Romania's Jewish State Theater explores work on Holocaust
Portraits of Auschwitz death camp prisoners are displayed on a mesh as actresses of the Jewish State Theatre, perform during the premiere of the "The Beautiful Days of My Youth" play, based on the diary of Romanian Jewish Holocaust survivor Ana Novac, in Bucharest, Friday, Oct. 16, 2020. Maia Morgenstern, head of the Jewish State Theater and a Romanian Jewish actress best known for playing Mary in Mel Gibson's controversial 2004 movie "The Passion of the Christ," described the play's staging in an interview with The Associated Press as an "all-feminine project." (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)BUCHAREST – The latest premiere at the Jewish State Theater in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, explores the horrors of the Holocaust via a survivor's memories of the Auschwitz and Plaszow concentration camps. Friday's debut of “The Beautiful Days of My Youth” by Romanian Jewish Holocaust survivor Ana Novac follows the National Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations on Oct. 9, the day when deportations of Romania’s Jews and Roma began in 1941. Some 280,000 Jews and 11,000 Roma were deported and killed under Romania's pro-Nazi regime during World War II.
McCartney appointed AP's entertainment & lifestyles editor
Anthony McCartney, newly appointed global entertainment and lifestyles editor for the Associated Press, appears during a portrait session on May 8, 2017. McCartney will oversee the APs entertainment team of text and visual journalists on three continents from Los Angeles, the first time the position has been based there. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)Anthony McCartney, The Associated Press' West Coast entertainment editor who as a reporter covered the legal aftermath of Michael Jackson's death and many celebrity trials, has been appointed the news cooperative's global entertainment and lifestyles editor. He has served as West Coast entertainment editor since 2017, overseeing film, television, celebrity and awards season coverage, as well as breaking news. Before joining the AP, McCartney worked at The Tampa Tribune in Florida and The Huntsville Times in Alabama.
Mel Gibson has recovered after coronavirus hospitalization
LOS ANGELES Mel Gibson spent a week in a Los Angeles hospital in April after testing positive for COVID-19, his representative said Friday. The 64-year-old actor and director has completely recovered and is doing great according to the rep. Gibson is the latest in a long string of high profile figures to go public with coronavirus diagnoses and recoveries including Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, George Stephanopoulos and the singer Pink. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. The U.S. has more than 4 million known cases of the coronavirus, with more than 140,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Floyds death hastens shift in police pop culture portrayals
In this image released by NBC, Jason Beghe portrays Hank Voight, left, in a scene from the crime series "Chicago PD." The divide between crime fiction and real life dates back to the genre's origins, more than 200 years ago. Law enforcement violence and corruption were extreme in the mid-19th century and some police forces were rooted in the patrols that used to chase down runaway slaves. Meanwhile, The police in early crime fiction were depicted as good, courageous, and brilliant, says Otto Penzler, the crime fiction publisher and bookseller. Over the past 50 years, the image of law enforcement has sometimes mirrored debates between liberals and conservatives.