A week after Tony Kushner's honorary degree from John Jay College was halted by the CUNY Board of Trustees (because of Kushner's stance on Middle East politics), the board's executive committee gave it right back last night. The decision, which concluded a less-than-30 minute meeting where board members expressed displeasure with the way the situation had unfolded, comes after tremendous political pressure was put on the school. Explained trustee Kathleen M. Pesile yesterday, “we are now correcting it because it benefits CUNY and we will not get another chance to remove this blemish.” more ›

Blood libel is back in the news! The furor over the CUNY Board of Trustees decision to table an honorary degree for the playwright Tony Kushner shows no sign of abating. Since trustee Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld persuaded his peers to side against Kushner earlier this week CUNY has sort-of apologized but Weisenfeld has not backed down. Instead he has gone on a media phone tour in which he has decried Kushner's perceived "blood-libel charge" that Israel has engaged in ethnic-cleansing and told a Times reporter that he didn't know what he was talking about. And now CUNY is considering changing its mind again and giving the degree to Kushner after all! more ›

This spring CUNY's John Jay College of Criminal Justice was supposed to award an honorary degree to the Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner. But that plan has been tabled by the CUNY Board of Trustees after one member expressed concerns over anti-Israel beliefs he believed that Kushner had espoused, the Jewish Week reports. more ›

The first New York revival of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning two-part epic work, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, will be staged by Signature Theatre Company as part of their 20th anniversary season in 2010-2011. Signature, which devotes an entire season to a single playwright's work, announced that part one, Millennium Approaches and part two, Perestroika, will run in repertory; the theater also plans to have performance days where the plays (each three and a half hours) are presented back to back. As usual with Signature, all tickets for the initial run will be sold for $20, thanks to a grant from Time Warner. more ›

Playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America) has been named the first recipient of the "Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award," which is to be awarded biennially to an American playwright whose body of work has made significant contributions to the American theater. The prize comes with a cool $200,000, which Kushner says will "buy me time to work on plays," after he finishes up a screenplay about Abraham Lincoln for Steven Spielberg and another film script about Eugene O'Neill. The Distinguished Playwright Award will be given out in alternate years with another award of $50,000 for early-career playwrights "whose professional work shows great promise." In accepting the prize, Kushner noted that "playwriting is in a lot of trouble now,” because even successful writers have to split their time with Hollywood to support their lifestyles. more ›

Actor/director John Turturro was among the protesters assembled at City Hall today for a rally to save the Carnegie artist studios, which could soon be taken over by Carnegie Hall expansion plans. But the big star of the day was 95-year-old Editta Sherman, the building’s longest living tenant, having resided there since 1949. She’s seen here holding a photograph she took of Leonard Bernstein, a former resident; Sherman’s studio in the building was once a destination for celebrities seeking classy photographic portraiture. Though her future there is now in jeopardy, Sherman, known to friends as the Duchess of Carnegie Hall, sounded resilient: “I’m not thinking about it, I’m not worried about it, because I’m not going anywhere.” more ›

TV star Matthew Fox went to his alma mater today to give the Class Day speech at Columbia College. Fox, class of 1989, was a controversial speaker choice amongst the Columbia community, given that other Columbia University schools had, er, Nobel Laureate and former Treasury Secretary types speaking. Just Jared has a partial transcript of his remarks:

“You may have an idea where you want to be in 20 years and some of you will get there. But if you do, I guarantee you won’t have let yourself take chances. Eighteen years ago sitting in these seats, as hung over as I was, I remember a sense of accomplishment & a sense of fear. In defining the future for yourselves, the safest choice may not be the best choice... more ›

Apparently, sexy Hollywood beefcake is what Columbia College is trying to promote at its Class Day this year! Last year, father-of-fellow-Columbia College-student Senator John McCain spoke, to wide protest. This year, Columbia College has selected Matthew Fox, star of Lost, to be the main speaker. more ›

Rachel Corrie was an American college student killed by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to block the demolition of Palestinian houses near a refugee camp in Gaza. (Israel officials claimed the demolitions were intended to stifle attacks along a road parallel to the Egyptian border.) more ›

Comedian Dane Cook has a massive following, from his huge record sales to his zillions of MySpace friends. This weekend we'll see if he can extend the brand loyalty to the cineplex, as his first starring role in ). This flick isn't going to end world hunger or stop nuclear proliferation, but it's moderately amusing and worth $10.75 if you're in the mood for a light comedy. more ›

Robin I. Shane, Costume Designer more ›

Gothamist must admit that we were one of those pasty, sun-deprived toddlers who merrily shunned the joys of sportsmanship and early childhood socialization for the more solitary pleasures of pop-up books and cartoon fantasy lands. To this day, the mere glimpse of a page from one of our favorite children's books will stop us in our tracks even faster than a shiny object, compelling us to re-read the book in question immediately. more ›

After brushing off the RNC dust and settling back into a week of normalcy Gothamist noticed this Crain's piece on the effect the invasion of the Republicans had on Broadway. Basically, they got creamed, with an 18% attendance drop compared to the same week last year and a whopping 20% drop in box office grosses. via Yahoo gives the skinny on which shows suffered the most, reporting "significant five-figure slippage" at "Fiddler on the Roof," "The Frogs," "Wonderful Town" and "Golda's Balcony", and even successful shows like "Avenue Q" and "Movin' Out" getting hit hard, too, down $70,134 and $85,094 respectively. more ›

We were stoked to read in Playbill that Academy Award-winning actress Holly Hunter (. more ›

Variety's Todd McCarthy: "Fully capturing the grandeur, extravagance, urgency, poetry and humor of the produced play, the savvy veteran director [Nichols]has brought out an elemental dimension of emotional melodrama that makes the piece compulsive screen fare without subtracting one bit from its status as great theater." more ›