Eddie Murphy out, Brian Grazer in at Oscars
Earlier in the day, on announcing Murphy’s departure, Sherak had said, “I appreciate how Eddie feels about losing his creative partner, Brett Ratner, and we all wish him well.”
“Brian Grazer is a renowned filmmaker who over the past 25 years has produced a diverse and extraordinary body of work,” academy president Tom Sherak, said in a statement.
The dual announcements by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences follows Tuesday’s departure of producer Brett Ratner who earned the wrath of academy members after using a gay slur at a weekend screening of his new movie, “Tower Heist,” which co-starred Murphy.
Fortunately for Oscar organizers, the show does not take place until the final Sunday of February, 2012, giving the group plenty of time to put on a show.
“I was truly looking forward to being a part of the show that our production team and writers were just starting to develop, but I’m sure that the new production team and host will do an equally great job.”
“First and foremost, I want to say that I completely understand and support each party’s decision with regard to a change of producers for this year’s Academy Awards ceremony,” he said.
(Editing by Chris Michaud and Jill Serjeant)
Gay rights groups and some members of the academy took issue with his use of the word that is largely viewed as a slur, and Ratner later apologized publicly. But adding fuel to the fire was an interview he gave on the Howard Stern radio show about his sex life. The damage was done.
Ratner had lured the “Beverly Hills Cop” funnyman into the coveted job as Oscar host and after he quit, Murphy tendered his resignation on Wednesday. It appeared to be the first time a host quit the show that annually is among the most-watched programs on U.S. TV and is seen by tens of millions worldwide.
In his own statement, Murphy seemed almost apologetic for bowing out of the show.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) In a day of drama befitting Hollywood, Oscar organizers on Wednesday said comedian Eddie Murphy was bowing out as host of the world’s top film honors and producer Brian Grazer was stepping in to run the show.
On Tuesday Ratner resigned from the high-profile job in the face of an industry firestorm over his answer to a question at a “Tower Heist” screening about using rehearsals ahead of the film shoot. Ratner replied, “rehearsing is for fags.”
Murphy’s departure paved the way for the academy to bring on “A Beautiful Mind” producer Grazer to guide the show from concept to curtain this coming February. It will be up to Grazer to pick a new host for the awards that honor the top films, performances and other movie work of 2011.
MEMC Struggles to Shine in a Gloomy Solar Market
MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE: WFR - News), a supplier of silicon wafers to solar and semiconductor manufacturers, is planning to restructure its business, which would involve slashing its workforce by 20%, or 1,300 jobs. In addition, the company plans to put some of its facilities on hold in order to ride the slump in the renewable-energy sector.
Weak demand along with painfully low silicon prices in the semiconductor and solar industry are driving the changes. The restructuring would help the company trim its operating costs and strengthen its operating cash flows for the near term. Let’s take a look at the company’s latest third-quarter figures.
Woeful figures
The latest quarterly results were highly disappointing, with a 31% sequential fall in MEMC’s top line and a net loss of $94.4 million.
But it’s not just MEMC that’s facing the heat. Industry peers like LDK Solar and ReneSola have also witnessed sharp falls in revenue as well as profitability margins. This is forcing them to either cut capacity or close up shop altogether.
MEMC’s restructuring process is expected to cost the company $700 million in the fourth quarter. As part of its restructuring plan, it will also cut the capacity of its Portland, Ore., crystal facility and leave idle its polysilicon facility in Merano, Italy.
Apart from this, MEMC would also combine its solar material facility, which is struggling at present, with its SunEdison solar development unit. The hope is to improve efficiency and expand in the solar sector, which is considered less vulnerable to price swings, barring the present slowdown.
Facing the heat
Polysilicon prices have witnessed a tremendous crash since manufacturers raced to raise their production capacity when prices were at loftier levels of $500 per kilogram. Since then, the price has plunged over the years to as little as $25.
To make matters worse, the solar energy market in Europe is facing sunstroke as subsidies have started to shrink, thus adversely affecting demand. Moreover, Chinese competitors are relentlessly dumping their cheap products, causing prices to go southward.
The Foolish bottom line
After MEMC burned its hands with falling polysilicon prices, its restructuring initiative is definitely a welcome change. With its exit from the bottomless pit of solar materials, the company can now focus on restoring the stability of its margins and its business as a whole. So what do you Fools think about the company? Leave your comments in the box below.
