Image Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty ImagesThe 92nd Street Y, a cultural and community center in New York known for its arts lectures, is coming under fire for offering refunds to a Nov. 29 conversation between Steve Martin and New York Times Magazine columnist Deborah Solomon. According to The New York Times’ account, midway through the hour-long conversation, Solomon was slipped a note from a 92nd Street Y rep telling her to please broaden the chat — which had revolved primarily around the art world, the subject of Martin’s latest novel, An Object of Beauty — to include his movie career. Martin told the Times viewers watching the interview via closed-circuit television had sent emails to the Y saying “the evening was not going the way they wished, meaning we were discussing art.” The director of public and media relations at the 92nd Street Y told the paper audience members registered “their displeasure with the program” at the event and afterward by email and phone. “On occasion, when a program clearly has not met our or our patrons’ expectations, we have offered patrons a credit.” Ergo, on Tuesday, audience members received an email from the Y’s executive director, Sol Adler, telling them they would be receiving a $50 gift certificate in the mail (the price of their ticket), which could be used toward a future event at the Y. “We acknowledge that last night’s event with Steve Martin did not meet the standard of excellence that you have come to expect from 92nd St. Y,” the email read. “We planned for a more comprehensive discussion and we, too, were disappointed with the evening.” (Fans will get the chance to hear Martin again, however, during a sold-out live Q&A session with the actor for CBS Sunday Morning, which will air live via webcast on CBSNews.com.)

Understandably, Martin and Solomon are not happy with the way the situation was handled. She’s said the Y never told her what to ask before the interview and that she expected the audience would know they’d be chatting about the subject of Martin’s current project, his novel, which hit shelves six days earlier. She also expected that the Y programmers would value that conversation more than anecdotes about working with Alec Baldwin on It’s Complicated and co-hosting the Oscars. Martin’s compared the experience to “a little like an actor responding in Act III to an audience’s texts to ‘shorten the soliloquies.’” He’s since tweeted the following warning: “So the 92nd St. Y has determined that the course of its interviews should be dictated in real time by its audience’s emails. Artists beware.” (The 92nd Street Y has not responded to EW’s request for comment.)

Unfortunately, most of us (including myself) now blogging about this debacle weren’t actually in attendance that evening, so we can’t comment on the first question that comes to mind: Could Steve Martin be boring talking about anything? Still, I think there are two issues here worth discussing:  READ FULL STORY »