Actor Michael J. Fox got his start acting as a teenager in the popular sitcom Family Ties. He has appeared in many movies, including Back to the Future, The Secret of My Success, and Doc Hollywood. In 1998 he announced that he had Parkinson's disease and he now heads The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. He has a new memoir, Lucky Man, (Hyperion).
Satirist Al Franken has a new book that spoofs how-to-succeed books. His new book is Oh, The Things I Know! A Guide to Success, or, Failing That, Happiness (Dutton). Franken is former co-producer of Saturday Night Live where he created the self-help guru Stuart Smalley. He's also the author of Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations.
Sue Graham Mingus' new memoir Tonight at Noon is about her love affair with the late jazz musician and composer Charles Mingus. She is a former magazine editor and publisher, and now works as a music producer. She also created and directs repertory ensembles that carry on the music of her late husband. Tonight at Noon... Three or Four Shades of Love, a CD featuring tracks by the Mingus Big Band and the Charles Mingues Orchestra, was recently released on the Dreyfus Jazz Label.
Actor Bill Paxton makes his directing debut with the new psychological thriller Frailty. He also co-stars in the film, along with Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe. Paxton previously starred in Twister, A Simple Plan, One False Move and Apollo 13.
Writer Richard Lourie. His new book, Sakharov, is a biography of the Russian scientist, dissident and Nobel peace prize winner Andrei Sakharov. He's considered one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. Sakharov created Russia's H-bomb, but later confronted his country over issues of nuclear responsibility and human rights.
South African writer, actress and first-time playwright Pamela Gien. Her off-broadway one-woman show is The Syringa Tree. It's a semi-autobiographical play about the love between two families, one black, one white. She plays 28 different characters in it.
An expert in climate change research, Paul Mayewski led the National Science Foundation's Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2. The project extracted ice cores chronicling 100,000 years of climate history. Mayewski, with co-author Frank White, writes about their expeditions in the new book, The Ice Chronicles: The Quest to Understand Global Climate Change (University Press of New England). Mayewski is also co-director of the Institute of Quaternary and Climate Studies at the University of Maine.
Science fiction writer Sheri S. Tepper is the author of over a dozen novels including, The Fresco, The Family Tree, Grass and her newest, The Visitor. (Harper Collins).
Correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter John Allen. He covers the Vatican for the paper and has a regular column, "The View From Rome." This week American cardinals are meeting in Rome to discuss the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in the United States.
French film director Laurent Cantet. He's made two feature films, both of which focus on the world of work, and the toll that work can take on our lives. His first film, made in 1999, was Human Resources. His newest film Time Out is about a middle-aged, mid-level executive who loses his job, but doesnt tell his family. The film has just been released here and has received critical acclaim.
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews an installment of the legendary Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts, produced by Norman Granz. This particular show comes from Carnegie Hall in 1949, and was recently released on CD.
Ugandan Aids activist Noerine Kaleeba. She works with UNAids, a United Nations organization in Geneva. Shes also on the Ugandan committee on Aids, and founded The Aids Support Organization in Uganda. Kaleeba lost her husband to the disease; four of her siblings are HIV positive as are a number of their children. Kaleeba is also author of the book, We Miss You All: Noerine Kaleeba - Aids in the Family (Women & Aids Support Network).
Through his first band, La Perfecta, labeled "the band with the crazy roaring elephants," Palmieri was credited with originating Latin jazz's trombone sound in New York during the sixties. In 1994, Palmieri's lobbying culminated in the announcement of a new Grammy Award category for Afro-Caribbean Jazz.
Writer Daniel Harris. His new book is A Memoir of No One in Particular: In which our author indulges in naive indiscretions, a self-aggrandizing solipsism, and an off-putting infatuation with his own bodily functions. (Basic Books) Harris is the author of Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic, as well as The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture. He written for Harpers, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times.
Actor and comedian Denis Leary. He currently starring in the ABC comedy series, The Job. He also known for his work in films such as The Thomas Crown Affair and The Ref. Leary has completed over 20 feature films, several cable specials, a book, a CD, and he has an international hit song. He got his own production company, Apostle.
Sociologist Cheryl Benard is the author of the book, Veiled Courage: Inside the Afghan Women's Resistance. Under the Taliban, the group known as RAWA (The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), educated girls and women in underground schools, ran small businesses and secretly photographed Taliban beatings and executions. Benard has worked with the organization for ten years. She is also the wife of an Afghan refugee who is one of President Bush's key Afghanistan advisors.
