David Mamet On Gun Control: Playwright Defends Private Ownership, And More Arts News

Playwright David Mamet defended private gun ownership this week, stating in an article published in Newsweek that he ardently supports citizens' rights to keep and bear arms.

"The individual is not only best qualified to provide his own personal defense, he is the only one qualified to do so: and his right to do so is guaranteed by the Constitution," Mamet writes.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author went on to contest President Obama's position on gun control, calling the "so-called" assault weapons ban a "hoax" and a "political appeal to the ignorant."

Today, Michael Tomasky takes on Mamet's "bizarre rant" in The Daily Beast. The columnist writes, "Almost every 'fact' is wrung through an ideological thresher and pulverized," and laments near the end that Mamet is "another rich white man yelping about his taxes..." (Newsweek; The Daily Beast's response)

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Linda Lighton's "Taking Aim" series confronts the gun control debate

MORE ARTS NEWS:

Is The Art Market Rigged?: An article in The New York Times took issue with the lack of transparency in the art market this week, accusing major auction houses and collectors of operating under a "chandelier bidding" system that artificially elevates initial bidding prices. “The time has come to give up this fiction that there are actual real bidders,” said gallery owner David Nash to The Times. (The New York Times)

Salvador Dali Painting Of Mona Bismarck Set To Fetch Millions At Auction: Meanwhile, the world of auctions saunters on, with a 1943 portrait of Mona Bismarck, the wife of one of America's richest men, set to fetch £2 million ($3.1 million) at Sotheby's on London. Dali's work "shines a light on the spectacularly opulent and glamorous life of Bismarck, an almost archetypal southern belle from Kentucky who married five times." (The Guardian)

Frieze New York Announces Details Of Upcoming Fair: Organizers of Frieze New York have announced details of the 2013 fair, including the construction of a "prohibition-era style speakeasy accessible through a secret door." More information was also released on projects by Maria Loboda, Mateo Tannat, Andra Ursuta and Mariane Vitale. (Phaidon)

Art Stage Singapore Fares Better Than Last Year: Attendance for Art Stage Singapore measured in at 40,500, up from last year's 35,000-visitor estimate, and director Lorenzo Rudolf expects final sales to be stronger than in 2012. “This was a ‘make-it-or-break-it’ year for Art Stage,” gallery owner Sundaram Tagore told The Wall Street Journal. “They made it.” (The Wall Street Journal)

"Mean Girls" Could Be Headed For The Stage: Yup, Tina Fey says it might really be true.