Comic actors Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes will host this year’s Academy Awards ceremony as producers try to attract new viewers after record-low ratings in 2021, Hollywood publication Variety and other media outlets reported on Monday. 

The actors are finalizing details and an announcement will be made on Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Variety said. ABC, owned by Walt Disney Co, will broadcast the Oscars ceremony on March 27. 

The film industry’s highest honors, which are handed out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, have not had a host since 2018. 

Schumer won an Emmy in 2015 for her variety sketch show “Inside Amy Schumer.” Hall is known for movies including “Girls Trip” and “Little.” Sykes stars in and created “The Upshaws” and played a recurring role on “Black-ish.” 

Representatives for the actors, the academy and ABC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

The Oscars were handed out by celebrity presenters but had no host in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Ratings for the telecast have fallen in recent years, dropping to a low of 10.4 million people in the United States in 2021. Viewership of other entertainment awards shows also has declined. 

The 2021 Oscars ceremony was scaled down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The awards were handed out at a historic train station in downtown Los Angeles in front of a small audience of nominees and guests. 

This year, organizers have said the show will return to its longtime home of the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. 

Netflix Inc’s gothic Western, “The Power of the Dog,” leads the field of this year’s Oscar nominations with 12 nods, followed by science-fiction epic “Dune” with 10. 

 
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U.S. first lady Jill Biden on Monday observed Valentine’s Day at the White House with displays of giant hearts on the North Lawn and valentines from local elementary school children inside the mansion. 

The displays include a giant red heart inscribed with a Bible passage, 1 Corinthians 13:13, which says, “Three things will last forever — faith, hope and love — and the greatest of these is love.“ 

Additionally, hand-painted, wooden artwork in the shapes of the first family’s puppy, Commander, and cat, Willow, adorned either side of the giant heart bearing the Bible verse. 

The displays are positioned so they will be seen in the background when White House television correspondents report on the day’s news. 

Additionally, valentines created by second-grade classes from a local Washington elementary school are on display in the East Wing of the White House. 

The children who created them are students of Alejandro Diasgranados, a teacher at Aiton Elementary School and Washington’s 2021 Teacher of the Year. On Monday, the students, accompanied by their teacher, toured the White House. 

Last year, just two weeks after President Joe Biden’s inauguration and in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first lady had large red hearts placed on the North Lawn bearing messages such as “compassion,” “courage,” “healing” and “kindness.” 

Valentine’s Day — annually observed February 14 — has always been special to Jill Biden. Her tradition of decorating goes back to Joe Biden’s days as vice president under President Barack Obama when she decorated every window in her husband’s office. 

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 

 
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For literature lovers in sanction-hit Iran, a new novel has long provided a brief respite from a grinding economic crisis triggered by international pressure imposed over Tehran’s contested nuclear programme.

But now losing yourself in a good book is becoming harder, as cash-strapped publishers struggle because the price of paper is soaring.

“If a 200-page novel sold for 400,000 rials ($1.60) last year, its price today is 1,000,000 rials ($4.10), most of which is the cost of production”, said Reza Hasheminejad, who runs the Ofoq publishing house.

Iran does not produce its own paper pulp for publishing so relies on imports, and while those are not under sanctions, they must be paid for in foreign currency. That means the price of a book depends directly on the fluctuation of Iran’s rial.

So publishers are not only slashing the number of titles published, but also cutting the number of pages of those they do print by shrinking the font size.

“Publishing has suffered a major crisis — which could become existential,” said Emily Amrai, collection director at the Houpa publishing house.

While publishers worldwide face growing challenges to the way people read and consume literature, Iran is facing an extra problem.

The United States, under former president Donald Trump, unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from a landmark accord to prevent Iran from acquiring an atomic bomb — a goal Tehran has always denied pursuing — with Washington then reimposing tough economic sanctions.

“As soon as the US sanctions were reinstated in 2018, the price of paper rose,” Amrai said.

‘A miracle’

Long-running negotiations to revive a deal with Iran continue in Austria, but until an international agreement turns the page, the impact of sanctions grows worse.

“The devaluation of our currency against the greenback, the global rise in the price of paper paid in dollars and the increase in the cost of transport — also paid in foreign currency — has plunged publishing into the doldrums,” said Hossein Motevali, owner of Houpa, which specialises in children’s books.

