The drive-in movie, dismissed by many as a relic of an earlier time in America, is making a comeback as entertainment seemingly designed for the coronavirus era.
 
Beth Wilson, who owns the Warwick Drive-in about an hour’s drive from Manhattan, says it has been sold out since May 15, the first day drive-ins were allowed to operate under New York’s reopening plan.
 
The drive-in has struck a chord with Americans who have been largely confined to their homes since March watching the death toll from COVID-19 accumulate on their TV screens.
 
Customers come “just to be out and for some form of entertainment that is not streaming on their TV,” said Wilson, adding she hopes the Warwick Drive-In can help people reconnect.
 
“I just want to see their happiness, their well-being.”
 
The drive-in experience is virtually tailor-made for the pandemic. Patrons control their close social interactions and any contact with other people happens outdoors, which is seen as lower risk for infection than indoors.
 
The Four Brothers Drive-In in Amenia, New York, which like Warwick has halved its capacity to put more distance between cars, is selling into next week after running out of tickets for the Memorial Day weekend.
 
“It’s a lot of first-time people that are inquiring and coming,” John Stefanopoulos, whose family owns the drive-in and an adjacent restaurant. “People want to get out of their house.”
 
Stefanopoulos sees a chance for the industry, which has shrunk by some 90% from a peak decades ago, to grow out of the crisis. He has received inquiries about developing drive-in theaters from England, Ireland and across the United States.
 
Some outsiders are looking to capitalize on the trend.
 
The Bel Aire Diner in the New York City borough of Queens propped up a screen in its parking lot and has been holding movie nights, serving food to customers in their cars while they watch classics like “The Princess Bride” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
 
In perhaps the most ambitious plan, one businessman said he was organizing a “drive-in on steroids” event to be held almost nightly in a parking lot of Yankee Stadium after July 4th. Marco Shalma, co-owner of the MASC Hospitality Group, said the evenings would include food, performances and a feature film, and he sees them as a way to reinvigorate New York.
 
“We make something out of nothing in New York,” Shalma said.
 
“It’s going to be epic.”
 
