Names and faces

■ The career of Viggo Mortensen, who among other roles, played Aragorn in the popular Lord of the Rings trilogy and a protagonist in the Academy Award-winning Green Book, will be honored at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival. The festival announced Monday that Mortensen is this year’s recipient of its Donostia Award. The festival’s organizers are currently planning to hold the event as normal, with film stars flying in from around the world. Spain has lifted most of its restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has left more than 28,000 dead in the country. Mortensen, a Danish-American actor, will also present the European premiere of Falling, his directorial debut, at the prestigious festival in northern Spain between Sept. 18-26. The movie closed the Sundance Festival and has been selected for the Cannes Festival. It stars Lance Henriksen in the role of an aging father whose world collides with that of his estranged, homosexual son, played by Mortensen himself. Mortensen, 61, has featured in around 50 movies in a career spanning more than three decades. He has been nominated for Oscars three times — for Eastern Promises, Captain Fantastic and Green Book, in which he portrays the prejudiced driver of classical pianist Don Shirley, played by Mahershala Ali, during a tour of the Deep South in the early 1960s.

■ Guy Fieri, the flamboyant Food Network host, might be getting closer to making a reality out of the oft-repeated claim that he’s the “mayor of Flavortown.” A petition that so far has gathered thousands of signatures is seeking to put the imaginary city on the map, by renaming Columbus, Ohio. Statues and other iconography around the country of Christopher Columbus — including one in the state capital that bears the explorer’s name — have been targeted amid a nationwide anti-racist protest movement. “Columbus is an amazing city, but one whose name is tarnished by the very name itself,” the petition posted by Tyler Woodbridge on Change.org reads. “Its namesake, Christopher Columbus, is in The Bad Place because of all his raping, slave trading, and genocide. That’s not exactly a proud legacy.” He nominated Fieri’s catchphrase to replace the controversial historical figure, he wrote, because the celebrity chef — who has been praised widely for his work and donations to restaurant workers laid off during the covid-19 crisis — was born there. Also, he wrote, “it honors Central Ohio’s proud heritage as a culinary crossroads and one of the nation’s largest test markets for the food industry.” More than 32,000 people had signed on by mid-day Monday. Woodbridge, who said that the effort wasn’t so much about honoring Fieri as it was removing the name Columbus, said he would also support renaming the city after an indigenous person.

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