Month: June 2021

For 14 years, a Khmer classical dance troupe in northern Cambodia has distinguished itself with its embrace of spirituality. But the impact of the coronavirus pandemic may end the troupe’s livelihood and spiritual identity, as VOA’s Chetra Chap reports.
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Ned Beatty, the indelible character actor whose first film role as a genial vacationer raped by a backwoodsman in 1972’s “Deliverance” launched him on a long, prolific and accomplished career, has died. He was 83.Beatty’s manager, Deborah Miller, said Beatty died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by friends and loved ones.After years in regional theater, Beatty was cast in “Deliverance” as Bobby Trippe, the happy-go-lucky member of a male river-boating party terrorized by backwoods thugs. The scene in which Trippe is brutalized became the most memorable in the movie and established Beatty as an actor whose name moviegoers may not have known but whose face they always recognized.“For people like me, there’s a lot of ‘I know you! I know you! What have I seen you in?’” Beatty remarked without rancor in 1992.Beatty received only one Oscar nomination, as supporting actor for his role as corporate executive Arthur Jensen in 1976′s “Network,” but he contributed to some of the most popular movies of his time and worked constantly, his credits including more than 150 movies and TV shows.Beatty’s appearance in “Network,” scripted by Paddy Chayefsky an directed by Sidney Lumet, was brief but titanic. His three-minute monologue ranks among the greatest in movies. Jensen summons anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) to a long, dimly lit boardroom for a come-to-Jesus about the elemental powers of media.“You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it!” Beatty shouts from across the boardroom before explaining that there is no America, no democracy. “There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.”He was equally memorable as Otis, the idiot henchman of villainous Lex Luthor in the first two Christopher Reeve “Superman” movies and as the racist sheriff in “White Lightning.” Other films included “All The President’s Men,” “The Front Page,” “Nashville,” and “The Big Easy.” In a 1977 interview, he had explained why he preferred being a supporting actor.“Stars never want to throw the audience a curveball, but my great joy is throwing curveballs,” he said. “Being a star cuts down on your effectiveness as an actor because you become an identifiable part of a product and somewhat predictable. You have to mind your P’s and Q’s and nurture your fans. But I like to surprise the audience, to do the unexpected.”He landed a rare leading role in the Irish film “Hear My Song” in 1991. The true story of legendary Irish tenor Josef Locke, who disappeared at the height of a brilliant career, it was well reviewed but largely unseen in the United States. Between movies, Beatty worked often in TV and theater. He had recurring roles in “Roseanne” as John Goodman’s father and as a detective on “Homicide: Life on the Streets.”On Broadway he won critical praise (and a Drama Desk Award) for his portrayal of Big Daddy in a revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” a role he had first played as a 21-year-old in a stock company production. He created controversy, however, when he was quoted in The New York Times on the skills of his young co-stars, Ashley Judd and Jason Patric.“Ashley is a sweetie,” he said, “and yet she doesn’t have a lot of tools.” Of Patric, he remarked: “He’s gotten better all the time, but his is a different journey.” His more recent movies included “Toy Story 3” in 2010 and two releases from 2013, “The Big Ask” and “Baggage Claim.” He retired soon after.Ned Thomas Beatty was born in 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in Lexington, where he joined the Protestant Disciples of Christ Christian Church. “It was the theater I attended as a kid,” he told The Associated Press in 1992. “It was where people got down to their truest emotions and talked about things they didn’t talk about in everyday life. … The preaching was very often theatrical.” For a time he thought of becoming a priest, but changed his mind after he was cast in a high school production of “Harvey.”He spent 10 summers at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia, and eight years at the Arena Stage Company in Washington, D.C. At the Arena Stage, he appeared in Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” and starred in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” Then his life changed forever when he took a train to New York to audition for director John Boorman for the role of Bobby Trippe. Boorman told him the role was cast, but changed his mind after seeing Beatty audition.Beatty, who married Sandra Johnson in 1999, had eight children from three previous marriages.
 
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Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic defeated Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas Sunday in the French Open final, clinching his 19th Grand Slam win 6-7, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
 
“I want to thank my team, my box, my family, my coach,” Djokovic said after his win, acknowledging that while the game was “physically and mentally very difficult” he knew he was capable of the win.
 
