Daniel Mendelsohn's new book is The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. As a child, his old Jewish relatives told stories of family members killed in the Holocaust. Mendelsohn undertook a worldwide search for surviving members of his family's town. During his investigation, Mendelsohn discovered letters from the family begging their relatives in the United States to help them get out of their Ukrainian town.
In the cover story of this week's New York Times Magazine Dexter Filkins writes about the predicament of Ahmad Chalabi: "Once Iraq's anointed leader — anointed by the Americans — Chalabi, at age 62, is without a job, spurned by the very colleagues whose ascension he engineered." The title of the piece is "Where Plan A Left Ahmad Chalabi."
Film critic John Powers reviews a new 50-movie DVD collection, Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films. Titles include The Seventh Seal, Pandora's Box, The 400 Blows and The Lady Vanishes.
Lebanese TV anchor May Chidiac lost an arm and a leg as the result of a car bomb explosion last year. Chidiac works for the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation. She just won a Courage in Journalism Award, presented by the International Women's Media Foundation.
Comedian Harry Shearer has a new book called Not Enough Indians, a novel about Native Americans and gambling. He also has a role in the new film For Your Consideration, directed by Christopher Guest. Shearer is a voice actor on The Simpsons, playing the roles of Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner and many more characters. Shearer is also the host of the weekly public radio series Le Show.
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer William Styron died Wednesday of pneumonia at the age of 81. Styron's books include Lie Down in Darkness, The Confessions of Nat Turner (which won the Pulitzer) and Sophie's Choice, which was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Meryl Streep. His memoir Darkness Visible detailed his struggles with depression and suicidal impulses. This interview originally aired on Sept. 19, 1990.
Greg Daniels and Mindy Kaling work on the hit NBC series The Office, starring Steve Carrell. Kaling also plays Kelly on the show. Daniels has a history of TV comedy writing. He has worked on Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld and The Simpsons. Kaling had a role in Carrell's The 40-Year-Old Virgin and appeared on an episode of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Election reform expert Dan Seligson is the editor of Electionline.org, a nonpartisan and non-advocacy organization that tracks and analyzes election reform issues. The site is a venture of the Election Reform Information Project.
Musician, composer and bandleader Don Byron has a new album out, Do the Boomerang. It's a collection of songs associated with the great Motown saxophonist and singer Autry "Junior Walker" DeWalt. Tracks include Shotgun and Roadrunner. While Byron is usually associated with the clarinet, he plays tenor sax on this new CD.
NAACP officers Marvin "Doc" Cheatham and Rev. Nelson B. Rivers, III, talk about manipulation of African-American voters, and the efforts they are making to change the voting landscape. Cheatham is the seventh president of the NAACP Baltimore city branch, and an election specialist. He's also the founder and chairman of the Maryland Voting Rights Restoration Coalition. Rivers is CEO of the NAACP.
Writer James Traub discusses his new book, The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the UN in the Era of American World Power. Traub recounts the intertwined story of Annan, the United Nations and American foreign policy from 1992 to the present. Traub is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. His other books include City on a Hill and The Devil's Playground.
Richard Gilman, who died Saturday at age 83, was a writer and professor at the Yale School of Drama. Ben Brantley of The New York Times writes, "Mr. Gilman was one of a breed of philosopher-critics... who came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. They located in modern drama the elements of abstraction, alienation and absurdity that had long been at the core of discussions of other forms of art and literature." In this archive interview from 1987, Gilman recounts his conversion from Judaism to Catholicism and then to atheism.
For his new book, Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination, entertainment expert Neal Gabler was given complete access to the Disney archives. His biography begins when Disney was just a glimmer of an idea, and ends at the entrance to the Walt Disney mausoleum.
David Bianculli reviews a new episode of the popular British crime series, Cracker. The program was originally produced in the 1990s, and Robbie Coltrane returns to star as Edward Fitzgerald, an abrasive criminal psychologist. The new two-hour show, Cracker: A New Terror, airs at 9 p.m. on BBC America.
Julia Sweeney is currently performing a one-woman show called "Letting Go of God" at the off-off-Broadway theater in Manhattan. A Saturday Night Live cast alum, Sweeney also wrote and performed the 1996 Broadway show "God Said, Ha!" Her films include Pulp Fiction, Clockstoppers and It's Pat, based on her gender-confused character on SNL.
