Day-Lewis Gives Parents\' Papers to Oxford

Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Time Daniel Day-Lewis.

Sometimes history gives to Daniel Day-Lewis, and sometimes he gives back. In this case, Mr. Day-Lewis, who plays the 16th President of the United States in the coming Steven Spielberg film “Lincoln,” is on the giving end and is donating the papers of his parents to the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University.

Mr. Day-Lewis, a two-time Academy Award-winner (for “My Left Foot” and “There Will Be Blood”), comes from estimable stock: his father, the poet Cecil Day-Lewis, was an Oxford University alumnus who was elected its professor of poetry in 1951 and named the poet laureate of the United Kingdom in 1968; his mother, the actress Jill Balcon, was a star of film, television, radio and theater.

Among the papers that Mr. Day-Lewis and his sister, Tamasin Day-Lewis, are donating to Oxford include correspondence between their parents and notable figures like W. H. Auden, Kingsley Amis, Peggy Ashcroft, John Gielgud, Robert Graves, Alec Guinness and Christopher Isherwood.

The Bodleian Libraries said it will host a special one-day event on Tuesday to celebrate the gift of the papers, at which Tamasin Day-Lewis will discuss her father's work and recordings of Jill Balcon's readings of Cecil Day-Lewis's poetry will be played. The documents that will be displayed during the event include a portion of “The Newborn,” a poem written by Cecil Day-Lewis to honor his son's birth.

In a statement, Tamasin and Daniel Day-Lewis said: “We are thrilled that our father's manuscripts are going to be housed at the Bodleian and certain that he would have been honored and pleased that they had been accepted. Oxford playe d an important part in our father's life. If the manuscripts had ended up outside the country it would have saddened us all as a family as the poets who became papa's lifelong friends and peers all met up at Oxford as undergraduates.”

More Storm-Related Cancellations at Lincoln Center

Lincoln Center announced more storm-related cancellations for Tuesday. According to a Lincoln Center spokeswoman, the Film Society abandoned screenings; Juilliard cancelled classes, rehearsals and performances; the New York Philharmonic cancelled a rehearsal; and a performance of music by Stockhausen at Alice Tully Hall was also suspended.

Chancellor Merkel\'s Chance to Push Russia

BERLIN - Chancellor Angela Merkel is off to Russia in a few weeks. There, she will attend the regular Petersburg Dialogue.

Established in 2001 by her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, the Petersburg Dialogue was supposed to bring together a cross section of Russian society and give the participants a platform to express their views, in order to encourage the country's transition to democracy.

It never achieved that.

On the contrary, the Petersburg Dialogue has become a talk shop, unwilling to question the economic, social or political policies of the Kremlin or deal with challenges affecting Russian society.

In my latest column, I write about the tangled and ever more troubled relationship between today's Russia and Germany, its most loyal European ally: Over the past few weeks, an increasing number of German politicians are questioning Berlin's special relationship.

Ms. Merkel has sometimes tried to raise issues in the context of the Petersburg Dialogue, especially Russia's weak rule of law and the pressure on non-governmental organizations, bloggers and the media generally. But her points have rarely been taken up by the participants.

Yet, surely such a forum would offer an ideal opportunity for the German side, which includes leading corporate executives, to speak out openly about Russia's pervasive corruption and how difficult it is to do business there. Surely, the one thing that companies want when dealing with any country is predictability, accountability and transparency.

Russia, however, is special. Germany, which is Russia's biggest trading partner in Europe, fears that it could lose out on contracts if it adopted a more critical stance towards the Kremlin. The big German companies that do business in Russia just don't want to rock the boat.

But what does that say about Germany's commitment to its values?

Ms. Merkel's own Christian Democrats are now speaking out against “Putin Tw o's” style of rule by calling for a much wider dialogue beyond the reach of the Kremlin and the oligarchs and the established lobbies.

