing.</p>
<p>Their song’s universal appeal and phenomenal success launched a new era of holiday entertainment – traditions that helped Americanize the Christmas season.</p>
<p>Like “White Christmas,” popular songs such as “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (1943) tapped into a longing for being with friends and family. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949) and other new songs celebrated snow, sleigh rides and Santa Claus, not the birth of Jesus.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Red and blue cover for sheet music featuring photographs of two smiling young men and two smiling young women." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566381/original/file-20231218-25-udqob2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The sheet music for Irving Berlin’s ‘White Christmas.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sheet-music-for-irving-berlins-white-christmas-new-york-news-photo/455915107?adppopup=true">Robert R. McElroy/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>“White Christmas” <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Bing_Crosby_a_Pocketful_of_Dreams.html?id=2DRE2U_8WJIC">had already sold 5 million copies by 1947</a> when Crosby recorded “Merry Christmas,” the first Christmas album ever produced. On the album, “White Christmas” appeared alongside holiday classics such as “Jingle Bells” and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.”</p>
<p>Hollywood followed suit. In the popular 1946 film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/">It’s a Wonderful Life</a>,” for example, bonds of family and friendship proved their value just in time for Christmas. </p>
<p>Faith was affirmed, but it was a faith in humanity. </p>
<p>Over the coming decades, Christmas entertainment continued to reach new audiences.</p>
<p>The upbeat songs of Phil Spector’s 1963 album “A Christmas Gift for You,” for example, appealed to baby boomers. Producers also catered to younger audiences with television specials such as “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”</p>
<p>Hollywood then rediscovered Christmas during the 1980s, largely because of “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085334/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_christmas%2520story">A Christmas Story</a>,” a film that didn’t exactly view Christmas through rose-colored glasses. While satirizing the chaos and angst of the holiday season, the film nonetheless embraced Christmas, warts and all. A steady stream of Christmas films followed – “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/">Scrooged</a>,” “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099785/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_home%2520alone">Home Alone</a>,” “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319343/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_elf">Elf</a>” – where themes of nostalgia, family and togetherness were ever-present.</p>
<p>Since the 1940s, the Christmas season has become even more inclusive. <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2013/12/23/christmas-also-celebrated-by-many-non-christians/">A 2013 Pew Research survey</a> found that 81% of non-Christians in the U.S. celebrate Christmas. Yes, the holiday has also <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/122132/the-battle-for-christmas-by-stephen-nissenbaum/">become more commercial</a>. But that, too, has made it all the more American.</p>
<p>Amid these changes, Irving Berlin’s song has been a holiday mainstay, reminding listeners of what makes them not just American, but human: the importance of home, a longing for togetherness and a shared hope for a better future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220019/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ray Rast does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The secular carol doesn’t mention Jesus, angels or wise men, while reminding listeners of what makes them not just American, but human.Ray Rast, Associate Professor of History, Gonzaga UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2192072023-12-08T12:27:01Z2023-12-08T12:27:01ZErotic Vagrancy: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor biography revels in scandal and excess of Hollywood glamour couple<p><a href="https://www.waterstones.com/author/roger-lewis/136946">Roger Lewis’s biographies</a> are always rich, wayward, engrossing, idiosyncratic and above all obsessive, which seems entirely fitting for evoking the particular qualities of his latest subject – the celebrity couple to end them all, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Burton-Welsh-actor">Richard Burton</a> and <a href="https://www.biography.com/actors/elizabeth-taylor">Elizabeth Taylor</a>.</p>
<p>Lewis’s substantial <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/erotic-vagrancy/roger-lewis/9780857381729">new book</a>, Erotic Vagrancy: Everything About Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, takes its title from a phrase used in a <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/usshowbiz/article-12078923/Burton-Taylors-scandal-soaked-affair-epic-Cleopatra.html">papal condemnation</a> of the couple when their affair began during the making of 20th Century Fox’s epic 1963 film <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jun/12/cleopatra-60th-anniversary-elizabeth-taylor-richard-burton">Cleopatra</a> in Rome. This served to emphasise the atmosphere of notoriety that surrounded Taylor and Burton’s relationship throughout its 20-year duration.</p>
<p>It also suggests the way they represented a new (and to the Vatican, unwelcome) approach to sexual and romantic conduct. Previous marriages were dispensed with in pursuit of this electric, ecstatic new coupling. The media pursued the couple as they criss-crossed the world on private jets and luxury yachts, hoovering up enormous diamonds and other expensive trinkets along the way.</p>
<p>But the vision of love Taylor and Burton represented was far from sweetness and light. Instead, it seems to have been a prolonged struggle of can’t-live-with, can’t-live-without, characterised by drunken arguments and bitter recrimination. The couple’s films then replayed and remixed it for duly fascinated paying cinema customers – most famously in 1966’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/sep/18/whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf-edward-albee">Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?</a></p>
<h2>Jet-set celebrity glamour</h2>
<p>Lewis suggests the couple were at the vanguard of contemporary celebrity culture, while also taking care to frame them as creatures of their time – members of a long-vanished glamorous jet-set whose 1960s and ’70s haunts have all but disappeared. Lewis describes his undimmed and even growing affection for his subjects in spite of – or perhaps because of – their shameless bad behaviour, from very public fights to unfulfilled charitable promises.</p>
<p>Their love and its emotional maelstrom undoubtedly inflicted enormous harm, on others as well as themselves. And its narcissistic showiness, writ in priceless jewels and ardent gestures across a global stage, was vulgar. However, Lewis offers an incisive deconstruction and defence of vulgarity as a human quality, reframing the couple’s outrageous extravagance as a generosity of spirit, living large and leaning into their role as collective fantasy figures.</p>
<p>And he loves their films, especially the egregious flops and off-kilter experiments like <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/boom-1968">Boom!</a> (1968), <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hammersmith-is-out-1972">Hammersmith Is Out</a> (1972) and <a href="https://screenbound.co.uk/divorce-his-divorce-hers/">Divorce His / Divorce Hers</a> (1973), discerning in their bizarre contours a fever dream of the couple’s romance.</p>
<h2>Myths and spells</h2>
<p>Burton’s journey was the more extraordinary of the two: from Welsh working-class impoverishment to full movie mega-stardom, by way of his prodigious charisma as a young actor. Lewis alleges Burton’s schoolmaster svengali and adoptive father had less than honourable intentions towards his ward, but he was the facilitator of Burton’s longed-for exit from the valleys.</p>
<p>No wonder Burton nursed a longstanding fascination with the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20170907-what-the-myth-of-faust-can-teach-us">Faust legend</a>, feeling he had sold his soul to the devil to attain worldly glory, including “the face that launched a thousand ships” in the form of the beautiful Taylor – who played the Helen of Troy role opposite her husband’s Faustus in <a href="https://kultguyskeep.wordpress.com/2018/02/26/doctor-faustus-1967-film-review/">Burton’s 1967 screen adaptation</a> of Christopher Marlowe’s play.</p>
<p>Lewis appears to identify slightly more with the Welshman’s dark moods than he does the dramas of the divine Elizabeth, a pampered princess and movie star from childhood. He is in thrall to the idea of Taylor as witch, casting a spell over Burton.</p>
<p>Lewis uses Kingsley Amis’s phrasing to characterise the star as “a wrapped-up-in-herself female” and wonders aloud if women are “generally less rational, more instinctive and immediate, than your males”. To which one can only respond: hogwash. Hogwash that depends on completely ignoring what an irrational mystic Burton seems to have been, continually invoking his alchemical mythic origin as a figure created in the bowels of the Welsh earth.</p>
<p>This is not a feminist book – there is a broadside against “rubbishy academic tracts by frightening feminists” in the author’s opening remarks on the existing Burton-Taylor literature. Lewis acknowledges the physical abuse Taylor suffered at the hands of her first husband, Nicky Hilton, while she was still in her teens, but quibbles over the dates of the pregnancy she says she miscarried after being beaten by him – not a good look.</p>
<p>He goes on to suggest that many of the actress’s subsequent health problems were psychosomatic or self-inflicted, or just simple malingering. But thankfully, these potentially misogynistic notes are counterbalanced by other moments of empathy and insight. There is full-throated celebration of Taylor, especially as she aged and gained weight, as an unruly woman who refused to adhere to the template of feminine probity and modesty. Her greed – for love, adventure, sex, food, excitement, wealth, beauty – is not censured but saluted.</p>
<p>Erotic Vagrancy is packed with details that not only make you pause and gasp, but which penetrate the core of what it means to be famous, or infamous, and in love.</p>
<p>And its wit makes it sparkle and glitter like one of Taylor’s extravagant diamonds – coruscating in the true sense of the word. The research and writing has clearly been a labour of love for Lewis, and the result is a lovingly all-encompassing celebrity biography which interrogates both celebrity and biography as concepts.</p>
<p>But it does so with levity and personality, always wearing its learning and its eloquence lightly. To invoke the title of a <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/magnificent-obsession">film starring one of Taylor’s pals, Rock Hudson</a>, this book is the result of a “magnificent obsession” with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and all the better for it.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The scandal that engulfed the tempestuous couple from the beginning fed a media and public obsession that lasted for the rest of their lives.Melanie Williams, Professor of Film and Television Studies, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2186662023-11-30T10:21:08Z2023-11-30T10:21:08ZArchie: Cary Grant drama doesn’t shy away from the actor’s dark side<p>Towards the end of <a href="https://www.itv.com/watch/archie-the-man-who-became-cary-grant/7a0170/7a0170a0001">Archie</a>, a new four-part ITV drama about the life of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cary-Grant">Cary Grant</a>, the actor (played at this stage by Jason Isaacs) muses: “Leave the past in the past where it belongs. If you’re not careful, it becomes a trap.” Yet the series suggests that, even at the height of his Hollywood fame, Grant could never truly forget his deprived origins in Bristol as a boy called Archibald Leach.</p>
<p>Archie doesn’t offer a linear account of Grant’s life, but instead cuts continuously between his humble English beginnings and later Hollywood success. There’s particular focus on the period during the early 1960s when he pursued, married and divorced the young screen star <a href="https://walkoffame.com/dyan-cannon/">Dyan Cannon</a>, who was 33 years his junior.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Archie.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The remarkable transformation in Grant’s fortunes is evoked by details of colour and setting. Dull browns and greens predominate in the Bristol sequences, whereas the scenes set in California glow red, orange and yellow. The cramped backyard of Archie Leach’s childhood home gives way to the spacious garden of Cary Grant’s Los Angeles mansion, replete with swimming pool.</p>
<p>Yet the fluid composition of the drama suggests that, for Grant, there was no definitive break with his past. Young Archie, carrying memories of material and emotional deprivation in England, remained with him even as Grant lived a glamorous alternative life in the US.</p>
<h2>Light and dark</h2>
<p>Archie’s account of classic Hollywood is, at times, slight rather than probing. While we see Grant’s rechristening by a studio that believes his given name of Archie Leach “won’t cut it”, we seldom observe the workings of the promotional machinery that consolidated his star image. </p>
<p>Fleeting traces, rather than thick evidence, are provided of the “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Heavenly-Bodies-Film-Stars-and-Society/Dyer/p/book/9780415310277">pin-ups, public appearances, studio handouts</a>” and media interviews that were central to the manufacture of a mid-century movie star. </p>
<p>Yet Archie still represents a striking addition to the category of the film star biopic. In demystifying its charismatic subject, it observes genre norms: recall how stars are treated frankly by movies such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103939/">Chaplin</a> (1992) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0352520/">The Life and Death of Peter Sellers</a> (2004). What is distinctive about this series, however, is that it shows the discomfort of a Hollywood icon usually taken to be the epitome of unruffled poise. </p>
<p>Film historian <a href="https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/david-thomson/the-new-biographical-dictionary-of-film-6th-edition/9780349141114/">David Thomson argues</a> that Grant’s screen presence was more complex than is often allowed. He could be “attractive and unattractive simultaneously”, radiating both “light” and “dark”. This sense of Grant’s duality, of sun and shadow coexisting, runs through Archie.</p>
<p>But the series does not look for Grant’s many sides in his film performances. Other than showing him with Mae West in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/She-Done-Him-Wrong">She Done Him Wrong</a> (1934), say, or with Audrey Hepburn in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056923/">Charade</a> (1963), Archie generally keeps away from Hollywood studios. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, in Isaacs’ fine performance as the older Grant, his charm is positioned as adjacent to his cruelty. The portrayal of his relationship with Cannon (Laura Aikman), especially, shows Grant exhibiting increasingly controlling behaviour.</p>
<h2>The women in Grant’s life</h2>
<p>The biopic is among the least generous of film genres – focusing attention upon an individual and depriving others who come into their orbit of oxygen. But Archie deviates from the norm, telling the stories of others besides Grant.</p>
<p>Cultural historian <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=t3qpDwAAQBAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions">Michael Newton observes</a> that stars in classic Hollywood rarely exist “as individuals”. Instead, they enter into pairings, living in “the realm of relatedness”. He has in mind such on-screen duos as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. </p>
<p>Archie is uninterested in exploring film partnerships: Katharine Hepburn, with whom Grant made four movies, is absent here. As compensation, however, it brings into view two significant women in Grant’s off-screen life: Cannon and his mother, Elsie Leach (Harriet Walter).</p>
<p>The audience is discouraged from sharing Elsie’s withering assessment of Cannon as “a fluttery little thing”, with “no substance”. Instead, in Aikman’s spirited performance, Cannon is marked by pain and vulnerability as well as career aspiration. To a modest extent, the series becomes her biopic as well as Grant’s.</p>
<p>Grant’s relationship with his mother is also given significant screen time – though their dynamic is portrayed as a troubling one. Elsie was incarcerated in a psychiatric institution by her husband following the death of Grant’s young brother and spent 20 years there. Home movie-style footage of her dancing as an older woman with Grant could be showing romantic partners. When Grant tells her he is marrying Cannon, she sounds like another potential suitor in insisting: “I can make you happy.”</p>
<p>It would be wrong to overstate the darkness of Archie. Like its subject, the series is light on its feet and generates easygoing pleasure – and the mood brightens late on, as Grant becomes a parent for the first time. Nevertheless, in its bleaker sequences, the series powerfully shows the high price that Archie paid in becoming Cary Grant.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Dix does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The series cuts between Cary Grant’s humble English beginnings and later Hollywood success.Andrew Dix, Senior Lecturer in American Literature and Film, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2181772023-11-23T11:45:26Z2023-11-23T11:45:26ZArchie: Cary Grant’s complicated masculinity was key to his star power<p>Like most of the enduring stars of golden age Hollywood, Cary Grant can be reduced rather effectively to a single image. Marilyn Monroe has her white dress. Humphrey Bogart has his trench coat and trilby. And Grant has his debonair suit, his glasses and his immaculate side parting. </p>
<p>This is one of the quintessential images of modern masculinity. Sexy but never brutish. Graceful without being delicate. Grant was “dashingly handsome, suave and sophisticated” – at least according to the <a href="https://www.itv.com/presscentre/sites/default/files/2023-11/Archie%20Press%20Pack.pdf">press notes</a> accompanying ITV’s new four-part miniseries, Archie.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Jason Isaacs plays Cary Grant in the new ITV series.</span></figcaption>
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<p>As the title suggests, Archie (Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach) promises to expose the double life of one of the most enduringly popular actors of the 20th century. It delves into his impoverished English upbringing in Bristol, his complex relationship with his mother, and his ongoing use of LSD – all in an attempt to reveal the real man behind the famous image. </p>
<p>The series is likely to provoke debates about whether the narratives surrounding Grant obscure important aspects of his identity. Most notably, it seems to avoid longstanding questions over Grant’s sexuality, and the important relationships he maintained with both men and women across his life.</p>
<h2>Grant’s sexuality</h2>
