Los Angeles Times - 31.10.2019

Roughly two years ago, Jamie
Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg
stood in front of a blank wall at Ap-
ple’s content division in Culver City
and began mapping out, with taped
notecards, the tech giant’s plan to
take on Hollywood.
The former Sony Pictures Tele-
vision presidents, freshly installed
as heads of worldwide video pro-
gramming for Apple, started brain-
storming with an assembly of em-
ployees. Hit shows and movies of
the moment — including, yes,
“Game of Thrones” — were part of
the patchwork. Then came guiding
principles, words like “humanity”
and “simplicity.”
Two years later, seated in Er-
licht’s office amid the frenzy lead-

STREAMING WARS

Alex NabaumFor The Times

Apple trusts its gut

The tech giant bets

big on original

programming for

new Apple TV+.

By Yvonne Villarreal

[SeeProgramming,E4]

CALENDAR

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019:: LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR

E

When the

Santa Anas

blow, Ray-

mond

Chandler

famously

wrote,

“every

booze party

ends in a fight. Meek little

wives feel the edge of the

carving knife and study

their husbands’ necks.”

Oh, Raymond, always so

dark, always so dramatic.

But I know what he means. I

no longer attend booze

parties and my husband’s

neck is safe — I only have an

electric carving knife and I

never know where it is until I

turn out every drawer five

minutes after the Christmas

roast comes out of the oven.

But what with the dry

mouth, migraines and ironic

rain of dead pine needles

every night, many previ-

ously enjoyable, or at least

tolerable, things are just not

anymore. While I am deeply

grateful that I do not live in

the path of a fire at the

moment (and am sending

thoughts and prayers to

those who do as well as all

the heroic firefighters bat-

tling blazes around the

state), I am also wildly

cranky.

Like “SNL’s” recent

Oscar the Grouch cranky.

There’s the ongoing

horror show in Washington,

of course, where the term

“Ukrainian oligarch” ap-

pears to have become short-

hand for American foreign

policy. Then there’s the

constant friction of outra-

geous presidential tweets

and the 7,000 pieces of com-

mentary that inevitably

The Season of the Grouch blows in

DAVID HARBOURplayed Oscar the Grouch in a “Joker” parody while hosting

“SNL” on Oct. 12. Sure is relatable, isn’t he, when the Santa Ana wind kicks up?

Rosalind O’ConnorNBC

MARY McNAMARA

[SeeGrouch,E8]

Dramatic turn

for Awkwafina

The actress brought

her relationship with

her grandma to her

performance in “The

Farewell.” The Envelope

Doja Cat went

viral. And now?

Gen Z rapper hopes

her new album, “Hot

Pink,” will establish

her as a serious force

in hip-hop. E3

Comics...................E6-7

What’s on TV..........E8

TV ratings ................. E8

The suspense has been

mounting for months: Who

will helm filmmaker George

Lucas’ $1-billion art museum

under construction in Los

Angeles?

On Wednesday the Lucas

Museum of Narrative Art

announced Sandra Jack-

son-Dumont as its new di-

rector and chief executive of-

ficer. She comes to L.A. from

New York’s Metropolitan

Museum of Art, where since

2014 she has headed educa-

tion and public programs.

Realizing the Lucas Mu-

seum as an “innovative place

of relevance and inspiration”

is top of mind, Jackson-Du-

mont said.

“Museums often times

feel at arms length from the

public, and so much of the

work that I’ve done either as

a curator or as a

programmer or as an admin-

istrator has been about, how

do we make museums rele-

vant and engaging and

mean something to people’s

everyday lives?” she said.

“Those can be inspiring con-

nections — sometimes

they’re comfortable, some-

times they’re uncomfortable

— and I think that the ob-

jects that are in this amazing

collection speak to opportu-

nities to connect to visual

storytelling in ways that

make people really have dis-

cussions. So I’m excited

about that.”

Lucas Museum co-

founder and Ariel Invest-

ments Co-Chief Executive

and President Mellody Hob-

son said that Jackson-Du-

mont’s background was es-

pecially fitting with the mu-

seum’s civic-minded and

educational mission.

“We’re building a school

for schools, I’ve said that

many, many times,” Hobson

said. “The museum is lo-

cated within a hotbed of

schools, literally 500 schools

within a five-mile radius.

That’s breathtaking. Not to

mention the university

[USC] there. So we have this

constant pipeline of attend-

ees and the ability to edu-

cate them — that’s always

been front and center as a

mission. So the idea that we

could get someone who has

distinguished herself from

the perspective of education

at one of the best museums

in the world, the Met, we just

thought: This is a great foun-

dation on which to build.”

[SeeMuseum,E2]

New director Sandra

Jackson-Dumont’s

education-focused

background is a plus.

By Deborah Vankin

LUCAS

MUSEUM

PLUCKS

A MET

LEADER

Apple is known for its billboards

and television ads that boast the

caliber of its iPhone cameras, but

these days, the company is hawk-

ing something new — TV shows

that launch Friday on its streaming

service, Apple TV+.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based

tech giant has gone to great lengths

to promote the new streaming app,

considered its biggest service de-

but since Apple Music in 2015. The

company is betting that its Holly-

wood foray will reduce its depend-

ence on flagging iPhone sales.

Television and digital ads tout-

ing series including Jennifer Anis-

ton and Reese Witherspoon’s news-

“THE MORNINGShow,” with Jennifer Aniston and Reese room drama “The Morning Show”

Witherspoon, is among the programs launching Apple TV+.

Hilary B. GayleApple

This launch is a big

test. Will millions

in expenditures pay

back in viewership?

By Ryan Faughnder

and Wendy Lee

[SeePromotion, E4]