Steven Spielberg

Microsoft Word - Michel.express

Michel et al. introduce culturomics, a data-driven study that analyzes about 5.2 million digitized books—roughly 4% of all published—to track linguistic and cultural trends from 1800 to 2000. By compiling and analyzing year-by-year n-gram counts across English and several other languages, with carefully filtered metadata, they quantify the growth of the English lexicon, shifts in grammar and usage, patterns of collective memory and fame, the rapid turnover of cultural adoption, and detectable footprints of censorship and epidemics. The work showcases how culture can be examined with rigorous quantitative methods, reveals striking findings such as accelerating forgetting and faster but shorter-lived fame, and provides extensive datasets and tools for researchers to explore the vast landscape of human culture.

Source: House Oversight Committee

EB Draft Ch1-25

Source: House Oversight Committee

EB Draft Ch1-25

Source: House Oversight Committee

Your Monday News Briefing: United Nations, China, N.F.L.

This Monday’s New York Times briefing offers a rapid, across-the-globe snapshot of the day’s top stories—from Christine Blasey Ford’s agreement to testify about the Kavanaugh nomination amid new allegations and related political maneuvering, to Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein’s potential departure, to President Trump’s return to the U.N. and a new round of tariffs on China—along with timely business, sports, and culture highlights, including a breakthrough in heart-failure treatment, Cosby’s upcoming sentencing, and engaging interactive graphics and weekend features.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Tuesday, August 30

Peggy Siegal’s Venice diary provides an intimate, fast-paced tour of the 68th Venice Film Festival in 2011, tracing a week of red-carpet glamour, sun-baked palazzi, and exclusive soirees as she hobnobs with George Clooney, Madonna, Jessica Chastain, Al Pacino and other luminaries. Amid intimate press conferences and world premieres of A Dangerous Method, The Artist, Carnage, Contagion and Shame, the piece captures a festival ecosystem where couture, cinema history, and Oscar buzz mingle under Venetian heat and candlelit corridors. It also frames how Hollywood’s race for the Academy Awards begins overseas, with festival curators and global audiences shaping the year’s most anticipated films.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Tuesday, August 30

Peggy Siegal’s Venice diary provides an intimate, fast-paced tour of the 68th Venice Film Festival in 2011, tracing a week of red-carpet glamour, sun-baked palazzi, and exclusive soirees as she hobnobs with George Clooney, Madonna, Jessica Chastain, Al Pacino and other luminaries. Amid intimate press conferences and world premieres of A Dangerous Method, The Artist, Carnage, Contagion and Shame, the piece captures a festival ecosystem where couture, cinema history, and Oscar buzz mingle under Venetian heat and candlelit corridors. It also frames how Hollywood’s race for the Academy Awards begins overseas, with festival curators and global audiences shaping the year’s most anticipated films.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Vive L’Oscars: Peggy Siegal's Oscar Diary

Peggy Siegal’s exclusive Oscar diary offers a behind-the-scenes, celebrity-packed chronicle of the 2011–2012 Oscar season, tracing how nine Best Picture contenders—led by The Artist, The Tree of Life, The Help, Moneyball, The Descendants, Hugo, War Horse, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, and The Ides of March—moved from Cannes into a year of campaigns, glamorous pre‑Oscars parties, fashion moments, and studio strategizing, with sharp, intimate observations from Woody Allen’s abstention to Uggie’s rise and George Clooney’s dual life as actor and humanitarian.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Oscars 2011: A Personal Chronicle of the Oscar Season and Parties

This insider diary chronicles the 2011 Oscar season from Cannes to the ceremony, tracing how nine films—led by The Artist, The Help, and The Descendants—built campaigns, buzz, and cross-country premieres while a glamorous whirl of parties, press rooms, and red carpets shaped the race for Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Actress. It threads through the social machinery of Hollywood, spotlighting the rivalries and alliances among stars, producers, and power brokers at exclusive gatherings, where fashion, sentiment, and whispered predictions mattered as much as films themselves; it features Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, and the larger-than-life push around Meryl Streep vs. Viola Davis, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and a canine superstar, Uggie, who became a cultural moment. The narrative crescendos with The Artist’s historic sweep—the first silent Best Picture winner since 1927—with Harvey Weinstein’s orchestration, Michel Hazanavicius’s triumph, and Uggie’s star turn, before closing on the glow and the reminder that the magic of Oscar night is unforgettable, even as life returns to reality.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Oscar Diary

Peggy Siegal’s Oscar Diary offers a candid, insider account of the 85th Academy Awards weekend, tracing the social theater from ticket lineups and a line-cutting DreamWorks moment to the backstage chatter, campaigns, and box-office power that shape the race, with behind-the-scenes conversations about the Best Actress contenders, the politics surrounding Zero Dark Thirty and Les Misérables, and the global prestige and party-going hustle that define this glamorous, high-stakes Hollywood week.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Oscar Diary

Peggy Siegal’s Oscar Diary offers a candid, insider account of the 85th Academy Awards weekend, tracing the social theater from ticket lineups and a line-cutting DreamWorks moment to the backstage chatter, campaigns, and box-office power that shape the race, with behind-the-scenes conversations about the Best Actress contenders, the politics surrounding Zero Dark Thirty and Les Misérables, and the global prestige and party-going hustle that define this glamorous, high-stakes Hollywood week.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Oscars Weekend 2011: A Publicist's Diary

