Academy Award nominations were announced today! We'll speak with nominee, screenwriter John Ridley. Plus, we'll look at the economics behind Oscar-bait films. Then Senator Barbara Boxer discusses Congress's failure to extend unemployment benefits, California's ongoing struggle with deadly Valley Fever, and Caltech debunks some common earthquake myths. Finally, Director Wong Kar-wai talks about getting "The Grandmaster" to the big screen and much more.
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• 7:57
John Ridley, screenwriter of the now-Oscar nominated film "12 Years a Slave" joined us to talk about where he was and how he found out about the good news.
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• 9:36
Early this morning, actor Chris Hemsworth presented this year's Academy Award nominees along with the president of the Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs. "Gravity" and "American Hustle" led the pack with 10 nominations each. Here to help us sort through the rest is Rebecca Keegan, who writes about film for the Los Angeles Times.
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• 9:02
Earlier this week, Congress failed to extend unemployment benefits for people who've been out of work in the long-term. The proposal on the table was to provide assistance past the usual 26 weeks that are available.
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• 6:31
Over the past 10 years, Valley Fever has increased 10-fold and an estimated 150,000 people are affected by it every year. According to infectious disease specialists, that's equal to the impact of Polio or Chicken Pox before vaccines were discovered, but there's no vaccine for Valley Fever.
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• 6:01
Joel Wach, who was on the search committee that found Philippe Vergne, MOCA's new museum director, tells us about the search.
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• 7:09
It's the time that studios pull out all the stops in hopes of earning Oscar nominations, which means a lot of actors and directors are in town to promote their best work. One of them is filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, director of the sweeping martial arts film, "The Grandmaster."
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• 11:31
It's Thursday and that means it's time for State of Affairs, our look at politics and government throughout California. To help us with that we're joined in studio by KPCC political reporters Alice Walton and Frank Stoltze.
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• 4:44
As one of the first faculty members to arrive to at California State University, Northridge after the earthquake struck, Cynthia Rawitch saw images that became seared into memory.
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• 5:43
To help us debunk some common misconceptions about earthquakes, we brought in Margaret Vinci, manager of Earthquake Programs at Caltech
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• 5:38
Making a movie with Oscar appeal is risky business. The types of films that get Oscar nods don't necessarily get your typical movie-goer in to the theater.
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• 10:11
Meloy will be singing from his new recording Colin Meloy Sings the Kinks at the Fonda Theater in Hollywood tonight. He joined us to talk about it.
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• 15:24
The Forum in Inglewood was built in 1967, and for over 30 years was arguably the entertainment capital of Los Angeles.