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President Donald Trump is calling on the nation’s governors to immediately reopen churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship, characterizing them as “essential places that provide essential services” during the pandemic. “At my direction, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is issuing guidance for communities of faith,” Trump said Friday. Trump admonished governors who have “deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential but have left out churches and other houses of worship” and threatened to override any governors who continue to keep houses of worship closed for safety reasons. “Ministers, pastors, rabbis, imams and others faith leaders will make sure that their congregations are safe as they gather and pray,” Trump said. The sign for First Presbyterian Church of Annapolis, Md., displays information for online services, May 22, 2020.Cool reception While Trump claimed that Americans are “demanding to go to church and synagogue or their mosque,” religious communities are reacting cautiously to the president’s announcement. The In this March 24, 2020, photo, a man walks past the First Baptist Church in America in Providence, R.I.The survey also shows that readiness to return to houses of worship differs across religious traditions and race. Of the white evangelical Protestants who attended services before the pandemic, 63% say they would likely return to the pews if public health officials advised lifting those restrictions, compared with 50% of Muslims, 47% of white Catholics, 46% of white mainline Protestants, 46% of black Protestants, 38% of Hispanic Catholics and 33% of Jews. The decision to return to worship collectively may also be partisan. A recent poll by ABC News/Ipsos shows 73% of Republicans are likely to start attending church, compared with 20% of Democrats. The Trump administration has consulted with religious leaders, mostly evangelical Christians to draft the guidelines. Earlier this month White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx listens during an event in the Oval Office of the White House, May 6, 2020, in Washington.Discretion of religious leaders Speaking after Trump in the same briefing Friday, White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said that the decision to reopen houses of worship is at the discretion of governors and religious leaders. “I think each one of the leaders in the faith community should be in touch with their local health department so they can communicate to their congregants. Certainly people that have significant comorbidities, we want them protected. I know those houses of worship want to protect them,” Birx said.  It is not immediately clear how Trump plans to enforce his call or override governors’ orders limiting public gatherings that, under the U.S. federalist system, fall under the jurisdiction of the country’s 50 states.  When asked what legal basis Trump has to implement a nationwide push to reopen houses of worship, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president will “strongly encourage every governor to allow their churches to reopen.” 
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In April, as the coronavirus was ravaging New York, Susan Jones learned her older brother had been diagnosed with a blood cancer.
His supervisor at work launched a GoFundMe page to help with costs, and Jones shared it on Facebook. What happened next stunned her.  
While Jones, who works as principal ballet mistress at American Ballet Theatre, was confident her closest friends would help, she was stunned to see scores of colleagues — some she didn’t even know that well, and didn’t even know she had a brother — donating, despite their own economic challenges in a struggling dance community.  
Jones found herself asking: Would the response have been the same just two months earlier, before the pandemic? She’s fairly certain it wouldn’t. Instead, she thinks the instinct to help shows, along with simple kindness, how people are striving to make a difference. At a time of helplessness, she says, helping others makes a mark on a world that seems to be overwhelming all of us.
“People everywhere are trying to keep control of their lives, grasping at anything to preserve who they are,” Jones says.  
That helping others can feel good is not just an anecdotal truth but an idea backed by research, says Laurie Santos, psychology professor at Yale University and teacher of the school’s most popular course to date: “Psychology and the Good Life.”
“The intuition that helping others is the key to our well-being right now fits with science,” Santos says. “There’s lots of research showing that spending our time and money on other people can often make us happier than spending that same time or money on ourselves.”
“Taking time to do something nice for someone else,” she says, “is a powerful strategy for improving our well-being.”
One recent day, Damien Escobar, a contemporary violinist based in New York whose touring gigs have been halted by the pandemic, was heading into a neighborhood chain drugstore when he saw a homeless man begging outside.  
Escobar rifled through his pockets and found a dollar or two before he realized what the man was really seeking: a mask, so he could enter the store and buy water and essentials.
“That blew my mind,” says Escobar, 33, who himself was homeless less than a decade ago, sleeping on the subways. He also found that employees at a nearby parking garage were asking for spare masks.  
“There was a huge need here,” he says. He’d already been getting protective equipment to first responders, raising $50,000 from a charity concert, but pivoted to a new campaign,  “Masks for the Masses,” to get masks to the homeless and low-income families.  
Escobar is clear about the benefits not only to those on the receiving end, but to himself.  
“I’m essentially unemployed. I make my money on the road. If I weren’t doing this I’d probably be stuck at home battling a bout of depression,” he says. “They say once you get out of the world and into the world of someone else, your problems don’t really exist anymore.”
In her practice, psychologist Catherine Lewis has often found people are happier when they can take action.  
“In the work of trauma, we know that people who have good outcomes are the people who are doing something — mobilizing, fighting back,” she says. “The hardest piece is when you are stuck, confined, frozen.”
When the pandemic struck, Blake Ross, a 37-year-old mother of a toddler in New York, was testing the waters to re-enter the job market — in the field of event programming, as it happens. During her break, she’d been enjoying the company of other young mothers. Like many Manhattanites, it was the very density of the city that had led to her greatest pleasures there.  
Suddenly “all that was taken away, very swiftly.” Ross wondered how she could remain connected with the world — not just with friends and family, but also people she didn’t know, those random, fortuitous encounters that make city life appealing for many. She hit on the idea of a website to connect people who wanted to help with those who need it.
Taking a cue from her theater-industry background, she called her site “Kindness of Strangers” after the line in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Some 500 people from New York and around the world have signed on.
“It’s been everything from ‘I just want a friendly face to laugh with’ to offering one-on-one yoga instruction, to an energy healer, offers to buy groceries, job-search coaching, tutoring children and reading stories,” Ross says. The service connected a choir teacher who wanted to keep the music going with a singer, and a librarian in Michigan with a librarian in Alaska.
Ross has partnered with Enlivant, which runs senior homes in 20 states, and has set up an adopt-a-grandparent program.
“The essence of volunteering is that you feel wonderful after giving of yourself,” Ross says. “You certainly get as much as you give.”
There are many such initiatives, from more organized ones to simple scrawled signs in apartment elevator banks, from younger residents offering to go shopping for older ones. That doesn’t mean, however, that traditional philanthropy is in good shape.
“Sure, individuals and some nonprofits are stepping forward to help,” says Marcia Stepanek, a professor in Columbia University’s Nonprofit Management Program. But for the most part, she says, recent surveys of nonprofits show that donations are dropping precipitously because donors are “skittish about the economy as well as the job market.”