Keki Fatakia does not hold shares in any of the companies mentioned in this article. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
‘Pond’ writer parodies politicians and protesters
CONCORD, N.H. As candidates crisscross New Hampshire in their quest for votes, an Academy Award-winning writer thinks the time is ripe for “Political Suicide.”
That is the title of four one-act plays Ernest Thompson who wrote “On Golden Pond”_ will stage beginning Sunday at Pitman’s Freight Room in Laconia.
The plays are dark comedies that parody politicians and protesters alike.
One is about taking the best attribute from each of the candidates to make one candidate who might excite two jaded polling place workers. Another is about a small-town protester who longs to be part of a movement but attracts the attention of no one but the police chief.
Thompson told the Associated Press on Friday that the plays each take a different angle on where our culture is at, but called them “equal opportunity offending plays.”
“I like stirring things up a little,” Thompson said.
Thompson bills his plays as “funnier than the debates” and said the debates inspired one of the plays “Mr. Potato Head” about rolling all the candidates into one dynamic candidate.
“They were pretty funny to watch those debates but also pretty sad, because you kept thinking someone has to stand up and say something profound,” Thompson said.
Thompson says he purposely did not shape his characters to resemble any of the current candidates.
“What I’m hoping is that four years from now we can do these same plays and they’ll have the same resonance,” he said.
Thompson wrote one of the plays_ about a disillusioned senator _six years ago. He says he wrote the other three recently, as campaigning intensified.
The 1981 movie “On Golden Pond” filmed in New Hampshire netted Oscars for Thompson and stars Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda. Last summer Thompson directed the stage production of the play, which he wrote in 1978 for a summer stock theater in Holderness.
Thompson, 62, moved to New Hampshire from Los Angeles 21 years ago.
“The fun part of being in New Hampshire is that you really get to see those characters up close and personal,” he said of the candidates.
Thompson said he chose Pitman’s Freight Room in downtown Laconia in part because of the short commute from his home and production studio in New Hampton. He said the venue holds about 70 and features a stage they assembled for the 16 performances,Inflatable Bouncers, including one the night of the primary Jan. 10. The play runs through Jan. 15, then reopens for six additional performances in early February.
Pitman’s owner Dick Mitchell said that there is a lot of buzz around town about Thompson’s production and that it’s exciting for the renovated train depot to host its first theater production.
“It’s very timely, and I think his message is on target everything is screwed up,” Mitchell said.
Thompson he had a run-in with the Mitt Romney camp Friday not over politics, but turf.
Romney campaign workers wanted to take over Pitman’s Freight Room for nine hours Friday to set up for and stage an evening rally, Mitchell said. But Thompson has dibs on the property.
“The show has to go on,” Thompson said, laughing.
Seven hurt as bomb hits madrassa in Nigeria
PORT HARCOURT/JOS (Reuters) Assailants threw a homemade bomb into a madrassa in southern Nigeria’s Delta state, police said, wounding seven people and escalating tensions between Muslims and Christians after a spate of church bombings across the nation.
Six of the wounded were children younger than nine learning the Koran at the Islamic seminary, or madrassa.
In a separate incident, armed Fulani herdsmen shot dead three members of a family in the ethnically and religiously mixed Plateau state on Wednesday, witnesses and officials said.
The school attack on Tuesday night came two days after Christmas Day bombings of churches and other targets by Islamist militant group Boko Haram killed 32 people in a coordinated strike that seemed aimed at igniting sectarian strife.
“Some men driving in a Camry car threw a low-capacity explosive into a building where an Arabic class was taking place,” police spokesman Charles Muka said.
“Children aged between four and nine were taking a lesson. Six children were injured and one adult,” he said.
He said police suspected a local vigilante group.
Boko Haram, a sect which aims to impose Islamic sharia law across Nigeria, claimed responsibility for the December 25 attacks, the second Christmas in a row it has caused carnage.
The worst attack killed at least 27 people in the St Theresa Catholic church in Madalla, a town on the edge of the capital Abuja, and devastated surrounding buildings and cars as worshippers poured out of the church after Christmas mass.
The attacks risk reviving sectarian violence between the mostly Muslim north and Christian south, which has killed thousands of people in the past decade.
“DECLARATION OF WAR”
Speaking at a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday, Ayo Oritsejafor, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), an umbrella group for all denominations, said Christians had become victims of “Islamic Jihad.”
“It is considered as a declaration of war on Christians and Nigeria,” Oritsejafor said. “CAN has found the responses of … Islamic bodies on this matter to be unacceptable and an abdication of their responsibilities.”