Because book prices are fixed in Iran, profits are pegged to the rapidly fluctuating price of paper.

“Between receiving the manuscript, laying it out, and setting the price of the book, I can lose everything if the price of paper has gone up suddenly,” Hasheminejad said.

“That happens because I’m at the mercy of the fluctuation of the currencies.”

As for the authors, they are paid by the number of the pages in the book, whether they are famous or not.

“Selling books is a miracle today, because the majority of customers belong to the middle class — and given the economic conditions, their priority is to obtain essential goods such as food,” said Hasheminejad. “I really wonder how people still buy books at these prices.”

Bookstores in Iran look similar to shops anywhere in the world. As well as shelves of Iranian writers, popular sellers include translations of foreign works — from 20th century European classics to self-help and psychology books.

Farsi translations of Mary Trump’s tell-all on her uncle Donald Trump, as well as the memoir of former US first lady Michelle Obama, have been recent hits.

‘Shock’

But as the crisis deepens, several small publishing houses have been driven out of business.

“Today, many independent publishers, who have published excellent works, have been eliminated from the market”, said Amrai.

Larger publishing houses have had to adapt to survive.

“We have reduced our profits by as much as possible in order to keep our customers, we have reduced printing and pagination, and publish digital books to avoid paper and reduce costs,” said Hasheminejad.

“But that will only last a year or two, for even the most solid companies.”

So far, books printed before recent spikes in paper costs provided a buffer, but those stocks are running low.

“In a few months, when the books stored in the depots are exhausted, it will be a shock for the customer when they see the new prices,” Hasheminejad warned.

On Enghelab Street, Tehran’s main book market, retired teacher Behjat Mazloumi, 60, already struggles to afford second-hand books.

“I haven’t been able to buy a book for years,” said Mazloumi. “Even street vendors sell books at a very high price.”

The cost rise will have wider impacts too, experts say.

Children in poorer areas where access to literature is already limited will soon find themselves priced out completely, Hasheminejad said.

“Today, we see people in some disadvantaged areas who cannot even communicate properly in Farsi,” he said. “They will certainly experience difficulties.”
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Ivan Reitman, the influential filmmaker and producer behind many of the most beloved comedies of the late 20th century, from “Animal House” to “Ghostbusters,” has died. He was 75. 

Reitman died peacefully in his sleep Saturday night at his home in Montecito, Calif., his family told The Associated Press. 

“Our family is grieving the unexpected loss of a husband, father, and grandfather who taught us to always seek the magic in life,” children Jason Reitman, Catherine Reitman and Caroline Reitman said in a joint statement. “We take comfort that his work as a filmmaker brought laughter and happiness to countless others around the world. While we mourn privately, we hope those who knew him through his films will remember him always.”

Known for bawdy comedies that caught the spirit of their time, Reitman’s big break came with the raucous, college fraternity sendup “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” which he produced. He directed Bill Murray in his first starring role in the summer camp flick “Meatballs,” and then again in 1981′s “Stripes,” but his most significant success came with 1984’s “Ghostbusters.”

Not only did the irreverent supernatural comedy starring Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis gross nearly $300 million worldwide, it earned two Oscar nominations, spawned a veritable franchise, including spinoffs, television shows and a new movie, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” that opened this last year. His son, filmmaker Jason Reitman directed.

Paul Feig, who directed the 2016 reboot of “Ghostbusters” tweeted that he was in shock. 

“I had the honor of working so closely with Ivan and it was always such a learning experience,” Feig wrote. “He directed some of my favorite comedies of all time. All of us in comedy owe him so very much.”

“A legend,” comedian and actor Kumail Nanjiani said on Twitter. “The number of great movies he made is absurd.”

Among other notable films he directed are “Twins,” “Kindergarten Cop,” “Dave,” “Junior” and 1998′s “Six Days, Seven Nights.” He also produced “Beethoven,” “Old School” and “EuroTrip,” and many others, including his son’s Oscar-nominated film “Up in the Air.” 

He was born in Komárno, Czechoslovakia, in 1946 where his father owned the country’s biggest vinegar factory. His mother had survived Auschwitz and his father was in the resistance. When the communists began imprisoning capitalists after the war, the Reitmans decided to escape, when Ivan Reitman was only 4. They traveled in the nailed-down hold of a barge headed for Vienna.