“COVID-19 is upending the sector,” she says.
Be that as it may, many individuals are finding, in the process of reaching out to others, not only satisfaction and purpose but also perhaps a means of asserting their identity. That’s how Jones, the ballet mistress, sees it. Friends and colleagues have contributed nearly $6,000 to her brother’s care.
“This virus has robbed us of our identities,” she says. Giving, she says, “makes one feel included, not alone, and lends us a sort of new identity.”
She adds: “I’m feeling deeply touched to be on the receiving end of that.”
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Just before Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Islamic observance of Ramadan, customers in Pakistan rushed to finish shopping in bazaars that opened after a nearly two-month lockdown because of the coronavirus.In many places, crowds simply ignored warnings and guidelines to protect against the pandemic.”I don’t think it’s such a big deal,” said Rozeena Abbasi, who roamed around in an overcrowded market in Islamabad without wearing a face mask. “I want people to continue with their lives and routines as usual. Whatever is fated to happen will happen.”Despite her nonchalance, she acknowledged that Eid is going to be different this year.Women buy jewelry at the Baghbanpura Bazaar ahead of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival in Lahore, Pakistan, May 21, 2020.Eid al-Fitr, the most festive Muslim holiday, is marked with celebrations, friends and family reunions, and a lot of feasting. This year, the coronavirus is threatening to dampen that spirit.”This Eid is not just a little different, it’s entirely different. We used to go to each other’s houses, everyone used to cook, the whole week used to be one long festival. Not this time,” said Sehrish Lodhi of Islamabad.Unlike Pakistan, shops and shopping malls in many other countries remain closed. Eid al-Fitr marks the biggest shopping season in most Muslim countries. But this year, many businesses will feel the pain of lost income.”Last year, there were clients, there was movement. We were able to work. There was a source of income. Now, there is no income, there is no season. We do not feel the season. We do not feel the Eid,” said Karem Mohamed, 19, a shoe salesman in Cairo.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
People travel by boat to their hometown in remote islands, ahead of Eid al-Fitr celebrations which mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, May 21, 2020.In Aceh, the only Indonesian province with Islamic sharia law, public Eid prayers will still be performed inside and outside mosques, with physical distancing protocol in place. But the public takbir and the province’s iconic parade of decorated vehicles will not occur this year.”We are so sad, because we can’t hold the takbir. It’s part of the tradition, just like meugang,” Muhammad Al Kausar told VOA.Meugang is the Acehnese tradition that is believed to have emerged with the spread of Islam in Aceh in the 14th century. Cattle are slaughtered, cooked and eaten in a meal that brings families together to feast on various meat dishes at the end of Ramadan.In Central Java, residents have erected barriers on village borders to stop out-of-towners from entering to control the spread of COVID-19.In Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, the government and clerics are urging people to pray at home. The kingdom has declared a 24-hour curfew from Saturday until Wednesday to stem the spread of the virus.Its rival nation, Iran, and some other countries, have taken a more relaxed approach and will allow Eid prayers, but only in open spaces with social distancing.Among all the restrictions, the Eid celebrations and outings that people have grown accustomed to will not be around this year.Creative alternatives”The normal ritual is that after the morning prayer on that day, people go out to visit friends and families. But this time, there will be minimal interaction,” said Hajiya Rukayat Usman, of the city of Jos in Nigeria.This has led many to think of creative ways to bring some normalcy to this abnormal situation. Technology is expected to play a big role.”This will be a kind of digital Eid,” said Lodhi in Islamabad. “People will wish each other [a happy Eid] on phone calls or video calls. I think everyone will get ready and make videos but won’t be able to do much else.”People wait outside a bakery and pastry shop named “The Baker” and known as “El Khabaz,” for traditional Eid al-Fitr festivities sweets and biscuits, amid concerns over the coronavirus disease, in the Cairo suburb of Maadi, Egypt, May 21, 2020.People with children are particularly concerned with creating a festive atmosphere at home, said Samy Mahmud in Cairo.”The most crucial thing is that we do not make our young children feel this catastrophe. They can put on their new clothes as usual. We can bring them balloons at home, create for them an atmosphere of joy and happiness of the Eid, so they don’t feel like we are in a catastrophe,” he said.In Teaneck, New Jersey, in the U.S. northeast, the first Muslim American to be elected mayor in Bergen County has come up with a unique plan.”For us in Teaneck, I’m going to have front yard parties,” said Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin. “So basically, everyone can go out [in)] the front yard, set up your chairs and your table, and if you want to, people can drive by. And that’s the way we’re all going see each other.”One thing is certain — this year’s Eid al-Fitr will long be remembered as one of hardship and restrictions.Hamada Elrasam from Cairo; Saba Shah Khan from VOA’s Urdu service, Washington; Eva Mazrieva from VOA’s Indonesian service, Washington; and Ifiok Ettang from Jos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.
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A Hollywood actress and her fashion-designer husband have agreed to plead guilty in a university admissions scandal in which their daughters were falsely portrayed as a sports champion.Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli have agreed to plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to secure “fraudulent admission” of their two children to the University of Southern California (USC), according to the U.S. Department of Justice.The Justice Department stated that Loughlin agreed to two months in prison, a $150,000 fine and two years of supervised release with 100 hours of community service. Giannulli’s plea agreement includes five months in prison, a $250,000 fine and two years of supervised release with 250 hours of community service.Loughlin, 55, and Giannulli, 56, both of Los Angeles, have long fought the charges that they fabricated their daughters’ skill at rowing through an admissions’ fixer to gain her entry to the prestigious USC. Earlier this month, a federal judge refused to drop charges against the couple who had alleged that the Justice Department fabricated evidence.The couple was accused of paying $500,000 to William “Rick” Singer for his help securing them slots at USC through a sports recruiter. In a video on social media, their daughter, Olivia Jade, talked about being more interested in the social rather than scholastic aspects of attending USC.The Justice Department stated that Loughlin will “plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, while Giannulli will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud.”Loughlin and Giannulli are the 23rd and 24th parents to plead guilty in the college admissions case.Prosecutors: College Scam Takes Cheating to Whole New LevelParents Spend Up to Millions to Boost Student ProfilesEarlier this week, a Chinese mother who lives in Canada was sentenced for bribing a fixer to get her son admitted to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a soccer recruit.Xiaoning Sui, 48, of Surrey, British Columbia, was sentenced to five months’ time served during a videoconference hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock.She was ordered to pay a fine of $250,000 in addition to forfeiting the $400,000 she paid to Singer, according to Justice Department.The U.S. Department of Justice conducted a multilevel, years-long investigation it dubbed Operation Varsity Blues. 
