Sundance TV's new six-part series centers on a family of high-billing divorce lawyers whose own private lives are as messy as the cases they're handling.
Vanity Fair, based on the comic 19th century novel by William Thackeray, stars Reese Witherspoon and Gabriel Byrne. Critic David Edelstein says the supporting cast is superb, but the tone of the film is directly opposite that of the novel.
Executive producer Lisa Henson (daughter of legendary puppeteer Jim Henson) and design supervisor Toby Froud talk about their Netflix fantasy series and creating a cast of handmade, sculpted puppets.
Actress Jennifer Jason Leigh. She stars in the new film "Washington Square" which is based on the Henry James novella. In it she plays Catherine Sloper, a shy and unattractive woman who risks estrangement from her father who disapproves of a man she has fallen for. The character is one of a diverse many for Leigh, who has portrayed everything from a phone-sex girl in Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" to a psychotic roommate in "Single White Female" to poet Dorothy Parker in "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle."
The French outlaw Jacques Mesrine, who terrorized France and killed 39 people, is the subject of the thrilling Mesrine: Killer Instinct, which stars Vincent Cassell as Mesrine and Gerard Depardieu as a Parisian crime boss. Critic John Powers applauds Cassell's acting, saying it "ranks with the best of DeNiro or Pacino or, more recently, Daniel Day-Lewis."
Book critic John Leonard says that all of Gunter Grass's work can be seen as a sometimes fanciful examination of his country's brutal history. Case in point: Grass's new book, The Rat, is a science fiction-inspired novel about the end of the world.
Journalist Paul Eisenstein covers the automotive industry and is publisher and editorial director of TheCarConnection.com, a site of news, opinions and reviews about cars. He'll talk about the latest car trends and the economic outlook for automakers. The North American International Auto Show — where most manufacturers unveil their new products — takes place in Detroit Jan. 11-20, 2003.
Rich got his start working with the Sun record label in the late 50s, writing tunes for Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash. From there he began making records himself. In the 70s his songs, "The Most Beautiful Girl," and "Behind Closed Doors," were big country-pop hits. During the 80s he dropped out of sight. But he has a new album now, "Pictures And Paintings," of jazz and blues standards.
The film is based on du Pont's fraught relationship with two Olympic wrestlers. Wealth isn't enough — his identity hinges on winning. It's a fascinating case study, but as drama, it's one sick joke.
Heath Allen was recently commissioned to write new liturgies for the Calvary United Methodist Church in West Philadelphia. His theater piece, Report on a Castaway, features the poetry of Bertolt Brecht.
TV critic David Bianculli review The Arsenio Hall Show and The Pat Sajak show, both of which attempt to recreate the success of Johnny Carson and David Letterman's late night programs. Bianculli says Hall leans a little too heavily on name-dropping, while Sajak borrows too much from Letterman.
New York Times journalist Adam Liptak says the court's conservative justices have increasingly based their decisions on the foundation of free speech — including a case that dealt a blow to unions.
Growing up in the Bronx as the only child of an academic and a real estate broker, actor Kerry Washington remembers her family had two cars and a dishwasher in their apartment — which meant, "in my neighborhood, in my context, we were rich."
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a CD of Olaf Bar's performances of selections from Mozart's operatic oeuvre. Schwartz says Bar's lower range is limited, causing him to growl and bark. It's an affect that might work for a full production, but is distracting in a recital setting.
Before becoming a Pulitzer Prize-winning style writer for the Washington Post, Paul Hendrickson entered the seminary--just before Vatican II began to transform the Catholic Church. He left weeks before the time came to say his priesthood vows, and writes about the experience in his memoir, Seminary.
Investigative reporter Mark Schapiro explains in a new book that toxic chemicals exist in many of the products we handle every day — agents that can cause cancer, genetic damage and birth defects, lacing everything from our gadgets to our toys to our beauty products.
Buck Henry. He's best-known as a frequent guest host on Saturday Night Live. Henry's other accomplishments include writing the screenplays for "The Graduate" and "Catch-22," creating the TV series "Get Smart" in collaboration with Mel Brooks, and co-directing the film "Heaven Can Wait" with Warren Beatty.
An adaptation from Maurice Sendak's book, Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are has a vision all its own, says critic David Edelstein. And it casts a singular sort of spell: With a crack ensemble cast and an almost hallucinatory blending of reality and make-believe, it's "a fabulous treehouse of a movie."
Pete Best was the drummer for The Beatles in their early days in Liverpool and Hamburg. His mother, Mona Best, was the owner of The Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool. The various early incarnations of The Beatles played The Casbah more than 90 times. Best has just co-written a large-format book, The Beatles: The True Beginnings. Today he writes, records and tours with his own group, The Pete Best Band.
