Just as allegedly false Fox News tweets make headlines, the British end of the Murdoch operation is suddenly coping with a messy scandal that unexpectedly turned disastrous just as President Obama was supposedly assassinated.

Shenanigans involving Murdoch’s journalists paying for the services of a mobile phone hacker just would not go away, but now the gravity of the allegations have turning mass public opinion against the Murdoch press, though it could be fleeting disgust.

What began with a tabloid exclusive about Prince William’s knee -- you couldn’t make this up! -- could yet bring Murdoch to his own knees.

For months, royals and celebrities have been entangled with Murdoch’s Sunday tabloid the "News of the World," lampooned by Private Eye as the News of the...

The generosity of American casting directors, producers and Academy voters to Britons has really been quite commendable over the years, but I often feel some remarkable British talent is overlooked.

British talent is changing, and not for the better. The old British way of serving an apprenticeship in regional rep, often tackling 10 or more parts in year, and finding fame after having acquired a technical armory, is disappearing as provincial theatre audiences dwindle. Bimbos and himbos are appearing with increasing regularity on the London stage “to attract a younger audience.”

This is not the end of British acting as we know, but it does suggest a future where our actors will not have the...

To paraphrase Nietzsche, the star is dead. By that I mean buried and decomposing, not temporary pay cuts.

The end of the star is mooted by every generation as its favorites are replaced, but this time the omens seem to be in alignment.

Technically Hollywood has always been at the top of the game, but when it comes to reality it tends to dawdle.

Like the Western economies in general, Hollywood is at a crossroads.

Back in 2006 I naively wrote a piece expecting the tech revolution to transform Hollywood quickly, shake the industry from its torpor.

Let’s get the bleak scenario out of the way first. What if Hollywood doesn’t survive as a global player?

"Avatar" showed the potential audience, in near absolute terms rather than typical, but if anything its success illustrates the...

It’s that time of year again, when award-conferring bodies of film journalists convene to pronounce what was the best during the cinematic year.

It could be dismissed as their 15 minutes to sway filmgoers, but American film critics have always had a certain prominence that they don't in other countries.

Film criticism is obviously not uniquely American, but it is something at which Americans have excelled. I think it was Andrew Sarris who said that while many American cities have newspapers devoid of book reviewing, you will find film criticism of the highest order almost anywhere in America.

I’m not sure if that still holds, but I am sure that the esteemed contributors of, say, Cahiers du Cinema or Sight & Sound have glanced enviously at their American counterparts making a decent living while all the time being at the epicenter, commercially...