“The Christian Community is fast losing confidence in government’s ability to protect our rights.”
Jonathan promised to do more to tackle the threat of Islamists and hinted at a reshuffle in his security services.
“We will restructure … and make sure we get a team that will meet with the challenge we are facing today,” he said. “I will plead with religious leaders, both Muslim and Christian leaders, to work together.”
Nigerian Christians fear the Christmas Day bombings could lead to a religious war in Africa’s most populous country.
There was no suggestion the killings in Plateau had any link to Sunday’s church bombings, as the victims were Christians.
The state is a tinderbox of ethnic and religious rivalries over land and power between local people and migrants from other areas that often take the form of sectarian strife between the state’s Christian and Muslim communities.
Women wept and wailed in anguish over the bodies of a husband and wife in their thirties and their baby child, all of which were riddled with bullet holes.
“When the Fulani herdsmen came around late in the night, I managed to escape through the window before they killed my son,Wholesale Ed hardy belts, daughter-in-law and grand-daughter with guns,” said Mary Pam, the mother of Philip Francis, one of the victims.
(Additional reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja and Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Myra MacDonald and Matthew Jones)
Congress presses rating agencies on MF Global
(Reuters) Congressional investigators have launched an inquiry into the work of credit rating firms that examined MF Global Holdings Ltd’s risky bets on European government bonds and whether they overlooked crucial information in their evaluations.
Congressman Randy Neugebauer, who chairs an investigative panel of the House Financial Services Committee, sent letters to Moody’s Corp Chief Executive Raymond McDaniel and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services President Douglas Peterson asking for detailed information about their procedures for determining MF Global’s credit-worthiness.
In letters dated December 27, Neugebauer asked each of the rating agencies to respond to his inquiries into the matter by January 15 and to turn over a lengthy list of documents concerning bankrupt futures brokerage MF Global.
The subcommittee is also seeking to hold a hearing in the coming weeks on the role of the ratings firms in the MF Global mess, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal first reported about the congressional inquiry.
MF Global filed for bankruptcy on October 31 after it was forced to reveal that it had made a $6.3 billion bet on European sovereign debt, spooking investors and customers.
Downgrades of MF Global’s debt rating by Moody’s to near-junk status on October 24 helped trigger the panic among investors. Moody’s and Fimalac SA’s Fitch Ratings later both downgraded MF Global to junk on October 27.
McGraw-Hill Cos Inc’s S&P, meanwhile, warned of a possible downgrade on October 26, but did not take any rating action until after MF Global filed for bankruptcy.
A few months prior to Moody’s first downgrade of MF Global, the company revealed it had made repurchase-to-maturity trades collateralized with European sovereign debt in the footnote of a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Those transactions allowed MF Global to move its exposure off its balance sheet, even though it faced enormous risk in the event of a default.
That disclosure caught the eye of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority,Cheap Ed hardy Shoes, which began looking into the matter and along with the SEC ultimately forced MF Global to put up more capital. MF Global disclosed the capital charge on September 1.
In his letters to S&P and Moody’s, Neugebauer asked the rating agencies when they became aware of the repo-to-maturity transactions and whether or not they had any reason to question whether such trades put MF Global at risk.
Spokesmen for S&P and Moody’s both declined to comment on the letters.
It was not immediately clear on Thursday whether or not congressional investigators would also be asking Fitch questions about MF Global. Spokesmen for Fitch did not respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; additional reporting by Alexandra Alper in Washington and Rachana Khanzode in Bangalore; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
It’s not too late to discover overlooked 2011 gems
When you cover entertainment, the music never stops. The albums come in by mail every day but Sunday and pile up in the inbox. The stack of albums grows exponentially, and despite good intentions, certain albums get pushed aside, and by the time you’ve listened, the release date has long since passed.
Most times, you’re not missing that much. But every so often, there’s an album that makes your heart simultaneously skip and sink upon hearing it it skips at how amazing the music is, and sinks when you realize that you ignored something so great for so long.
So now, we look back at those gems the overlooked diamonds left among the zirconia piled about the desk in 2011.
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Robert Ellis, “Photographs” (New West)
We caught the last 10 minutes of a spirited Robert Ellis show in Nashville recently and it sent us racing back to the record player. And that left us wondering how we missed it on our first spin of “Photographs”? The quiet perfection of each song. The knockout songwriting. The curator’s knowledge. And the timeless voice.
All that adds up to what might be our favorite album of the 2011.
