Terry Gross

A new movie about the Hustler Magazine publisher, "The People vs. Larry Flynt," will open at theaters this month. In addition, Flynt's autobiography "An Unseemly Man: My Life as Pornographer, Pundit and Social Outcast" was published this month by Dove Books. Flynt was paralyzed in 1978 after being shot by a man who said he was offended by an inter-racial depiction of a couple he saw in Hustler. In Feb of 1988, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Flynt and Hustler magazine in a landmark libel case filed by the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections Warren Williams discusses the Human Rights Watch report. He says the head of the Michigan Department of Corrections is critical and skeptical of the report's findings, which allege there was sexual abuse of female inmates in Michigan state prisons.

For 26 years, Maurice Levine has been director of the 92nd Y's "Lyrics & Lyricist" series. It spotlights American lyricists and composers like Alan Jay Lerner, Stephen Sondheim, and Dorothy Fields. The series has consistently been a sell-out. Levine has also served as musical director/conductor/vocal arranger for Broadway shows and produced for television.

Human Rights Watch/Women's Rights Project has issued a new report which alleges that there is widespread sexual abuse of women prisoners in U.S. state prisons by prison guards. It's based on data conducted from March 1994 to November 1996. Dorothy Thomas, director of the Women's Rights Project researched and wrote the report. Terry Gross will talk with her and attorney Deborah LaBelle, who has represented women prisoners in their grievances. The report is titled, "All Too Familiar: Sexual Abuse of women in U.S. State Prisons"

The Emmy-nominated, African American actor is known as Lieutenant Arthur Fancy on NYPD Blue, the Emmy Award-winning police drama. He has appeared in numerous television, film and theater productions, including the films "Strictly Business" and"Malcolm X," and the shows "Kate and Allie," "Hill Street Blues," and "L.A. Law," and "Civil Wars."

Rutgers Professor of Science and Public Policy Leonard Cole has written "The Eleventh Plague, the Politics of Biological and Chemical Warfare." In it, he tells about the extraordinary danger posed by biological and chemical weapons. He reveals how the United States Army conducted tests for many years using both biological and chemical agents on Americans.

For over thirty years, Dine's work has been collected and exhibited internationally. Dine has lived and worked all over the world, including New York, London, Vermont, Salzburg, Paris, and Berlin. An exhibit of his work, "North" recently opened at Pace Wildenstein in New York. This collection consists of nine large paintings of crows, hearts, owls, and skulls which Dine made in Berlin and New York.

"Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz. CBS will broadcast the classic Peanut's cartoon "A Charlie Brown Christmas" December 19, 1996. The show has been an annual tradition at CBS since 1965. Also, An exhibit featuring the "cels" or cartoon drawings of Peanuts is showing in New York this month at the Museum of Television and Radio. The exhibit moves to the Museum's Los Angeles facility next month. This interview originally aired 12/18/90.

Today marks the 100th birthday of Ira Gershwin, who died in 1983 at the age of 86. One man who knew Ira and his work well is Robert Kimball, who compiled and edited The Complete Lyrics of Ira Gershwin. He also serves as artistic advisor to the estate of Ira Gershwin. Kimball is currently working on the next book in the Knopf series "The Complete Lyrics of Irvine Berlin." A ceremony, "Ira Gershwin at 100: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall," will be televised on PBS on Great Performances in March 1997. Our interview with Kimball was originally aired on 1/17/94.

Muller cowrote the new book, "Grindhouse: The Forbidden World of 'Adults Only' Cinema." It's a visual history of adult cinema and all it's paraphernalia from the 1920s thru the 1970s. Many of the items used in the book Muller rescued from a dumpster of an old theatre in San Francisco. Muller is a journalist and is founder and director of the San Francisco Historical Boxing Museum.