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Next year’s Academy Awards telecast may be postponed because of the disruption to theatrical releases caused by the coronavirus pandemic. A story published Tuesday in the entertainment magazine Variety quotes an anonymous source who says it’s “likely” the annual awards ceremony, which is scheduled to air February 28 on ABC-TV, will be postponed. But the source also says the details have not been fully discussed or formally proposed. Under the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the prestigious awards, films must be released in traditional theaters before December 31 to be eligible for Oscar nominations.  But with thousands of theaters across the country shut down because of the pandemic, many feature films slated for traditional release are now debuting on streaming digital services such as Netflix, which has prompted the Academy to change its rules to allow for those films to be nominated.  “It makes sense when we don’t really know what’s to come in terms of the availability of theatrical exhibition,” Academy president David Rubin told Variety when the new rules were announced. “We need to make allowances for this year only and during this time when theaters are not open so great film work can be seen and celebrated.” 
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A song took aim at an alleged abuse of power by Poland’s ruling party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. It rose to the top of the chart of a public radio station. Then it disappeared.The public broadcaster is now accused of censorship. The scandal, which has been a top issue of public debate in recent days, has prompted several resignations from the station, Radio Trojka, and left some musicians vowing to boycott it.The affair has created new worries about media freedom in Poland. Since Kaczynski’s party won power in 2015, it has used public media as a propaganda tool in violation of its mandate to be neutral. In the past five years, Poland has fallen in the World Press Freedom Index from 18th to 62nd place.  Kaczynski isn’t himself accused of ordering the removal of the song from a listener-voted chart, and members of the government have also been critical of what happened. Instead, the song’s removal is seen as the kind of self-censorship that happens by overzealous underlings in a system where democratic standards are under threat.Wojciech Mann, a journalist who left Radio Trojka in March, said the story played out at the bottom of a “a ladder of fear” where Kaczynski sits at the top.The song, “My Pain is Better Than Yours,” is by singer and songwriter Kazik Staszewski, known better as just Kazik.The lyrics of the folk rock song describe an April 10 visit by Kaczynski to Warsaw’s Powazki Cemetery that infuriated many Poles because cemeteries in the country were closed to the public because of the coronavirus pandemic.  It was the 10th anniversary of the plane crash in Russia that killed his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, and 95 others. Kaczynski was driven in a limousine and protected by bodyguards as he entered the closed cemetery to visit his mother’s grave and a memorial to his brother and other crash victims.The song doesn’t mention Kaczynski’s name, but it speaks of limousines, bodyguards and a visit by one person alone to a closed cemetery.”You alone can soothe the pain, everyone else slid into poverty,” the song says.The song was voted the No. 1 song of the week on Friday by listeners. But the next day it disappeared from the website. Station director Tomasz Kowalczewski said it was removed because of irregularities in voting.  But a Trojka journalist this week said that management ordered him to stop airing the song.The station has been in operation since 1962. Under communism it played rock music geared at the youth and was given some leeway to be more independent than other censored media. One of the journalists who quit in protest over the the weekend, Marcin Kydrynski, said he couldn’t recognize the station anymore.Kazik’s song is now in fourth place on the chart.Culture Minister Piotr Glinski said he disapproved of the song, but also its removal. But Glinski also said he believed the whole scandal could be a “provocation,” suggesting that people against the government were setting it up to look bad. 
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On Monday, International Museum Day, two new studies show that museums are another sector of the world economy that has been significantly weakened by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. According to the studies conducted by UNESCO and the International Council of Museums (ICOM), 90% of museums worldwide were forced to close their doors and stop in-person operations during the crisis. Of the more than 85,000 museums that have closed, an estimated 13% are at risk of never reopening because of the heavy financial losses incurred during this time. The two studies looked to determine the impact of COVID-19 on museums worldwide and explain how institutions have adapted to the pandemic. UNESCO and ICOM say that they will use this information to find ways to support institutions in the wake of the virus. They also found that only 5% of the museums in Africa and the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) were able to offer online content to their visitors. Even museums with digital capabilities will face a substantial decrease in income if they are not able to host visitors in person, debilitating their ability to support their employees and continue operations and outreach. “Museums play a fundamental role in the resilience of societies. We must help them cope with this crisis and keep them in touch with their audiences,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay in a press release. “This pandemic also reminds us that half of humanity does not have access to digital technologies. We must work to promote access to culture for everyone, especially the most vulnerable and isolated.” In the U.S. alone, museums are estimated to be losing $33 million a day, according to the American Alliance of Museums. The U.S. arts and culture industry had lost more than $4.5 billion nationally by early April, according to a survey by Americans for the Arts.  In mid-May, UNESCO plans to begin discussions among international professionals about how to address problems facing museums as part of its ResiliArt movement, which was initially established to support artists affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The first three will center around the situation in the Ibero-American region and will discuss ways to support museums and their staff, according to a UNESCO press release.  “We are fully aware of and confident in the tenacity of museum professionals to meet the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said ICOM President Suay Aksoy in a statement. “However, the museum field cannot survive on its own without the support of the public and private sectors. It is imperative to raise emergency relief funds and to put in place policies to protect professionals and self-employed workers on precarious contracts.” In response to the UNESCO study, officials say their response plan includes the social protection of museum staff and the digitization and inventorying of collections. Substantial funds and resources will be required to achieve these goals, UNESCO said.   
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Actor Ken Osmond, who played the legendary slimy but likable Eddie Haskell on TV’s “Leave It to Beaver,” has died in Los Angeles at 76.His family did not give a cause of death, but his partner at the Los Angeles police department with whom Osmond worked after show business, said he had suffered from respiratory problems.FILE – Ken Osmond, Dec. 1, 2013.”Leave It to Beaver” was a sitcom about a young boy nicknamed Beaver, and his older brother, Wally. It ran from 1957 until 1963 and it stood out from most early TV comedies for its realism and avoiding outlandish situations – the kids talked like real kids and their parents sometimes lost their patience over poor schoolwork and bad behavior.Osmond portrayed Wally’s friend Eddie Haskell – a curly-haired wise guy who was overly polite and deferential to adults, but the moment they turned away, he was insulting, inconsiderate and egocentric. He bullied Beaver and tried to drag Wally into schemes. But he was ultimately harmless and always wound up the loser. Audiences loved the character because everyone knew an Eddie Haskell in real life.Osmond tried to continue his acting career after “Leave It to Beaver” ended, but was frustrated at being typecast as a bad guy and eventually gave up show business.He became a Los Angeles police officer in 1970 and made headlines when he was shot in the chest during a chase in 1980 and survived thanks to a bulletproof vest.Osmond retired in 1988, but he occasionally returned to television as an older but still oily Eddie Haskell in a revived “Beaver” series.    
 
