Old-School Celebrities Could Not Move the Needle
The New York Times
Hollywood endorsements, once an essential part of a campaign playbook, may have backfired in this election.
In an election season in which both parties sought out any possible edge, Democrats clung to one seemingly clear-cut advantage: Celebrities including Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen broke hard for that party, even as voters did not.
President-elect Donald J. Trump had his own famous supporters, drawing from a more masculine cohort, with figures like Kanye West and Mel Gibson, as well as less mainstream acts like Kid Rock and Jon Voight, also weighing in with their endorsements. The result was a split-screen of American celebrity — two sets of famous people for two halves of the country. But by and large, the biggest names in entertainment said Vice President Kamala Harris should be elected to the nation’s highest office.
In the end, it did not seem to matter much.
Ms. Harris was decisively defeated on Tuesday, despite the backing of a megastar like Beyoncé.
On the singer’s Instagram page, one commenter put it succinctly.
“America is tired,” wrote Albert Pennachio, an independent voter who lives in Statesville, N.C. “And we don’t care what celebrities think anymore.”
In the last year, museums, book festivals, arts journals and other organizations have experienced bitter discord over what qualifies as tolerable speech about the conflict and its combatants.
John Krasinski may not have the raw energy of Glen Powell, but a collaboration with the stylist Ilaria Urbinati has paid huge dividends.
The star of Jacques Audiard’s showy new musical about a trans Mexican crime boss, Karla Sofía Gascón, adds soul to the melodrama. Zoe Saldaña also shines.
The powerhouse soprano, already a company stalwart at 37, still seems to be figuring out a character whose moods change on a dime.
The artist’s works are the subject of two New York shows, at the Metropolitan Museum and the Jack Shainman Gallery.
The YouTube star has a coffee company, a podcast and a new collaboration with Warby Parker. One thing she isn’t doing much? Posting.
The FX series strives to capture the complexity of its subject: the long sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles.
Nora Holt was a pioneer of Chicago’s Black classical music scene. A friend of Josephine Baker, she later became a blues singer in Parisian nightclubs.
In the film “Conclave,” the costume designer Lisy Christl clothed an army of catty cardinals, from their miters down to their quirky glasses.
The sprawling PST festival of more than 70 exhibitions doesn’t quite live up to its theme of art and science colliding. But there is a handful of impressive entries.
With the release of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” 40 years ago, the horror villain Freddy Krueger clawed his way to becoming a pop culture phenomenon.