Names and faces
Actor John Goodman is starring in a radio ad opposing a right-to-work law on Missouri’s Aug. 7 ballot. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday that the ad is airing in the St. Louis market. Goodman starred on the television comedy Roseanne. He went to high school and college in Missouri. In the spot, paid for by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Goodman says the law is marketed as a way to help workers. But he tells voters to “look a little deeper, and you’ll see it’s all about corporate greed.” Right-to-work supporters say workers should be able to choose whether they pay fees in industries that require union membership. Missouri lawmakers passed the law banning mandatory union fees last year. Opponents gathered enough signatures to put it to a public vote.
Filmmaker James Cameron and Titanic discoverer Robert Ballard are backing a bid by a group of British museums to acquire a collection of 5,500 artifacts from the sunken vessel. The campaign announced Tuesday aims to raise $20 million to buy the items from a private American company that salvaged them from the wreck. Cameron, director of the 1997 blockbuster Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, said there are grave concerns that the collection will be broken up and sold privately because that company has filed for bankruptcy. “That’s why people who feel some protective role have stepped up and kind of linked arms,” Cameron said. “It’s an incredible piece of history, an object lesson about human hubris. If it gets sold into private hands, it disappears from the public eye. It would be broken up and could never be reassembled.” The Titanic sank April 15, 1912, in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage, after hitting an iceberg. More than 1,500 passengers and crew died. The artifacts include a section of the ship’s hull and a bronze cherub decoration from the ship’s grand staircase. They were recovered from the wreck site during seven deep-sea expeditions between 1987 and 2004. The bid for the artifacts comes from the Royal Museums Greenwich, National Museums Northern Ireland, Titanic Belfast and Titanic Foundation Limited. The National Geographic Society has pledged $500,000 to help fund the project; Cameron and Ballard are National Geographic explorers in residence.