<p>In July 2023, Grant’s daughter Jennifer, who serves as an executive producer on the ITV series, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/cary-grant-jennifer-daughter-sexuality-b2371664.html">denied longstanding rumours</a> that her father was either gay or bisexual. Such stories had persisted since his death in 1986, most notably in the attention given to Grant’s relationship with the actor <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2020/10/cary-grant-and-randolph-scott-beach-photos.html#:%7E:text=Cary%20Grant%20and%20Randolph%20Scott%20really%20did%20live%20together%2C%20beginning,of%20sand%20in%20Santa%20Monica.">Randolph Scott</a>, who he lived with for 12 years. </p>
<p><a href="https://nypost.com/2016/08/08/inside-cary-grants-secret-life-with-men/">Some claim</a> that Grant’s close relationship with Scott is evidence of a secret identity that was in contrast with his public persona. <a href="https://www.thepinknews.com/2020/10/05/cary-grant-randolph-scott-gay-photos-publicity-stunt-mark-glancy-historian/">Others</a> have dismissed these claims as an over-interpretation of a narrative created by Hollywood to promote both Grant and Scott as eligible bachelors.</p>
<h2>Becoming Cary</h2>
<p>Archie, like other recent biopics of Hollywood icons such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7549996/">Judy</a> (2019) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1655389/">Blonde</a> (2022), seems to want to perform a collective atonement on behalf of society, revealing the torment and angst behind one of Hollywood’s larger-than-life icons. But the whole point of being larger-than-life is that the persona a star takes on can burn brighter than the story of any real person.</p>
<p>In the case of Grant, his ability to embody modern masculinity allowed audiences not just to celebrate that idea, but to use him as a testing ground for some of the psychological and cultural challenges of the 20th century. His films offer complicated and contrasting visions of what it means to be a man. This allowed him to function as a stand-in for the troubled position of the modern man in a world of fluctuating gender roles. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aCymsoQL49c?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Grant dons a frilly nightgown in Bringing Up Baby.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In three of his most well-known comedies, (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044916/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Monkey Business</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029947/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Bringing Up Baby</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041498/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">I Was a Male War Bride</a>), Grant <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TwB02OUHnhgC&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false%5D">dons womens’ clothing</a>“. The image of such an obvious figure of masculinity wearing a frilly nightgown was undoubtedly meant to make audiences laugh. </p>
<p>Such films might cause modern viewers to wince at their outdated attitudes to sexuality and gender. But there is also something delightfully subversive about them, revelling in Grant’s ability to remain at ease even when his entire manhood is called into question by the characters surrounding him.</p>
<p>In his work with Alfred Hitchcock, Grant was able to use the confidence and bravado displayed in his earlier work to serve darker storytelling themes. In <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053125/">North by Northwest</a> (1959), perhaps their most famous collaboration, Grant becomes an ageing figure of virility seeking to cling on to power and authority, even as the world around him conspires to take it away from him. Grant’s performance – anxious and paranoid – exposes the effort that being a "modern man” often entails. </p>
<p>Grant has played bachelors, divorcees, spies and even a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQgmpEom3KI&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fnerdist.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title">mock turtle</a>. In doing so, he never presented a simple or single vision of masculinity – rather, his performances exposed its many fractures, schisms and points of tension. And they were also a reminder of masculinity’s ongoing appeal, despite all the things that are wrong with it.</p>
<p>Stardom is often at <a href="https://laurenlevineportfolio.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/stars-by-richard-dyer.pdf">its most potent</a> when different groups of people can find different things in the same figure. For many, Grant remains masculinity incarnate. Others see him as a man who performed a masculine role in order to mask a rawer identity concealed beneath. The brilliance of his star power is that he could be both, and neither. What Grant represented, and the Hollywood persona he built, endures because of these ambiguities, not in spite of them. </p>
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<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Sergeant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cary Grant’s films offer complicated and contrasting visions of what it means to be a man.Alexander Sergeant, Lecturer in Film & Media Studies, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2126862023-10-30T12:31:33Z2023-10-30T12:31:33ZDay of the Dead is taking on Halloween traditions, but the sacred holiday is far more than a ‘Mexican Halloween’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555836/original/file-20231025-23-f7706p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C7928%2C5297&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children trick or treat and wear Halloween costumes for a full week during Day of the Dead season in Mexico.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/portrait-of-boy-with-sugar-skull-face-paint-during-royalty-free-image/1653069265?phrase=mexico+day+of+the+dead+people&adppopup=true">FG Trade Latin/Collection E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many Latinos regularly declare: “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/31/day-dead-halloween-dia-de-muertos/">Día de los Muertos is not Mexican Halloween</a>.” The declaration is increasingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/strictly-not-halloween-why-day-of-the-dead-is-misunderstood-and-why-that-matters-192476">repeated by non-Latinos too</a>. </p>
<p>Drawing a clear line between the two holidays is a rhetorical strategy to protect Day of the Dead’s integrity as Mexican cultural heritage and separate it from American popular culture. However, as a Mexican-American who celebrates Día de los Muertos and <a href="https://search.asu.edu/profile/2740395">as a scholar of culture and performance</a>, I believe it’s time to fully acknowledge the cultural intermixing that’s happening between the two holidays. </p>
<p>Halloween’s influence is transforming Día de los Muertos into a hybrid cultural tradition that simultaneously honors the dead and celebrates the macabre.</p>
<h2>The origins of the distinction</h2>
<p>Día de los Muertos is a traditional fiesta in honor of the deceased that is celebrated in Mexico and other parts of Latin America on Nov. 1 and 2. The holiday is celebrated though ritual observations like constructing altars filled with offerings to the dead and decorating family gravesites to commune with the dead. Day of the Dead is also commemorated through vivacious fiestas in which communities gather in town plazas and community centers to celebrate by dancing, playing music, feasting, drinking and masquerading as death.</p>
<p>Although Day of the Dead is a long-standing tradition in Mexico, the holiday wasn’t celebrated widely or publicly among Latinos in the U.S. That changed in the 1970s and 1980s when <a href="https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.126.501.0272">artists and activists introduced Day of the Dead</a> to their communities as part of the Chicano movement, the social and cultural movement for Mexican-American empowerment.</p>
<p>As Latinos began celebrating the holiday proudly and publicly in the U.S., they also began <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hj96w?typeAccessWorkflow=login">distinguishing it from Halloween</a>. That’s because many non-Latinos mistakenly interpreted Day of the Dead’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0961597763/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_9?smid=A18OZMH8UQINVM&psc=1">skull and skeleton imagery as witchcraft</a>. Latinos used the phrase “Día de los Muertos is not Mexican Halloween” to protect the holiday from misrepresentation, <a href="https://www.selfhelpgraphics.com/gifts/dia-de-los-muertos-a-cultural-legacy-past-present-and-futurecatalogue">educate the broader public about the cultural tradition</a> and shield themselves from discrimination.</p>
<p>The declaration was also used in the 1970s and 1980s by Mexico’s tourism industry when it began vigorously promoting Day of the Dead internationally <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Skulls+to+the+Living%2C+Bread+to+the+Dead%3A+The+Day+of+the+Dead+in+Mexico+and+Beyond-p-9781405152488">as a cultural attraction</a>. Tourists arriving in Mexico were informed that Día de los Muertos was an authentic national holiday that bore no relation to Halloween.</p>
<h2>The 1990s and 2000s</h2>
<p>In the 1990s, “Día de los Muertos is not Mexican Halloween” became a political statement. The North American Free Trade Agreement, signed in 1994, flooded Mexico with <a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292751996/">U.S. consumer goods, media and popular culture</a>. Halloween’s importation was seen by some Mexicans as <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/541045">a symbol of U.S. “cultural imperialism</a>,” the process by which the United States uses culture to maintain political and economic domination over Mexico. </p>
<p>But by the early 2000s, Mexican, U.S. and British anthropologists reported that Halloween was already fusing with Día de los Muertos <a href="https://books.google.com.sg/books/about/Digging_the_Days_of_the_Dead.html?id=qZUMAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y">in fascinating ways</a>. Halloween candy, costumes and ornaments appeared in stores and street markets, where it was displayed next to Day of the Dead material. Jack-o-lantern and spider-web decorations adorned ofrendas, the traditional altars erected for the dead. The streets were increasingly filled with trick-or-treating children dressed as witches, vampires and monsters. <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/days-of-death-days-of-life/9780231136884">Bars and nightclubs in southern Mexico hosted</a> Halloween and Day of the Dead costume parties for adults. </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com.sg/books/about/The_Skeleton_at_the_Feast.html?id=6aMMAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y">Some Mexicans denounced</a> Halloween as “an invasion.” Some referred to Halloween as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/02/world/the-day-of-the-ghouls-vs-the-day-of-the-dead.html">cultural pollution</a>.”</p>
<p>Such fears led the United Nations in 2003 to officially designate Día de los Muertos a form of “<a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/indigenous-festivity-dedicated-to-the-dead-00054">intangible cultural heritage</a>,” a classification reserved for cultural traditions like rituals, oral traditions and performing arts that are <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/01851-EN.pdf">endangered by globalization or lack of support</a>. This gave the United Nations authority to work with the Mexican government to “protect and conserve” Day of the Dead, which would presumably safeguard the holiday from influences like Halloween. But it was too late. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Girl hits pinata at a celebration in Mexico." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Día de los Muertos celebrations in Mexico are adapting and fusing with Halloween in interesting ways.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/girl-hitting-pi%C3%B1ata-during-a-day-of-the-death-royalty-free-image/1653070912?phrase=day+of+the+dead&adppopup=true">FG Trade Latin/ Collection E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hollywood’s influence</h2>
<p>Today, Halloween haunts Día de Los Muertos in Mexico like never before. Children trick or treat in costume for a full week during Day of the Dead season. They beg for candy from shops and restaurants by crying “Queremos Halloween!” – literally meaning, “We want Halloween!” On Nov. 2 at the country’s largest cemetery, Panteón de Dolores, you’ll find graveyard ofrendas decorated with cobwebs, vampires, witches and pumpkins.</p>
<p>The fusion of Halloween and Day of the Dead is largely facilitated by Hollywood. A prime example is the celebration at the famous Panteón de San Fernando, a cemetery where the remains of some of Mexico’s most important presidents and dignitaries are buried. As part of holiday festivities, the cemetery hosts a screening of the horror classic “Night of the Living Dead.” Hundreds dressed in Day of the Dead attire gather at the tomb of President Benito Juárez, eating candy while watching zombies terrorize a small American community. </p>
<p>The impact of Halloween’s horror movie influence is most noticeable at the country’s largest Día de los Muertos celebration. The Gran Desfile de Día de Muertos, or the Great Day of the Dead parade, which began in 2016 as a simulation of the one depicted in the James Bond movie “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/mexico-city-day-of-the-day-parade/index.html">Spectre</a>,” annually attracts more than a million attendees.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Hollywood horror movie images at Day of the Dead festivity in Mexico City." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dia de los Muertos festivities in Mexico City feature Hollywood horror movie images and costumes typically reserved for Halloween.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mathew Sandoval photo</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to sugar skull makeup and skeleton attire, participants also don Hollywood horror costumes typically reserved for Halloween. You’ll find people dressed as Jigsaw from the “Saw” movies, Chucky from “Child’s Play,” Ghostface from the “Scream” series and Pennywise from Stephen King’s “It.”</p>
<p>By far the most popular costume in 2022 was Michael Myers from “Halloween.” This is hardly surprising. The franchise’s most recent installment, “<a href="https://www.miramax.com/movie/halloween-ends/">Halloween Ends</a>,” was huge in Mexico. When the film was released in Mexico during Day of the Dead and Halloween season, it was one of the <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2346943233/weekend/">highest-grossing movies in the country</a>. In fact, of the 70 counties where the film was released, Mexico had the <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt10665342/">third-highest ticket sales</a>. </p>
<h2>Characters from Disney at celebrations</h2>
<p>In particular, Disney’s influence on both Halloween and Día de los Muertos is immense. The number of children and adults costumed as Darth Vader, Spiderman or Jasmine and Aladdin at Day of the Dead celebrations is bewildering. </p>
<p>And they’re not just at the festive events like the Gran Desfile de Muertos, either. They’re at the ritual ceremonies, too. One can find all manner of Avenger superheroes at the Panteón de Dolores gathered graveside and making offerings to the dead.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People in costumes dancing with characters inspired by Disney and Pixar's Coco." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Disney California Adventure Park celebrating Día de los Muertos in 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-handout-photo-provided-by-disneyland-resorts-plaza-news-photo/1233876227?adppopup=true">Joshua Sudock/Handout/Disneyland Resort via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then there’s the dilemma posed by Disney-Pixar’s “Coco,” the beloved animated film about Día de los Muertos. Similar to every Disney entity, companies license and manufacture <a href="https://www.halloweencostumes.com/coco-costumes.html">Halloween costumes</a> based on characters from the movie. </p>
<p>These costumes are now popular in Mexico, where people dress up as characters from “Coco.” But when they masquerade as the skull-faced Miguel, Ernesto de la Cruz or Mama Imelda, it’s hard to say whether they’re wearing a Halloween costume or a Día de los Muertos costume. I’d venture to say that it’s both simultaneously.</p>
<p>And therein lies the crisis of identity currently facing Mexico’s Day of the Dead. The influence of Hollywood is making it more and more difficult to credibly say “Día de los Muertos is not a Mexican Halloween.”</p>
<h2>What’s next for Day of the Dead</h2>
<p>The fusion between the two holidays is happening in rural and urban areas, and in the borderlands and deeper parts of Mexico. It’s altering Day of the Dead’s popular festive qualities and its ceremonial customs.</p>
<p>Cultural conservatives will no doubt bemoan this as “pollution” of a sacred tradition. But they forget that transformation and adaptation are what ensure any tradition’s survival. Día de los Muertos may live eternally, but it’ll be thanks to the vampire bite of Halloween.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Sandoval does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Halloween’s influence is transforming popular festivities around Día de los Muertos and its ceremonial customs in rural and urban areas of Mexico in some fascinating ways.Mathew Sandoval, Associate Teaching Professor in Culture & Performance, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2097142023-10-19T15:17:53Z2023-10-19T15:17:53ZHow Vivien Leigh survived Hollywood before #MeToo<p>Vivien Leigh’s achievements in cinema were extraordinary. Known for her glamour and beauty, the actress rose from a bit-part player to become one of the most famous women in Hollywood, playing Scarlet O’Hara in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031381/">Gone with the Wind</a> in 1939. And November 5 marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of the two-time Oscar winner. </p>
<p>But Leigh also worked in an era of deeply ingrained inequality, sexism and racism in the Hollywood industry. The lessons from her life and career arguably take on a new meaning in the wake of <a href="https://metoomvmt.org">#MeToo</a> and <a href="https://www.timesupuk.org">#TimesUp</a>, and the changes they have wrought on women’s agency and equality in the industry since 2017.</p>
<h2>Career control</h2>
<p>Like many of the whistleblowers of #MeToo, Leigh arrived in Hollywood as a young and highly ambitious actress hoping that a personal connection with an important industry figure would lead to her big break. She put herself in the running for one of the most coveted roles of all time in Gone with the Wind by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/nov/22/vivien-leigh-life-on-screen">showing up</a> on set with her then lover, actor Laurence Olivier, demanding the attention of producer David O. Selznick. </p>
<p>The career which followed was punctuated by two Best Actress Academy awards and public struggles with mental health. It was also presided over by powerful men in the industry, from director Alexander Korda to Selznick. </p>
<p>Leigh worked in a period where female stars were contracted, controlled and crafted. Her working partnership with Olivier afforded her a mentorship which she deeply valued, but also placed her in his shadow. Theatre critic <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/arts/critic/feature/0,,567652,00.html">Kenneth Tynan</a> famously hounded her with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/aug/08/from-the-observer-archive-the-fiery-life-of-vivien-leigh-remembered-in-1977">negative reviews</a> of her theatre work – always in direct contrast to his admiration of Olivier’s achievements.</p>
