A&E IN BRIEF
Oscars dump popular film idea
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The organization that bestows the Academy Awards says it is suspending plans to award a new Oscar for popular films amid widespread backlash to the idea. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says it will further study plans for the category. It wrote in a statement that it recognized that implementing a new award three quarters of the way into the year creates challenges for films that have already been released.
The film academy announced the new category for “outstanding achievement in popular film” last month.
It prompted an immediate outcry, with many inside and outside the film industry wondering how it would impact critically and commercially popular films such as Black Panther. The superhero blockbuster has been cited as a possible best picture contender.
Exhibit tells story of Moe Berg
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — The Baseball Hall of Fame has opened a new exhibit on Moe Berg, the major league catcherturned-spy whose story was the subject of a Hollywood film released this summer.
Moe Berg: Big League Spy recently opened at the museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.
The New York City-born son of Russian-Jewish immigrants was an Ivy League graduate who played more than 660 games over 15 seasons for the Dodgers, White Sox, Indians, Senators and Red Sox. During the Second World War he joined the Office of Strategic Services, predecessor to the CIA.
The exhibit chronicles his athletic and espionage exploits through his baseball artifacts and wartime documents. The movie The Catcher Was a Spy was released in June, with Berg portrayed by Paul Rudd. Berg died in 1972 at 70.