“I remember flashes of scenes,” Reitman told the AP in 1979. “Later they told me about how they gave me a couple of sleeping pills so I wouldn’t make any noise. I was so knocked out that I slept with my eyes open. My parents were afraid I was dead.” 

The Reitmans joined a relative in Toronto, where Ivan displayed his show biz inclinations: starting a puppet theater, entertaining at summer camps, playing coffee houses with a folk music group. He studied music and drama at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and began making movie shorts. 

With friends and $12,000, Reitman made a nine-day movie, “Cannibal Girls,” which American International agreed to release. He produced on a $500 budget a weekly TV revue, “Greed,” with Dan Aykroyd, and became associated with the Lampoon group in its off-Broadway revue that featured John Belushi, Gilda Radner and Murray. That soon led to “Animal House.”

Reitman seized the moment after “Animal House’s” massive success and raised money to direct “Meatballs,” which would be tamer than the hard-R “Animal House.” 

He hand picked Murray to star, which would prove to be a significant break for the comedian, but Ramis later said that Reitman didn’t know if Murray would actually show up until the first day of the shoot. But it was the beginning of a fruitful and longrunning partnership that would produce the war comedy “Stripes,” which Reitman said he thought up on the way to the “Meatballs” premiere, and “Ghostbusters.” 

Reitman also put Schwarzenegger in his first major comedy, opposite Danny DeVito in “Twins.” There was such uncertainty around the project that all forfeited their fees for a share of the profits, which would prove to be a lucrative deal when the film earned $216 million against an $18 million production budget. In Sept. 2021, it was announced that a sequel, “Triplets” was in the works with Reitman directing his original cast, plus Tracy Morgan as their long lost brother. 

By the time 1990′s “Kindergarten Cop” came around, Reitman had established himself as the most successful comedy director in history. Though not even being the father of three children could have prepared him for the arduous task of directing 30 children between the ages of 4 and 7 in the Schwarzenegger comedy.

The political comedy “Dave,” starring Kevin Kline as an ordinary man who has to double for the US President, provided a bit of a departure for Reitman. Roger Ebert wrote at the time that “The movie is more proof that it isn’t what you do, it’s how you do it: Ivan Reitman’s direction and Gary Ross’ screenplay use intelligence and warmhearted sentiment to make Dave into wonderful lighthearted entertainment.”

Reitman slowed down as a director after “Six Days, Seven Nights,” the 1998 adventure comedy with Harrison Ford and Anne Heche — only four films would follow “Evolution,” “My Super Ex-Girlfriend,” “No Strings Attached” and “Draft Day,” from 2014.

But he continued producing. His company, the Montecito Picture Co., produced Todd Phillips’ first movie, “Road Trip.” And with “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” even found himself on the press circuit with his son, providing emotional moments for both with the passing of the baton. Jason Reitman, who was only 7 when the original came out, included some nods to his father’s films like “Beethoven” and “Cannibal Girls” in “Afterlife.”

“Directing ‘Ghostbusters Afterlife’ was completely intimidating,” Jason Reitman said last year. “I was lucky enough to do it sitting next to my dad.” 

When asked why the 1984 film continued to fascinate, Reitman told the AP that it was hard to define.

“I always had a sort of sincere approach to the comedy,” he said. “I took it seriously even though, it was a horror movie and a comedy, I felt you had to sort of deal with it in a kind of realistic and honest way.”

He always took comedy and the power of laughter seriously.

“The great cliche is about how damn tough comedy is. But of course, nobody really gives that any respect,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2000. “It’s such a visceral thing, laughing. So, getting to the point where you can get an audience of 600 people laughing is really precise and intricate work. … My sense is we’re laughing at the same things we’ve always laughed at, but the language of the filmmaker and the performer shifts.” 
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A star-studded Los Angeles Rams team will seek to deny the giant-killing Cincinnati Bengals a Hollywood ending in the Super Bowl on Sunday as an NFL season full of plot twists reaches its climax.

The first NFL championship game of the post-Tom Brady era sees the Rams play host at their gleaming $5.5 billion SoFi Stadium against a Bengals side chasing a first Super Bowl crown.

Around 100 million Americans are expected to tune in for the biggest annual event on the U.S. sporting calendar, which kicks off at 3:30 p.m. local time (2330 GMT).