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Michelle Obama was joined by a famous fellow reader Monday on her popular online series “Mondays With Michelle Obama.” The former first lady first read “The Giraffe Problem,” by Jory John and Lane Smith. Then she was joined by Barack Obama, seen over the weekend addressing the country’s high school graduating class, as they took turns — the former president even barked at one point — on Julia Sarcone-Roach’s “A Bear Ate Your Sandwich.”  Michelle Obama has been reading midday Monday for the past several weeks in support of families with small children at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Books she has featured include Julia Donaldson’s “The Gruffalo” and Eric Carle’s “The Hungry Caterpillar.”  Next Monday, she will bring on a pair of non-readers — the family’s dogs, Bo and Sunny — for the canine-appropriate “Can I Be Your Dog?”, by Troy Cummings. The series can be viewed on the Facebook and YouTube pages of PBS Kids and on the Facebook page of the Obamas’ publisher, Penguin Random House. 
 
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French actor Michel Piccoli, a prolific screen star who appeared in landmark films by directors such as Luis Bunuel – including in his Academy Award winning “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” —and Jean-Luc Godard, has died. He was 94.His family confirmed to French media Monday that he died last week, but they did not give a cause of death.Though less famous in the English-speaking world, in continental Europe and his native France Paris-born Piccoli was a stalwart of art house cinema.French movie star Michel Piccoli (L) stands next to prominent Egyptian movie critic Youssef Cherif Rizkallah at a press conference in Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 1987. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)Beginning his career in the 1940s, he went on to make over 170 movies, working into his late eighties.His most memorable appearance came arguably during the French New Wave – starring opposite Brigitte Bardot in Godard’s 1963 masterpiece “Contempt,” with his dark hat and signature bushy eyebrows.But Piccoli’s performances for Europe’s most iconic directors will also be remembered, including for France’s Jean Renoir, Jacques Rivette and Jean-Pierre Melville, Britain’s Alfred Hitchcock and Spain’s Bunuel. For the Spanish director, Piccioli starred alongside Catherine Deneuve in the 1967 masterpiece “Belle de Jour” and in 1972’s “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,” which won the Best Foreign Film award at the Oscars in 1973.FILE – French actor Michel Piccoli talks with Swedish actress Liv Ullmann at the Cannes Film Festival, southern France, May 20, 1974.Despite starring in Hitchcock’s 1969 English-language espionage thriller “Topaz,” Piccoli’s career in Hollywood didn’t take off.In Europe, Piccoli won a host of accolades, including Best Actor in Cannes in 1980 for “A Leap In The Dark” by Marco Bellochio and a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1982 for “Strange Affair” by Pierre Granier-Deferre.The actor’s last major role was in 2011’s Nanni Moretti’s “We Have a Pope,” which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.Piccoli was married three times, to Éléonore Hirt, the singer Juliette Greco and finally to Ludivine Clerc. He had one daughter from his first marriage, Anne-Cordélia. Piccoli stayed with Clerc, whom he married in 1978, until his death. 
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Elvis Presley’s Graceland says it will reopen Thursday after it shut down tours and exhibits due to the new coronavirus outbreak.The tourist attraction in Memphis, Tennessee, said Sunday that it has adjusted its tours, and restaurant and retail operations, since it closed in March.  The Memphis tourist attraction is centered on the life and career of the late rock n’ roll icon. It annually attracts about 500,000 visitors, including international travelers.Graceland said in a news release that it is reducing tours of Presley’s former home-turned-museum to 25% capacity, requiring employees and encouraging visitors to wear face masks, and limiting restaurant capacities to 50%.  Temperature checks for guests and employees will be implemented and hand sanitizing stations are being installed, Graceland said.”We are helping Memphis and Tennessee to get back to some sense of normality,” said Joel Weinshanker, managing partner of Graceland Holdings, in a statement. 
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Phyllis George, the former Miss America who became a female sportscasting pioneer on CBS’s “The NFL Today,” has died. She was 70.A family spokesperson said George died Thursday at a Lexington hospital after a long fight with a blood disorder.Her children, Lincoln Tyler George Brown and CNN White House correspondent Pamela Ashley Brown, released a joint statement, saying:”For many, Mom was known by her incredible accomplishments as the pioneering female sportscaster, 50th Miss America and first lady. But this was all before we were born and never how we viewed Mom. To us, she was the most incredible mother we could ever ask for, and it is all of the defining qualities the public never saw, especially against the winds of adversity, that symbolize how extraordinary she is more than anything else. The beauty so many recognized on the outside was a mere fraction of her internal beauty, only to be outdone by an unwavering spirit that allowed her to persevere against all the odds.”Miss America in 1971, George got into television in 1974 at CBS on “Candid Camera” and joined Brent Musburger and Irv Cross in 1975 on “The NFL Today.” Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder later was added to the cast.”Phyllis George was special. Her smile lit up millions of homes for the NFL Today,” Musburger tweeted. “Phyllis didn’t receive nearly enough credit for opening the sports broadcasting door for the dozens of talented women who took her lead and soared.”George worked on “The NFL Today” until 1984 and also covered horse racing. She hosted the entertainment show “People” and later co-anchored the “CBS Morning News.”George was briefly married to Hollywood producer Robert Evans in the mid-1970s and to John Y. Brown Jr. from 1979-98. Brown owned Kentucky Fried Chicken and the NBA’s Boston Celtics and served as the governor of Kentucky.”Phyllis was a great asset to Kentucky,” Brown told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “We had a great partnership. I think we enjoyed every single day.”From Denton, Texas, George attended the University of North Texas for three years, then went to Texas Christian University after earning a scholarship as Miss Texas in 1970.”A true pioneer who approached her job with enthusiasm, empathy and humor,” ESPN broadcaster Hannah Storm tweeted. “She was herself-charming and funny .. helped her audiences connect with some of the great sports figures of the day.” 
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The coronavirus pandemic lockdowns forced many bars and nightclubs across the United States to stand empty with their doors locked and chairs upside down on tables.One hundred years ago, taverns in the U.S. were also locked down and desolate when the Volstead Act, better known as Prohibition, in 1920 became the law of the land, making it a crime to manufacture, sell or transport alcohol.The drive to outlaw demon rum in the U.S. began in the 1850s. Churchwomen howled that whiskey was turning men into drunkards and barflies. Drink leads to violence and poverty and destroys families, they said.   Temperance movements, anti-saloon leagues and ladies storming into taverns to destroy bottles of whiskey grew from being an annoyance for the bartender into a legitimate political movement.“Prohibition was largely driven by a feeling among certain portions of the population, although no evidence that it was ever nearly a majority, that alcohol was a bad thing and should be eradicated from American life,” said Daniel Okrent, The New York Times best-selling author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.Okrent said brewers and distillers campaigned hard to defeat anti-alcohol politicians, popularly known as “drys,” even to the point of rigging elections. But, he said, the two industries were actually bitter enemies.  “The brewers say distillers are the ones who should be stopped distributing whiskey … beer, they said, was healthy. It was liquid bread. The distillers despised the brewers for making that separation. So, they really could not coordinate their activities together,” Okrent said.FILE – In this May 15, 1929, photo, authorities unload cases of whiskey crates labeled as green tomatoes from a refrigerator car in Washington, D.C.Drinking did drop in the United States in the first years of prohibition, but flouting the law soon became a way of life in the 1920s.  Saloons known as speakeasies cropped up by the hundreds in large cities.  Bathtubs were used for other purposes than to scrub off grime and became huge mixing bowls for home brews – sometimes using gasoline and wood alcohol with fatal results.   Big overcoats and high boots suddenly became fashionable because they could easily conceal flasks, giving birth to the term “bootlegger.” People started walking with canes because the hollow ones could be filled with whiskey.Anyone caught taking a drink immediately claimed the liquid was for “medicinal purposes.”  Many of the bootleggers who owned speakeasies and bought and sold whiskey were deeply involved in organized crime. Al Capone, Bugs Moran and Dutch Schultz became household names and legends, and extremely rich. The number of criminals involved in bootlegging outnumbered the federal agents who gamely tried to enforce the law.Okrent said it wasn’t long before Prohibition became a huge joke.  “Anybody could get a drink any time of the day,” he said. “You could walk in at 10 in the morning get a drink. A 15-year-old could buy a drink. There was no regulatory environment. H.L. Mencken said to get a drink in Baltimore was very difficult unless you knew a judge or a cop.”FILE – This June 12, 1924, photo shows bottles of Scotch whiskey smuggled in hollowed-out loaves of bread; location unknown.And foreign visitors to the United States regarded Prohibition as absurd.“Winston Churchill — and you can imagine what he thought of Prohibition — came to the U.S. and toured the West in the mid- to late 1920s. He entered in Washington state, and the first person who gave him illegal liquor when he got into the U.S. was a Customs official. He traveled down the coast with his son, Randolph, and had no trouble finding alcohol,” Okrent said.He said the Great Depression is what eventually killed Prohibition.  “The government was running on fumes, and people said, ‘One way we can get some revenue back is to bring back the tax on legal alcohol.’”When President Herbert Hoover was introduced at baseball’s 1931 World Series, the thirsty fans welcomed him with loud boos and chants of “We want beer.”Hoover was a dry. Franklin Roosevelt was a wet, and when he won the 1932 presidential election over Hoover, it was only a matter of time before Prohibition was finished.  The 21st Amendment overturned the 18th, and drinking became legal again in the U.S. in December 1933.Today’s regulatory regime on alcohol sales and consumption is a hangover from Prohibition, including taxes, age limits, mandatory closing hours for bars and restrictions against opening a tavern near a church or school.Okrent said the irony is that it is harder to get a drink these days, when it is legal, than it was in the 1920s when it was not. 
 
