Page 29 - ARUBA TODAY

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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 5 February 2020

This combination photo shows Brian Wilson performing at the
Rosemont Theatre in Rosemont, Ill, on Oct 6, 2017, left, and Mike
Love at "Howard Stern's Birthday Bash" in New York on Jan. 31,
2014.
Associated Press
No good vibrations

for Beach Boys, split

by hunting concert

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Lupita Nyong'o in a scene from "Us."
Associated Press
By The Associated Press The petition had garnered
NEW YORK (AP) — One some 95,000 signatures by Top films were more diverse
of the co-founders of The Tuesday afternoon.
Beach Boys has joined a The annual Safari Club con-
to protest it being used by by animal rights groups than ever before, study finds
boycott of his own music vention has drawn protests
another band member at such as the Humane So-
an animal hunting conven- ciety for profiting from the By JAKE COYLE the numbers of female di- Academy of Film and Tele-
tion. hunting of endangered AP Film Writer rectors, the research paints vision Awards on Sunday,
Brian Wilson has de- animals and promoting un- NEW YORK (AP) — Holly- a picture of an industry only white actors were
nounced a performance ethical hunting practices. wood's awards season may that, after years of lagging nominated.
of Beach Boys music on This year's keynote speaker not show it, but the most behind in representation "There is also a very obvi-
Wednesday at the Safari is Donald Trump Jr. popular films are increas- in front of and behind the ous disconnect between
Club International Conven- In response, Love offered ingly diverse, a new study camera, is showing real what sells tickets and what
tion in Reno, Nevada. The a statement to Pitchfork finds. signs of progress. While still garners awards points to
concert is being led by The magazine: "We look for- According to new re- falling short of an accurate a systemic bias at cultural
Beach Boys' co-founder, ward to a night of great search released Tuesday reflection of the American institutions like the BAFTAs
lead singer and chief lyricist music in Reno and, as al- by the University of South- population (51% of which is or the Academy Awards,"
Mike Love. ways, support freedom of ern California's Annenberg female and about 40% are Smith said. "After another
In a tweet, Wilson said thought and expression as Inclusion Initiative, more of people of color), research- year in which the major stu-
he and band member a fundamental tenet of our 2019's top movies featured ers called it "a banner year dios increased their output
Al Jardine are "emphati- rights as Americans." minority or female lead for inclusion." of films with female and
cally opposed" to trophy The Beach Boys are known characters than ever re- "It is clear that Hollywood is underrepresented leads
hunting. He then pointed for sunny harmonies in such corded before. taking steps to create more or co leads, it is critical to
to a Change.org petition songs as "California Girls," I Analyzing the top 100 films inclusive stories and that recognize that talent is not
that calls for a boycott of Get Around," "Fun Fun Fun," at the North American box those films are connecting limited by gender or race/
Beach Boys' music until the "Good Vibrations" and office, USC researchers with audiences," Stacy L. ethnicity."
performance is canceled. "Kokomo."q found that 31 movies had Smith, founder of the Inclu- The USC study also as-
leads or co-leads from an sion Initiative, said in state- sessed the major distribu-
underrepresented racial ment. tors. Because box office is a
group, an increase of four But those gains haven't key metric in their research,
films from 2018 and nearly been reflected in Holly- that doesn't include releas-
triple the number of 10 wood's awards season, es from streaming services
years ago. which culminates Sun- including Netflix and Ama-
The data showed similar day with the Academy zon, neither of which dis-
gains for female leads. Of Awards. For the 87th time, closed ticket sales for most
the same films, 43 featured no female filmmakers were of their 2019 releases.
female leads or co-leads, nominated for best direc- Universal, the only studio
an increase of four films tor. And while the much- led by a woman (studio
from 2018 and more than nominated Korean drama chief Donna Langley), led
double the number of fe- "Parasite" has made history, all studios with nine films
male leads (20) in 2007. only one person of color featuring a female lead
Combined with studies (Cynthia Erivo, for "Harriet") and eight films featuring
released last month that was nominated in an act- leads from an underrepre-
showed a notable uptick in ing category. At the British sented ethnicity.q