Along with the opposition Greens and some Social Democrats, the Christian Democrats realize that Germany must deal differently with a Russia that is changing.

Will Mrs. Merkel set this train in motion when she meets Mr. Putin next month?

Taylor Swift to Co-Host the Grammy Nominations Show

Taylor Swift will be the co-host for an hourlong televised concert at which the nominees for the next Grammy Awards will be announced.

Ms. Swift, whose new album, “Red,” is expected to top the Billboard 200 chart this week, will join LL Cool J to host “The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!!” on Dec. 5, which will be broadcast from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, the Recording Academy said on Monday.

In recent years the Recording Academy, which runs the Grammys, has used the special broadcast on CBS to unveil nominees for the year's top categories, like album of the year, record of the year and song of the year. That has been an effective strategy, as the television audience for the awards ceremony, usually broadcast from Los Angeles in mid-February, has steadily grown.

This year is the first time the Recording Academy has produced the nominations show in Nashville, and Ms. Swift, as country music's reigning queen, is a logical choice to dra w viewers from across the musical spectrum. Not only is she one of country's highest-earning stars, but her songs have become major hits on the pop charts as well.

Only two of the acts for this year's nominations show have been announced: the country singer Luke Bryan and the pop-rock group Maroon 5.

Khaled Hosseini Plans New Novel Next May

Riverhead Books said Monday that it would publish a new novel next year by Khaled Hosseini, the author of the international bestseller “The Kite Runner.”

The novel, Mr. Hosseini's first in six years, is titled “And The Mountains Echoed” and will be released in May. Like his earlier books - ” The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns” - the book will return to the theme of family relations.

“My earlier novels were, at heart, tales of fatherhood and motherhood,” Mr. Hosseini said in a statement released by Riverhead, a division of Penguin. “My new novel is a multigenerational-family story as well, this time revolving around brothers and sisters, and the ways in which they love, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for each other.”

When the Kite Runner was published in 2003, Mr. Hosseini was an unknown author, but word of the powerful tale of sacrifice in Afghanistan spread quickly among readers, and the book spent 103 weeks on t he New York Times Bestseller List and was adapted to film in 2007.

America Ferrera to Star in New Play for Women\'s Project Theater

Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images America Ferrera

America Ferrera, who won an Emmy Award for playing the title character in ABC's comedy “Ugly Betty,” will star in “Bethany,” a dark comedy by Laura Marks that will open the new season at the Women's Project Theater, the company announced on Monday.

Set in an American exurb that's been devastated by foreclosures, “Bethany” tells the story of Crystal (Ms. Ferrera), “a financially strapped woman who discovers just how far she'll go to regain what she has lost,” according to a news release.

“It's the only play I've read that deals with the foreclosure issue in the United States,” said Julie Crosby, the theater's producing artist ic director. “I was really interested in what it had to say about where we're at now when it comes to the American dream and home ownership.”

“Bethany,” to be directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, will run Jan. 11 through Feb. 17 at the Women's Project Theater's new home at New York City Center Stage II. Ms. Ferrera was last seen on the New York stage in the 2005 Off Broadway production of “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead.”

Contract Agreement for Cleveland Orchestra

The Cleveland Orchestra musicians and management agreed on a new contract this weekend, making it the second of the top United States orchestras to settle on financial terms recently àmid a season of disputes in the symphony world. The deal in Cleveland, which spans this season and the next two, calls for no raise the first year, a 1 percent increase in the second and a 2 percent raise in the third, according to a joint statement released on Monday. Meanwhile, the players will have to pay more for health insurance and agreed to play four services ­likely to be fundraising or free concerts ­a year without pay. (They provided three such services last year.) They also agreed to be more flexible in the broadcast or recording of performances. The Chicago Symphony reached a three-year contract last month after a two-day strike. Labor disputes have also hit the orchestras in Atlanta, Indianapolis, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Seattle as managers and boards have tried to reduce comp ensation for the players, saying they need to cut costs.