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The big budget musical “Frozen” will not reopen when Broadway theaters restart, marking the first time an established show has been felled by the coronavirus pandemic.The Disney show opened in March 2018 and placed among the top five Broadway productions for both gross and attendance over both years it ran, often pulling in over $1 million, and even $2 million, a week.Until now, only shows that were waiting to officially open have announced postponements or cancellations. Disney still has “The Lion King” and “Aladdin” on Broadway and five productions of “Frozen” worldwide.Citing the “global pandemic,” Thomas Schumacher, president and producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, said Thursday that running three Disney shows on Broadway was “untenable.”Caissie Levy, who originated the role of Elsa on Broadway, tweeted that the news was a “heartbreak,” adding “We will always be a family. Sending love to all the devoted fans of our beautiful show.”Broadway theaters sit closed during the COVID-19 lockdown in New York, May 13, 2020.Actors’ Equity Association, which represents 51,000 actors and stage managers, reacted with dismay to the news and urged New York and national politicians to rescue the arts sector. Mary McColl, executive director, called it an “all hands-on-deck moment” for the governor, mayor and members of Congress.”The arts and entertainment sector drives the economy of New York, just like it does in cities and towns across the country. Decisions made in the days and weeks ahead will shape the future of the arts sector for years to come,” she said. “Public officials at all levels must think much more boldly about supporting the arts or our entire economy will be slower to recover.”Disney Theatrical gets no corporate subsidy from the Walt Disney Company and its stage shows must be financially self-sustaining. The “Frozen” musical is based on the Oscar-winning Disney movie franchise, with music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.Of the three Disney properties on Broadway, “Frozen” was technically the weakest at the box office but was financially still considered a success. The appearance of the film “Frozen 2” in late 2019 actually boosted the show’s fortunes, with sales spikes recorded in the months following the film’s release.Although an exact date for performances to resume on Broadway has yet to be determined, Broadway producers are now offering refunds and exchanges for tickets purchased for shows through Sept. 6.Broadway performances were suspended on March 12 after Governor Andrew Cuomo imposed a ban on gatherings of 500 or more people. There were 31 productions running, including eight new shows in previews and another eight shows in rehearsals preparing for the spring season.Some shows like an upcoming revival of Neil Simon’s “Plaza Suite” starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, as well as a musical about Michael Jackson, have pushed their production to next year.Other shows scheduled to open this spring have abandoned their plans, including “Hangmen” and a revival of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” 
 