<p>Letters from her <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/39639">archive</a>, which I have studied, also reveal her difficult experiences on set, particularly during Gone With the Wind, where she was made to work 16 hour days for six days a week with extremely limited rest and sleep, often in conflict with her director Victor Fleming.</p>
<p>But Leigh worked in an era where outrageous misogyny was an industry norm in many regards. Take, for example, the treatment of Judy Garland on the set of The Wizard of Oz by the ultra-powerful producer Louis B. Mayer. Garland, who was just 16 at the time, was subjected to sexual harassment and physical and psychological abuse throughout her time at <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/retropod/judy-garland-and-the-long-history-of-me-too-in-hollywood-1/">MGM</a>.</p>
<p>Leigh also crossed paths with stars whose abuse at the hand of male industry figures has been well documented. Marilyn Monroe took over the role that Leigh had played on stage in The Prince and the Showgirl in 1957, for example, co-starring with Olivier. Monroe had written a piece for the fan periodical <a href="https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=mpmag">Motion Picture Magazine</a> a few years earlier titled <a href="https://archive.org/details/wolves-story/mode/2up">Wolves I Have Known</a>, calling out the sustained sexual harassment she had faced from men in the industry from the earliest days of her career. </p>
<p>And Leigh herself portrayed a character who suffered at the hands of abusive and controlling men: most famously in her role as the ageing southern belle Blanche in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044081/">A Streetcar Named Desire</a>.</p>
<h2>Actress or Activist?</h2>
<p>But what would Leigh have made of #MeToo? After all, she was no stranger to a protest. She led a rally through London in July 1957 campaigning against theatre closures while sporting a distinctive eye-patch (the result of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/oct/07/biography.features1">domestic violence</a> in her own marriage). That same year she loudly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/jul/13/archive-a-cue-for-miss-vivien-leigh">protested</a> in the House of Lords against the demolition of the St James’s Theatre. </p>
<p>Yet her public causes were focused more on the arts and on patriotism than inequality and gender. It’s also important to remember that she essentially stood on the sidelines when others around her stepped forward to address intersectional inequality, where people encountered discrimination because of gender and race, for instance, in the industry within which she prospered. </p>
<p>When African-American actress Hattie McDaniel was barred from the 1940 Academy Awards ceremony, it was co-star <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/539316/remembering-hattie-mcdaniel-75-years-since-historic-oscar-win">Clark Gable</a>, not Leigh, who threatened to boycott unless she was allowed to attend.</p>
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<h2>Age and (in)visibility</h2>
<p>Leigh rarely commented on the gendered nature of her experiences despite her high profile status in Hollywood. The restrictions she experienced as a female star became more pronounced as she aged, however. </p>
<p>Though she died in 1967, aged just 53, she had been struggling to gain any significant roles for more than a decade. Like many other actresses of her era, she was a victim of the extreme fetishisation of youthfulness and sex appeal that has only recently begun to shift in Hollywood. </p>
<p>Leigh made 19 films in total, but only three after she turned 40. Her struggle to find meaningful roles as she aged now seems a stark contrast with the thriving careers of other A-List female Oscar winners post-#MeToo. Stars such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392397.2022.2157296">Kate Winslet</a>, as my recent research has shown, are enjoying access to a wide range of roles as they enter middle age. </p>
<p>Reframing the careers of classical stars like Leigh through the lens of #MeToo reminds us that the movement isn’t just about <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41594672">Harvey Weinstein</a>, but about a system of gendered power that has run through the industry from its classical period to the present day. </p>
<p>Were Leigh working today, perhaps she would have reaped some of the benefits of the movement. And what an intriguing body of work she may have produced into her later years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209714/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Smithstead received funding for this research from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>As Hollywood continues to reckon with its past, Vivien Leigh’s story is a reminder of the challenges faced by women, even the most successful ones.Lisa Smithstead, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2146622023-09-29T16:15:44Z2023-09-29T16:15:44ZMichael Gambon: an unshowy actor of enormous range and charm<p><a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/michael-gambon-dies-harry-potter-dumbledore-2bcmw9zc2">Sir Michael Gambon</a>, who died on September 28 at the age of 82, was a hugely versatile actor who enjoyed numerous and varied roles in film and television throughout the course of his long career. </p>
<p>Gambon was also a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/sep/28/michael-gambon-obituary">titan of the theatre</a>. His major theatrical roles include Shakespeare’s Othello, King Lear and Falstaff, and Brecht’s Galileo, together with starring roles in works by the finest contemporary playwrights of his era: Beckett, Pinter, Churchill, Hare, Gray and Ayckbourn.</p>
<p>But the reality of theatre is that aside from newspaper cuttings of rave reviews and the fading memories of theatre-goers, very little record of these performances can actually survive for posterity. It is through film and television most audiences know Gambon and these are the media through which his image and presence will continue to circulate far into the future. </p>
<h2>The acclaimed Singing Detective</h2>
<p>Despite recent media obit headlines, Gambon was not just about <a href="https://www.wizardingworld.com/fact-file/characters-and-pets/albus-dumbledore">Dumbledore and Harry Potter</a>. Indeed it was <a href="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/451441/index.html">another Potter – Dennis</a>, not Harry – through which Gambon first became a household name. In 1986, he starred as lead character Philip Marlow in the TV playwright’s most successful and seminal work for BBC TV, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/november/the-singing-detective/">The Singing Detective</a>.</p>
<p>Covered in abrasive lesions and scales from a condition that also afflicted Potter in real life, Gambon’s wracked and hospitalised visage became an iconic part of 1980s British TV culture. The grotesque and tormented character in his hospital bed imagined doctors and nurses dancing all around him as they mimed to old 1940s big-band tunes.</p>
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<p>But watch Gambon more carefully over the course of the six episodes and we get a masterclass in bravura performance. The serial could not have worked without Gambon at its core, making the audience believe in the character’s emotional journey from extreme despair and misanthropy, to more optimistic self-acceptance and a sense of equanimity at its close.</p>
<p>The serial’s director, Jon Amiel, insisted on Gambon for the role, knowing the actor would have the ability to embody not just Marlow’s rage but also, crucially, his vulnerability. This was vital for the audience to go on an emotional journey with the character, learning to peer behind all the anger, railing and self-loathing to the root causes that lay beneath.</p>
<p>And this is exactly we see. Amid all the flashbacks, fantasy sequences and musical numbers, it is Gambon to which the camera always returns as his eyes flash or his face tenses and another unwanted fantasy or forbidden memory begins to surface. It was a towering performance which would go on to win him the Bafta for best actor in 1987. </p>
<h2>Swashbucklers, gangsters, aristos</h2>
<p>The success of The Singing Detective divides Gambon’s TV and film career. Before that, he had acted in a range of plays for television in the heyday of the single play era when drama slots such as <a href="https://www2.bfi.org.uk/archive-collections/introduction-bfi-collections/bfi-mediatheques/play-for-today">Play for Today</a> (BBC 1970-84), ITV <a href="https://thetvdb.com/series/itv-playhouse">Playhouse</a> (1967-83) and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00l2wcq/episodes/guide">Play of the Month</a> (BBC 1965-83) peppered the TV schedules.</p>
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<p>But he also tried series acting, including an early part as a Scottish swashbuckler in 26 episodes of the 16th-century period drama, <a href="https://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1960s/borderers-the/">The Borderers</a>, made for BBC Scotland between 1968 and 1970.</p>
<p>In 1985, Gambon took the title role in the three-part BBC2 serial Oscar, about the life of Oscar Wilde. This gained him critical praise and TV industry attention ahead of being cast in The Singing Detective. Soon Gambon’s screen acting career was flourishing as more television and cinema opportunities came his way. </p>
<p>Interestingly, there is often a division between his “rage” and “vulnerability” parts. In the former camp, there are Gambon’s coruscating turns as various species of gangster, beginning perhaps most memorably with his role as Albert Spica in director Peter Greenaway’s film <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-cook-the-thief-his-wife-and-her-lover-1999">The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover</a> (1989).</p>
<p>Here, we see extreme levels of rage and misanthropy as Gambon channels the utter despicability lying right at the heart of his character Spica’s name. By the end of the film, Spica embodies all the horrors of conspicuous consumption Greenaway clearly loathed about the 1980s. </p>
<p>If not quite as vivid in their depictions of pure evil, other memorable villain roles would follow, including a warmongering general in Toys (1992) and ruthless Irish rancher in the western Open Range (2003) – both made for Hollywood – as well as wealthy crimelord Eddie Temple in the hit British crime film Layer Cake (2004).</p>
<p>But in amongst the variety of gangsters and villains, not to mention haughty aristocrats in British period films such as Gosford Park (2002) and The King’s Speech (2010), we also see the more vulnerable side of Gambon’s characters, sometimes running parallel to the gruff exterior. </p>
<h2>Older wiser characters</h2>
<p>What pleased Gambon so much about being given the role of Dumbledore in the Harry Potter franchise (taking over from fellow Irish actor Richard Harris who died in 2002), was the recognition and affection from children the world over. And among his numerous television credits post-Dumbledore, we find similar traits of darkness and redemption within his Scrooge-like turn in a special episode of another family favourite, Doctor Who.</p>
<p>Though he retired from the theatre in 2015, Gambon continued to act in film and TV until just before his 80th birthday. It was that mesmerising combination of rage and vulnerability that always made him a compelling screen actor to watch, making audiences always care about the characters he inhabited. </p>
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Cook does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Britain has lost one of its greatest actors in the Irish-born star who found fame in Dennis Potter’s groundbreaking TV drama The Singing Detective.John Cook, Professor in Media, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2139532023-09-29T12:24:13Z2023-09-29T12:24:13ZThe ‘Barbie’ and ‘Star Wars’ universes are entertaining, but they also unexpectedly can help people understand why revolutions happen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551028/original/file-20230928-25-25m1n4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The movie 'Barbie' offers an example of what it takes for a revolution to launch. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Warner Bros. Pictures </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Barbie dolls and “Star Wars” movies and toys have entertained generations of American children – in many cases, well into adulthood. But these brands’ influence stretches beyond a penchant for hot pink and lightsaber battles. </p>
<p>In particular, both the <a href="https://www.barbie-themovie.com/">“Barbie”</a> movie, released in July 2023, and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9253284/">a “Star Wars” franchise television series called “Andor”</a> offer important lessons about revolutions. </p>
<p>Hollywood has long been obsessed with revolutions. There are uprisings in other popular movie franchises like “The Hunger Games,” “Harry Potter” and “Avatar.” </p>
<p>In each fictional universe, an oppressed group stages a revolution that fights for political and economic freedom.</p>
<p>As experts in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bSApaj4AAAAJ&hl=en">violence</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Hp9fs9MAAAAJ&hl=en">democratization</a>, we have <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Poli-Sci-Fi-Introduction-Political-ebook/dp/B0B9FVD8L9/">written about</a> how popular culture allows people to better understand real-life political movements and crises. </p>
<p>We also use films and shows in our classes to help students learn about why revolutions happen.</p>
<p>Both “Barbie” and <a href="https://www.starwars.com/series/andor">“Andor”</a> are useful for those who want to understand why revolutions happen and what it takes for them to happen. </p>
<p>Their fundamental point: Before the start of any revolution, the oppressed have to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022002707307120">first recognize their oppression</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551023/original/file-20230928-15-9gozwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Ken doll wearing blue is in a Barbie box on a shelf, surrounded by other Barbie dolls." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551023/original/file-20230928-15-9gozwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551023/original/file-20230928-15-9gozwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551023/original/file-20230928-15-9gozwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551023/original/file-20230928-15-9gozwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551023/original/file-20230928-15-9gozwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551023/original/file-20230928-15-9gozwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551023/original/file-20230928-15-9gozwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In a world of Barbies, the men – all called Ken – don’t have very much power.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/various-barbies-and-ken-dolls-are-seen-on-the-stand-of-a-news-photo/1555808191?adppopup=true">David Benito/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Repression leads to radicalization</h2>
<p>“Barbie” begins in the fictional, very pink and California-perfect Barbieland. Almost everyone is either a version of a Barbie doll or a Ken doll. And the women – all called Barbie – are in charge of Barbieland. Yet the men – all collectively called Ken – are blissfully unaware that they experience political, economic and social repression. </p>
<p>These men are not part of the Barbieland government. They do not work. The primary Ken, played by actor Ryan Gosling, describes his job as “beach.” It was unclear where the Kens even live, since only the women live in the plastic, perfect homes. </p>
<p>It is only when the main Ken leaves the universe of Barbieland and accidentally enters the real world that he realizes men are oppressed back home.</p>
<p>Ken sees that men have power in corporate offices and other places in the real world. He returns to Barbieland with a desire to improve life for other Kens. The Kens then claim all of the Barbies’ houses as their own, and grab all of the important jobs in Barbieland. Then they try to change the constitution – but the Barbies ultimately stop them.</p>
<p>The lead character Cassian Andor from the “Star Wars” universe, meanwhile, had a similar experience. Andor lives under the autocratic Galatic Empire. Unlike the Kens, Andor is somewhat aware that the Empire is oppressive. At a young age, Andor witnesses the Empire’s army, called the Imperials, kill his friend. When he fights back, he is sent to a “youth center,” <a href="https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/andor-episode-5-explained-cassian-grapples-with-new-rebel-allies-mistrust/">akin to a juvenile prison</a>, for three years. </p>
<p>But instead of becoming a rebel when he is older, Andor quietly takes advantage of the system and makes money stealing from the Empire. It is not until he experiences severe repression in prison that he tries to actually overthrow the Empire. </p>
<h2>Bottom-up revolutions are challenging</h2>
<p>These fictional universes also show how difficult it is for revolutionary leaders to recruit and organize others to help fight for their cause. Sometimes, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2008.00322.x">the cost to fight might be too high</a>, as the government in power could imprison or execute anyone who tries to change the system. This discourages participation in the revolution. If the cost is lower, it might be easier to recruit revolutionaries. </p>
<p>In “Barbie,” when the Kens try to change the constitution to give men all of the power, the Barbies do not fight back with violence. Instead, they trick the Kens into being jealous of one another so they become divided and cannot work together to change the constitution. This lack of violent response by the Barbies lowers the potential risk of revolution for the Kens. As such, it is easier for the main Ken to recruit other Kens to change the system.</p>
<p>This is not the case in “Andor.” The cost of seeking change is death, and few people join in the revolution. </p>
<p>It is not until Andor goes to prison that he decides that the cost of doing nothing is higher than the cost of joining the revolution. When he is in prison, he realizes that no matter what he does, the Empire is going to kill him by working him to death. He then decides to revolt with other prisoners.</p>
<p>In real life, recruiting others to join a revolution can becomes easier over time if <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2010422">more and more people participate</a>. The more people there are, the harder it becomes for the government to punish all the people who are rebelling. This, in turn, makes it safer to join the cause, implying that more people may join in. </p>
<p>The prison uprising in “Andor” illustrates this point. </p>
<p>Andor convinces other prisoners to rebel by truthfully telling them that 5,000 other people will fight with them. He explains that the number of prisoners would significantly outnumber the prison guards. All of the other prisoners then decide to fight back and escape, as their chance of successfully escaping is higher and their chance of being punished is lower.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551024/original/file-20230928-27-dml57j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A billboard against a blue sky shows a man with dark hair and a beard in front of other people, with the words " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551024/original/file-20230928-27-dml57j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551024/original/file-20230928-27-dml57j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551024/original/file-20230928-27-dml57j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551024/original/file-20230928-27-dml57j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551024/original/file-20230928-27-dml57j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551024/original/file-20230928-27-dml57j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551024/original/file-20230928-27-dml57j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A billboard in Hollywood, Calif., promotes the ‘Star Wars’ show ‘Andor’ in September 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/billboard-above-the-el-capitan-entertainment-centre-news-photo/1243411720?adppopup=true">AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Maintaining peace in real life</h2>
