Word: nea
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...thing for studio bosses, who will never replace the NEA as arts benefactors, is to make a profit. And that can happen when it's the directors and stars, eager to do good works and glean Oscar nods, who subsidize the projects by working for next to nothing. Branagh's sumptuous-looking Hamlet was shot for a mere $18 million. In its domestic release, the film need gross only about $12 million to break even. Why, Robin Williams, one of Hamlet's A-list co-stars, could earn that much on a single Jumanji-size movie...
...Whittier, California, to his backyard autoerotic exploits, to his first sexual encounter with a modern dancer named David. One never tires of hearing stories like this, but the taboos of the dominant sexual order prevent them from being told often enough (Miller's notorious battles with government officials over NEA funding is a case in point). To hear this story told, and told so well, inspires a sense of well-being and affirmation that is sure to leave its audiences grinning inside for days to come...
...prime opponent to any change that threatens public schools is the National Education Association, the powerful teachers' group that has long supported Clinton's campaigns--so much so, in fact, that Dole's labeling Clinton the NEA's "pliant pet" is not at all wide of the mark. "I won't [make] education decisions that you're not a part of making," Clinton told the NEA in 1991. "I won't forget [who] brought me to the White House...
Though this all seems familiar and a bit dated (the NEA controversy was years ago), Rudnick's dialogue is so snappy and pleasantly consonant it doesn't matter. ("I worship you, I adore you, last Halloween, I was you" crows one of Alex's downtown friends to the bouffanty Mrs. Bemiss.) Director Christopher Ashley uses Derek McLane's sleek, convincing sets--Alex's loft and the Civic Central art museum--to the fullest extent, giving the actors a range of movement and building rhythm through the performance...
Ironically, as Hughes himself pointed out, Mapplethorpe never got a cent from the NEA; the museum putting on his "The Perfect Moment" exhibit did. But the symbolism was enough to suffice. The artist, who died before the controversy reached its real boiling point, turned Jesse Helms and other politicians into kids at a peep show. For a brief moment in art history, "that bullwhip" was more famous than the Mona Lisa...