“It’s game day!” the National Football League proclaimed on Twitter. “It all comes down to this moment.”

The perfectly scripted season finale will see a duel between two talented quarterbacks playing in the Super Bowl for the first time, with Rams veteran Matthew Stafford pitted against the rising Bengals star Joe Burrow.

A Bengals victory would complete one of the most striking turnarounds in NFL history.

Last season, the team finished with four wins and 11 defeats, only slightly better than their 2019 campaign, which ended in a dismal 2-14 record.

But under head coach Zac Taylor, and buoyed by the arrival of No.1 draft pick Burrow in 2020, the Bengals are a team transformed.

A dogged, never-say-die approach characterized their post-season campaign, which saw them shock AFC top seeds Tennessee before another upset on the road over mighty Kansas City sealed their Super Bowl berth.

Whether Burrow is afforded the time and space to craft one more Bengals upset is another question altogether, however.

A porous offensive line allowed him to be sacked a whopping nine times during the playoff win over Tennessee.

That is a stat that the formidable Rams defense, led by the human wrecking ball Aaron Donald, the best defensive player in the NFL, and veteran pass rusher Von Miller, will have taken note of.

On the offensive side, meanwhile, the Rams have more than enough weapons to puncture the Bengals defense.

The 34-year-old Stafford, playing in his first Super Bowl, has an array of targets to aim for, including Cooper Kupp, the best wide receiver in the NFL this season, and Odell Beckham, Jr., the charismatic former New York Giants and Cleveland Browns receiver who has flourished since joining the Rams in mid-season.

As well as enjoying home advantage in what is the first Los Angeles-area Super Bowl since 1993, the Rams also have the benefit of having recent experience of the NFL Championship game.

Many members of Sunday’s line-up were on the losing side when the Rams were beaten 13-3 by the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl in 2019.

Rams head coach Sean McVay — who at 36 years and 20 days old would become the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl with victory on Sunday — was upbeat after overseeing a final team walkthrough Saturday.

“We’re very confident,” McVay said. “We’re ready to go. There’s a good look in their eyes.

“I think there’s a good urgency, but also I just have a good feel about this team. I feel excited to watch them go and do their thing.”

The Rams will be playing in front of a packed crowd of 70,000, while the traditional half-time music concert will feature the likes of Eminem, Mary J. Blige and hip-hop icons Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar.

The capacity crowd also contrasts with last season’s Super Bowl in Tampa, where attendance was limited to around 25,000 fans due to COVID-19.

While the omicron variant surge is in retreat in Los Angeles, authorities are requiring all attendees Sunday to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test, with masking mandatory.
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Veteran NFL coach Anthony Lynn appreciates the league policy that requires teams to interview minority candidates for their top jobs, and he has even benefited from it.

Like many of his peers, though, the assistant head coach for the San Francisco 49ers believes the policy has fallen short of its good intentions: There were three non-white head coaches when the rule went into effect in 2003; today, there are five.

The figure has risen and fallen slightly over the past 20 years, but skepticism about NFL hiring practices has remained steady among minority job candidates even after the league introduced the so-called Rooney Rule, named after former Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who oversaw the league’s diversity committee.

Lynn, who is Black, long ago added his own personal amendment to the Rooney Rule: As his star rose as one of the league’s top assistants in the mid-2010s, Lynn would only meet with teams to discuss a head coaching vacancy if they had already brought in at least one other minority candidate, something the Rooney Rule didn’t require until 2021.

“I just didn’t want to be a token interview,” Lynn told The Associated Press. “I really believe in the spirit of the Rooney Rule, but I just saw how people were abusing it and I didn’t want to be a part of that.”

The racial discrimination lawsuit filed this month against the NFL and several teams by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores has magnified attention on the league’s hiring practices and stirred up long-simmering frustrations with the Rooney Rule. It has also prompted comparisons from Lynn and others to corporate America, which has also struggled to diversify its leadership ranks.

Lynn’s perseverance paid off in 2017 when the Los Angeles Chargers made him the first Black head coach in team history.

The candidates Lynn beat out for the job included Teryl Austin, who is now a defensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Austin’s interview with the Chargers was one of 11 occasions where he earned a face-to-face meeting, but failed to land the head coaching job.

