The Metropolitan Museum of Art is tweaking its crosstown rival, MoMA. It hired David D’Arcy, a former NPR correspondent who’s now involved in a lawsuit against MoMA, to host a Woody Allen summer film series (the sort of thing that is more typically the turf of the Modern). After D’Arcy did an “All Things Considered” piece in December 2004 that was critical of the Modern and its then-chairman Ronald Lauder, the museum requested, and received, a correction on the piece. D’Arcy alleges that the Modern also pressured NPR to dump him from his 21-year freelance-cultural-correspondent gig, and he has sued for “slander and tortuous interference with a business relationship.” A MoMA spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit or D’Arcy, saying only that “the case was dismissed in June; we received a notice of appeal in March.” D’Arcy says it’s just coincidence that the Met asked him; the Met, for its part, notes that he is “a distinguished and popular film writer,” adding, “we are extremely lucky to get him.”
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