Here are the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winners for the arts:

• Fiction:
  Awarded to "Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout (Random House), a collection of 13 short stories set in small-town Maine that packs a cumulative emotional wallop, bound together by polished prose and by Olive, the title character, blunt, flawed and fascinating.
• Drama:
  Awarded to "Ruined," by Lynn Nottage, a searing drama set in chaotic Congo that compels audiences to face the horror of wartime rape and brutality while still finding affirmation of life and hope amid hopelessness.
• History:
  Awarded to "The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family," by Annette Gordon-Reed (W.W. Norton & Company), a painstaking exploration of a sprawling multi-generation slave family that casts provocative new light on the relationship between Sally Hemings and her master, Thomas Jefferson.
• Biography:
  Awarded to "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House," by Jon Meacham (Random House), an unflinching portrait of a not always admirable democrat, but a pivotal president, written with an agile prose that brings the Jackson saga to life.
• Poetry:
  Awarded to "The Shadow of Sirius," by W.S. Merwin (Copper Canyon Press), a collection of luminous, often tender poems that focus on the profound power of memory.
• General Nonfiction:
  Awarded to "Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II," by Douglas A. Blackmon (Doubleday), a precise and eloquent work that examines a deliberate system of racial suppression and that rescues a multitude of atrocities from virtual obscurity.
• Prize in Music:
  Awarded to "Double Sextet" by Steve Reich (Boosey & Hawkes), premiered on March 26, 2008 in Richmond, VA, a major work that displays an ability to channel an initial burst of energy into a large-scale musical event, built with masterful control and consistently intriguing to the ear.

The world of entertainment, especially film, tends to benefit when times are tough, as people seek to escape worries about their job, mortgage, children’s education or heating bills. But 2009 is likely to be a tough one for movies, music, theatre, art, books and most other forms of diversion you can think of.

Hollywood has already seen studios downsized and movie projects ditched thanks to budgetary concerns, a trend which some experts expect to continue into the new year. Raising finances to fund new pictures has become more complicated, and despite major releases like Harry Potter, Watchmen, Wolverine, Transformers, Angels & Demons and Star Trek to name but a few, there is no guarantee that box office attendances will reverse this year’s decline.

2008 music sales are expected to show a double-digit percentage drop in the United States, and a smaller decline in the UK, and few executives would predict anything different for 2009. Irish rockers U2 bring out their delayed new album in March, and next year will (probably) also bring new releases from Bruce Springsteen, Eminem and Robbie Williams. Also worrying for pop stars is evidence that the boom in live touring, which has helped many make up for a shortfall in record sales, may be coming to an end. All but the very biggest acts may struggle to fill that stadium, arena, auditorium or pub.

Theatre attendances could be hit by the recession, and art galleries counting their pennies may be forced to focus on smaller exhibitions to replace the risky and more expensive “blockbuster” shows that have dominated in recent years. Auction houses are also braced for a tough 2009, as falling prices for oil, metals, stocks, property and other assets take their toll on the world’s rich and super-rich.

All in all it’s not a particularly rosy outlook for 2009, but the great thing about making gloomy predictions is that everyone’s happy when you’re proved spectacularly wrong.

Russian conductor Valery Gergiev has long been a darling of the West, and is currently serving as principal conductor at the London Symphony Orchestra. It will be fascinating to see whether, following his highly politicized decision to lead a performance of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich amid the damaged buildings of South Ossetia’s Tskhinvali this week, that popularity wavers.

The charismatic musician’s actions will appeal to many Russians, who blame Georgia for sparking the crisis in the Caucasus by seeking to re-take the breakaway enclave and for shelling the regional capital. By likening the attack to the 9/11 strikes on the United States, Gergiev only upped the stakes.

Much of the rest of the world believes Russia is the villain of the conflict, leaving Gergiev, an ethnic Ossetian, open to a backlash in western capitals where he is used to red carpets and royal treatment.

Music and politics have often  gone hand in hand, of course, and we need look no further than Shostakovich as proof. His Seventh Symphony, which Gergiev performed on Thursday, is seen as a symbol in Russia of Leningrad’s defiance before the Nazi siege during World War II.

London’s Times newspaper said he had “associated his musical brilliance with Moscow’s military bullying,” but its criticism ended there and the editorial went on to conclude that the West must not ostracize him over his actions.