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

Angels uncovered in 350-year-old painting

Little was known about A Portrait of a Lady and a Boy with Pan by John Hayls, the Baroque painter, when it was aquired by the Tate in 1995. But a stencilled lot number on the canvas was found to refer to a Christie's sale in 1929, when the artwork - dated 1655-9 - had been described as "Portrait of Mrs Dobson, of West Peckham, Kent, and her son, Thomas Dobson, in a landscape with Satyr and Cupids". Yet there was nothing cherub-like visible on the canvas. The

US Critic Slams New Cruise Film as Soft on Nazism

The movie, which opened in the US on Thursday, Dec. 25, features superstar Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, an aristocratic German who headed a group of top officers who hatched a plot to kill Hitler late in the war. Roger Friedman, film critic for Fox News, said the movie appeared to intentionally minimize the impact of Nazism. "I'm concerned that Valkyrie could represent a new trend in filmmaking: Nazi apologia. Not once in Valkyrie do any of the 'heroes

Iraq to replace martial monuments with peace art

Nearly six years after Iraqis and U.S. soldiers toppled grandiose monuments erected by Saddam Hussein, Iraq plans to put up 100 new art works it hopes will stand as affirmations of a new era of peace. Before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, all statues and monuments in public squares made reference to Saddam's Baath party or told a story about its military victories against Iraq's numerous enemies. Along with the giant Saddam statue that U.S. troops pulled down from Bag

Rare Holbein work bought for a few thousand could fetch millions

The painting was thought to be a reproduction of the Renaissance artist's work and bought for just £1,900 at an auction in France. But, after cleaning and expert analysis, it emerged the work is a genuine Holbein and as such is worth millions. The unnamed Swiss collector, who owns the work, discovered the painting at a sale of heirlooms and bric-a-brac. The sale was linked to the once-stately Lamoignon family, who had connections to Holbein through another painting, Th

English kings and St John the Evangelist

On the right, past the Crown inn, stands the Jacobean brick-built church of St John. It is one of the most charmingly preserved 17th-century ensembles in the county. Today is the feast of St John's church, for it is dedicated to St John the Evangelist (although Frances Arnold-Forster, in her learned volumes on English church dedications, curiously claims that it is dedicated to both St John the Evangelist and St John the Baptist). The little church, from 1623 but stil

Beatles legend John Lennon makes charity television commercial 28 years after death

The Imagine singer was brought back to life using digital technology. He is seen urging people across the United States to support a campaign by charity One Laptop per Child to deliver tough, solar-powered laptop computers to the world's poorest children. Lennon's voice and video image tells viewers: "Imagine every child no matter where in the world they were could access a universe of knowledge. "They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to

'Frost/Nixon' tries to rewrite history

... Comes now "Frost/Nixon" the movie. It is well crafted and wonderfully acted. The Great Mentioners of Glitterati are mentioning it for multiple Academy Awards. Still, what you see on the silver screen is to accuracy what a fun house mirror is to true reflection. It distorts history. Magnifying some things, minimizing others. Also, inventing and omitting with dramatic license. Mainly, in the film's climactic moment, the cinematic Frost (Michael Sheen) is seen rising to t

Descendant of Louis XIV fails to stop 'disrespectful' exhibition in

A French descendant of Louis XIV has failed in his last-minute attempt to ban an exhibition by pop US artist Jeff Koons in Versailles, which he claimed disrespected his royal ancestors with"pornography". Since September, half a million visitors have flocked to the Sun King's palace to view 17 major works by the"king of kitsch" in its gardens and gilded galleries. These include an inflatable lobster, a porcelain representation of Michael Jackson and his chimp Bubbles, as well a

Study to reveal heads mysteries (Scotland)

Researchers are working to uncover the mysteries of 33 wood carved medallions which would have decorated the Royal Palace at Stirling Castle. Historic Scotland is trying to find out why the works, known as the Stirling Heads and carved between 1530 and 1544, were created and whom they depict. The carvings are thought to feature monarchs such as James V and England's Henry VIII. The research is part of £12m plans to refurbish Stirling's Royal Palace.

