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Movie Theaters in Some Cities Now Check for Vaccine Proof, Raising Fears About Release Delays

Movie theaters in a handful of cities around the country will soon be checking for proof of vaccination — creating one more obstacle to the full return of moviegoing. In New York, the requirement goes into effect on Tuesday. Joe Masher, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York, said he worried about the logistics of enforcing the rule.

Source: Movie Theaters in Some Cities Now Check for Vaccine Proof, Raising Fears About Release Delays

What Do TV’s Richest Characters Read? Gladwell, Nietzsche and Sally Rooney, Apparently

The rich kids on HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl” continuation look a little different than they did in the original series: they take Ubers instead of private cars, they actually think Dumbo is cool and, as many have wrote about, are a lot more woke — a fact made even more clear by the characters’ reading choices

Source: What Do TV’s Richest Characters Read? Gladwell, Nietzsche and Sally Rooney, Apparently

How a deepfake Tom Cruise on TikTok turned into a very real AI company

This looks like Tom Cruise doing a coin trick, but it's actually a deepfake created by Chris Umé.

Earlier this year, videos of Tom Cruise started popping up on TikTok of the actor doing some surprisingly un-Tom-Cruise-like stuff: goofing around in an upscale men’s clothing store; showing off a coin trickgrowling playfully during a short rendition of Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash Into Me.”

Source: A look at Metaphysic, a company which uses deepfake tech to create ads and restore old film; its founder went viral on TikTok for deepfaking Tom Cruise (Rachel Metz/CNN)

How the long-dead public-television painter Bob Ross became a streaming phenomenon (and kicked up plenty of dirt in the process)

Thanks to modern platforms like Twitch and Pluto TV, Ross has become a mainstay of the digital universe — particularly during the pandemic, when the popularity of a new Bob Ross channel skyrocketed as people trapped at home turned to their televisions for therapy.

Source: How the long-dead public-television painter Bob Ross became a streaming phenomenon (and kicked up plenty of dirt in the process)

How Olympic Tracking Systems Capture Athletic Performances

This year’s Olympic Games may be closed to most spectators because of COVID-19, but the eyes of the world are still on the athletes thanks to dozens of cameras recording every leap, dive and flip. Among all that broadcasting equipment, track-and-field competitors might notice five extra cameras—the first step in a detailed 3-D tracking system that supplies spectators with near-instantaneous insights into each step of a race or handoff of a baton.

Source: How Olympic Tracking Systems Capture Athletic Performances

Hollywood’s Labor Force Does Not Reflect California’s Diversity

Norm Langley was one of the first Black camera operators to break into the business in the early 1970s, when the industry was facing government pressure to diversify. He had a 38-year career, working on TV shows like “The Practice” and movies including “The Color Purple” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” In his retirement, he has grown increasingly agitated that his union — IATSE Local 600 — never did more to recruit minorities.

Source: Hollywood’s Labor Force Does Not Reflect California’s Diversity