There were times when Austin felt like he was really in contention, and others when he felt he “was one of those guys where they were checking a box” to comply with the mandate.

Austin’s personal journey is included in Flores’ lawsuit as evidence of a discriminatory system that is failing qualified job candidates.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell partially pushed back on Wednesday, saying the league has made a “tremendous amount of progress in a lot of areas.” He acknowledged, though, that the league is lagging when it comes to head coaches.

“We have more work to do and we’ve got to figure that out,” Goodell said in Los Angeles ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium. Goodell said the NFL has already engaged “outside experts” to help it review hiring policies and he didn’t rule out the possibility of eliminating the Rooney Rule.

The two teams playing in this year’s Super Bowl — the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams — are led by offensive-minded, white head coaches in their 30s. There is considerable diversity, however, among the dozens of coaches that oversee their offenses, defenses and special teams. Half of the coaches working for Rams head coach Sean McVay are Black.

Art Rooney II — Dan’s son and the current Steelers president — defended the impact of his father’s eponymous hiring policy.

“While I acknowledge that we have not seen progress in the ranks of head coaches, we have seen marked improvement in the hiring of women and minorities in other key leadership roles,” he said.

In many cases, there was nowhere to go but up.

The NFL is running in place in terms of diversifying its most visible leadership positions. While over a third of assistant coaches are Black, only two teams employed Black offensive coordinators this season, considered the final rung of the ladder before becoming a head coach. Nearly 85% of the league’s general managers and player personnel directors are white, according to a report by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

“This is a willingness and heart issue,” said Troy Vincent, a former player who is now the league’s executive vice president of football operations. “You can’t force people, so we have to continue to educate and share with those in the hiring cycle.”

Players also have a role in promoting change, says Richard Lapchick, the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

Lapchick points to the NBA, where players have taken an increasingly public role in social activism. Nearly half of the NBA’s 30 teams are led by Black coaches and over a quarter employ Black general managers.

“I don’t think that the (NFL) office can do it on their own,” Lapchick said. “The impact will only take place … when the athletes themselves raise their voice and say it’s important.” Roughly 70% of NFL players are Black.

Corporate America has run into many of the same diversity challenges as the NFL, and the same legal problems.

“The NFL is no different than the rest of society,” said Lynn of the 49ers. “Look at the top Fortune 500 companies. How many minority CEOs do you have in that industry versus ours? Our percentage may be higher.”

Over 90% of Fortune 500 presidents and CEOs are white and only 3% are Black, according to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

Former Morgan Stanley chief diversity officer Marilyn Booker sued the bank in 2020 for racial discrimination and retaliation. She alleged that the company’s overwhelmingly white executives stymied her plans to diversify its management structure. The two sides eventually settled out of court.

Last year, five of the largest banks — J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo — agreed to make public commitments to policies that echo the Rooney Rule, according to a spokesman at the AFL-CIO, which helped secure the agreements.

But experts say many of the biggest companies still have further to go.

“Many companies are engaging in these types of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) efforts as performance-art theatrics,” said Nicholas Pearce, clinical professor of management and organizations at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Whether in sports or business, Pearce says one easy way for hiring managers to reduce the effects of implicit bias would be to require more diverse panels to conduct job interviews.

With the exception of Jacksonville’s Shad Khan and Buffalo co-owner Kim Pegula, all NFL teams are privately owned by white men, with the exception of the Green Bay Packers, which is publicly owned.

Jerod Mayo, a 35-year-old linebackers coach for the New England Patriots, has ambitions of one day becoming a head coach. And Mayo, who is Black, is optimistic that by the time he’s ready, many of the challenges that veterans such as Lynn, Austin and Flores have faced, will be a thing of the past.

“You know, that’s a beautiful day where we don’t need the Rooney Rule.”

 
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Americans are getting ready for the Super Bowl on Sunday. It’s the final matchup of the National Football League season and a national celebration. Mike O’Sullivan reports from Los Angeles, where the Los Angeles Rams will face the Cincinnati Bengals.
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Artechouse’s new exhibit in Washington, “Transient: Impermanent Painting,” offers visitors an experience in hyperrealism. The Italian multimedia artist Quayola projects hyperrealistic pictorials of paint strokes against the sound of a coded, computerized Yamaha piano. Maxim Moskalkov reports.
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