A seasoned publicist chronicles the fevered 2011 Oscar season, tracing the race between The King’s Speech and The Social Network from glamorous pre-award parties to the desperate, carefully orchestrated campaigns of Harvey Weinstein, Tom Hooper, and their rivals. Through insider anecdotes, fashion, and backstage strategy, the piece exposes how prestige, timing, and relentless momentum shape the outcome, culminating in The King’s Speech capturing Best Picture and Hooper clinching Best Director on a night of glamor, anxiety, and institutional theater.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Oscars Weekend 2011: A Publicist's Diary

A seasoned publicist chronicles the fevered 2011 Oscar season, tracing the race between The King’s Speech and The Social Network from glamorous pre-award parties to the desperate, carefully orchestrated campaigns of Harvey Weinstein, Tom Hooper, and their rivals. Through insider anecdotes, fashion, and backstage strategy, the piece exposes how prestige, timing, and relentless momentum shape the outcome, culminating in The King’s Speech capturing Best Picture and Hooper clinching Best Director on a night of glamor, anxiety, and institutional theater.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Oscars Weekend 2011: A Publicist's Diary

A seasoned publicist chronicles the fevered 2011 Oscar season, tracing the race between The King’s Speech and The Social Network from glamorous pre-award parties to the desperate, carefully orchestrated campaigns of Harvey Weinstein, Tom Hooper, and their rivals. Through insider anecdotes, fashion, and backstage strategy, the piece exposes how prestige, timing, and relentless momentum shape the outcome, culminating in The King’s Speech capturing Best Picture and Hooper clinching Best Director on a night of glamor, anxiety, and institutional theater.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Oscar Diary

This insider’s Oscar diary follows a veteran publicist through the 2011 Academy Awards weekend, tracing the high-stakes, behind-the-scenes campaign between The King’s Speech and The Social Network amid a whirlwind of star-studded parties, fashion, and media frenzy. It culminates with The King’s Speech winning Best Picture and Tom Hooper taking Best Director, as the Hollywood power circle negotiates prestige, headlines, and the adrenaline of the awards season.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Oscar Diary

This insider’s Oscar diary follows a veteran publicist through the 2011 Academy Awards weekend, tracing the high-stakes, behind-the-scenes campaign between The King’s Speech and The Social Network amid a whirlwind of star-studded parties, fashion, and media frenzy. It culminates with The King’s Speech winning Best Picture and Tom Hooper taking Best Director, as the Hollywood power circle negotiates prestige, headlines, and the adrenaline of the awards season.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Oscar Diary

Peggy Siegal’s Oscar Diary from March 2013 offers a vivid insider’s portrait of the 85th Academy Awards season: the feverish, star-studded social circuit, the colossal, money‑driven campaigns behind favorites like Argo, Lincoln, Life of Pi, Les Misérables, Django Unchained, and Zero Dark Thirty, the behind‑the‑scenes debates and political undercurrents shaping winners and snubs, and a backstage world of line‑cut invitations, fashion fittings, high‑pressure meetings, and relentless networking as Siegal navigates the theater of Oscars week.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Oscar Diary

Peggy Siegal’s Oscar Diary from March 2013 offers a vivid insider’s portrait of the 85th Academy Awards season: the feverish, star-studded social circuit, the colossal, money‑driven campaigns behind favorites like Argo, Lincoln, Life of Pi, Les Misérables, Django Unchained, and Zero Dark Thirty, the behind‑the‑scenes debates and political undercurrents shaping winners and snubs, and a backstage world of line‑cut invitations, fashion fittings, high‑pressure meetings, and relentless networking as Siegal navigates the theater of Oscars week.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Oscar Diary

Stephanie’s Oscar diary offers an intimate, front‑row narrative of the 2011 awards season, charting the behind‑the‑scenes campaign between The King’s Speech and The Social Network, Harvey Weinstein’s relentless organizing, and a star‑studded crawl of pre‑ and post‑Oscar parties as Hollywood’s power players converge on the Kodak Theatre, culminating in The King’s Speech securing Best Picture and its champions grabbing the spotlight.

Source: House Oversight Committee

Oscar Diary

Stephanie’s Oscar diary offers an intimate, front‑row narrative of the 2011 awards season, charting the behind‑the‑scenes campaign between The King’s Speech and The Social Network, Harvey Weinstein’s relentless organizing, and a star‑studded crawl of pre‑ and post‑Oscar parties as Hollywood’s power players converge on the Kodak Theatre, culminating in The King’s Speech securing Best Picture and its champions grabbing the spotlight.

Source: House Oversight Committee

09-COVER STORY.01

This piece is a wry, insider’s diary of the 83rd Academy Awards weekend, tracing the race between The King’s Speech and The Social Network while chronicling the swirling world of pre- and post-Oscar parties, red-carpet maneuvers, and the publicity machine that can make or break a film. Through the eyes of Fran Lebowitz, it captures the glamour, gossip, and strategy—from Peggy Siegal’s Oscar-season theatrics to Harvey Weinstein’s tireless campaigning, to the fashion crises and luminous chaos of the Beverly Hills hotels and Vanity Fair soirees. It also situates the moment in a larger world of headlines and political undercurrents, showing how the glitz and grind of Hollywood intersect with real-world stakes. The result is a vivid, witty portrait of how one crown is won not just by art, but by audacity, access, and image.

Source: House Oversight Committee