The five-set match lasted four hours and 11 minutes, as the 34-year-old Djokovic made a comeback from losing the first two sets, in what he called an “electric ambiance” after the match.
 
Sunday marked the first time the 22-year-old Tsitsipas had made it to a Grand Slam final.
 
Djokovic, currently ranked the No. 1 male player in the world, defeated “King of Clay” Rafael Nadal in the semifinals last week.
 
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It’s Pride Month, and gay Americans should have a lot to celebrate: A new president who has pledged to advocate for LGBTQ people, an easing of a pandemic that has disrupted their communal activism, and increasing public acceptance of their basic rights, including record-high support for same-sex marriage. Instead, the mood is somewhat bleak. Congress has so far failed to extend federal civil rights protections to LGBTQ people. Pandemic-related concerns are still disrupting the usual exuberant Pride festivals. And a wave of anti-transgender legislation in Republican-governed states has been disheartening “The same week I’m seeing all the ‘Happy Pride’ announcements, I received multiple calls from friends about trans kids having to navigate entering psychiatric hospitals because they were suicidal and self-harming,” said M. Dru Levasseur, a transgender attorney who is director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the National LGBT Bar Association. “I’m doing crisis management,” he added. “These untold stories about what life is like for trans kids are contrasting with ‘Happy Pride, everybody.’ ” On June 1, the start of Pride Month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill making his state the eighth this year to ban transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports at public schools. Arkansas, one of those eight states, also has enacted a law banning gender-confirming medical treatments, like hormones and puberty blockers, that greatly reduce the risk of suicide in trans youth. “Our opponents have been absolutely shameless in their attacks on transgender people,” said Kevin Jennings, CEO of the LGBTQ-rights group Lambda Legal. “We know that trans young people are most marginalized and vulnerable students in our schools — being bullied, harassed, mistreated,” Jennings said. “We’re watching state legislators piling on to the bullying.” The trans community already faces a disproportionate level of violence. At least 28 trans and gender nonconforming people have been killed so far this year in the U.S. — on track to surpass the previous one-year high of 44 such killings in 2020. FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., walks to a news conference as the Democratic-led House prepares to pass a bill extending protections for LGBTQ people, Feb. 25, 2021.Activists’ concerns extend beyond transgender issues. For many, the top political priority is passage of the Equality Act, which would extend federal civil rights protections to LGBTQ people. It was approved by the Democratic-controlled U.S. House and is backed by President Joe Biden, but probably needs at least 10 Republican votes to prevail in the closely divided Senate — and thus far has no GOP co-sponsors. Tyler Deaton, who advises a conservative group called the American Unity Fund that supports LGBTQ rights, believes enough Republican votes can be found if language is drafted to ensure the Equality Act doesn’t infringe on religious freedom. “Senators are having those conversations now,” he said, mentioning Republicans such as Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rob Portman of Ohio who have supported some LGBTQ-friendly legislation in the past. Amid the disappointment, Pride festivities are proceeding, but many have been subject to downsizing, postponement and — in some cases — controversy. The Pride parades in San Francisco and Los Angeles have been canceled for a second year in a row because of uncertainty about COVID-19 restrictions. Organizers are offering smaller in-person events this month. Philadelphia has scrapped its large-scale parade; there are plans for a festival instead on September 4. Chicago’s parade has been rescheduled for October 3. In New York, most events for NYC Pride will take place virtually, as they did last year, though some in-person activities are planned. NYC Pride organizers incurred some criticism last month after banning police and other law enforcement personnel from marching in uniform in the annual parade until at least 2025 and asking that on-duty officers keep a block away from the celebration. The Gay Officers Action League said it was disheartened by the decision. Some recent developments have encouraged the LGBTQ community — the overturning of a Trump administration ban on transgender people joining the military; the groundbreaking appointments of Pete Buttigieg, who is gay, as transportation secretary, and Dr. Rachel Levine, who is transgender, as assistant secretary of health. And this week, Gallup reported that 70% of Americans now support same-sex marriage, the highest number since Gallup began polling on the topic in 1996, when support was at 27%. But to many activists, these developments are offset by setbacks to transgender rights.  