AitN: May 24, 2017

Credit: Franz Jantzen, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

In political news, Neil Gorsuch ’88 was confirmed to the Supreme Court on April 7, making him the fourth College graduate to serve on the United States’ highest court. He was sworn into office on April 10. The United States Senate also confirmed David Friedman ’78 to be the United States Ambassador to Israel; he was sworn in on March 29.

College alumni are all over TV screens this year: Brian Yorkey ’93’s Netflix original, 13 Reasons Why, debuted on March 31 to huge numbers and set a record as Netflix’s most-tweeted-about show (it has already been renewed for a second season); Amanda Peet ’94 stars in the new IFC series Brockmire; Tinsley Mortimer ’99 joined the cast of Bravo’s Real Housewives of New York this season; and Vanck Zhu ’11 competed on the current season of The Amazing Race.

On the big screen, Bill Condon ’76’s Beauty and the Beast opened with $170 million in North America, setting a record for top domestic opening for a PG-rated film; Vanessa Gould ’96’s documentary film, Obit, was tapped as a Critic’s Pick by The New York Times.

In other media happenings, Robert Siegel ’68 announced that he will leave NPR’s All Things Considered in January 2018. He has hosted NPR’s flagship news broadcast since 1987.

In the arts, Crystal Hana Kim ’09, SOA’14 won the 2017 PEN America Literary Awards’ Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers; cellist Alisa Weilerstein ’04 was featured in The New York Times for tackling the feat of performing all six of Bach’s solo cello suites in a single concert; and Stephanie Stebich ’88 was named The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in early 2017; she began work on April 3.