Actors

Actress Cynthia Nixon is one of the stars of HBO's Sex and the City. She plays Miranda Hobbes, a corporate lawyer who is also a new mother in the current season of the show. Nixon recently starred in the Broadway production of the classic 1930 Clare Boothe Luce play, The Women. She also appeared at the age of 18 in the broadway plays Hurlyburly, and The Real Thing. She's a founding member of the Drama Dept., an Off-Broadway theater company. Her film roles inclue, Amadeus, Prince of the City, The Pelican Brief, and The Out-of-Towners.

The HBO hit series Sex and the City, begins a new season July 21. We'll hear from two people involved with the show: Actress Sarah Jessica Parker was just nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She's been acting for most of her life, including playing Annie on Broadway, the young bimbo in L.A. Story, and a fed-up fiancee in Honeymoon in Vegas. This is her fifth season starring in Sex and the City, as Carrie, a columnist who writes about the sexual mores of New Yorkers.

It's been twenty-five years since Sissy Spacek's memorable performance in the 1976 horror film Carrie, based on a Stephen King novel. Her new film is In The Bedroom, a family drama/tragedy. It won several awards in this year's Sundance festival. Spacek won an Oscar for her performance in Coal Miner's Daughter, and she's been nominated for Best Actress 5 times. She got her start in the film Badlands. She's had roles in numerous films and TV dramas, including Three Women, Raggedy Man, Night Mother, and The Straight Story.

Actress Angie Dickinson. She played an undercover cop in the TV series Police Woman from 1974-78. Her film roles include Dressed to Kill, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Pretty Maids all in a Row, and Ocean Eleven which she made in 1960 with the rat pack: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the film West Side Story, we speak with cast members. The film is a screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical about New York City gangs circa 1960. It won ten Oscars. First, George Chakiris, who played Bernardo in the movie. He won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for the role. Chakiris was born in 1935 and made his acting debut at the age of 12. Hes been in many films, TV shows and plays. He got the West Side Story film role after playing the role of Biff in the London theater production of West Side Story.

Film critic John Powers reviews the new David Lynch film, Mulholland Drive.

Actress Edie Falco plays Carmella Soprano, wife of Tony Soprano on the HBO drama The Sopranos. She too has been nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding lead Actress in a Drama Series. The role turned her from a relative unknown to a TV star. She had roles on Law & Order and Homicide: Life on the Street. She starred in the independent films Judy Berlin, Trust and Laws of Gravity.

Actress Jane Kaczmarek. She been nominated for an Emmy (for outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series) for her role on FOX Malcolm in the Middle. She plays the harried mother of four boys. Kaczmarek was a series regular on Equal Justice, Paper Chase: The Second Year, and has had recurring roles on Frasier, The Practice, and Cybill. Her film roles include Pleasantville, Uncommon Valor, and The Chamber.

Casting director and actress Joanna Merlin has written a new guide for actors, Auditioning: An Actor-Friendly Guide (Vintage Books). Merlin was casting director for Harold Prince and his productions of Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Evita, and more. She casted films, as well as acted in films and on television.

Brazilian actress Sonia Braga starred in the 1985 independent film Kiss of the Spider Woman (with William Hurt and Raul Julia). The film is currently being re-released. Braga is also a guest star in the HBO comedy series Sex and the City. And she plays Jennifer Lopezabused mother in the film Angel Eyes. Her other films include Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, and The Last Prostitute.

British actress Charlotte Rampling. Shes known for her great beauty. She was a model before beginning her film career in the sixties with hits such as Georgy Girl and The Damned. She may be best known for The Night Porter, a 1974 classic about a concentration camp survivor reunited with the Nazi guard who tortured her. Ramplings new film is the French Under The Sand, about a woman whose husband mysteriously disappears during a seaside vacation.

Her films include Addams Family Values, The Ice Storm, Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas, The Opposite of Sex, and the new film The Man Who Cried.

Actress Kate Winslet, 24, became a star with her role in the blockbuster Titanic. Her breakthrough role came earlier, in Heavenly Creatures, a film based on a true story of two young girls who murder one of their mothers. Her other films include Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, and Jane Campion's Holy Smoke. She's currently starring in the film Quills.

Film Critic Henry Sheehan reviews the new film “Dr. T and the Women”.

Film Critic Henry Sheehan reviews the Dancer in the Dark, the new film directed and written by Lars von Trier.

Actor, singer and drag queen Ru Paul. The six-foot seven entertainer is even taller in heels and has fashioned for himself a supermodel persona. He attributes his mainstream appeal to his non-threatening sexuality and his “non-bitchy” drag queen personality. Ru Paul is appearing out of drag in the new comedy “But I’m A Cheerleader.” He plays an ex-gay rehab counselor. Ru Paul’s other films include “Crooklyn,” “The Brady Bunch Movie,” and “Wigstock the Movie.” (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).

Film critic John Powers reviews “Hanging Up” the new film by the Ephron sisters, and directed by Diane Keaton.

Film critic John Powers reviews “Holy Smoke” the new Jane Campion film starring Harvey Kietel and Kate Winslet.