Quick Takes: Coachella sells out

QUICK TAKES

Let the Craigslist scouring begin: After the final wave of tickets to April’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival went on sale this morning, the whole thing is now sold out. As the festival noted in a pithy one-sentence press release and Facebook post today, tickets for both weekends, including all packages at every price point, are gone.

Tickets for the festival first went on sale for a weeklong window in June of last year, well before this year’s lineup was announced, and it’s yet unknown how many tickets were sold in that period. But the total time lapsed between the announcement of the lineup and the sellout of the last tickets for both weekends: around three hours, a record for the festival.

The message at Coachella’s Facebook page went up at approximately 12:57 p.m. Pacific time: “Coachella 2012 sold out.” Which means that those stragglers who put off buying when they should have must now start trolling the secondary market.

Already Craigslist is offering at least 161 options for grabbing a ticket. The Stubhub site offers a handful of options starting at $400 per ticket, a number certain to go up as April approaches.

— August Brown and Randall Roberts

Dodger suitor on museum board

Steven A. Cohen, the multibillionaire, hedge-fund executive who is bidding for the L.A. Dodgers, is joining the Museum of Contemporary Art as the newest member of its board of trustees. Cohen is one of the world’s top collectors of modern art and has made numerous loans to institutions and exhibitions.

Cohen currently serves as the head of S.A.C. Capital Advisors, an investment firm headquartered in Connecticut, with offices around the world. In December, The Times reported that Cohen was bidding for the Dodgers, and that he has even engaged an architecture firm to make proposed changes for Dodger Stadium.

His addition to the MOCA board brings the number of trustees to 45, with six officers. In September, the museum announced that philanthropist Wallis Annenberg had joined the board. MOCA said Thursday that Cohen, along with his wife, Alexandra, have helped to fund various exhibitions in the past, including “Robert Rauschenberg: Combines,” which ran at the museum in 2005, and “© MURAKAMI,” which ran in 2007.

— David Ng

HBO rolls out upcoming lineup

HBO has announced that Season 2 of “Game of Thrones” will return on Sunday, April 1. Several major characters were killed in the first season, leaving room for new roles; a preview of the new season offered glimpses of some incoming characters, including Stannis Baratheon, played by Stephen Dillane, and Carice van Houten as his magical advisor Melisandre.

Also launching on HBO in April is “Veep,” a political comedy created by Armando Iannucci (“In the Loop”) and starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as vice president, which premieres April 22.

Coming to HBO on March 10, “Game Change” is another production with a political orientation. This film features Ed Harris as John McCain, whose 2008 presidential campaign pulls in then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, played by Julianne Moore.

It’s based on a book by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, directed by Jay Roach and written by Danny Strong (HBO’s “Recount”).

— Joy Press

Play streamed

on Facebook

If Shakespeare was correct all those centuries ago that, indeed, all the world’s a stage, then social media is the newest venue. Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theater this week premiered Theodor Fontane’s “Effi Briest” on Facebook, in what it dubbed the first live performance for the social networking site.

About 1,200 joined the theater’s Facebook group before the curtain call to see Fontane’s 1984 tragic tale of the aftermath of an affair adapted for the (computer) screen. The social media storytelling included status updates, wall posts and tagged photos, as well as interactive elements. Viewers were encouraged to vote on their favorite wedding dress, contribute to a crowd-sourced love letter between characters and three small parts were cast with audience members.

This isn’t the first artistic adaptation for social media. The films “Home Alone” and “Star Wars” have been re-created via tweets.

— Jamie Wetherbe

Spike Lee hosts Obama event

Director Spike Lee will hold a high-dollar fundraiser for President Barack Obama next week at his New York home.

A Democratic official says the president will attend the fundraiser for his re-election bid. About 40 people are expected Thursday, with tickets costing $35,800 per person. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the event has not been announced. Lee is the director of “Do the Right Thing” and “Malcolm X.”

— Associated Press