<p>Both “Barbie” and “Andor” also teach us what it takes to maintain peace after a revolution: It is essential to include the opposition in government.</p>
<p>After the Ken revolt, the Barbies bring the Kens more into the government of Barbieland. The narrator hints that the Kens will eventually gain as much power and influence as “women have in the real world.”</p>
<p>After the “Andor” rebellion, a government called the New Republic forms after the uprising and recognizes that in order to maintain peace, it must give <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S759q6E4Ark">political amnesty</a> to former members of the failed Galactic Empire.</p>
<p>Most civil wars end with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/002081897550384">one side winning, and few end in a negotiated peace deal</a>. </p>
<p>However, even with one side winning the war, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/isp/article-abstract/12/2/171/1845867">research shows</a> that the winning side still needs to include the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343304043775">losing side to prevent further violence</a>. </p>
<p>After a revolution or civil war, government policies that aim at creating <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10726-016-9511-9">equality and equity</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-5907.00022">share power with marginalized groups</a> and give <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818318000012">amnesty to the opposition</a> can go a long way toward preventing future violence. </p>
<p>However, it is still challenging to maintain peace after a revolution takes place. The civil uprisings in <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/war-afghanistan">Afghanistan</a> from 1992 through 1996, the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0095327X10390468">Central African Republic</a> from 2012 through the present, and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35806229">Syria</a> from 2011 until today all demonstrate that it is hard to maintain peace after a civil conflict. All three of these places have had violent uprisings to challenge the government in control. Violence and political instability are also common in these three countries, which are all internally divided and controlled by different governments and militia groups. </p>
<p>One of the best predictors of civil wars is whether a country has had a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S1574-0013(06)02023-0">civil war within the last five years</a>. The risk for a civil war decreases over time the further a country gets from its last internal conflict.</p>
<p>In Barbieland, the Kens need to feel like they have a voice and some control over their lives once the Barbies reassume power – or else they may see another Ken uprising. This is concerning because the president denies the Kens’ request for a Supreme Court seat and instead says that maybe a lower court judgeship could happen. Could this be a sign that there is more trouble ahead in Barbieland?</p>
<p>The revolution also does not resolve in “Andor,” and we have to wait until “Return of the Jedi” for that rebellion to resolve. However, the New Republic that eventually emerges is unable to stave off conflict, as the First Order rises and destroys the New Republic Senate in the seventh “Star Wars” movie. </p>
<p>While revolution is hard, governance is harder.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael A. Allen has previously received funding from the Minerva Research Initiative, the Department of Defense, and the Army Research Office. The views expressed here are the authors' only and do not represent the views of any outside funder.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie VanDusky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Before a revolution can take place, the oppressed first have to recognize that they actually do not have many rights.Michael A. Allen, Professor of Political Science, Boise State UniversityJulie VanDusky, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145442023-09-29T12:23:56Z2023-09-29T12:23:56ZThe fight for 2% − how residuals became a sticking point for striking actors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550993/original/file-20230928-27-9gozwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C21%2C7018%2C4643&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The SAG-AFTRA actors union has been on strike since July 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-writers-guild-of-america-joined-by-members-news-photo/1585226795?adppopup=true">Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Streaming disrupted the entire entertainment industry, upending the DVD-purchasing, film-renting, moviegoing model of decades past.</p>
<p>That shift has also changed how actors get paid. And some of the gains actors made through prior labor struggles – <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190336979/actors-strike-residuals-sag-aftra-wga">particularly through residuals</a>, which are a small percentage of shared earnings from film or television – have vanished.</p>
<p>Though the Writers Guild of America <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/09/wga-strike-officially-end-leaders-approve-tentative-deal-1235556919/">ended its strike</a> on Sept. 27, 2023, actors represented by SAG-AFTRA remain on strike. Residuals are one of their main <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/business/media/hollywood-writers-strike-deal.html">sticking points</a>: They want to receive 2% of revenue generated by shows they appear in on streaming platforms.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/actors-strike-why-sag-aftra-streaming-revenue-proposal-rejected-1235541505/">Studios counter that the number is unrealistic</a> – that it amounts to actors not assuming any financial risk when shows and movies flop, while reaping rewards when they succeed.</p>
<p>But in reality, actors simply want to adapt existing payout models to changing technology and consumption habits.</p>
<h2>The pandemic revealed a glimpse of the future</h2>
<p>The extent to which streaming changed the entertainment landscape came into focus during the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/regal-cinemas-decision-to-close-its-theaters-is-the-latest-blow-to-a-film-industry-on-life-support-147535">With many movie theaters shuttered</a> because of government restrictions and most people reluctant to sit in a theater, some movie studios decided to release their movies through streaming services using what they called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/07/business/media/universal-premium-video-on-demand.html">premium video on demand</a>.</p>
<p>For the made-to-be-blockbuster “Black Widow,” Disney decided to <a href="https://people.com/movies/black-widow-will-be-available-to-all-disney-plus-subscribers-earlier-than-expected/">release</a> the film simultaneously in theaters and on its propriety streaming service, Disney+, for US$30. </p>
<p>The film’s star, Scarlett Johansson, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/disney-sued-by-scarlett-johansson-over-black-widows-streaming-release/">sued Disney</a> for breach of contract. Johansson claimed to have lost $50 million from the simultaneous release, because her contract did not have the same revenue-sharing deal in place for streaming as it did for a theater release.</p>
<p>At $30, the price to stream “Black Widow” on television was <a href="https://www.natoonline.org/data/ticket-price/">equivalent to</a> roughly three theater tickets. At the same time, premium video on demand cuts most costs associated with exhibiting a film in the theater: The studios <a href="https://observer.com/2021/07/hollywood-movie-theaters-vs-streaming-pros-cons/">generally keep 80% of the revenue</a> as opposed to the standard 50% split with theaters.</p>
<p>Actors <a href="https://time.com/6294212/sag-aftra-actors-strike/">decided to strike</a> because they see the pitfalls for their own livelihoods tied to the structure of the contracts they are currently fighting to negotiate.</p>
<h2>A struggle for dignity</h2>
<p>The tensions today echo Hollywood’s 20th-century labor battles.</p>
<p>The Hollywood studio system of the 1930s and 1940s <a href="https://www.umsl.edu/%7Egradyf/film/STUDIOS.htm">was an era</a> of vertical integration in the film industry. The “Big Five” major studios – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., Paramount, 20th Century Fox and RKO – <a href="https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-the-studio-system-in-hollywood/">employed</a> directors, writers, actors and camera operators. Filming, editing, distribution and showings were all handled in-house.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and white photo of buildings from the sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A c. 1930 aerial shot of MGM Studios in Culver City, Calif.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-mgm-studios-in-culver-city-california-circa-1930-news-photo/1139655537?adppopup=true">Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This created an efficient system that allowed for assembly-linelike production of films, not unlike <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/fordism">Ford automotive factories</a>. Actors – just like everyone else employed by the studios – received a salary for the length of their contracts. They didn’t make any extra money if a film became a blockbuster hit.</p>
<p>This period was <a href="https://cinemascholars.com/movie-stars-in-the-studio-system-secrets-and-rules/">rife with exploitation</a>, with low wages, <a href="https://theconversation.com/literature-has-long-been-sounding-the-alarm-about-sexual-violence-in-hollywood-87496">sexual violence</a> and little bargaining power for actors. </p>
<p>Actors fought hard against this system; they wanted to be able to negotiate payouts tied to their work on specific films. In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the studio system <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-day-the-supreme-court-killed-hollywoods-studio-system">violated antitrust laws</a>, ending these unfair contracts. Actors’ newfound free agency allowed them to sign contracts with studios for individual films. This resulted in large earnings for some stars, but they were still largely cut out of any studio revenue.</p>
<p>Some actors began receiving residuals in the 1950s as part of their individual contracts. The system was modeled on royalties earned in music based on the sale of copyrighted music. But where composers and recording artists share in the copyright, actors do not have a claim to copyrights.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, SAG-AFTRA <a href="https://www.sagaftra.org/about/our-history/1960s">went on strike</a> to insist on residuals as part of the basic contract to provide revenue sharing with all actors. Ultimately, they received them.</p>
<h2>Getting a slice of streaming revenue</h2>
<p>It’s key to remember that today’s actors already receive <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/15/actors-strike-what-are-residuals/">2% residuals on revenue</a> from traditional television in secondary markets. A secondary market is a market outside of the film or television show’s original domestic release. Examples include foreign box office revenue, DVD sales, syndicated television shows and theater releases that appear on television. </p>
<p>So shows originally produced for broadcast television aren’t an issue. When “Friends,” which was originally an NBC sitcom, generates $1 billion dollars on streaming platforms, the five leads <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/15/actors-strike-what-are-residuals/">each earn</a> 2%, or $20 million apiece. But a show like “Stranger Things” – produced and owned by Netflix – never goes to a secondary market as long as it is aired only on Netflix, so the stars earn only their original pay. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1706768558150267106"}"></div></p>
<p>The problem, then, comes from the fact that the existing residual model, per the expiring SAG-AFTRA contract, doesn’t take streaming into account.</p>
<p>In the streaming era, all new shows produced by streaming platforms are concurrently reruns and original runs. Actors want 2% of streaming revenue generated by the show or film to replace this line of income. </p>
<p>One issue is that revenue from streaming remains an opaque process. <a href="https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/disney-sued-by-scarlett-johansson-over-black-widows-streaming-release/">Data on earnings tied to streams</a> aren’t as clear as ticket sales or advertising revenue, and streaming platforms tend to keep this information in-house. But streaming services have their own metrics to determine the value of a show or film to the company, such as the number of streams, the first show a subscriber watches upon paying for a subscription and how long a customer remains a subscriber.</p>
<p>This 2% of streaming demand isn’t all that different from what <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/wga-ends-strike-releases-details-on-tentative-deal-with-studios-writers-hollywood/">writers received</a> to negotiate the end of their strike on Sept. 27, 2023. As part of that deal, the <a href="https://www.wgacontract2023.org/the-campaign/summary-of-the-2023-wga-mba">Writers Guild of America</a> negotiated residuals based on viewership on streaming platforms, and producers agreed to share data with the WGA, such as total streaming hours, to help determine payouts.</p>
<p>While 2% of revenue generated from shows and films equates to a larger demand for residuals than the WGA, <a href="https://www.sagaftra.org/files/sa_documents/SAG-AFTRA_2020TV-Theatrical_Summary.pdf">actors have always had higher residuals</a> <a href="https://www.wga.org/uploadedfiles/contracts/mba20.pdf">than writers</a>.</p>
<h2>Closing the loophole</h2>
<p>The original shows and movies created for streaming services like Netflix, Max or Disney+ reflect a vertically integrated system in which the platform owns the studio and the rights to those productions. In this sense, it harks back to the old studio system of the 1930s and 1940s.</p>
<p>For this reason, there is no benefit for studios and platforms to offer actors revenue for every stream, because technically there is no secondary market. Studios and platforms see larger profit margins, while actors see a loss of income. This is the loophole striking actors are looking to close.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/business/media/hollywood-writers-strike-deal.html">When reporters characterize</a> SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher as taking a “hard line” for 2% of revenue, they fail to see that is what actors already have. Actors simply want it to apply to shows and films that originate on streaming platforms.</p>
<p>They fought this battle to end the studio system. The fight for 2% is about demonstrating that the work actors do for streaming television is just as valuable as it’s always been.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214544/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Arditi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Studios say the number is unrealistic − that it amounts to actors not assuming any financial risk for content that flops. But actors simply want to adapt existing payout models to changing technology.David Arditi, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Texas at ArlingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2144412023-09-28T12:36:50Z2023-09-28T12:36:50ZTaylor Swift and the end of the Hollywood writers strike – a tale of two media narratives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550689/original/file-20230927-29-ed9vu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C3977%2C2632&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Taylor Swift cheers as the Kansas City Chiefs play the Chicago Bears on Sept. 24, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/taylor-swift-watches-during-a-regular-season-game-between-news-photo/1700723950?adppopup=true">David Eulitt/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This fall, I’ve been starting my sociology classes by asking my students to share some uplifting news they’ve come across. </p>
<p>On Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, they were abuzz about <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-66919232">Taylor Swift’s appearance at the Kansas City Chiefs game on Sunday</a>. Swift and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce had left Arrowhead Stadium together in Kelce’s convertible, confirming dating rumors. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=B2WlnYkAAAAJ&hl=en">As a scholar of the attention economy</a>, I wasn’t exactly surprised. Many of my students love Swift’s music, and the story had dominated major social media platforms like X, formerly known as Twitter, as a trending topic. </p>
<p>But I was taken aback when I learned that not a single student had heard that the Writers Guild of America <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2023/09/24/writers-strike-agreement-wga-amptp/">had reached a deal</a> with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP, after a nearly 150-day strike. This <a href="https://www.wgacontract2023.org/WGAContract/files/Memorandum-of-Agreement-for-the-2023-WGA-Theatrical-and-Television-Basic-Agreement.pdf">historic deal</a> includes significant raises, improvements in health care and pension support, and – unique to our times – protections against the use of artificial intelligence to write screenplays. </p>
<p>Across online media platforms, the WGA announcement on Sept. 24, 2023, ended up buried under headlines and posts about the celebrity duo. To me, this disconnect felt like a microcosm of the entire online media ecosystem.</p>
<h2>Manufacturing consent online</h2>
<p>It almost goes without saying that news and social media platforms promote some stories and narratives over others. </p>
<p>This particular occurrence is fascinating, however, because the AMPTP represents some of the media conglomerates that directly disseminate news. For example, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/24/business/media/warner-bros-discovery-cnn-streaming-max.html">CNN is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery</a>, a member of the AMPTP. </p>
<p>At the time of this writing, CNN.com has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/search?q=wga&from=0&size=10&page=1&sort=newest&types=all&section=">three headlines</a> about the WGA strike and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/search?q=taylor&from=0&size=10&page=1&sort=newest&types=all&section=">eight headlines</a> about Swift at the Chiefs game. </p>
<p>Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s 1988 book “<a href="https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/5537300/mod_resource/content/1/Noam%20Chomsky_%20Edward%20S.%20Herman%20-%20Manufacturing%20Consent_%20The%20Political%20Economy%20of%20the%20Mass%20Media-Bodley%20Head%20%282008%29.pdf">Manufacturing Consent</a>” outlines the problem of media ownership by conglomerates. According to this theory, powerful interests control narratives, in part, by owning news sources. </p>