Amy Allen, mother of a 14-year-old transgender boy in the suburbs of Nashville, said her family is dismayed by the multiple anti-trans bills winning approval in Tennessee — including one exposing public schools to lawsuits if they let transgender students use multiperson bathrooms or locker rooms that don’t reflect their sex at birth. FILE – Amy Allen, the mother of an eighth-grade transgender son, speaks at a Human Rights Campaign roundtable discussion on anti-transgender laws, in Nashville, Tenn., May 21, 2021.”We’ve done a pretty good job within our family of really supporting him,” Allen said of her son, Adam. ” Then to have this new layer of the legislation — having to think how that could directly affect his day-to-day life just adds more anxiety.” It’s worrisome enough, Allen said, that she and her husband — who have roots in the Northeast — are considering relocating there if Adam’s situation worsens. Activists have expressed dismay at the lack of corporate backlash to the new anti-transgender laws. A particular disappointment for activists is the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which — despite calls for it to take punitive action — located some of this year’s regional softball and baseball tournament games in states that enacted bans on transgender girls’ sports participation. It’s a sharp contrast to the NCAA’s stance five years ago, when it refused to hold championship events in North Carolina for several months after its legislature passed a bill restricting transgender people’s use of bathrooms in public facilities. “The NCAA should be ashamed of themselves for violating their own policy by choosing to hold championships in states that are not healthy, safe, or free from discrimination for their athletes,” said Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign. Among the transgender Americans with mixed feelings about Pride Month is Randi Robertson, who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel during 22 years in the Air Force and now combines work as an airline pilot instructor with transgender-rights advocacy. She is relieved that the Biden administration, unlike its predecessor, pledges support for expanded LGBTQ rights, yet she says activists should be combative rather than complacent. “The fundamentalist, evangelical right has chosen expressly to attack the smallest, most vulnerable part of the LBGT community [transgender people],” she said. “The broader narrative is we’re actually winning. Now is not the time to give up — now is the time to double down and keep the pressure on.” Imani Rupert-Gordon, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, also voiced a nuanced view of Pride Month. “Pride is a time when we get to celebrate who we are,” she said. “It’s also a time when we recognize we still have a lot more to do.”  
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The first match of soccer’s European championship gets underway Friday at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, with Turkey taking on Italy.The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship was postponed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic that brought many of the world’s activities to a halt.It is notable that Friday’s opening match will be played in Italy, the first country outside of Asia to get hit by the pandemic and the world’s first to impose a nationwide lockdown.Euro 2020 was suspended last March as countries worked to contain virus outbreaks that have killed more than 1 million Europeans, including 127,000 Italians.Organizers of the tournament, the Union of European Football Associations, hope to allay concerns that it is still unsafe for tens of thousands of fans to gather in stadiums across Europe by undertaking several safety measures. They include crowd limitations, staggered fan arrival times, social distancing and hand sanitizer.Fans attending the match in Rome are required to show documentation they have been vaccinated, tested negative in the 48 hours before the match, or previously have had the coronavirus.Euro 2020, the 16th UEFA championship, is scheduled through July 11. For the first time, matches will be played across Europe. The host cities are Rome, London, Saint Petersburg, Baku, Munich, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Glasgow and Seville. 
