My Publicist Note Book

LOS ANGELES — Oscar voters showered the neo-musical “La La Land” with 14 nominations on Tuesday, a tie with “Titanic” and “All About Eve” for the most in Academy Award history. But the academy also moved past two #OscarsSoWhite years by honoring six black actors — a record — and including diverse films like “Moonlight,” “Fences” and “Hidden Figures” in the best picture race. [  The list of nominees  ] Nine movies will compete for Hollywood’s top prize, including several box-office hits. Joining “La La Land” and “Moonlight” (eight nominations total), “Fences” (four), and “Hidden Figures” (three) in the best picture race were “Arrival,” a science-fiction thriller; the cops-and-robbers drama “Hell or High Water”; the subtitled tear-jerker “Lion”; “Manchester by the Sea,” about a mournful New England handyman; and “Hacksaw Ridge,” Mel Gibson’s true story of World War II heroism. INTERACTIVE FEATURE 2017 Oscar Ballot See this year’s Oscar nominees and make...

TV STAR SALARIES REVEAL PAY GAP BETWEEN WHITE AND MINORITY ACTORS via  NewsWeek : There is one anomaly on the list of highest earners: Dwayne Johnson, who is of black and Samoan descent, is able to command a huge $400,000 fee for HBO’s  Ballers . But one can deduce the fact he’s a bonafide A-list movie star who essentially does television as a side project factors into that paycheck. Look at the lower-end of the totem pole and a pattern emerges: many of the actors are minorities and, oddly, many of the names have earned critical acclaim for their roles, but their pay doesn’t seem to be commensurate with their cultural impact. At this juncture it seems pertinent to point out that earning $100,000 an episode is by no means akin to living in abject poverty; these actors are indeed very privileged to earn the salaries they do compared to the average Joe. However, one must acknowledge that these actors are working in a completely different industry to the average Joe,...