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A retired university philosophy professor who was, at one time, one of the most famous children in the United States but was frustrated and torn by his fame, has died of the coronavirus.The family of Joel Kupperman said Wednesday he died last month at a nursing home in Brooklyn at 83. He had been suffering from dementia for several years. From age 6 to 16, Chicago-born Kupperman was a regular panelist on “The Quiz Kids,” a radio game show in which a team of extraordinarily bright youngsters answered complex questions sent in by listeners.The audience won a prize if they stumped the panel and the kids were awarded savings bonds if they answered the difficult questions.The kids were dressed in robes and mortar boards. Kupperman spoke with a lisp and smiled brightly when reciting obscure facts and complicated mathematical equations, endearing him to the audience.He and the rest of the kids became major radio personalities, hobnobbing with movie stars and politicians and appearing in films and on radio comedy shows. Kupperman was even invited to address the United Nations.But when the show moved to television, Kupperman was no longer a cute little boy but a gangly and somewhat annoying teenager who was overshadowed by the younger panelists.He left the show when he was 16, entered the University of Chicago and was the target of bullies. Feeling as if he had been exploited, he refused to ever talk about “The Quiz Kids” and warned his family against ever asking him about it.Kupperman later earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Cambridge in England and taught at the University of Connecticut for 50 years. He wrote several books.In one of the rare moments when he did talk about his past, Kupperman told The New York Times that “being a bright child among your peers was not the best way to grow up in America.”“There’s this weird notion that intelligence is a single thing, but people can be smart in some ways and stupid in others,” he once told his son.The New York Times reported that he is survived by his wife, Karen; son Michael; daughter Charlie; his sister, Harriet Moss, and a grandson. 
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The Catskills village that calls itself “Trout Town USA” is all but a ghost town this spring.  Fishing shops in Roscoe, New York, that should be overflowing with anglers are empty, due to the coronavirus outbreak. Guide services are idled, since they are nonessential businesses.  Yet the region’s famed rivers remain open, mercifully.  Like many who love the outdoors, I’ve been pinned down lately by stay-at-home guidance along with work, house chores and storms that have struck during days off.  When I finally see a one-day window of clear weather, I leap through it.  ___I have always found spiritual connections in rivers. As a child in Erie, Pennsylvania, I caught chubs and suckers in a polluted creek down the block. Later there were trips with my older brother for Allegheny Mountain brook trout. During Army tours, I caught golden trout in the Sierra snowmelt, and rainbows in brawling Alaskan waters.There’s a tune by “The Band” entitled “The River Hymn,” a gospel reverie:”The voice of the rapids will echoAnd ricochet like an old water wellWho’d ever want to let goOnce you sit beneath its spell”___It’s noon when I park at the trailhead of a hike-in Catskills fishing spot. There’s not another soul. Social distancing will be easy. I head down the path under vaulting blue skies, and tranquility enters.  When I arrive at the shore, the river is high, cold and discolored from a storm. Mayflies hatch on the water and drift on the breeze, but no trout rise.  I rig up anyway and cast a dry fly, a bit of fur and feathers resembling natural bugs that trout eat. I cast for hours. Nothing.  Hope springs, so I tie on fly after oddball fly. Beadhead stone nymphs, partridge-and-orange wets, zonker streamers that mimic baitfish. If I had a Rat-Faced McDougal, I would throw it.  Nothing. The fish have lockjaw.  ___Out here in the woods, there is at least one reminder of the virus: This river is on a local airport’s approach path. Normally, commuter planes and military transports sometimes break the spell. Now the skies are still, no contrails, only mare’s tails.  ___It’s evening, the breeze has died. Mayflies fill the amber air.The river has pitched a shutout. The wise angler says catching trout is icing on the cake – the river is joy enough. Fact is, getting skunked hurts.  I break down my rod, kick off my waders.  I hear the sound my ears have been tuned for: a trout sipping mayflies.  I spot the rings of the rise that blossom in the evening current. The fish rises again. Shivering, I pull clammy waders back on, re-string my rod, knot on a fly.  ___I get into casting position, one suspender trailing, cold water slopping over my waders.  My achy shoulder balks. The line snags a branch and the fly snaps off. I grumble, tie on another.  I get a drift over the rise and this time the trout inhales. My brain catches fire.  The rod comes alive, the reel ratchets and the fish dives. It leaps, droplets spray.  I gain line and the trout tires. I net it.  It’s a wild brown, maybe 15 inches, silver sides flecked with black specks and faint red embers. I snap a photo and release it to become part of the river again.  A few more trout rise. I wade to shore and listen as I pack up at dark. All around, day creatures find shelter as night creatures stir. A beaver glides to its lodge. Wood ducks wing to nest. An owl calls, “who-cooks-for-you.” The current whispers.  That’s the river hymn. 
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The pandemic has kept many people quarantined at home with family and pets for weeks. A grassroots photography initiative called the Front Steps Project has inspired hundreds of photographers to document people in front of their homes during this extraordinary time. Matt Dibble follows one photographer connecting with neighbors in Oakland, California.
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Tina Fey shed tears after announcing that more than $115 million was raised toward supporting New Yorkers impacted by COVID-19 during a virtual telethon.  
“Thank you, thank you,” said a tearful Fey, the host of the Rise Up New York! event Monday evening. The Emmy-winning actress along with other A-list celebrities from Barbra Streisand, Jennifer Lopez and Michael Strahan asked for donations to help relief and recovery efforts.
“Our city is under attack, but we’ve been here before,” Robert De Niro said. “In the last 20 years, both 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy. You can take your best shot but you cannot break our spirit.”