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Hong Kong censors are to vet all films for national security breaches under expanded powers announced on Friday, in the latest blow to the financial hub’s political and artistic freedoms.Authorities in semi-autonomous Hong Kong have embarked on a sweeping crackdown to root out Beijing’s critics after huge and often violent democracy protests convulsed the city in 2019.A new China-imposed security law and an official campaign dubbed “Patriots rule Hong Kong” has since criminalized much dissent and strangled the democracy movement.The latest target is films. In a statement on Friday, the government said the Film Censorship Ordinance had been expanded to include “any act or activity which may amount to an offense endangering national security”. “When considering a film as a whole and its effect on the viewers, the censor should have regard to his duties to prevent and suppress acts or activities endangering national security,” states the new guidance, which is effective immediately.It also cites “the common responsibility of the people of Hong Kong to safeguard the sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity of the People’s Republic of China.” The move sparked concerns that Chinese mainland style political censorship of films had now arrived in Hong Kong. “This new censorship will make it even harder for local filmmakers in Hong Kong to use their democratic rights to create art and challenge unjust power structures,” Oscar-nominated director Anders Hammer told AFP. Hammer, a Norwegian national, received an Oscar nod for his documentary about Hong Kong’s democracy protests “Do Not Split”.”It’s two years since the pro-democracy protests started and I’m saddened to see another serious example of Beijing’s encroachment on Hong Kong’s civil liberties,” he added.Culture controlsFilms are rigorously vetted on the Chinese mainland and only a handful of Western films or documentaries ever see a commercial release each year.Hong Kong’s Film Censorship Authority has traditionally employed a much lighter touch. Historically, the city has boasted a thriving film scene and for much of the latter half of the last century, Cantonese cinema was world-class.In more recent decades, slick mainland Chinese and South Korean blockbusters have come to dominate the regional film scene. Hong Kong still maintains some key studios, a handful of lauded directors and a thriving indie scene.But there are growing signs authorities want to see an increase in mainland-style controls over the cultural and art scenes in Hong Kong.Over the past week, health officials have conducted spot checks on a protest-themed museum and a separate exhibition, stating that neither had the correct licenses. The museum had been operating for years without issue. In March, an award-winning documentary about Hong Kong’s massive pro-democracy protests was pulled hours before its first commercial screening after days of criticism from a pro-Beijing newspaper. It said the film’s content breached the new national security law.Earlier this year a university cancelled a prestigious press photography exhibition that featured pictures of the 2019 protests, citing security concerns. And M+, a multi-million-dollar contemporary art museum expected to open soon, has said it will allow security officials to vet its collection for any security law breaches before it opens to the public later this year.A government spokesperson said film censors would strike a “balance between protection of individual rights and freedoms on the one hand, and the protection of legitimate societal interests on the other”.
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Jeopardy! needed a host, and Lucille Ball had an enthusiastic suggestion for creator Merv Griffin: The smooth-voiced, debonair emcee of the High Rollers game show.That was 1984. Decades later, filling the void left by the late Alex Trebek involves sophisticated research and a parade of guest hosts doing their best to impress viewers and the studio that’s expected to make the call before the new season begins taping later this summer.Think of Sony Pictures Television as clutching the rose, and Mayim Bialik, Anderson Cooper, Katie Couric and Jeopardy! champs Ken Jennings and Buzzy Cohen among the suitors so far, with more to come including Robin Roberts, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and LeVar Burton.Sony has “the most robust team of people I