<p>There’s a free press in the U.S. But Herman and Chomsky argue that the news that reaches everyday people tends to be framed by a set of assumptions that align with the ideological interests of the media corporations and their advertisers: maintaining the economic status quo and spurring consumerism. </p>
<p>In the U.S. today, <a href="https://techstartups.com/2020/09/18/6-corporations-control-90-media-america-illusion-choice-objectivity-2020/">six conglomerates own and control 90% of media outlets</a>.</p>
<p>Per Pew Research Center data, a majority of Americans <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/01/12/more-than-eight-in-ten-americans-get-news-from-digital-devices/">get their news from online sources</a>. Scholars have since adapted Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John-Demuyakor/publication/348404543_The_Propaganda_Model_in_the_Digital_Age_A_Review_of_Literature_on_the_Effects_of_Social_Media_on_News_Production/links/606f00b2a6fdcc5f778e81e2/The-Propaganda-Model-in-the-Digital-Age-A-Review-of-Literature-on-the-Effects-of-Social-Media-on-News-Production.pdf">to explain how social media ecosystems function</a>.</p>
<p>The role of <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/94d7/4593f66af3675f6bd1a8fb3abd4e89e0d7e2.pdf">algorithms is a key focus</a> of emergent research on manufacturing consent online. Sociologist Ruha Benjamin’s work consistently shows that <a href="https://aas.princeton.edu/publications/research/race-after-technology-abolitionist-tools-new-jim-code">algorithms are encoded with their developers’ biases</a>. Other studies show that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1994624">critiques about algorithmic biases are suppressed</a> by corporate digital media platforms through <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221077174">strategies like shadow-banning</a>, which refers to covertly banning users of concern without their knowledge. These algorithms determine what is trending on websites like X. This, in turn, influences trends on other platforms, like Google searches.</p>
<p>Google trend results show an enormous increase in search queries about Travis Kelce since Sept. 20, 2023, with the WGA strike victory receiving almost no interest in comparison. The massive gap in interest between these topics serves as an example of algorithms supporting trending topics over other newsworthy content. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph showing a spike in searches for Swift and Kelce." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=259&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=259&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=259&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Google Trends graph shows online searches since Sept. 20, 2023, for ‘Travis Kelce,’ represented by the blue line, and ‘WGA,’ represented by the red line.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aarushi Bhandari/Google Trends</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another key focus of the propaganda model for social media is <a href="https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/25880/1/1004203.pdf">targeted advertising</a>. </p>
<p>Unlike their predecessors in television, social media companies use “big data” to know users intimately and present ads that are personalized to each user. This strategy includes guerrilla marketing techniques like the ones employed by several companies after Swift’s appearance.</p>
<p>For example, the National Football League <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/nfl/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-nfl-jersey-sales-1.6978782">changed its X bio</a> to read “NFL (Taylor’s Version).” Sales of Kelce’s jersey <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38496220/taylor-swift-effect-travis-kelce-jersey-sales-spike-nearly-400">skyrocketed in the few days</a> after Swift’s appearance at the Chiefs game. Hidden Valley Ranch changed its X handle to “Seemingly Ranch” after a Swift fan account noted that during the game, Swift had dipped her chicken fingers in “<a href="https://twitter.com/tswifterastour/status/1706076507540767211">seemingly ranch</a>.”</p>
<h2>Corporate media coverage of labor issues</h2>
<p>The muted coverage of the writers strike fits into <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780875461854/through-jaundiced-eyes/#bookTabs=1">a longer historical pattern</a> of tension between labor movements and corporate media. </p>
<p>In many cases, corporate media has <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801488870/framed/#bookTabs=1">framed disproportionately negative narratives</a> about strikes and union activities. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449X9902300402">an analysis of media coverage</a> of tensions between the United Auto Workers and General Motors from 1991-93 found that major newspapers, including The New York Times, consistently framed GM’s position in a positive light, while crafting significantly more negative stories about the strike and autoworkers. <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801488870/framed/#bookTabs=1">Similar patterns are visible</a> in media reporting on the 1993 American Airlines flight attendant strike and the 1997 United Parcel Service strike. </p>
<p>When not covering labor issues in a negative light, corporate media has a track record of ignoring and minimizing these issues. Communications scholar Jon Bekken’s meta-analysis of media coverage discovered <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20141222211416id_/http://javnost-thepublic.org:80/article/pdf/2005/1/5/">substantial drops in coverage of labor issues</a> by major outlets like the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and CBS throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century.</p>
<p>This historical dynamic is <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/labor/article/19/3/77/318130">beginning to change</a>. Increasing <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/510281/unions-strengthening.aspx">public support for labor unions</a> and worker action have made it difficult to ignore the bubbling currents of organized labor across many industries, from <a href="https://sbworkersunited.org/strike-with-pride">Starbucks</a> to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/09/26/uaw-strike-big-three-reputation/">autoworkers</a>. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://perfectunion.us/americans-broadly-support-the-uaw-strike-regardless-of-party/">58% of Americans support the ongoing United Auto Workers strikes</a> against GM, Ford and Stellantis, the company that makes Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles.</p>
<p>Despite corporate ownership and biased algorithms, labor movements have managed to secure public support, demonstrating that Americans are increasingly aware of their own class interests. During such a fraught political climate for the economic status quo, the WGA victory is a major indicator that strikes work.</p>
<p>So, amid these tensions, a feel-good story about Taylor Swift and football is a gift to media executives – and one that helps sell more ranch dressing, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214441/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aarushi Bhandari does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What does it say about the online media ecosystem when the end of a 146-day strike is buried under headlines and posts about Swift’s budding romance with NFL star Travis Kelce?Aarushi Bhandari, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Davidson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2135082023-09-17T12:07:30Z2023-09-17T12:07:30ZHollywood letters of support for Danny Masterson demonstrate the pervasiveness of myths about rape culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548461/original/file-20230915-17-k8hrpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C2%2C896%2C578&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis apologized for writing letters in support for fellow actor Danny Masterson during his rape trial. Masterson was later found guilty and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for raping two women. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cw-6kG2PusA/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">(Instagram/aplusk)</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/hollywood-letters-of-support-for-danny-masterson-demonstrate-the-pervasiveness-of-myths-about-rape-culture" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Hollywood actors Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis are in hot water after their letters of support for their friend and former co-star, Danny Masterson, were <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/09/ashton-kutcher-and-mila-kunis-address-backlash-to-danny-masterson-letters-we-support-victims">made public</a>. Masterson, who played Steven Hyde on <em>That ’70s Show</em>, was convicted in May of drugging and raping two women in the early 2000s. He was sentenced to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/danny-masterson-sentenced-30-years-life-prison-rcna102463">30 years to life in prison</a> on Sept. 7. </p>
<p>Kutcher and Kunis, who are married, apologized for their letters of support after they came to light, and said they didn’t think they would be seen by anyone but the judge. Many other colleagues and friends <a href="https://www.cbr.com/that-70s-show-stars-wrote-letters-of-support-for-danny-masterson-ahead-of-sentencing/">wrote letters of support</a> for Masterson at the behest of his family, including the actors who played the parents Kitty and Red Forman on the show.</p>
<p>The strong backlash against Kutcher and Kunis is partly because Kutcher is a well-known anti-trafficking and anti-rape activist and has been vocal in his support of the <a href="https://metoomvmt.org/">#MeToo movement</a>. Kutcher and Kunis have <a href="https://time.com/6314436/ashton-kutcher-steps-down-thorn-danny-masterson/">stepped down from their roles in an anti-child-sex-abuse organization</a> that he co-founded.</p>
<p>Their letters of support, however, show an astounding lack of empathy for the victims of Masterson’s crimes. They also illustrate one of the main rape myths still plaguing society: the notion that good men don’t rape. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cw-6kG2PusA/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\u0026igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Good men don’t rape?</h2>
<p>In their letters to the judge, Kutcher and Kunis asked for Masterson to be shown leniency based on his supposedly good character (because he is a friend, a good husband and father, and an anti-drug role model). In doing so, Kutcher and Kunis undermine the victims’ testimony and their own claim
<a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/09/ashton-kutcher-and-mila-kunis-address-backlash-to-danny-masterson-letters-we-support-victims">they support victims</a>. </p>
<p>If they did actually believe Masterson had drugged and raped the two victims, they wouldn’t be writing about his “innate goodness” as Kunis did. In asking for leniency for their friend, they inadvertently gave him a pass for his behaviour and cast doubts on the women’s claims. </p>
<p>The presumption that someone who is a good friend, husband and father cannot rape is one of the insidious ways that victims of assault are undermined. We see it in university settings when <a href="https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/education/left-me-there-like-trash-sainte-anne-students-staff-say-university-has-failed-to-properly-address-sexual-assault-on-campus/">perpetrators are popular</a> or student athletes and blame is put on the victims, not the perpetrators. The sympathy is with the perpetrator, not the victim. The victim is ostracized, not the perpetrator.</p>
<p>Philosopher Kate Manne has called this phenomenon <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/kate-manne-on-the-costs-of-male-entitlement">“himpathy.</a>” As American actor Christina Ricci stated, “People we know as ‘awesome guys’ can be predators and abusers. It’s tough to accept but we have to. If we say we support victims — women, children, men, boys — then we must be able <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66772846.amp">to take this stance</a>.” </p>
<h2>The myths about rape culture</h2>
<p>Rape culture is defined as a society or organizational culture where <a href="https://rapecrisis.org.uk/get-informed/about-sexual-violence/what-is-rape-culture/">sexual assault is normalized, minimized or excused</a> based on myths about rape. Political analyst Shannon Sampert highlights six myths in her research on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cjwl.22.2.301">media coverage of sexual assault</a>: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Women lie about being raped. Studies show that in 90 to 98 per cent of cases, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45565684">women are telling the truth</a>. </p></li>
<li><p>Women are to blame for the assault. Think about the slut shaming and victim blaming we often read of when women are asked what they were wearing and how much they had to drink. </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/male-soldiers-cant-help-themselves-is-among-many-rape-myths-that-need-debunking-212568">Men can’t control themselves</a>. This stems from a false argument that men just can’t control themselves when things get going. </p></li>
<li><p>Females are becoming the perpetrators. This myth is usually based on stories of women in authority positions, like teachers, grooming young men and boys. While such cases do occur, the number is very small.</p></li>
<li><p>Rapists are “Others.” Think about media coverage when perpetrators are racialized men. In the United Kingdom, for example, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65174096">rhetoric about grooming gangs</a> has taken a particularly racial tone. Coverage tends to focus on the perpetrators’ ethnic or religious background and suggests rape is more prevalent in certain racialized communities. However, evidence shows this is not the case.</p></li>
<li><p>Finally, and most relevant in the Masterson case, the myth that “good” men don’t rape. This is a common and detrimental idea that gives men a pass if they are somehow seen as worthy of sympathy or have some kind of status in the community.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Victims are told they will <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/08/05/trial-by-twitter">ruin a perpetrator’s life</a>. They also risk being ostracized when they accuse a popular man of sexual assault.</p>
<p>Because these myths about rape permeate our society, these harmful ideas get passed on from generation to generation even with all the consent education now out there. Because our society wants to protect the perpetrators of violence, not the victims.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548565/original/file-20230915-15-q0ebmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close up of a man aggressively placing his hand on a woman's arm." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548565/original/file-20230915-15-q0ebmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548565/original/file-20230915-15-q0ebmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548565/original/file-20230915-15-q0ebmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548565/original/file-20230915-15-q0ebmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548565/original/file-20230915-15-q0ebmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548565/original/file-20230915-15-q0ebmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548565/original/file-20230915-15-q0ebmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rape culture is defined as a society or organizational culture where sexual assault is normalized, minimized or excused based on myths about rape.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sexual double standards</h2>
<p>Women are often blamed for their own sexual assault, not believed or the crime committed against them is seen as not that serious. These ideas can be traced back to two ideas which I explored in my <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/slut-shaming--whorephobia--and-the-unfinished-sexual-revolution-products-9780228006657.php">research with sex workers</a>: the sexual double standard between men and women, and the good girl/bad girl dichotomy between women themselves. </p>
<p>These deep-seated preconceptions about the appropriate sexual behaviour of men and women are connected to faulty myths about rape culture. Women who have a lot of sex are shamed as sluts. Men who do so are celebrated as studs — that’s an example of the sexual double standard. </p>
<p>The sexual double standard then leads to the good girl/bad girl binary which blames those deemed bad for any poor treatment they suffer, even in the case of rape. After all, says the rape myth, she must have done something to have provoked the assault. Condemning women for their sexuality undermines their autonomy and leads to the victim blaming we see in many sexual assault cases.</p>
<p>Would Kutcher and Kunis have apologized if their letters had not become public? Maybe, or maybe not. Nonetheless, their claims to support victims rung hollow the moment they asked the judge to disregard the seriousness of the crime and give their friend leniency. The judge, rightly, declined to do so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213508/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meredith Ralston received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for her research. </span></em></p>In letters to the judge, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis asked for Masterson to be shown leniency based on his supposedly good character.Meredith Ralston, Professor of Women's Studies and Political Studies, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2122272023-09-12T18:49:52Z2023-09-12T18:49:52ZAmid the Hollywood strikes, Tom Cruise’s latest ‘Mission: Impossible’ reveals what’s at stake with AI in movies<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/amid-the-hollywood-strikes-tom-cruises-latest-mission-impossible-reveals-whats-at-stake-with-ai-in-movies" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/wga-strike-timeline-key-events-1235692030">The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike</a> has been going for <a href="https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/amptp-studios-aligned-wga-strike-1235718396/">over 130 days</a>. Joined by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), Hollywood writers are protesting several issues. </p>
<p>Among other demands, the WGA is calling for explicit regulations on the use of AI in media production, in what <em>Time Magazine</em> called “<a href="https://time.com/6277158/writers-strike-ai-wga-screenwriting/">a pivotal moment</a>” in film history.</p>
<p>Enter Tom Cruise and cue the <a href="https://www.soundtrack.net/album/mission-impossible/"><em>Mission: Impossible</em> theme music</a>.</p>
<p>Although <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517268/"><em>Barbie</em></a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/"><em>Oppenheimer</em></a> received most attention this summer, Tom Cruise’s latest instalment in the <em>Mission: Impossible</em> series (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9603212/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_mission%2520impossible"><em>Dead Reckoning Part One</em></a>), reveals more about the future of movies. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/avz06PDqDbM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning’ official trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Highlights threat from AI</h2>