The one-hour benefit was presented by the New York-based poverty fighting organization, Robin Hood, and iHeartMedia.  
Robin Hood said all the donations will provide support for food, shelter, cash assistance, mental health, legal services and education.  
“If you had breakfast today, you are better off than 2 million of your neighbors who woke up hungry,” Fey said.
Mariah Carey performed her 1992 song “Make It Happen.” She sang while her backup singers and pianist performed on separate screens to the upbeat tune.  
“We can make it through this together,” Carey said.  
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Cynthia Erivo, Idina Menzel, Ben Platt and others performed a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s classic song “New York, New York.” Lopez introduced PS22 Chorus, a collection of New York elementary school students who sang Andra Day’s “Rise Up.”
“New York, I know your strength,” said Lopez, a New York native.
Spike Lee shared encouraging words that sports would return someday soon. Streisand and Audra McDonald showed the same optimism about New York City’s Theater District coming back “stronger than ever” after being closed due to the pandemic lockdown.  
New York Giants greats including Strahan, Eli Manning, Phil Simms and Justin Tuck announced an opportunity through a sweepstakes for one fan to play a game of touch football with the players in their own backyard and get a Super Bowl ring. The winner of the sweepstakes and three friends will have a chance to play against the players.
Other musical performances included Sting’s “Message in a Bottle” and Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life.”
Billy Joel closed out the benefit performing “Miami 2017” after being introduced by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The performance was simultaneously shown on 13 of Time Square’s digital billboards. A choreographed lighting show debuted at the Empire State Building that will repeat at 9 p.m. EST throughout the week.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death. The vast majority of people recover.
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The National Football League has announced its 2020 schedule and is already touting some matchups as “must-see” contests between Super Bowl contenders.But the country’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is cautioning sports-hungry fans not to be overly eager.”The virus will make the decision for us,” Fauci told NBC-TV sports. “I think it’s feasible that negative testing players could play to an empty stadium.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 17, 2020, in Washington.Fauci said the coronavirus is unpredictable, and there is no guarantee the NFL or any sports league will be able to resume normal play.  “Even if the virus goes down dramatically in June, July and August, as the virus starts returning in the fall, it would be in my mind, shame on us if we don’t have in place all of the mechanisms to prevent it from blowing up again,” Fauci said, adding that players and fans will “have to play it by ear” whether there will be a full NFL season this year. “If you really want to be absolutely certain, you’d test all the players before the game. … To be 100% sure, you’ve got to test every day. But that’s not practical, and that’s never going to happen.” All major U.S. sports leagues that play in the spring — basketball, hockey, soccer and baseball — have suspended their games, frustrating fans, players and especially those who work in and around stadiums. The Associated Press reports that Major League Baseball owners have approved a plan for a shortened season that would start the first week in July. The games would be played without fans, but the league hopes that restriction would be gradually lifted depending on cities and counties. The season would be 81 games instead of the usual 162. The annual All-Star Game would be canceled, but the playoffs would be extended. The MLB Players Association would have to approve the plan if it were to take effect. 
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Thousands of visitors in face masks Monday streamed into the Shanghai Disney Resort, the first of the Disney theme parks to reopen since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Disney is taking precautions to protect visitors and prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The number of visitors is limited. Face masks are required, and temperatures are checked at the gate.  Guests are also required to show government-issued identification and use a smartphone app issued by the Shanghai city government that tracks their health and contacts with anyone who might have been exposed to the virus. Andrew Bolstein, senior vice president of Disney operations in Shanghai, says maintaining social distance has been a high priority in the park. They have added markers to show guests where to stand, as well as where not to — outside restaurants, shops and all attractions, anywhere people will congregate. Visitors line up following social distancing markers at Shanghai Disney Resort as the Shanghai Disneyland theme park reopens following a shutdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak, in Shanghai, China, May 11, 2020.China, where the coronavirus was first detected in December, was the first country to reopen factories and other businesses after declaring the disease under control in March, even as infections rose and controls were tightened in other countries. Tourism was hit especially hard by restrictions imposed around the world that shut down airline and cruise ship travel, theme parks and cinemas.  Disney’s latest quarterly profit fell 91%, and the company said virus-related costs cut pretax profit by $1.4 billion.  Shanghai Disneyland and Disney’s park in Hong Kong closed in late January, as China isolated millions of people to try to contain the virus outbreak. Tokyo Disneyland closed in February, and parks in the United States and Europe closed in March. Headquartered in Burbank, California, Disney has yet to set a date for reopening its other parks worldwide.  
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Movie theaters have shut their doors to the public due to Covid -19. To offset lost revenues, some have teamed with distribution companies and created online platforms where viewers can watch new releases virtually. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with a distributor and a theater manager about the new viewing model
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