Do you despair at the current generation of pretty, Botoxed and surgically enhanced actors who can only play themselves?

Your generation of actors have the ability to play a great range of characters. Do you despair at the current generation of pretty, Botoxed and surgically enhanced actors who can only play themselves?
Guy Wilton, by e-mail

Ian Holm---Yes, it does worry me. Everybody looks the same now. Some of them can act and an awful lot of them can't. Scarlett Johansson was wonderful in Lost in Translation, and then, seemingly within a couple of weeks, she became completely Hollywoodised. I was shocked. I didn't recognise her. I hope to God it's just a phase. At the moment, the movie business has very little to do with artistic venture and that appals me. (The Independent)

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Masked robbers stormed into an art museum in Norway and stole Edvard Munch's famous paintings "The Scream" and "Madonna" at gunpoint before the eyes of stunned museum-goers.

Masked robbers stormed into an art museum in Norway and stole Edvard Munch's famous paintings "The Scream" and "Madonna" at gunpoint before the eyes of stunned museum-goers. (CNN)

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The Pixies Get Their Act Together

Marc Geiger of the William Morris Agency, the band's longtime agent, says he is hoping the Pixies will record a new album early next year. "I have thought of that concept, yes," Mr. Black said. "I wouldn't mind asking Tom Waits to produce us. Why not? I like the way his records sound." (New York Times)

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Cartier-Bresson, Artist Who Used Lens, Dies at 95

Cartier-Bresson, Artist Who Used Lens, Dies at 95---"In whatever one does, there must be a relationship between the eye and the heart. One must come to one's subject in a pure spirit. One must be strict with oneself. There must be time for contemplation, for reflection about the world and the people about one. If one photographs people, it is their inner look that must be revealed." (New York Times)

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Hitchcock's definition of terror: "If you want the audience to feel the suspense, show them the bomb underneath the table."

Hitchcock's definition of terror: "If you want the audience to feel the suspense, show them the bomb underneath the table." (Slate)

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"We know the Secret Service has visited high school classrooms where students have produced art that has made reference to violence. The whole atmosphere has shifted enormously."

"there have been encroachments recently on the terrain of creative freedom that are connected with people's fears and anxieties.

"We know the Secret Service has visited high school classrooms where students have produced art that has made reference to violence. The whole atmosphere has shifted enormously."

The Supreme Court has been very clear about the rights of authors to write whatever they want so long as they are not intentionally inciting imminent violence, according to ACLU president Nadine Strossen. She says, however, that under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, "Mr. Baker wouldn't know and he wouldn't be able to find out if he's under surveillance. And anybody the FBI asks about him would be forced to be under that veil of secrecy." (Christian Science Monitor)

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"The thing is, if you believe in the unconscious - and I do - there's room for all kinds of possibilities that I don't know how you prove one way or another."

"The thing is, if you believe in the unconscious - and I do - there's room for all kinds of possibilities that I don't know how you prove one way or another." (The Guardian)

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In Germany, state spending on the arts amounts to roughly 8 billion euro a year.

Few countries promote culture and the arts like Germany. In many places around the world, shrinking public budgets and rising commercial pressures have marginalized all but the most successful artists. Germany, on the other hand, is still awash with largesse—in the form of state-funded cultural venues and other support for the arts. Despite recent cuts, the country still boasts 324 major orchestras and theaters, along with low, subsidized ticket prices. This year alone, there will be more than 300 classical-music festivals in Germany, many of them outdoors and free. State spending on the arts amounts to roughly 8 billion euro a year. "State [support] for the arts has a long tradition, going back to the Prussian kings," says Ingrid Wagner-Kantuser, an official in Berlin's culture department. "Art and culture are a very popular part of our lifestyle." (Newsweek)

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Matt Damon: "But anonymity is something that is an incredibly valuable commodity and you're not aware that it's gone until it's gone. "

(Matt Damon) talks about missing the ordinariness of his former life, and the way anonymity allowed him to be a fly on the wall when he was developing characters, and the way it allowed him to simply live.

"You have to preface everything by saying, 'Look, I'm not complaining, I'm incredibly blessed,' " he says. "But anonymity is something that is an incredibly valuable commodity and you're not aware that it's gone until it's gone. And the experience of it going, it's insidious. You meet people who've been famous for a long time and as much as they try and safeguard against it and as vigilant as they are about trying to protect their humanity, it has an effect." (Washington Post)

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The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail. (WFotW--William Faulkner)

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