Ellis, a 23-year-old from Houston, is definitely headed down a path not often travelled. While most of his peers are honky-tonkin’ and rock `n’ rollin’, he steeps second album “Photographs” in a long-gone era of traditional country music. He shows an uncommon patience, especially for one so young, and displays an ageless wisdom as he earnestly reflects on the nature of loss (”Bamboo”), friendship (”Friends Like Those”) and relationships (”Two Cans of Paint,” “Westbound Train”).
He shows an uncommon subtlety in songs like the rollicking “Comin’ Home,” which reads as both a simple back-to-my-baby road song and a refutation of his folkie past as he puts Austin in the rearview mirror and heads back home to his roots.
We’re anxiously awaiting more.
_Chris Talbott, AP Entertainment Writer
(http://www.twitter.com/chris_talbott)
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Ellie Goulding, “Lights” (Interscope/Cherrytree Records)
Yes, Ellie Goulding’s debut album “Lights” is full of electro-dance beats and some tracks even make use of Auto-Tune, but it’s not another overproduced dance album: She’s got artistic heft. Her voice drips with emotion and her lyrics are honest and straight forward, both ingredients that make for a top-notch album.
The songs are as appealing as Goulding: She’s telling her lover she isn’t sticking around on the drum and electric guitar-fused “Every Time You Go,” and she’s pleading in a lovely cry that he stay around on the eerie-sounding “Salt Skin.” And on one song she sings: “We’re under the sheets and you’re killing me.”
Even when Goulding is not saying it in her own words, she is still convincing check out her brilliant cover of Elton John’s “This Song,” which was produced by Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons.
Besides that tune, the 25-year-old co-wrote every track on the 11-song set, working on most of the album with producer Starsmith. She’s won over the United Kingdom: She’s multiplatinum there and has two Top 5 hits. She also performed at the reception for the royal wedding.
Now America just needs to catch on.
• Mesfin Fekadu, Associated Press
(http://twitter.com/musicmesfin)
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Idle Warship, “Habits of the Heart,” (Blacksmith/Element 9/Fontana)
Res put out her debut album in 2001 with “How Do I,” but the singer-songwriter, who blended her soulful music with elements of rock and pop, fell off the mainstream map despite that wonderful first effort. Still, Res has remained on the music scene for the last few years and makes perhaps her biggest splash yet with Talib Kweli as the eclectic, electric duo Idle Warship.
Though the two put out a few songs in 2010, they made their official debut late last year with “Habits of the Heart,” which kicks off with the feverish “Enemy,” where Kweli plays Ike to Res’ Tina and not in a good way. It’s uncomfortable yet irresistible listening.
The rest of the album is just plain alluring. The grooves range from the slow ballad “Beautifully Bad” to the reggae-influenced “God Bless My Soul,” with other songs that blend rock, dance, a bit of electronica and more without sounding disjointed it all flows beautifully, and is aided by guest appearances by Jean Grae, Michelle Williams and John Forte.
• Nekesa Mumbi Moody, AP Music Writer
( http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi)
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Nicolas Jaar, “Space Is Only Noise” (Circus Company)
In today’s music scene, dominated by imitators of dance beats and some of its originators, Nicolas Jaar is almost the antithesis to that upbeat world his sound is downbeat, still echoing an electronic mood mixed with more emotion, at times mirroring the new wave of R&B from acts like The Weeknd and Frank Ocean.
His refreshing debut, “Space Is Only Noise,” is an instrumental album and 13-song adventure, wonderfully blending genres, making its full sound calming, mysterious and at most times, epic. “Keep Me There” transitions beautifully thanks to the saxophone, and then there’s “Problem With the Sun,” which could be mistaken for a Gorillaz song. The opening and closing tracks range from water streaming to a kid screaming to the piano playing. It’s noisy, but not annoying.
Jaar is a student at Brown University and the son of Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar. What he has created is a reflective sound that makes you think, and at times, dance.
• Mesfin Fekadu, Associated Press
(http://twitter.com/musicmesfin)
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Explosions in the Sky, “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” (Temporary Residence)
It would have been easy to ignore Explosions in the Sky at first. The Austin, Texas-based rock quartet puts out epic star-gazing instrumentals long past the time when those kinds of things were hip. It had been been four years since the group’s last album and some wondered if there’d be a seventh.
Give “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” a listen, though, and you’ll find more real emotion in the wordless universe the band creates over these six songs than in much of the music you’ve listened to in 2011.