<p>Eerily prescient to the Hollywood strikes, yet <a href="https://collider.com/mission-impossible-7-set-photo-filming-begins/">begun well before the strike</a> in 2020, this blockbuster explores <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-07-17/mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-shows-ai-is-perfect-villain">AI threats to human society and our political order</a>. </p>
<p>Cruise’s nemesis is an AI program called the Entity. Created as a cyberweapon, the Entity achieves sentience to become both agent and object in the ensuing global competition for power. </p>
<p>With computational omniscience in a digitally networked and reliant world, the Entity can manipulate digital and physical infrastructure, such as mobile phones and transit systems, and thus also control the humans who rely on digital interfaces. </p>
<p>Recognizing the Entity as a fundamental threat to humanity, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) of the Impossible Missions Force goes rogue (again) to acquire and destroy the AI.</p>
<h2>Immersive experience</h2>
<p>The film’s plot is a vivid reminder of how little agency humans have in digital environments, even as the cinematic environment relies on contemporary technologies to immerse its audience. </p>
<p>Like Cruise’s previous summer 2022 blockbuster, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1745960/"><em>Top Gun: Maverick</em></a>, <em>Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning</em> is designed to be cinema as experience more than story, using drone cinematography and sophisticated sound editing. </p>
<p>Director <a href="https://collider.com/mission-impossible-tom-cruise-christopher-mcquarrie-dolby-theatrical-experience-video/">Christopher McQuarrie explained</a> his approach as dedicated to “a fully immersive big screen experience,” including high-definition video and sound technologies that allow editors to create the sensation of sound in the audience’s physical environment. </p>
<h2>Human acting, star power</h2>
<p>As a Hollywood movie star, Cruise is similarly devoted to creating visceral audience experiences. </p>
<p>Even as computer-generated imagery (CGI) and digital effects have overtaken big-budget films, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/tom-cruise-streaming-top-gun-cannes-1235149382/">Cruise insists on doing all of his own stunts</a>. He explicitly compared his approach to classic film performances, saying: “No one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance? Why do you do your own dancing?” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tom-cruise-most-dangerous-stunt-riding-motorcycle-off-cliff-base-jumping-mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-film-sky-diving/">Clips of his riding a motorcycle off a cliff</a> circulated online six months before the film released. </p>
<p>When <em>Mission: Impossible</em> was released in July 2023 Cruise <a href="https://evoke.ie/2023/07/13/entertainment/tom-cruise-surprise-appearance">surprised fans</a> at global premieres, <a href="https://www.insider.com/tom-cruise-mission-impossible-premiere-impressed-every-person-red-carpet-2023-6">spending time on the red carpet meeting and talking with them</a>. </p>
<p>His dedication to in-person presence recalls an earlier era of Hollywood, when movie stars could not rely on social media to connect with their fans. Despite his public support for the strike, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/tom-cruise-lobbied-studios-sag-aftra-stunt-ai-1235538456/">he also advocated for exemptions to allow actors to promote their films</a>. </p>
<h2>No digital de-aging</h2>
<p>Unsurprisingly, McQuarrie decided against <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/mission-impossible-director-considered-de-aging-tom-cruise-1235536164/">using a digitally de-aged Cruise</a>, instead focusing attention on the physical fitness of a movie star who appears far younger than his 61 years.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547083/original/file-20230907-11065-r9vmd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547083/original/file-20230907-11065-r9vmd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547083/original/file-20230907-11065-r9vmd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547083/original/file-20230907-11065-r9vmd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547083/original/file-20230907-11065-r9vmd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1149&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547083/original/file-20230907-11065-r9vmd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1149&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547083/original/file-20230907-11065-r9vmd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1149&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The title of Cruise’s latest film is taken from the 1947 film with Humphrey Bogart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Columbia Pictures)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All of <em>Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning</em> recalls earlier eras of cinema. The film’s title is taken, at least in part, from the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/feb/06/lizabeth-scott">1947 film with Humphrey Bogart</a>. </p>
<p>References to the six previous <em>Mission: Impossible</em> films abound, including the return of Canadian actor, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/henry-czerny-mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-interview-1.6905637">Henry Czerny as Kittridge</a>, Hunt’s adversary from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117060/">the franchise’s first film in 1996</a>. </p>
<p>The early desert sequence recalls big-screen desert epics like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lawrence-of-Arabia-film-by-Lean"><em>Lawrence of Arabia</em></a> (1962), while the submarine introduction to the Entity’s power echoes <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099810/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>The Hunt for Red October</em></a> (1990), among others. </p>
<h2>Classic car, train chases</h2>
<p>A 20-minute car chase through the streets of Rome features an imperilled baby carriage on steps, a reference to the same scenario in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sergey-Eisenstein">director Sergei Eisenstein’s</a> influential <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015648/"><em>Battleship Potemkin</em></a> from 1925. </p>
<p>Cruise is handcuffed to costar Hayley Atwell, a trick used in various films, including the James Bond film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120347/"><em>Tomorrow Never Dies</em></a> (1997), while driving a small yellow Fiat, reminiscent of both <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064505/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2"><em>The Italian Job</em></a> (1965) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258463/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_bourne%2520identi"><em>The Bourne Identity</em></a> (2002). </p>
<p>There’s even an extended sequence where Hunt battles enemies <a href="https://www.cntraveler.com/story/mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-filming-locations">on top of and throughout the Orient Express</a> train, evoking everything from the films based on Agatha Christie’s novel, to <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017925/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520general">Buster Keaton’s <em>The General</em></a> (1926), to yet another James Bond film, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057076/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>From Russia with Love</em></a> (1963), whose plot hinged on the threat of misused cybertechnology. </p>
<p>The numerous cinematic references are to films that predate the era of streaming and social media.</p>
<h2>Physical presence: a luxury?</h2>
<p>Writers and actors are right to be worried. With so many processes in commercial media already routinized, the industry appears particularly vulnerable to generative AI. </p>
<p>The current circumstances recall earlier transitions such as the effect when films introduced sound technologies, a threat to silent-film actors dramatized in the Gene Kelly film, <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/singin_in_the_rain"><em>Singin’ in the Rain</em></a>. More recently, movie theatres moved from celluloid to digital projection, largely eliminating projectionists. </p>
<p>Overt resistance to new technologies is rarely successful in the long term. Business professor and pundit <a href="https://www.profgalloway.com/struck/">Scott Galloway</a> has compared the writers’ strike to the 1980s National Union of Mineworkers strike in Northern England.</p>
<p>With so much digital content available, physical presence and proximity becomes rarer and therefore more of a luxury item. </p>
<h2>Return to live experiences</h2>
<p>Certainly, audiences have returned robustly to live music concerts. (Just try getting a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/taylor-swift-toronto-concerts-1.6931346">Taylor Swift ticket in Toronto</a>.) </p>
<p>For now, we will all have to wait and see how it ends for cinema and those who make it. Part two of <em>Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning</em> isn’t due out until next summer. </p>
<p>Hopefully, it will be a Hollywood ending for all of us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212227/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Bay-Cheng does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The movie offers both Hollywood history and Cruise’s presence as weapons of human resistance to the hazards of AI in filmmaking.Sarah Bay-Cheng, Dean of the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design and Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2121752023-09-01T12:43:23Z2023-09-01T12:43:23Z‘The Blind Side’ lawsuit spotlights tricky areas of family law<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545068/original/file-20230828-244119-badfi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=58%2C0%2C2878%2C1890&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sean Tuohy, Michael Oher and Leigh Anne Touhy pose for a photo before a University of Mississippi game in 2008.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/michael-oher-of-the-ole-miss-rebels-stands-with-his-family-news-photo/83870434">Matthew Sharpe/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What’s the difference between adoption and conservatorship? Millions of dollars and the freedom to make your own choices, if you ask retired football player Michael Oher.</p>
<p>Oher, whose story was made into the 2009 movie “The Blind Side,” says he believed he <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2023/08/blind-side-michael-oher-tuohys-lawsuit-conservatorship-adoption-lies.html">signed papers to be adopted</a> by an affluent white couple, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, in 2004. But papers filed in court recently indicate Oher was in fact never adopted. Rather, he has been <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38190720/blind-side-subject-michael-oher-alleges-adoption-was-lie-family-took-all-film-proceeds">under a court-imposed conservatorship</a> all this time. Further, it is alleged that the <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38190720/blind-side-subject-michael-oher-alleges-adoption-was-lie-family-took-all-film-proceeds">arrangement allowed the Tuohys</a> to “gain financial advantages” by striking deals in Oher’s name.</p>
<p>The Tuohys’ attorneys have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nfl-michael-oher-tuohys-blind-side-movie-1bebe2ba9ee2ba60ac806dabab4f6d4c">pushed back</a>, saying that Oher had long known he wasn’t formally adopted and that the <a href="https://people.com/blind-side-sean-tuohy-speaks-out-about-michael-oher-legal-petition-7643431">conservatorship was necessary</a> for his college football aspirations. Their current attorney has also said he believes the long timeline for getting an adoption – compared with the <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/blind-side-controversy-why-the-tuohys-sought-a-conservatorship-over-adoption-for-michael-oher-141415218.html">relatively speedy</a> conservatorship process – played a role in their decision.</p>
<p>As the high-profile legal drama <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/news/the-blind-side-controversy-producers-respond-michael-oher-1235704029/">continues to unfold</a>, Leigh Anne Tuohy’s <a href="https://perma.cc/2DVP-GSBR">personal website</a> still describes Michael Oher as the couple’s “adopted son.”</p>
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<p>As a <a href="https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/nrc8g/2915359">law school professor</a> who teaches trusts and estates as well as family law, I have been intrigued by the precise connections between the Tuohys and Oher. A conservatorship and an adoption are two very different legal proceedings, and the resulting relationships are entirely distinct. </p>
<h2>What is a conservatorship?</h2>
<p>Conservatorships are legal mechanisms to help people who can’t care for themselves or their finances – for example, due to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/18/britney-spears-case-guardianship-laws">advanced dementia</a>. They’re typically <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/24/1009726455/britney-spears-conservatorship-how-thats-supposed-to-work">not for</a> people like Oher who have been signing their own contracts or writing their own books. The goal is to protect a vulnerable person’s well-being and their assets from being misused. Another recent conservatorship in the news, that of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-conservatorships-like-the-one-controlling-britney-spears-can-lead-to-abuse-164617">Britney Spears</a>, was also the subject of contentious legal proceedings, although the conservator in that case was her father. </p>
<p>Adoption is a different legal process that results in a new parent-child relationship. Parents have certain rights and responsibilities for their children, but once a child turns 18 – regardless of whether they are adopted – they are legal adults: They can make their own medical decisions, enter into their own contracts and get married without any parental involvement. People in conservatorships don’t typically have the same kind of freedom.</p>
<p>In Tennessee, where the Tuohys live, parents are not required to support their children once they <a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/2021/title-34/chapter-1/section-34-1-102/">graduate from high school</a>. But the existence of a parent-child relationship remains meaningful even after a child turns 18. For example, parents and children may have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/26/opinion/i-have-a-pretty-good-idea-why-michael-oher-is-angry.html">legal inheritance rights</a>, or children may be required to <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/sponsored/2022/08/28/the-parent-trap-filial-responsibility-laws-cause-financial-havoc-for-children/">pay for a parent’s necessities</a>.</p>
<p>The Tuohys say they were told that they <a href="https://people.com/blind-side-sean-tuohy-speaks-out-about-michael-oher-legal-petition-7643431">couldn’t adopt an adult</a>. But under Tennessee law, as in <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/parties.pdf">many other states</a>, adoption can take place at any age. To be sure, in Tennessee, anyone 14 or older <a href="https://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-36-domestic-relations/tn-code-sect-36-1-117/">needs to consent for the adoption to take place</a>. So Oher would have had to agree – which he says he thought he did. </p>
<p>In addition, adoption <a href="https://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-36-domestic-relations/tn-code-sect-36-1-117/">typically requires</a> <a href="https://www.findlaw.com/family/adoption/who-may-be-adopted.html">ending the rights of the birth parents</a>, which can be done either voluntarily or through a termination hearing. So even though Oher was over 18, the Tuohys could have adopted him – but that probably would have required ending the parental rights of Denise Oher, Michael Oher’s mother.</p>
<h2>Tuohys’ relationship to Oher</h2>
<p>The Tuohys didn’t file for adoption. Rather, they asked a court to appoint them Oher’s conservators, which it did.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-conservatorships-like-the-one-controlling-britney-spears-can-lead-to-abuse-164617">Only a court</a> can impose a conservatorship, and only a court can terminate one. A handful of states explicitly allow for a “<a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_aging/publications/bifocal/vol-42/vol--42-issue-2--november-december-2020-/voluntary-guardianships--a-primer-on-states-guidance/">voluntary</a>” conservatorship – that is, one to which the person subject to the conservatorship agrees. Others, including Tennessee, <a href="https://heinonline-org.proxy1.library.virginia.edu/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/umem36&id=499&collection=journals&index=journals/umem">seem to allow that</a> implicitly, providing for <a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/2010/title-34/chapter-1/34-1-107">special procedures</a> when the person joins the petition. </p>
<p>That appears to be what happened with Oher: He <a href="https://documents.shelbycountytn.gov/ProbateCourtDocuments/viewdoc.aspx?id=11">joined</a> in the request for a conservatorship, and so did his birth mother. At issue is whether he knew he was doing so.</p>
<p>Although <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/4164229-michael-ohers-shockingly-unnecessary-conservatorship-exposes-court-failures/">Tennessee law</a> requires that the court find an individual “<a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/2010/title-34/chapter-1/34-1-126">fully or partially disabled and … in need of assistance”</a> before issuing the order on conservatorship, there do not seem to have been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/08/25/blind-side-controversy/">any claims</a> that Oher could not manage his own finances, health or living situation. The court apparently found that it was in Oher’s “<a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/michael-oher-conservatorship-unlike-legal-141712383.html#:%7E:text=Judge%20Robert%20Benham%20noted%20in,in%20Oher's%20%E2%80%9Cbest%20interest.%E2%80%9D">best interest</a>.” </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the Tuohys were apparently given authority to act on behalf of Oher. Although they were appointed “<a href="https://www.caregiver.org/resource/conservatorship-and-guardianship/">conservators of the person</a>,” which typically does not include control over finances, they were also given authority to approve <a href="https://documents.shelbycountytn.gov/ProbateCourtDocuments/viewdoc.aspx?id=11%20NOTE%20THIS%20LINK%20DOES%20NOT%20WORK%20-%20how%20about%20this?%20%20https://www.vulture.com/article/blind-side-michael-oher-conservatorship-lawsuit-explained.html%22%22">any contract that Oher wished to sign</a>. It’s unclear just what financial arrangements they undertook, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/08/25/blind-side-controversy/">other than those</a> that Oher alleges related to “The Blind Side” – he claims that a deal saw the Tuohys receive <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38190720/blind-side-subject-michael-oher-alleges-adoption-was-lie-family-took-all-film-proceeds">millions of dollars in royalties</a> from the film. An attorney for the Tuohys <a href="https://people.com/tuohy-family-claims-blind-side-subject-michael-oher-attempted-15-million-shakedown-7643878">strongly denied</a> exploiting Oher, describing the lawsuit as a “shakedown”; they are reportedly preparing a legal response.</p>
<h2>Little oversight</h2>