NYT derides Valkyrie movie

There are no discernibly nasty Nazis in “Valkyrie,” though Hitler and Goebbels skulk about in a few scenes, shooting dark, ominous looks at the heroic German Army officer played by Tom Cruise. Perhaps they’re wondering what this Hollywood megastar is doing in their midst, a sentiment that you may come to share while watching Mr. Cruise — who gives a fine, typically energetic performance in a film that requires nothing more of him than a profile and vigor — strut about as one of history’s more en

“Christmas Bells” (The Real Verses by Longfellow)

Every song has a history, but some histories are better known than others. The carol “Christmas Bells,” long a standard of the holiday, is a case in point. Written by the renowned poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas Day 1863, a time when it was not yet clear that the North would win the American Civil War, its original verses contain two stanzas that refer directly to that conflict. Longfellow’s son Charles had been grievously wounded in battle, but contrary to Longfellow’s

Von Trapps are reunited, without the singing

When Sam von Trapp, the grandson of Maria, the singing nun made famous by"The Sound of Music," graduated from college, his father offered him a deal: Sam could do whatever he wanted for 10 years before he had to return home here to run the family's ski lodge. His father started calling him to come home after six years. When von Trapp finally returned to take over from his father, Johannes, he had had quite a decade: teaching skiing in Aspen, modeling for Ralph Lauren, surfing i

Harold Pinter dies at 78

Harold Pinter, praised as the most influential British playwright of his generation and a longtime voice of political protest, has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 78. Pinter, whose distinctive contribution to the stage was recognized with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, died on Wednesday, according to his second wife, Lady Antonia Fraser. "Pinter restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people

Is the author of a new Oprah-touted love story the next James Frey?

On February 3, Berkley Books, the mass-market division of the Penguin Group, is slated to publish a Holocaust memoir titled Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived. The author, Herman Rosenblat, who is a retired television repairman now living in Miami, recounts his experience as a teenage boy during the Holocaust at Schlieben, a sub-division of the infamous Buchenwald concentration camp. In the winter of 1945, Herman meets a nine-year-old girl--herself a Jew masquerading as a

Cities battle to claim Poe

The 200th birthday celebration next month for Edgar Allan Poe has resulted in a friendly tussle among major East Coast cities about which has the strongest ties to the American author. Poe - author of "The Raven," "The Tell-Tale Heart" and other poems and tales of the macabre - was born in Boston on Jan. 19, 1809. He was raised largely in Richmond. As an adult, he migrated between Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Befitting his difficul

Al Capone's house to go on the market

Want to own a notorious piece of Chicago history? The modest, red-brick home once owned by Al Capone is expected to hit the market this spring for an estimated $450,000, marking a new chapter for the infamous South Side landmark that has had just two owners since the death of Capone's mother in 1952. "I think there's some value in the home's history," said Barbara Hogsette, 71, who has lived in the house since 1963 but plans to relocate to California next year

Robert Mulligan: Film and television director best known for 'To Kill a Mockingbird', dies aged 83

Robert Mulligan's film version of Harper Lee's moving courtroom drama, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. Though Mulligan and the movie lost to David Lean and Lawrence of Arabia, the film has endured as a classic, and his leading man, Gregory Peck, won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the dogged lawyer Atticus Finch, a character named by the American Film Institute as the most loved fictional figure in the history

Russia spies return to Kremlin-funded nationalist film output

The history of patriotic, state-funded Russian film dates back to the likes of Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 classic The Battleship Potemkin, but it's a genre assumed to have been left behind since the fall of the Soviet Union. Yesterday the Kremlin signalled a return to communist-era policies when it announced that it will spend $8m (£5.4m) on the first fully state-funded feature since the halcyon days of Mosfilm. The $8m-budgeted patriotic war film The Brest Fortress will be made by th

NYC museum avoids glib parallel between Obama, FDR

Sworn in as president in the midst of a deep economic crisis, Franklin D. Roosevelt turned his first 100 days into a swirl of action as he sought to right the sinking ship of state. At first glance the analogy between Roosevelt in 1933 and President-elect Barack Obama in 2009 seems almost too obvious. But at the New-York Historical Society, a new exhibition titled "A New President Takes Command: FDR's First Hundred Days" avoids overly simplified comparisons be

Technology Helps Humans Work Miracles on a Renaissance Treasure (Wash DC)

"Madonna and Child With Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Sigismund" arrived at the National Gallery of Art conservation lab 18 months ago with standard symptoms: darkened skin, lost pigment and damaged gilding. Most 500-year-olds suffer such complaints, so senior conservator Carol Christensen wasn't alarmed. Taking the patient's history proved a greater challenge. The Renaissance altarpiece doesn't turn up in the record books until about 1850, at a church in suburban Siena, I