From the soaring opener “Last Known Surroundings” rolling guitars over a marching drum beat does convey a sense of euphoric wandering to the playfulness of “Be Comfortable, Creature” and the impressionistic “Let Me Back In,” Explosions in the Sky create a playground for the imagination.
_Chris Talbott, AP Entertainment Writer
(http://www.twitter.com/chris_talbott)
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Deep Purple with Orchestra “Live at Montreaux 2011″ (Eagle Rock)
It was 27 years ago that former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore brought a symphony orchestra out on tour with his successor band, Rainbow. Now, the Blackmore-less Deep Purple does likewise.
They’re actually somewhat late to this party: a slew of classic rock artists from Metallica to Kiss to The Moody Blues, Three Dog Night and even Grand Funk Railroad have performed with symphony orchestras. But for the most part, it works well here. The strings and brass give new heft to FM staples like “Knocking At Your Back Door” and “Woman From Tokyo.”
They also sound fine on my favorite Purple song of all time, “Highway Star,” but the track is ruined here by singer Ian Gillian’s inability or unwillingness after all these decades to hit the screaming high notes of the chorus, “I LOVE it, I NEED it!” Instead, he opts for a flaccid falsetto that kills the whole buzz on what is a legendary classic rock anthem. Dude: If you can’t sing it, don’t try it.
The orchestra lends a tender, emotional feel to a more obscure track, “When A Blind Man Cries” that shows the full potential of wedding symphonic style to classic rock bombast.
Guitarist Steve Morse (previously of Kansas and The Dixie Dregs) brings his own touches and flourishes to songs Blackmore made famous, and deserves kudos for bringing something new to the party.
The concert, from the closing night of the Montreaux festival on July 16, is sold separately as a CD and a DVD.
• Wayne Parry, Associated Press
( http://www.twitter.com/wayneparryac)
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Curren$y, “Weekend at Burnie’s” (Jet Life Recordings/Warner Bros.)
Before there was Drake and Nicki Minaj, rapper Curren$y was the flagship rapper of Lil Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment. He was impressive on the 2006 song “Where da Cash At” featuring Lil Wayne and Remy Ma.
But Curren$y struggled to find his artistic niche and eventually left Lil Wayne’s imprint and Cash Money Records. He went on to release a series of enjoyable mixtapes and dropped four solid albums between 2009 and 2010.
In 2011, Curren$y released his fifth solo album, “Weekend at Burnie’s,” which is by far his best album to date. With his strong southern drawl, the New Orleans-based rapper has a laid-back demeanor that works well with the melodic tracks, produced mostly by Monsta Beatz.
Curren$y’s lyrical content is much easier to understand on this album. On “She Don’t Want a Man,” he touches on the subject of adultery by a woman who would rather run off on secret excursions with a thug than spend time with her financially secure husband.
Other standout songs are “(hash)JetsGo”; “Still,” and “Get Paid” featuring TradeMark Da SkyDiver and Young Roddy on both tracks; and “Televised” with Fiend.
• Jonathan Landrum Jr., Associated Press
(http://www.twitter.com/mrlandrum31)
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Livan “Off The Grid” (Pumpkin Music)
This guy is going to be huge someday.
The Greek-born, London-raised singer Livan defies easy categorization. His voice has the snarl of Johnny Rotten and the exaggerated bass of Iggy Pop. His shaved head evokes Rob Halford, and his over-the-top stage presence evokes Freddie Mercury, clad one night in hot pink spandex and combat boots, the next in a leather fringed kilt.
And he rocks.
All-at-once angry, pensive,Cheap Ed hardy Shoes, wistful and hopeful, Livan’s songs run the gamut from post-punk slashing guitars to the dissonant power chords of classic 1970s rock, with just enough melody and harmony thrown in to make it commercially appealing. “Meet Me On The Other Side” is built around a two-chord riff very reminiscent of Black Sabbath’s self-titled track “Black Sabbath,” and guitarist Will Crewdson’s solo has the type of frenzied crescendo that Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen used early in his career.
“Little White Lies” would have been right at home on a Sex Pistols album, while “Sad” could have been a mix of Blink 182 and Billy Idol. “King Of The World” and “Many Happy Returns” hew more closely to pure punk tradition, while the album’s best track, the ferocious “Undead” pairs menacing bass and guitar lines with a seething, barely controlled rage that would have made Livan a perfect villain in a Batman movie. (Hey, Hollywood, there’s still time…)
Little known in this country, Livan has been wowing audiences and making a name for himself since the summer as the opening act for Alice Cooper. With those shows, he proved himself to be a breath of fresh air in a hard rock music scene desperately in need of some new excitement and a new Rock God. He’s got the pipes, the songwriting ability, and the charisma to pull it off. Of all the albums you might have missed this year, go buy this one first.