<p>Conservatorships – also called guardianships in some states – can be useful to help people who cannot make their own decisions. Even then, to protect the individual’s autonomy, states typically require that conservators be given the least amount of power possible. </p>
<p>But there is typically <a href="https://time.com/6075859/britney-spears-conservatorship-disability/">very little oversight</a> over conservatorships. Generally, a conservator is supposed to provide an annual report to the court. Under-resourced courts, however, may not be able to monitor the guardianship. It isn’t even clear how many conservatorships exist in the U.S., due to <a href="https://www.eldersandcourts.org/guardianship_conservatorship/general-information/basics/data">uneven record-keeping</a>.</p>
<p>There are alternatives to guardianships. In advance of any incapacity, an individual can designate a trusted person, known as an “agent,” to act on their behalf through advance medical directives or financial powers of attorney. Another option is supported decision-making, in which the individual retains decision-making authority but receives help <a href="https://thearctennesse.wpengine.com/supported-decision-making-sdm-lev3/">from other people</a>. These arrangements can be informal or <a href="https://supporteddecisionmaking.org/faq/">written as contracts</a>.</p>
<h2>Oher’s options</h2>
<p>Oher has already asked the court to compel the Tuohys to stop using his name and image, to provide an accounting of – and an end to – the conservatorship, and to return any money which should have been paid to Oher. He is seeking information about his school records and any <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2023/08/30/oher-seeks-blind-side-payment-information-in-conservatorship-battle/70717241007/">contracts related to the movie</a>. Outside of the conservatorship system, Oher could sue for damages in the event of any breach of fiduciary duty or fraud.</p>
<p>When all the smoke is cleared, maybe Oher can persuade Hollywood to make a sequel to “The Blind Side” about his struggle with the conservatorship system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212175/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi Cahn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two very distinct legal processes are at issue in the Michael Oher case.Naomi Cahn, Professor of Law, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2122422023-08-31T12:23:04Z2023-08-31T12:23:04ZMichael Oher, Mike Tyson and the question of whether you own your life story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545972/original/file-20230901-21-zovk4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C26%2C2977%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Michael Oher and his family celebrate his selection by the Baltimore Ravens at the 2009 NFL Draft. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/baltimore-ravens-draft-pick-michael-oher-poses-for-a-news-photo/86217296?adppopup=true">Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What if you overcame a serious illness to go on to win an Olympic medal? Could a writer or filmmaker decide to tell your inspiring story without consulting you? Or do you “own” that story and control how it gets retold?</p>
<p>Michael Oher, the former NFL player portrayed in the 2009 blockbuster “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0878804/">The Blind Side</a>,” has sued Michael and Anne Leigh Tuohy, the suburban couple who took him into their home as a disadvantaged youth.</p>
<p>In his official complaint, Oher claims that through forgery, trickery or sheer incompetence, the Tuohys enabled 20th Century Fox to acquire the exclusive rights to his life story. </p>
<p>The Tuohys, Oher continues, received millions of dollars for a “story that would not have existed without him,” while he claims that he received nothing.</p>
<p>Just a year earlier, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/08/media/mike-tyson-hulu-series/index.html">similarly incensed</a> when he learned that Hulu had created <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14181914/">a miniseries dramatizing his career</a> without seeking his permission. </p>
<p>“They stole my life story and didn’t pay me,” Tyson charged <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg7JRAeLY9B/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=8c5ce5bc-6faf-4c49-b355-4b25d72418b8">in an Instagram post</a>.</p>
<p>Oher and Tyson – not to mention countless influencers and wannabe celebs – share the conviction that they own, and can monetize, their life stories. And given regular <a href="https://www.ibtimes.com/kurt-warner-movie-20th-century-fox-acquires-rights-former-qbs-life-story-plans-film-adaptation">news stories about studios buying</a> “life story rights,” it’s not surprising to see why. </p>
<p>As law professors, we’ve studied this issue; <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4480628">our research shows</a> that there is no recognized property right under U.S. law – or the laws of any other country of which we are aware – to the facts and events that occur during someone’s life.</p>
<p>So why are Oher, Tyson and others complaining? And why do publishers and studios routinely pay large sums to acquire rights that don’t exist?</p>
<h2>No monopoly on the truth</h2>
<p>In most states, the commercial use of an individual’s name, image and likeness is protected by the so-called “<a href="https://rightofpublicityroadmap.com/">right of publicity</a>.” But that right generally applies to merchandise, apparel and product endorsements, not facts and actual events. So you can’t sell a T-shirt with Mike Tyson’s face on it without his permission, but writing a book about his rise to fame is fair game.</p>
<p>In the U.S., the freedom to describe historical events is rooted in <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt1-7-1/ALDE_00013537/">the free speech clause</a> of the First Amendment, and it’s a fundamental principle that no one – whether it’s a news agency, political party or celebrity – holds a monopoly on the truth.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/19/business/media/gawker-hulk-hogan-verdict.html">The law doesn’t sanction the invasion of privacy</a>, so an investigative journalist who uncovers some unsavory detail of your past can’t publish it unless there is a legitimate public interest in doing so. Nor does it condone the dissemination of false information, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/04/18/business/fox-news-dominion-trial-settlement">which can lead to defamation lawsuits</a>. </p>
<p>The First Amendment, however, does allow authors and film producers to truthfully depict factual events that they have legitimately learned about. They are not required to receive authorization from or pay the people involved.</p>
<h2>The origin of life story ‘rights’</h2>
<p>Film producers, however, are accustomed to paying for the right to repackage or use existing content. </p>
<p>Copyright licenses are required to commission a script based on a book, to depict a comic book character in a film and to include a hit song on a movie soundtrack. Even showing an architecturally distinctive building often requires the consent of a copyright owner, which is why the video game “Spider-Man: Miles Morales” <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/spider-man-miles-morales-doesnt-have-the-chrysler-building-due-to-copyright-issues">had to remove the Chrysler Building</a>.</p>
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<img alt="Manhattan skyline with art deco skyscraper in the foreground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545622/original/file-20230830-24-kgtp41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Studios hoping to include a shot of the Chrysler Building in their films might have to pony up.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-chrysler-building-stands-in-midtown-manhattan-january-9-news-photo/1079651514?adppopup=true">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Along with these other rights and permissions, Hollywood studios have paid individuals for their life stories for at least a century. </p>
<p>Yet, unlike copyright clearances, life story deals do not involve the acquisition of known intellectual property rights. Life story “rights” are not rights at all. Instead, they bundle together a set of contractual commitments: the subject’s agreement to cooperate with the studio, not to work on a similar project, and to release the studio from claims of defamation and invasion of privacy. </p>
<p>By packaging these commitments under the umbrella of “life story rights,” studios can signal to the market that they have acquired a particularly juicy story. </p>
<p>For example, Netflix’s quick deal with convicted fraudster <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-scammers-like-anna-delvey-and-the-tinder-swindler-exploit-a-core-feature-of-human-nature-177289">Anna Sorokin</a>, the subject of the popular streaming series “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8740976/">Inventing Anna</a>,” seems to have <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56113478">deterred competing adaptations</a> of Sorokin’s story.</p>
<p>What’s more, the acquisition of life story rights has become so common that it is viewed, in many cases, as a de facto requirement for film financing and insurance coverage and thus part of the standard clearance procedure for many projects.</p>
<h2>Exceptions don’t make the rule</h2>
<p>As always with the law, though, there are exceptions. </p>
<p>Notably, the producers of the 2010 film “The Social Network” <a href="https://perma.cc/SN4H-UXAP">did not obtain the permission</a> of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg before dramatizing the origin story of his company. In moving forward with the project, they risked a defamation or publicity suit by Zuckerberg and others depicted in the film. But their gamble paid off: Zuckerberg, while <a href="https://perma.cc/SN4H-UXAP">critical of his depiction</a>, didn’t sue.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, other subjects who have been depicted in dramatic features without their authorization have sued to recover a share of the profits. </p>
<p>Silver screen legend Olivia de Havilland, for example, <a href="https://casetext.com/case/de-havilland-v-fx-networks-llc-1">sued FX Studios</a> for briefly depicting her in a miniseries about Hollywood rivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. She won at trial, though an appeals court reversed her victory, citing the producers’ First Amendment rights. </p>
<p>Lawsuits can even be brought when the characters’ names and story details have been changed. U.S. Army Sgt. Jeffrey Sarver, the bomb-defusing expert who inspired the Oscar-winning film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520hurt%2520locker">The Hurt Locker</a>,” <a href="https://casetext.com/case/sarver-v-chartier">sued the film’s producers</a> for violating his right of publicity. He lost.</p>
<p>Lawsuits like these are not the norm. But many producers hope to get ahead of a flimsy lawsuit and bad publicity by acquiring nonexistent rights.</p>
<h2>History is in the public domain</h2>
<p>Ultimately, there is nothing wrong – and much that is right – with paying individuals to cooperate with the production of features about themselves. Doing so can convey respect toward the subject and make the production go more smoothly. </p>
<p>But the fact that life story acquisitions have entered the popular consciousness has spurred the widespread belief that any portrayal of a factual series of events entitles those depicted to a lucrative payday. This expectation increases production costs and the risk of litigation, thereby deterring otherwise worthwhile projects and depriving the public of meaningful content that is based on true stories.</p>
<p>What could be done about this situation?</p>
<p>One idea <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4480628">that we’ve written about</a> would prevent right of publicity laws – the basis for many life story lawsuits – from being used against works that convey ideas and tell a story, such as books, films and TV shows.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most important thing that can be done, though, is educating people that they don’t have a right to cash in on every description of the events of their lives. </p>
<p>Collective history, in our view, belongs in the public domain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212242/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Publishers and studios routinely pay large sums to acquire ‘life story rights.’ Two law scholars explain why the phrase is misleading.Jorge L. Contreras, James T. Jensen Endowed Professor for Transactional Law and Director, Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law, University of UtahDave Fagundes, Baker Botts LLP Professor of Law and Research Dean, University of Houston Law CenterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2111852023-08-08T04:19:10Z2023-08-08T04:19:10ZThe incredible creativity of William Friedkin: Oscars, box-office hits – and arthouse, experimental genre cinema<p>In 1972, American cinema was ablaze with the energy of what later came to be called “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hollywood">The New Hollywood</a>”. This was a group of film directors who were bringing a radical kind of cinema to the movie mainstream – movies with big budgets, edgy content and transgressive politics, all for a mass audience.</p>
<p>A few of them – Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, William Friedkin – even tried to start <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Directors_Company">their own</a> American arthouse studio in San Francisco in the early 70s, making their movies far away from the studio executives. </p>
<p>With the audacity of relative youth on their side, they wanted to bring down the old system and remake Hollywood.</p>
<p>Foremost among these directors was a young Friedkin, who burst onto the Hollywood scene with his searing police drama, The French Connection. Released in 1971, the film galvanised audiences, changed the landscape of Hollywood genre realism, and took home five Oscars – including Best Picture.</p>
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<p>I have a giant poster (a 1971 original) of The French Connection on my office wall. Apart from the gorgeous poster art, it’s a reminder to me of what that era of visionary cinema achieved in so short a period of time.</p>
<p>But Friedkin was also that something extra special, even among the Young Turks of the New Hollywood. He remained an unknown quantity, even while enjoying mainstream box office success. The prolific director has died at 87, just one month before his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/07/movies/william-friedkin-venice-film-festival-caine-mutiny-court-martial.html">now final film</a> is set to premiere at the Venice International Film Festival.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-moscow-stage-to-monroe-and-de-niro-how-the-method-defined-20th-century-acting-179088">From the Moscow stage to Monroe and De Niro: how the Method defined 20th-century acting</a>
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<h2>Enduring artistic fascination</h2>
<p>The stark realism of The French Connection shouldn’t have worked with the police procedural. Friedkin plays the thriller like something lifted from the French New Wave, say Jean-Pierre Melville’s glorious Le Cercle Rouge of 1970.</p>
<p>The French Connection was followed by perhaps the most notorious film of the Hollywood 1970s: The Exorcist (1973). The <a href="https://www.avclub.com/audiences-had-some-intense-reactions-to-the-exorcist-in-1798280003">stories told</a> about the film’s gargantuan run in Hollywood cinema chains are legendary: audiences running from theatres unable to stomach the content, screaming about the intensity of images of good and evil.</p>
<p>The Exorcist remains the apotheosis of the Christian horror, imitated a thousand times across the decades that followed. On its original release, the film took <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0070047/">more than US$190 million</a> on a US$11 million budget, cementing Friedkin’s place in the New Hollywood pantheon of visionary filmmakers.</p>
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<p>Whereas Spielberg, Coppola and Scorsese found their niche in the mainstream Hollywood industry, Friedkin remained the <em>enfant terrible</em> and something of an outsider. </p>
<p>Alongside other directors such as Brian De Palma and his longtime friend Bogdanovich, Friedkin assured audiences Hollywood would not lose its tenuous grip on arthouse, experimental genre cinema.</p>
<p>Friedkin’s style was routinely unconventional. His material pushed the boundaries of the classical Hollywood system, traversing that line between mainstream and independence.</p>
<p>Like so many of the New Hollywood auteurs, Friedkin’s output after the 1980 masterpiece, Cruising, is patchy. </p>
<p>There were misses, such as The Guardian (1990) and Rules of Engagement (2000), and Friedkin shows his discomfort with Hollywood’s aesthetic and political constraint in the erotic thriller, Jade (1995). </p>
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<p>But there many works from the last 40 years of enduring artistic fascination: the synth-oozing To Live and Die in LA (1985), which sets the template for Michael Mann’s Collateral (2004); Jade, Friedkin’s 1995 attempt to outdo Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct (1992), a perverse pleasure precisely for its manic unevenness; and 2011’s stylised, hyper-violent domestic drama, Killer Joe. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/50-years-since-mike-oldfield-began-writing-tubular-bells-the-pioneering-album-that-changed-the-sound-of-music-162254">50 years since Mike Oldfield began writing Tubular Bells: the pioneering album that changed the sound of music</a>
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<h2>My personal top five</h2>
<p>I want to close this reflection with my William Friedkin top five, which I’ll be revisiting across the next week:</p>
<p><strong>5. To Live and Die in LA (1985)</strong></p>
<p>If The French Connection is the epitome of the New York Crime film, To Live and Die in LA is pure Los Angeles. It’s gritty, yes, and violent; but the film exudes cool, and in spite of its relative obscurity, was a major influence on a new generation of genre filmmakers.</p>
<p><strong>4. Sorcerer (1977)</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/hope-lies-at-24-frames-per-second/the-critical-reappraisal-and-restoration-of-william-friedkins-sorcerer-8bd8349ef656">Many commentators</a> on Friedkin’s career regard The Sorcerer as Friedkin’s last great auteur film. Of course, that’s not my opinion (see below). But it is true to say that Sorcerer (a remake of sorts of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s wonderful Wages of Fear from 1953) remains a stunningly experimental film in Hollywood of the late 1970s. </p>
<p>It tanked at the box office (opening a month after Star Wars!) and <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/04/william-friedkin-sorcerer-star-wars">cast Friedkin</a> as an unreliable director.</p>
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<p><strong>3. Cruising (1980)</strong></p>
<p>Has Cruising – a film about a serial killer within New York’s homosexual subcultural community - been cancelled? I don’t know. I so desperately hope not. </p>
<p>What a stunning thriller in the tradition of the realist urban cinema, setting the scene for one of Al Pacino’s best and most unhinged performances. It first appeared with an X-rating and a mess of notoriety. It remains a brilliant film of this era.</p>
<p><strong>2. The Exorcist (1973)</strong></p>
<p>Simply put, the milestone that brought one of the most distinctive artistic visions to a classical possession genre story. </p>