have ever seen looking at this and analyzing it in a very cerebral way,” said executive producer Mike Richards. “It’s a real change from the way casting has traditionally been done on television.””It’s usually been a gut instinct of the head executive: ‘How about that person?'” Richards said.That was producer-entertainer Griffin’s approach when he brought a syndicated version of Jeopardy! to TV, five years after the quiz show’s last network iteration wrapped in 1979 on NBC. A word from Ball, of I Love Lucy fame, and Trebek’s skill and experience sealed his hire.Audience and critical regard for the Canadian-born Trebek grew over the years, which makes finding a worthy replacement both a gesture of respect for the late host and the means to protect a corporate asset. While ratings have shifted under the guest hosts, Jeopardy! remains among the top-ranked syndicated programs in viewership.’Model of perfection’Trebek helped build the show’s “display of excellence with his own excellence. And it’s tremendously difficult to find somebody to replace him, not only because of the status that he had in the American imagination,” said Deepak Sarma, a Case Western Reserve University professor and Netflix cultural consultant. “Anyone who is going to take his position will be judged in the end against this model of perfection.”Game show hosts of Trebek’s era were usually radio and TV broadcasting veterans steeped in the genre, and almost invariably white men. Among the Jeopardy! subs are men and women of color and prospects from a variety of fields, including NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers.The approach makes sense to Louis Virtel, a longtime fan whose vantage point is informed by writing for a game show (Match Game) and competing on Jeopardy! in 2015.”It’s great to see all these different fill-ins. I’m open to suggestions, and I think most people are,” said Virtel, a Jimmy Kimmel Live! writer and co-host of the Keep It podcast. “Jeopardy! is a one-of-a-kind show, and the replacement should be tailored to the game.”What makes for a good Jeopardy! host?”I think establishing a sense of comfort (so) the audience just eases into the game,” Virtel said. “Also a sense of stakes, that a real tough game is being played. It’s called Jeopardy! for a reason. The host is there to make sure we’re all on our toes.”The tryouts are an unusually public form of auditioning, one that could cause flop sweat even for veteran emcees. For actor Bialik of Blossom, The Big Bang Theory and Call Me Kat, any nerves were crowded out by the demands of the job — and she’s a neuroscientist.”There is very little room for not being 100% dialed in to the job of hosting when you are on that stage,” Bialik said in an email. It proved the most “joyful, challenging, transcendent act I have undertaken — second only to giving birth to my second son on the floor of my living room.”Backlash possibleBack in the day, there were only a handful of pioneers like Betty White, the first female game show host to win a Daytime Emmy (for 1983’s Just Men!), and Adam Wade, a Black singer who hosted the 1975 game show Musical Chairs. Wayne Brady, Steve Harvey and Meredith Vieira are among those who made further inroads, with pressure only growing on the entertainment industry to reflect America more broadly on screen.But taking over for an authority figure like Trebek is harder on women and others not typically seen in such roles, said Sarma.”The sorts of expectations placed on a person of color in a leadership position are usually higher than those placed on a white person in position of power,” he said, and any error or “slight movement against the norm is jumped upon … as some tremendous mistake.”There could be backlash from those resentful that Trebek isn’t replaced like-for-like, which Sarma said isn’t far-fetched in this period of social discord.”Sony is in a pickle,” he said.Series producer Richards, the second temporary host after Trebek’s pancreatic cancer death last November at age 80, holds an optimistic view despite the prospect of online trolls and whatever their gripes about the newbie may be.”My hope is that whoever is chosen will be given a chance to prove why they were chosen, without too much static,” he said. “Ultimately, we are trying to put out the best product for our fans. That tends to narrow your focus to a pretty nice North Star, as opposed to, ‘What’s the internet going to say?'” 
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Soccer’s governing body in Europe, UEFA, ruled Thursday that Ukraine can keep a map that includes Crimea on its jerseys, but must remove part of a slogan that it said has military connotations.
 
