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Entertainment
Bryce Dallas Howard honored by Harvard’s Hasty Pudding
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Bryce Dallas Howard, who has made her mark as an actor, producer and director, was named Harvard University’s Hasty Pud- ding Theatricals 2019 Woman of the Year on Tuesday.
“The Pudding is excited to honor an accomplished actress who has given such a wide range of critically acclaimed perfor- mances, and is committed to expanding the role of women in every aspect of storytelling,” the nation’s oldest collegiate theatrical organization said in a statement.
Howard will be honored with a parade through Cambridge on Thursday, to be
followed by a roast where she will receive her pudding pot.
The roast will be followed by a preview of the organization’s latest production, “France France Revolution,” its first that features a cast that includes women.
“In addition to being fans of Bryce’s work in TV and film, we admire her efforts to forge new pathways for female artists and creatives in Hollywood,” Mariana San- chez-Medina, the organization’s co-pro- ducer said in statement.
Howard starred in “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” last year, the sequel to the 2015 box office hit “Jurassic World.” She
will next be seen in “Rocketman,” an Elton John biopic scheduled for release in May. Hasty Pudding Theatricals dates to the
late 18th century. One of its first mandates was “members in alphabetical order shall provide a pot of hasty pudding for every meeting.”
It has honored a Woman of the Year since 1951 and previous winners include Ella Fitzgerald, Meryl Streep and Halle Berry. Mila Kunis was last year’s honoree.
This year’s Man of the Year has not yet been announced.
Ruffin’s debut novel is challenging, thought-provoking
By RAGAN CLARK, Associated Press Writer
“We Cast a Shadow” (One World), by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
A fear-driven, racially charged world is the land in which the narrator of “We Cast a Shadow” lives. Half the black community — and eight out of 10 black men — are ar- rested in their lifetime. A ghetto has been fortified, walling in the black population for the “health, safety and general welfare” of citizens. Curfews are enforced. Those who break the law can be deported. And for the narrator, a black man lucky enough to have avoided prison (unlike his father)
and who holds a position at a law firm, his top priority is creating a better life for his son — even if that means turning him white.
Maurice Carlos Ruffin weaves many threads, from the fragile complexity of a father-son relationship to a person’s capac- ity for change. The world Ruffin creates is semi-satirically extreme, yet there is an air of plausibility that is unsettling. What is the result of fear, power and discrimina- tion left unchecked? And where is the line between protecting your own and sub- jecting them to the very prejudice that has ruled your world?
Heart-wrenching and morally ambigu- ous, “We Cast a Shadow” explores ques- tions of justice and self-actualization. Life’s fulfillment may only seem within reach when cultural assimilation to the most extreme degree takes place. But what is the price that is paid? The moral high ground in such a society is reserved for those who haven’t faced discrimination themselves, from the narrator’s perspective.
Unapologetic in his ability to make the reader uncomfortable, “We Cast a Shad- ow” is a challenging, thought-provoking debut by Ruffin.
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