• Wayne Parry, Associated Press
(http://www.twitter.com/wayneparryac)
Mitt Romney shares his views on PBS, federal funding
NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) He doesn’t want to drown him in a bath tub, but Mitt Romney said Wednesday that if he’s elected president, Big Bird will have to sing for his seed.
“We’re not going to kill Big Bird,Inflatable Bouncers, but Big Bird is going to have advertisements,” Romney said, while speaking at Homer’s Deli in Clinton, Iowa.
Like virtually every other conservative candidate, Romney has had it — had it! — with government expenditures like public broadcasting, and he wants to save taxpayers money by cutting federal funding to programs like PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts.
On the campaign trail Wednesday in Iowa, Romney declared that if he is elected president, PBS and the NEA will lose federal funding.
Instead, the man from the private sector will turn to — where else? — the private sector to support them.
So what’s Romney’s test for which programs warrant federal support.
“Is a program so critical that it’s worth borrowing from China to pay for it?”
Recessionista May-jah Maharaja - UsMagazine.com
It’s very easy to transition these Indian-inspired gems into Fall and beyond. For now, mix with a maxi dress in a solid color for day and evening and then for dressy occasions add these to your LBD.
Glamorous sparkling drip drop earrings aren’t just for nights out, they can add chic and edge to your day look for summer as well. Hannah Deely, who is our accessories guru here at Us Weekly, found these lovely metal and acrylic statement earrings from Anthropologie that are not only glorious but amazingly well-priced at $38. The steely gray and gold mixture is so modern and timeless.
Purchase info: Buy it here.
An Enfant Terrible Turns Ten
Peter Jensen’s London-based label turns 10 this year. With the quirk and the mischief that still characterize each collection, that might comes as a bit of a surprise. In fashion years, after all, 10 sounds positively mature. But Jensen himself is as surprised as anyone else. “I can’t believe it’s been ten years already,” the Danish designer says. “It’s gone by so fast. Mostly, when I look back, it’s a blur—but it’s been fun!” To celebrate, Jensen launched a book earlier this year, Peter Jensen & Mary Miles Minter & Mildred & Emma & Olga & Nancy… (the list of his muses goes on), and today, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum will host a series of retrospective shows, styled by Lucy Ewing, looking back at the last decade.
The shows will be live-streamed on the V&A’s Web site throughout the day, in which the designer will revisit each of the muses that have inspired his collections, from Meryl Streep (from Resort ‘12) to Anna Karina (Fall ‘11) to the Renaissance princess Christina of Denmark (Fall ‘07), of whom the designer admits to being particularly fond. So how has looking back felt? “Mostly I’ve been amazed at how we managed to do so much with so few resources. Some pieces I remembered loving are a bit of a shock when you get them out! Doing the Spring ‘05 show, with the ice skaters, was really emotional. I watched the video again recently; it still makes me a bit tearful.”
“This week I got asked to be in the Danish ‘Who’s Who,’ which made me really happy. It’s one of those things that I wanted as a child. I just need an Academy Award now and I can die happy!”
—Kiki Georgiou
Photo: Courtesy of Peter Jensen
Raf Simons To Design Dior
Photo: Courtesy Photo
The rumor mill churns again. With Marc Jacobs thought to be out of the running for the creative director position at Dior, some industry insiders are now speculating that Jil Sander creative director Raf Simons is Bernard Arnault’s latest target to take over the historic label.
Simons began his career as a menswear designer, founding his namesake men’s label in 1995, and adding women’s to his repertoire when he took over Jil Sander, for which he designs both men’s and womenswear, in 2005.
At Jil Sander, he’s tempered the minimalism of Sander’s own aesthetic with occasional blasts of color (as with his much-photographed neon collection for Spring 2011) and exaggerated shape (like the Fall 2009 collection, inspired in part by French ceramist Pol Chambost). Recent collections have found him experimenting with couture shapes (Fall 2011) and Dior’s own era, the fifties (Spring 2012).
WWD reports that the appointment is not confirmed and that several details, first among them timing, would need to be worked out. No mention has been made of Simons’ namesake menswear line, though Dior’s current menswear designer, Kris Van Assche, does maintain a separate label under his own name in addition to the one he creates for the house.