Journalist Mark Harris is a former environmental columnist with the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. His new book is Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial.
Gyllenhaal plays a drug-addicted ex-convict in Sherrybaby, which will be released on DVD this month. Her other films include Secretary, World Trade Center, and Stranger than Fiction.
A review of the movie Venus, starring Peter O'Toole and Vanessa Redgrave. It was written by Hanif Kureishi, the writer of the films My Beautiful Laundrette and London Kills Me.
Producer Zarqa Nawaz is the creator of Little Mosque on the Prairie, a new Canadian Broadcasting Corporation sitcom about a group of Muslims living in a prairie town in Saskatchewan. She is head of the production company FUNdamentalist Films, which produced her 2005 documentary Me and the Mosque, about the relationship of women to Islam.
Dr. Mark Kline is president of the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative and chief of retrovirology at Texas Children's Hospital. Kline discusses his efforts and the advances that have been made in treating HIV-infected children.
Last summer, Kline launched the Pediatric AIDS Corps, which sends doctors to six African countries to treat HIV-infected children and train medical professionals. Recently, BIPAI signed an agreement with UNICEF to get first-rate drugs to infected children throughout the world.
Jerry Lee Lewis is one of the founders of rock 'n' roll. He has kept a low profile since his last album was released in 1996. His new studio album, Last Man Standing, was recorded over the last five years with an impressive cast. Collaborators included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, B.B. King, Willie Nelson and Bruce Springsteen, among others.
Writer Emily Rapp's left foot was amputated when she was four years old, and she has worn a prosthetic device ever since. Her book is Poster Child: A Memoir.
Historian Thant Myint-U is a former U.N. official and a native of Burma. His new book, The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma — part memoir, part history — explores the problems plaguing the country.
In his new book, Going Down Jericho Road, historian Michael Honey chronicles the campaign which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was working on at the time of his death. Honey is a former civil liberties organizer and a professor of ethics, gender and labor studies and American history at the University of Washington, Tacoma.
The new season of TV's American Idol starts on Tuesday, but four previous Idol stars — Taylor Hicks, Fantasia Barrino, Kellie Pickler and Chris Daughtry — have all put out albums within weeks of each other. Rock critic Ken Tucker says their styles vary widely, but that quality-control is a common problem.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection, a 12-disc DVD set of musicals created by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.
Clint Eastwood has examined the Battle of Iwo Jima from two sides this year. His acclaimed film Flags of Our Fathers followed the stories of the American soldiers who raised the flag in one of World War II's most enduring images. His new movie, Letters from Iwo Jima, explores the perspective of the Japanese soldiers who fought it. The actor once best-known as a western and action star has directed a number of great films, including Unforgiven, Mystic River, and Million Dollar Baby.
Republican pollster Frank Luntz advises politicians on the language they should use to win elections and promote their policies. Although he works on one side of the aisle, he says that what he does is essentially nonpartisan, seeking clarity and simplicity in language. His critics disagree, and have accused him of using language that misrepresents policies to "sell" them to the public. Frank Luntz is the author of Words That Work.
Singer, guitarist, and author Alex Kapranos is the frontman for the Glasgow-based indie rock quartet Franz Ferdinand. The band, best known for its single "Take Me Out," has produced two hit CDs. Kapranos has a new book about eating on tour, called Sound Bites. The book is compiled partly from his column in London's Guardian newspaper about his gastronomic adventures.
Journalist Zev Chafets is a former New York Daily News columnist and founding editor of the Jerusalem Report. In his new book, A Match Made in Heaven, Chafets explores American evangelical support for Israel.
Never Hear the End of It is the new double album by Sloan. The quartet from Nova Scotia was formed in 1991, and has spent most of the time since then as one of Canada's most popular rock bands. Their new album consists of 30 songs, which is an unusually large amount of new material.
Not many countries saw their traditional music gain popularity and vitality in the late 20th century, but Ireland did. Starting in the late 1960s with the Chieftains, and continuing with more rock-oriented groups like Planxty and Horslips, Irish music had a renaissance. Then came punk rock, and with it the Pogues, whose first five albums have just been reissued by Rhino. The releases are Red Roses for Me, Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, If I Should Fall from Grace with God, Peace & Love and Hell's Ditch.
