On May 27, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed Senate Bill 193 into law, making Colorado the ninth state to ban the shackling of inmates during labor and childbirth. The bill was inspired by Boulder Weekly editor Pamela White's investigation into the treatment of pregnant inmates in state prisons and jails. White was also key in drafting the legislation and pushing the bill forward. "I've written lots of news articles and opinion columns. I've written nine published novels," she says. "But I'd never written a bill."

Continue ReadingBoulder Weekly Investigation Leads to New State Law

White uses most of his space in this week's New York Press review of Greenberg to reflect on the controversy that spilled out last week over his being disinvited from the film's screening. The snub, which was the subject of much chatter among New York film and media types, was allegedly due to White's calling for the mother of Greenberg director Noah Baumbach to have an abortion. As this allegation was debated on the web, Village Voice critic J. Hoberman dug up a copy of the review, which wasn't available online, from the public library and posted it online in a post titled "Proof That Critic Armond White Did Call for Noah Baumbach's Abortion." (By the way, Baumbach's mother, Georgia Brown, was a Voice film critic in the 1980s.) That gesture was not looked upon kindly by White, who contends that Hoberman "deliberately mischaracterized the review," before attacking the longtime Voice critic for "normaliz[ing] the arrogance of class privilege" and calling him "a force behind racist snobbery" and "the scoundrel-czar of contemporary film criticism." MORE: Hoberman responds.

Continue ReadingArmond White Talks ‘Greenberg’ Snub, Attacks Village Voice Critic

Despite rumors that were flying around the web yesterday, the controversial film critic has not been banned from seeing a screening of director Noah Baumbach's latest film. "He has RSVP'd for Friday afternoon," Baumbach publicist Leslee Dart tells the Village Voice. "I made a decision, not the filmmaker, that based on the horrible comments he's made about Noah personally -- like how his mother should have had an abortion and how he's never met him, but he's an asshole -- I made a decision that he shouldn't be one of the first critics to see the film." IFC.com's Independent Eye blog has more on the backstory involving White and Baumbach's mother, Georgia Brown, who reviewed movies for the Voice in the 1980s. MORE from New York and Movieline.com.

Continue ReadingNew York Press’ Armond White Will See ‘Greenberg’ Screening

Armond White, who recently took over as the new chairman of the NY Film Critics Circle, has tastes and opinions that have proved controversial in critic and fan circles. There's even a blog, "Armond Dangerous," devoted to "parsing the confounding film criticism of Mr. Armond White." But White says he doesn't mind, and that he's not stirring the pot just to stir the pot. "I don't say these things to call attention to myself or to get a rise out of people. I say them because I believe them," he tells New York. "We're living in times when critics get fired if they don't like enough movies. People don't need to hear what mouthpieces for the movie industry tell them. They need to hear the truth."

Continue ReadingNew York Press Film Writer Discusses His Criticism