Could arts funding cuts and cost of living crisis affect your favourite TV shows and films?
Could your favourite Netflix series be impacted by funding cuts to the theatre industry? Could a reduction in investment into opera really affect franchises such as Star Wars?
It’s something most people don’t think about when they read about funding cuts to the arts, warns top British playwright James Graham – but they should.
Graham, whose plays include the Tony-nominated Ink, Privacy, and Quiz – about the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? coughing scandal, which he turned into a TV series in 2020 – says recent cuts in London by Arts Council England, combined with the cost of living crisis, will have a huge impact on the entertainment industry’s “pipeline”.
Pic. Star Wars/Walt Disney
He told Sky News: “Even if you don’t go to the opera, you don’t necessarily appreciate the training that happens to artists, writers, technicians, scenic designers – they all go on to Netflix, they all go on to work on the Star Wars movies.
“Very quickly, I think in the next 18 months, two years, the depletion and the diminishment of arts across television, theatre, music, is going to be really impactful. And it’s frustrating.”
Earlier in November, Arts Council England announced a £43.5m “levelling up” investment outside London to back “art, culture, and creativity for more people in more places, across the country”.
However, grants in the capital have been cut – including to organisations such as English National Opera.
Supporters say the rebalancing is long overdue, but critics argue the move impacts some of the UK’s most important cultural institutions.
Graham, who grew up as “a working class kid” in Nottingham, said he understands “these are hard arguments to make in a difficult climate”, as people struggle to heat their homes and feed their families due to soaring prices.
“But the arts is one of the main drivers for the British economy,” he said. “I reject this argument that giving money to the arts is taking away from hospitals – investing in arts pays for hospital beds, having a really thriving culture sector pays for teachers wages.
James Graham: ‘The arts basically prints money and gives it back to the government’ – Pic: Johan Persson
“They keep talking about growth… we’re a huge growth sector. As well as remembering of course that stories, television dramas, plays, musicals, have an emotional, social impact on our society. They make us better, empathetic human beings for a very, very small cost.”
The arts “eventually return more than they cost, in all the ways – financial, emotional, social cohesion,” he added. “It basically prints money and gives it back to the government.”
Graham’s latest play, political drama Best Of Enemies, stars Zachary Quinto as Gore Vidal opposite David Harewood’s William F Buckley Jr, exploring their bitter political rivalry and historic clashes which transformed political debates and revolutionised current affairs broadcasting.
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“The play centres on these debates, [the] very first live televised debates that were screened on ABC between two intellectuals, one on the left, one on the right,” Harewood, best known for Homeland, told Sky News. “And it ended up being the most watched programme of that entire election cycle. It’s about politics. It’s about ideas. It’s about personal animosity.
“It’s very, very funny. Hugely entertaining, and I think… says a lot about where we are in modern politics.”
Quinto, who starred in the American Horror Story series and also played Spock in the rebooted Star Trek films, said: “You can really chart the journey from where this began to where we are today in a way that is, I think, both exciting and also troubling in a sense.
“Troubling in the sense that we now live in a world that is almost entirely created by echo chambers. We listen to what we want to hear and not really anything else.”
Best Of Enemies opens at the Noel Coward Theatre on 28 November
Entertainment
Sydney Sweeney responds to ‘sad and shameful’ producer who said she ‘can’t act’ and ‘isn’t pretty’
Sydney Sweeney has hit back at a Hollywood producer who said she “can’t act” and is “not pretty”, calling her comments “sad” and “shameful”.
The 26-year-old actress, who’s starred in hits including White Lotus and Euphoria, is hot property in LA right now, most recently producing and starring in independent horror film Immaculate – just one of three feature films she’s had out in the last six months.
Producer Carol Baum, pictured in 2007. Pic: Ethan Miller/Getty Images for CineVegas
However, the Emmy-nominated actress came in for negative attention from veteran producer Carol Baum, who specifically referenced Sweeney following a film screening, asking the audience: “She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?”
Baum, who has produced over 30 movies including Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Father Of The Bride, was speaking in front of a live audience with New York Times film critic Janet Maslin at an event in Pleasantville, New York, following a screening of her 1988 film Dead Ringers, staring Jeremy Irons.
Responding to the comments, a representative for Sweeney told Sky News: “How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman.
“If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that’s shameful.
“To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms Baum’s character.”
Baum’s comments, reported in Variety, were: “There’s an actress who everybody loves now: Sydney Sweeney. I don’t get Sydney Sweeney. I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney’s movie [Anyone But You] because I wanted to watch it.
“I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her. I watched this unwatchable movie – sorry to people who love this… romantic comedy where they hate each other.”