<p>Adapted from William Peter Blatty’s novel (its own cultural phenomenon of the early 70s), Friedkin demonstrates the way in which audio-visual form can surpass its source material. Not for the squeamish!</p>
<p><strong>1. The French Connection (1971)</strong></p>
<p>Even if this film was one sequence – the car/subway chase through New York’s gritty underpasses – it would be a masterpiece. This is glorious action montage before the excesses of digital post-production hijinks. The film oozes a place and time unlike any other film shot in New York in the 1970s. </p>
<p>One of the best films ever made by a Hollywood studio.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211185/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Isaacs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New Hollywood filmmaker William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist and The French Connection, has died at 87.Bruce Isaacs, Associate Professor, Film Studies, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2103602023-08-07T13:03:04Z2023-08-07T13:03:04ZWhat are Hollywood actors and writers afraid of? A cinema scholar explains how AI is upending the movie and TV business<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541103/original/file-20230803-25-pwafdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C38%2C8487%2C5602&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hollywood writers picket in front of Warner Bros. Studios.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/HollywoodWritersStrike/626951bbf0ba4cc6afa0cd6a66e86d87/photo">AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/culture/culture-news/a44687421/hollywood-strikes-explainer/">bitter conflict</a> between actors, writers and other creative professionals and the major movie and TV studios represents a flashpoint in the radical transformation roiling the entertainment industry. The ongoing strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild were <a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-hollywood-strikes-explained-writers-actors-e872bd63ab52c3ea9f7d6e825240a202">sparked in part by artificial intelligence</a> and its use in the movie industry.</p>
<p>Both actors and writers fear that the major studios, including Amazon/MGM, Apple, Disney/ABC/Fox, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount/CBS, Sony, Warner Bros. and HBO, will use generative AI to exploit them. Generative AI is a form of artificial intelligence that learns from text and images to <a href="https://theconversation.com/generative-ai-5-essential-reads-about-the-new-era-of-creativity-job-anxiety-misinformation-bias-and-plagiarism-203746">automatically produce new written and visual works</a>.</p>
<p>So what specifically are the writers and actors afraid of? I’m a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GhipkFEAAAAJ&hl=en">professor of cinematic arts</a>. I conducted a brief exercise that illustrates the answer.</p>
<p>I typed the following sentence into ChatGPT: Create a script for a 5-minute film featuring Barbie and Ken. In seconds, a script appeared.</p>
<p>Next, I asked for a shot list, a breakdown of every camera shot needed for the film. Again, a response appeared almost instantly, featuring not only a “montage of fun activities,” but also a fancy flashback sequence. The closing line suggested a wide shot showing “Barbie and Ken walking away from the beach together, hand in hand.”</p>
<p>Next, on a text-to-video platform, I typed these words into a box labeled “Prompt”: “Cinematic movie shot of Margot Robbie as Barbie walking near the beach, early morning light, pink sun rays illuminating the screen, tall green grass, photographic detail, film grain.” </p>
<p>About a minute later, a 3-second video appeared. It showed a svelte blond woman walking on the beach. Is it Margot Robbie? Is it Barbie? It’s hard to say. I decided to add my own face in place of Robbie’s just for fun, and in seconds, I’ve made the swap.</p>
<p>I now have a moving image clip on my desktop that I can add to the script and shot list, and I’m well on my way to crafting a short film starring someone sort of like Margot Robbie as Barbie.</p>
<h2>The fear</h2>
<p>None of this material is particularly good. The script lacks tension and poetic grace. The shot list is uninspired. And the video is just plain weird-looking. </p>
<p>However, the ability for anyone – amateurs and professionals alike – to create a screenplay and conjure the likeness of an existing actor means that the skills once specific to writers and the likeness that an actor once could uniquely call his or her own are now readily available – with questionable quality, to be sure – to anyone with access to these free online tools.</p>
<p>Given the rate of technological change, the quality of all this material created through generative AI is destined to improve visually, not only for people like me and social media creatives globally, but possibly for the studios, which are likely to have access to much more powerful computers. Further, these separate steps – preproduction, screenwriting, production, postproduction – could be absorbed into a streamlined prompting system that bears little resemblance to today’s art and craft of moviemaking.</p>
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<p>Writers fear that, at best, they will be hired to edit screenplays drafted by AI. They fear that their creative work will be swallowed whole into databases as the fodder for writing tools to sample. And they fear that their specific expertise will be pushed aside in favor of “prompt engineers,” or those skilled at working with AI tools. </p>
<p>And actors fret that they will be forced to sell their likeness once, only to see it used over and over by studios. They fear that deepfake technologies will become the norm, and real, live actors won’t be needed at all. And they worry that not only their bodies but their voices will be taken, synthesized and reused without continued compensation. And all of this is on top of <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/notes-on-hollywood/orange-is-the-new-black-signalled-the-rot-inside-the-streaming-economy">dwindling incomes</a> for the vast majority of actors.</p>
<h2>On the road to the AI future</h2>
<p>Are their fears justified? Sort of. In June 2023, Marvel showcased titles – opening sequences with episode names – for the series “Secret Invasion” on Disney+ that were created in part with AI tools. The use of AI by a major studio <a href="https://gizmodo.com/secret-invasion-ai-art-opening-credits-marvel-vfx-1850560454">sparked controversy</a> due in part to the timing and fears about AI displacing people from their jobs. Further, series director and executive producer Ali Selim’s <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23767640/ai-mcu-secret-invasion-opening-credits">tone-deaf description</a> of the use of AI only added to the sense that there is little concern at all about those fears.</p>
<p>Then on July 26, software developer Nicholas Neubert posted <a href="https://twitter.com/iamneubert/status/1684262309340774407">a 48-second trailer</a> for a sci-fi film made with images made by AI image generator Midjourney and motion created by Runway’s image-to-motion generator, Gen-2. It looks terrific. No screenwriter was hired. No actors were used. </p>
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<p>In addition, earlier this month, a company called Fable released Showrunner AI, which is designed to allow users to submit images and voices, along with a brief prompt. The tool responds by creating entire episodes that include the user. </p>
<p>The creators have been using <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/20/ai-tool-creates-south-park-episodes-with-user-in-starring-role">South Park as their sample</a>, and they have presented plausible new episodes of the show that integrate viewers as characters in the story. The idea is to create a new form of audience engagement. However, for both writers and actors, Showrunner AI must be chilling indeed.</p>
<p>Finally, Volkswagen recently produced a commercial that features an AI reincarnation of Brazilian musician Elis Regina, who died in 1982. Directed by Dulcidio Caldeira, it shows the musician as she appears to sing a duet with her daughter. For some, the song was a beautiful revelation, crafting a poignant mother-daughter reunion.</p>
<p>However, for others, the AI regeneration of someone who has died prompts worries about how one’s likeness might be used after death. What if you are morally opposed to a particular film project, TV show or commercial? How will actors – and others – be able to retain control? </p>
<h2>Keeping actors and writers in the credits</h2>
<p>Writers’ and actors’ fears could be assuaged if the entertainment industry developed a convincing and inclusive vision that acknowledges advances in AI, but that collaborates with writers and actors, not to mention cinematographers, directors, art designers and others, as partners. </p>
<p>At the moment, developers are rapidly building and improving AI tools. Production companies are likely to use them to dramatically cut costs, which will contribute to a massive shift toward a gig-oriented economy. If the dismissive <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-07-18/sag-aftra-strike-bob-iger-fran-drescher-barry-diller-david-zaslav-revolution">attitude toward writers and actors</a> held by many of the major studios continues, not only will there be little consideration of the needs of writers and actors, but technology development will lead the conversation.</p>
<p>However, what if the tools were designed with the participation of informed actors and writers? What kind of tool would an actor create? What would a writer create? What sorts of conditions regarding intellectual property, copyright and creativity would developers consider? And what sort of inclusive, forward-looking, creative cinematic ecosystem might evolve? Answering these questions could give actors and writers the assurances they seek and help the industry adapt in the age of AI.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210360/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Holly Willis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What would you do if the industry you work in could clone your skills, style and even the way you look and sound?Holly Willis, Professor of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2103792023-08-01T20:13:07Z2023-08-01T20:13:07ZIs it OK to pirate TV shows and movies from streaming services that exploit artists? An ethicist weighs in<p>You’ve probably heard that Hollywood writers and actors are striking. </p>
<p>One of the main revelations to outside observers is the hard treatment meted out by production companies (in concert with streaming giants) to artists. Even very <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/18/the-bear-writer-who-lived-below-the-poverty-line-rips-disney-ceo/">successful</a> and sometimes <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/sag-strike-residuals-explainer-mandy-moore-sanaa-lathan-orange-is-the-new-black-210639209.html">famous</a> writers or actors can struggle to make a <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/writers-guild-streaming-report-members-falling-behind-1235352341/">living wage</a>, with residuals – the money these artists make when their work is re-aired – dropping precipitously in the streaming era. </p>
<p>One of the <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=O2KsAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154&dq=hollywood+defends+copyright&source=bl&ots=6vtFZzM6yT&sig=ACfU3U1er3ABl7KYfqLAO1OUnwjmsUBqAQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj8-NuZhLCAAxVocGwGHQ6lCBAQ6AF6BAhyEAM#v=onepage&q=hollywood%20defends%20copyright&f=false">key reasons</a> the entertainment industry urges us to support copyright and avoid piracy is to support artists. So what happens to our moral calculations when it turns out industries direct so little revenue to creative workers? Should we really feel morally beholden to pay streaming services that exploit artists? </p>
<p>The strike presents a worthwhile moment to think about why we have copyright, and whether it is a law worthy of respect.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-ronald-reagan-led-the-1960-actors-strike-and-then-became-an-anti-union-president-209800">How Ronald Reagan led the 1960 actors' strike – and then became an anti-union president</a>
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<h2>What is piracy?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/piracy-copyright-crime">Piracy</a> refers to the illegal copying, accessing, downloading, streaming or distributing of another’s created work of entertainment, without transforming that work. (For example, <a href="https://legalvision.com.au/does-fanfiction-infringe-copyright/">fan fiction</a> often violates copyright, but because it transforms the work, it isn’t piracy.)</p>
<p>Content industries tend to stereotype pirates as rapacious, remorseless thieves. But <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25482147">many pirates</a> pay respect to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0196859909333697">copyright law’s spirit</a>, if not its black-letter obligations.</p>
<p>Consider four different types of pirates:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>takers</strong> take whatever they want without compunction</li>
<li><strong>samplers</strong> pirate only to sample works. Once they find something they enjoy, they purchase it</li>
<li><strong>finders</strong> only pirate works that aren’t otherwise available</li>
<li><strong>non-payers</strong> only pirate works they would never otherwise have purchased (for example, because they do not have the money to pay for it).</li>
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<p>These four types of pirates raise different moral concerns, and it can be tricky to <a href="https://hughbreakey.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Breakey-2018-Ethics-of-Digital-Piracy-ONLINE.pdf">tease out the ethics</a> of each. Let’s confine our attention here to <em>taking</em>, which is the most concerning type of piracy.</p>
<p>Is piratical taking of copyrighted works ethical?</p>
<h2>Is copyright law morally right?</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most obvious question to consider will be whether we agree with copyright. Copyright law has <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intellectual-property/">two main moral justifications</a>.</p>
<p>First, copyright might be justified on the basis that it provides incentives to artists to develop their work. The production of new art usually requires significant labour. Without some way of supporting artists for what they do, there would be less art and entertainment for us all to enjoy. This “<a href="https://utilitarianism.net/">utilitarian</a>” argument justifies copyright because of its good consequences.</p>
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<p>Second, we might think artists <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2856883">deserve to be compensated</a>. If through hard work and talent someone creates something that gives enjoyment and fulfilment to millions, then it seems unfair if they don’t get rewarded. This is a rights-based or desert-based moral justification.</p>
<p>When industry bodies <a href="https://escholarship.org/content/qt3fk848wz/qt3fk848wz_noSplash_3c19eb9dc89e79675946515dd1b1e8e4.pdf?t=oo6uou">appeal</a> to the need for copyright law to protect and support artists, they are tapping into the moral force of these arguments. </p>
<p>Still, both these justifications are controversial. <a href="http://tomgpalmer.com/wp-content/uploads/papers/morallyjustified.pdf">Reasonable</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uneasy_Case_for_Copyright">informed</a> people can disagree with them.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-convicts-to-pirates-australias-dubious-legacy-of-illegal-downloading-39912">From convicts to pirates: Australia's dubious legacy of illegal downloading</a>
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<h2>Understanding legitimacy</h2>
<p>Suppose we disagree with a law. Do we have the right to ignore it? There are two good reasons to think we don’t have that right.</p>
<p>First, if people only respected laws they already agreed with, then law itself would cease to function. The main reason we have the <a href="https://www.ruleoflaw.org.au/what-is-the-rule-of-law/">rule of law</a> is to avoid everyone simply doing whatever they want. </p>
<p>As political theorists such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Locke">John Locke</a> argued, such situations quickly descend to violence, as everyone enforces their chosen understanding of rights and obligations. Lawless societies are not nice places to live.</p>
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<p>Second, democratically made laws have a <a href="https://resume.uni.lu/story/democratic-legitimacy">special claim</a> to legitimacy. As human institutions, democracies are inevitably flawed. Yet they provide an important way that everyone in a community can come together as equals and play a role in deciding the laws that will bind them. </p>
<p>These two arguments show we can disagree with a law, but still think it should be respected.</p>
<h2>So, should we turn to piracy?</h2>
<p>Where, then, are we left when we find that many entertainment industries exploit artists, and that little of the money from our purchases trickles through to the artists who created it?</p>
<p>For a start, we have reason to think that such industry bodies are not just being exploitative. They are also being hypocritical and manipulative when they appeal to artists to persuade us to support copyright. </p>
<p>If they really were morally committed to supporting artists, their own behaviour would reflect this. </p>
<p>The lack of support to artists may also prompt us to rethink how well copyright law really serves the justifications presented for it.</p>
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<p>Can we go a step further, and say that if entertainment industries are such exploitative hypocrites, we’re entitled to stop handing over our hard-earned cash to access their shows?</p>
<p>If the above arguments are on the right track, then the answer is “no”.</p>
<p>For one thing, copyright law is still the democratically created law of the land. We wouldn’t want other people dispensing with laws and entitlements we cherish and rely on. So we have reason not to break laws that are important to other people.</p>
<p>More specifically, many artists at least make <em>some</em> money from the present system. If we are morally outraged at how little our purchases contribute to their wages, it would be a wildly inappropriate response to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/4/20/11393162/piracy-arthouse-film-extinct-jason-blum">stop paying altogether</a> (and thereby strip our contribution to artists down to zero!).</p>
<p>While we should resist resorting to piracy, the Hollywood strikes do invite us to think critically about how well our current laws live up to their justifications, and whether there are other ways we can support artists.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/computer-written-scripts-and-deepfake-actors-whats-at-the-heart-of-the-hollywood-strikes-against-generative-ai-210191">Computer-written scripts and deepfake actors: what’s at the heart of the Hollywood strikes against generative AI</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210379/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hugh Breakey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Given the hypocritical and exploitative treatment of artists by entertainment industries, do we really have moral obligations to pay for streaming services?Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law. President, Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics., Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.