The Market
Why a Dinosaur Skeleton Can Now Cost as Much as a Masterpiece
Sotheby’s sale of Jodi, at $47.3 million, follows a record $50.1 million for a T. rex in July and raises questions about who gets to see such objects.
Culture
Film, books, music, places and the ideas around them.
Art
Art Historian Gives Tate 50 Works Made in India Under British Rule
Charles Greig’s gift includes paintings by Indian artists Sita Ram and Ghulam Ali Khan alongside Europeans such as Johan Zoffany. Tate Britain plans a free display in 2028.
Music
Taylor Swift and Lyle Lovett Join the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
Six writers were inducted at the annual gala, from a current superstar to the late Crickets drummer who helped write That’ll Be the Day. George Strait received the Career Maker Award.
Box Office
Clayface Opens at No. 1 as A24 Documentary Grows in Its Second Weekend
The DC villain film took in an estimated $24 million in North America, while You Can See Everything climbed about 23 percent after expanding to more theaters.
Art
BTS Star RM’s Korean Art Collection Draws Crowds to San Francisco Museum
An exhibition built from the singer’s private holdings has sold more than 66,000 tickets at SFMOMA, The Guardian reported, with advance sales far beyond any previous show.
Film
The Search for the Next James Bond Reaches Screen Tests in London
Trade publications report that a small group of British actors will test for the role this weekend, five years after Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007.
Obituary
Tom Skerritt, Steady Presence of Alien, Top Gun and Picket Fences, Dies at 93
Over more than six decades the Detroit-born actor built a career playing commanders, sheriffs and fathers, and won an Emmy for a small-town drama.
Art
Quebec Museum Opens $61 Million Pavilion Devoted to Painter Jean Paul Riopelle
The new wing at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec fulfills a decades-old wish of the artist, with a circular gallery built around his 40-meter triptych and more than 130 of his works on view.
Art
Rare Hilma af Klint Abstract Painting Heads to Auction, First in Over 30 Years
A small 1920 canvas by the Swedish pioneer of abstraction could set a record for the artist in Stockholm next month, because almost none of her abstract paintings ever reach the market.
Film
Nathan Fielder’s Holmes Documentary Posts a Record Opening for Its Genre
‘You Can See Everything’ took in about $15.6 million on fewer than 900 screens, the biggest documentary debut in more than two decades. A Theranos whistleblower says the film lets its subject off too easily.
Film
Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Opens Near the Top of the Box Office
Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s ‘You Can See Everything’ took in about $15 million in 855 theaters, an unusual showing for a nonfiction film.
Music
Popular Song Lyrics Have Grown Less Emotional Over Eight Decades, Study Finds
An analysis of more than 38,000 songs by 230 artists found fewer words about feelings, family and friends over time, while anxiety-related language rose.
Books
Sally Rooney’s Novels Pulled From Sale in Britain Over Support for Banned Group
Her publisher says British law bars it from paying her for UK sales because she backs Palestine Action, which the government proscribed as a terrorist organization last year.
Film
Al Pacino to Receive the Actors Union’s Highest Honor at February’s Actor Awards
SAG-AFTRA named the star of The Godfather and Scent of a Woman its 62nd Life Achievement Award recipient, recognizing six decades of screen and stage work and his charitable efforts.
Music
YouTube and Deezer Move to Flag Machine-Made Songs Flooding Streaming Services
YouTube Music will label tracks made largely with generative tools, a day after Deezer said listeners will be able to hide fully synthetic music altogether. Deezer says such tracks now make up more than half of its daily uploads on peak days.
Music
Joni Mitchell, After Six Decades in America, Becomes a Citizen
The Canadian-born songwriter, 82, shared a photo with an American flag and a clip from her naturalization ceremony. She moved to the United States in 1965 and made her name in Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon.
Holidays
Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day Share a Monday and a Long-Running Debate
The federal holiday honors the Italian explorer, while many states and cities use the day to recognize Native Americans. This year the White House has dropped the second observance.
Television
The Emmys Leave Broadcast Television for Prime Video After Seven Decades
A six-year deal announced this week ends the awards’ long run on the major networks, the clearest sign yet of how far American viewing has moved to streaming.
Arts
Shuttered Kennedy Center Names a Rock Talent Manager as Its Artistic Director
Rick Canny, a consultant whose clients have included ZZ Top, takes the post while the main building stays closed and its future is fought over in federal court.
Film
Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning Returns to Facebook With a Darker Zuckerberg
Sixteen years after The Social Network, Sorkin writes and directs a drama about the 2021 whistleblower revelations, with Jeremy Strong as the Meta chief and Mikey Madison as Frances Haugen.
Nobel Prizes
Anne Carson, Canadian Poet and Classicist, Wins the Nobel Prize in Literature
The Swedish Academy honored a writer who blends poetry, essay, translation and ancient myth, best known for the verse novel Autobiography of Red. She got the news in Iceland, listening to the wind.
Remembrance
Eva Marie Saint, Oscar Winner for On the Waterfront, Dies at 102
She won an Academy Award in her first film, matched wits with Cary Grant for Hitchcock, and kept a deliberately small screen career so she could put her family first.
Media and Speech
Disney and ABC Take the FCC to Court Over Early Review of Station Licenses
The network argues the regulator’s move against all eight of its local stations is retaliation for coverage the president dislikes; the agency says it is enforcing the public interest.
Movies
‘Digger’ Stumbles as ‘Verity’ Tops Box Office and ‘Endgame’ Retakes the Crown
An expensive awards hopeful opened to about $8 million in North America, while a Colleen Hoover adaptation took first place and a Marvel rerelease edged past ‘Avatar.’
Arts and Ideas
MacArthur Names 20 New Fellows, From a Saxophonist to a Forensic Anthropologist
Each of this year’s recipients of the so-called genius grants will receive $800,000 with no conditions attached.
Heritage
Greece Gives Bulgaria Czar Samuel’s Reputed Remains for Looted Church Treasures
The swap, years in the making, sent a medieval ruler’s bones to Sofia and 48 artefacts taken in 1917 back to northern Greece. Greece’s prime minister used the moment to press his case for the Parthenon Marbles.
Media
Paramount and Warner Bros. Will Operate as Skydance After $110 Billion Merger
David Ellison says the two historic studios will keep their own identities under the new name. The combined company will control CBS, CNN, HBO Max and some of Hollywood’s biggest franchises.
Film
Tom Cruise Plays an Oil Tycoon in Inarritu’s Climate Satire ‘Digger’
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s new film casts the action star against type as a reckless billionaire whose drilling sets an Arctic glacier adrift. Early critics are divided.
Art
Long-Hidden Van Gogh and Cézanne Paintings Head to Auction
Sotheby’s will sell an Argentine family’s collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works, unseen in public for about half a century, in New York in November. The total could approach half a billion dollars.
Fat Bear Week
Backpack, a Quiet Giant of Brooks River, Wins Fat Bear Week
Bear 89 edged out the daughter of a former champion in the final round of the online contest from Alaska’s Katmai National Park, which drew more than 2.5 million votes.
Panda Diplomacy
Giant Pandas Return to Atlanta on a 10-Year Loan From China
Ping Ping and Fu Shuang landed in Georgia days after a summit between President Trump and Xi Jinping. Visitors will have to wait while the pair settle in.