Sweeney, far right, in Madame Web. Pic: Madame Web trailer/Sony Pictures Entertainment
‘She’s not pretty, she can’t act’
Baum, who also lectures at the University of Southern California went on: “I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?’
“Nobody had an answer. But then the question was asked, ‘Well, if you could get your movie made because she was in it, would you do it?’…
“That’s a very hard question to answer because we all want to get the movie made, and who walks away from a green light? Nobody I know. Your job is to get the movie made.”
Rom com Anyone But You, which also stars actor Glen Powell, was a surprise hit taking £218m (£175m) worldwide at the box office.
‘It IS unwatchable’
Journalist Maslin later referenced the discussion on Twitter, writing: “It IS unwatchable. Carol Baum said this after we screened Dead Ringers at the Jacob Burns Film Center and she mentioned having seen Anyone But You on a plane”.
Maslin did not directly mention Baum’s comments about Sweeney’s looks or acting.
Baum has since expressed “regret” over her words, according to American celebrity gossip site TMZ.
Sky News has contacted Carol Baum for comment.
A woman who stalked Harry Styles has been jailed and banned from seeing him perform.
Myra Carvalho, 35, who appeared at Harrow Crown Court sitting at Hendon Magistrates’ Court in London, was said to have stalked the 30-year-old English singer by sending him 8,000 cards in less than a month.
She was sentenced to 14 weeks’ imprisonment after pleading guilty on Tuesday to a charge of stalking involving serious alarm or distress, a court official said.
A restraining order lasting for 10 years was also imposed on Carvalho who was also told she cannot attend any event where Styles is performing.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Carvalho, who had been staying at a backpacker hostel in Kensington and Chelsea, south west London, was also ordered not to contact Styles, directly or indirectly.
She has been told not to enter an area of north west London which was described in the court, the official added.
She was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £134.
Entertainment
NFL star Travis Kelce: Taylor Swift’s boyfriend lands presenting role on celebrity spin-off of Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?
Travis Kelce has landed his first TV presenting role – hosting the game show Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity?
The American Football star – who has become more famous since he began dating Taylor Swift last year – plays for the Kansas City Chiefs and helped them win the Super Bowl for a second year running in February.
Kelce and Swift at Coachella. Pic: Jennifer Johnson/Shutterstock for Neon Carnival
Their high-profile relationship has been credited with bringing NFL a legion of new fans, and causing a buzz every time they’re seen out together, including their recent date night at the Coachella music festival.
The Prime Video production is a spin-off of the popular US game show Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?, which first aired on Fox in 2007 and was hosted by US comedian Jeff Foxworthy.
It was later revived by Nickelodeon in 2019, fronted by action star John Cena, and also spawned a board game and a book.
In the UK, the show was remade as Are You Smarter Than A 10 Year Old?, and was fronted by Noel Edmonds, and later by Dick and Dom.
In Kelce’s new spin-off of the show, an adult contestant will be given 11 elementary-level questions which they can ask a classroom of various celebrities for help answering.
The final question is from the sixth grade curriculum and is worth $100,000 (£80,000). Only one celebrity is allowed to talk through the answer to the last question with the contestant. Sixth grade students in the US are usually 11-12 years old.
Filming for the 20-episode series has already finished.
Swift at this year’s Super Bowl with Kelce. Pic: Reuters
‘The ultimate class clown’
Kelce said in a statement that he grew up watching game shows and is “excited to be following in the footsteps of so many TV icons”.
He went on: “The original show is a great success, so to be bringing a new format with everyone’s favourite celebrities to the screen, will definitely be entertaining.
“I’m just happy to be on the hosting side of the equation here and excited to see how these famous faces keep up.”
The original series co-creator Barry Poznick called Kelce “the ultimate class clown,” adding, “replacing the kids with celebrities gives us more laughs and surprises, like a roast, as contestants cheat off their famous classmates”.
Earlier this month, Kelce picked up his degree from the University of Cincinnati, 12 years after he finished his course.
He completed his remaining credit hours in 2022 to earn his degree in interdisciplinary studies, according to The Cincinnati Inquirer.
Producer, podcaster and festival founder
Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity? isn’t Kelce’s first TV role. He starred in his own 2016 dating competition show for E! called Catching Kelce and hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live last year.
He’s also a producer on the upcoming documentary King Pleasure, about American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Away from TV, he co-hosts a podcast New Heights with his brother, fellow NFL star Jason Kelce, chatting about popular culture as well as football.
He has also launched his own music festival, Kelce Jam, which will take place for the second year later this month, with starts including Lil Wayne and Diplo headlining.
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