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Philip Glass Cancels Kennedy Center World Premiere Amid MAGA Takeover
New Republic • Jan 27, 2026

Philip Glass Cancels Kennedy Center World Premiere Amid MAGA Takeover

Prolific pianist and composer Phillip Glass is boycotting the Kennedy Center, adding his name to a growing list of performers who have pulled their performances in the wake of President Trump’s hostile takeover.“After thoughtful consideration, I have decided to withdraw my Symphony No. 15 ‘Lincoln’ from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony,” he announced in a statement Tuesday.“Therefore, I feel an obligation to withdraw this Symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center under its current leadership.”That “current leadership” would be none other than Board of Trustees Chair Donald Trump, whose overhaul of the once esteemed arts and culture venue has struggled mightily of late. Big names like Issa Rae and Rhiannon Giddens pulled out of shows, and as of last fall, ticket sales at the Kennedy Center were the worst they’ve been since the Covid-19 pandemic. In December, the Kennedy Center was forced to cancel its annual New Year’s Eve concert as artists pulled out to boycott Trump changing the center’s name to “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

Melania Documentary Flops as Crew Reveals Behind-the-Scenes Chaos
New Republic • Jan 27, 2026

Melania Documentary Flops as Crew Reveals Behind-the-Scenes Chaos

Melania Trump’s new documentary, Melania, is looking like an opening-week box office flop—after Amazon’s MGM studios paid tens of millions of dollars for the rights to it.The documentary detailing the first lady’s return to the White House is projected to make just $1 million in its first week. While documentaries generally do worse at the box office, the sheer amount of money Amazon spent—$40 million for the rights, $35 million for an aggressive marketing blitz—and the constant stream of Truth Social posts from President Trump make this a particularly pitiful showing.Melania’s early failure comes as a new report from Rolling Stone details serious labor issues behind the scenes and a whopping two-thirds of the film’s staff requesting not to be credited at the end of the film. Director Brett Ratner, who made headlines after six women accused him of sexual assault and harassment during the #MeToo movement in 2017, was perhaps the most loathed person on set. (Actress Natasha Henstridge alleged that Ratner forced her to perform oral sex on him when she was 19, Olivia Munn claimed that Ratner masturbated in front of her, and more recently, he was pictured shirtless in the Epstein files.)“I feel a little bit uncomfortable with the propaganda element of this,” one crew member shared, “but Brett Ratner was the worst part of working on this project.”“He did actually chew a piece of gum and throw it in a coffee cup on my cart,” a staff member told Rolling Stone, [but] “didn’t acknowledge my existence for even one nanosecond.”Another member recalled a day when Ratner feasted on his own meal in a set space where food was not allowed, on a day when no one else on the crew got a break to eat.“Brett, unknowingly or maliciously, got his own food, went up there, was just eating it and just licking his fingers in grubbiest way possible, either being a dick or [having] no awareness whatsoever to the fact that everybody else is working and no one’s eating,” a staffer said.“Unfortunately, if [the film] does flop … I would really feel great about it,” said another.Melania herself is pocketing $28 million from the licensing sale. She and President Trump plan to attend a premiere of the documentary at the Kennedy Center on Thursday.

From George Floyd to Alex Pretti: “Copaganda” Author on Myths About Immigration, Crime & Policing
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Democracy Now Video • Jan 27, 2026

From George Floyd to Alex Pretti: “Copaganda” Author on Myths About Immigration, Crime & Policing

Letterboxd Users Are Pre-Swarming the “Melania” Doc with Amazingly Mean Reviews
Mother Jones • Jan 26, 2026

Letterboxd Users Are Pre-Swarming the “Melania” Doc with Amazingly Mean Reviews

Jeff Bezos’s $40 million bribe of the Trumps, in the form of his Amazon-MGM-produced Melania documentary, is out in about 2,000 theaters across the country this Friday (5,000 worldwide, according to MarketWatch), backed by an inescapable $35 million advertising assault on the country’s airwaves and commuter transit. The Wall Street Journal reported that Melania will […]

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