Russia had filed complaints with UEFA about the jersey that Ukraine will wear at the 24-nation European Championships that begin Friday.
 
Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 in a move that has not been recognized by the international community.
 
UEFA said Ukraine must remove the slogan “Glory to the heroes” that appears on the inside of the jersey’s collar.
 
A second slogan, “Glory to Ukraine,” is allowed to remain.   
 
UEFA said it previously approved “Glory to Ukraine” but it found after further analysis the combination of the two slogans had “historic and militaristic significance.” 
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Across the Eastern United States, billions of Brood X cicadas are emerging after 17 years underground. The noisy insects with the bright red eyes overwhelm predators by emerging in densities of 1 million per acre, scientists say. And the hum of mating males has been likened to the buzz of a chain saw. Cicadas have long fascinated one Washington, D.C.-based newspaper columnist, who has invited readers to muse poetic about cicadas. VOA’s Laurel Bowman has that story.    Camera: Laurel Bowman 
 
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Color. Dance. Music. Joy. An all Latino cast!The hype for “In the Heights” has brought great expectation for Latinos in the United States, a group that’s been historically underrepresented and widely typecast in films. With upcoming titles like “Cinderella” with Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello, “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” with Mexican star Salma Hayek and Steven Spielberg’s revival of “West Side Story,” it’s just the beginning of a string of productions that place Latinos front and center.”In the Heights,” which opens Friday, is director Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the Tony-award winning musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes about the hopes and struggles of residents of New York City’s Washington Heights. Many hope it marks a new beginning on the big screen for the largest minority group in the country — one that mirrors shifts that have already happened for Black and Asian actors and creators.This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows director John Chu, left, and Lin-Manuel Miranda on the set of “In the Heights.””You have this beautiful collage of people in the community,” says Jimmy Smits, who plays Kevin Rosario, a single father and the owner a taxi cab service, in “In the Heights.” “It’s the immigrant experience that’s been part of the fabric of this country since it started. And it’s positive. So we need that right now after the pandemic.”John Leguizamo agrees.”I think that ‘In the Heights’ is gonna be THE project that changes the whole thing finally,” says the Colombian-American actor and playwright, who won a special Tony Award in 2018 for his commitment to bringing diverse stories and audiences to Broadway through his one-man shows like “Freak, and “Latin History for Morons.”Leguizamo says he’s been pitching stories to Hollywood for 30-plus years.”I started to believe that maybe I don’t know how to write, maybe I just don’t know how to pitch, cause all my stories were rejected,” he says. “And then I started to realize, ‘Oh my God, it’s because it was Latin content!’ They didn’t know what to do with it.”They weren’t rejecting my ability, there were rejecting my culture.”The Census Bureau estimates almost 60 million Hispanics lived in the United States as of 2018. And many are devoted filmgoers: Latinos have consistently led the box office, reaching 29% of tickets sold, according to the latest Motion Picture Association report on theatergoers.Yet they only represent 4.5% of all speaking or named characters and a mere 3% of lead or co-lead actors, a 2019 study of 1,200 popular movies from 2007 to 2018 by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found.Awards recognition, too, has been elusive. This year’s Oscars featured a diverse slate of nominees, but no Latino performers.FILE – Actress Rita Moreno poses with her Oscar after she was named best supporting actress at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on April 9, 1962. She won for her role in “West Side Story.”Since Rita Moreno became the first Latina to win best supporting actress award in 1962 as Anita in “West Side Story” only one other Latino has won: Puerto Rican Benicio del Toro for his supporting role 2000’s “Traffic.” Before them, Puerto Rican José Ferrer became the first Latino actor to receive an Academy Award for his leading role in “Cyrano de Bergerac” in 1951, and Mexican-born Anthony Quinn got two supporting actor statues for “Viva Zapata!” (1953) and “Lust for Life” (1957).No Latina has won best actress at the Oscars, with Hayek one of the few who have even been considered.Moreno, an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner whose career spans seven decades, says she doesn’t expect to live to see Latinos achieve broad success in Hollywood.”My age forbids it. But I sure as hell hope something happens,” Moreno says “I can’t believe we’re still struggling the way we are.””I don’t know what the hell is wrong. I don’t know what is not working right,” Moreno says. “The Black community has done incredibly, and I have nothing but the deepest admiration for the Black professional community. They’ve done it. And I think we can take some lessons from them. But where is our ‘Moonlight’? Why are we not advancing?”Nevertheless, Leguizamo says he’s seen an important change during the COVID-19 pandemic and with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.”The studios woke up,” says Leguizamo, who is now in talks to direct a few projects, including one he’s written. “I think everybody is making moves to change into being inclusive. I see it from small producers, directors in their offices, in their casting. I see it at Viacom. I see it at Univision. I see it at Netflix. I see it everywhere!”Audiences will too, starting this summer with releases like Everardo Gout’s “The Forever Purge” with Ana de la Reguera (both Mexican); M. Night Shyamalan’s “OLD,” with Mexican actor Gael García Bernal and Steven Soderbergh’s “No Sudden Move” with del Toro.Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” set for December 10, includes a Latino cast this time. Many “Puerto Ricans” in the original were white actors in brown makeup and, although widely successful, the 1961 movie was also criticized for stereotypical portrayals of Latinos.This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Anthony Ramos in a scene from “In the Heights.”, who leads “In the Heights” as Usnavi, the character originally played by Miranda on the stage, says that “now is an incredible, beautiful moment where we can capitalize on Hollywood being receptive to what is naturally happening in the streets.”As for Miranda, who became a superstar with the Broadway hit “Hamilton” and since then has been working also on TV and film, the “time has caught up to ‘In the Heights'” and he hopes people of color will support it.”We’re part of a larger series of voices,” Miranda says. “I remember how important it was for me to go support ‘Black Panther’ opening weekend, to go and support ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ opening weekend, to vote with my wallet, to go and support ‘Minari’ opening weekend. If you want newer and richer stories beyond the ones you’ve heard, you vote with your wallet.”
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