Society & Culture

Our television critic reviews the new drama series Brothers & Sisters, which airs on Sunday night in the ABC time slot previously occupied by Grey's Anatomy.

Reporters Jeff Whelan and Josh Margolin have been covering Jim McGreevey for The Newark Star-Ledger. The two journalists won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for breaking the McGreevey story.

Former New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey. His new memoir, The Confession details his life and events leading up to his August 2004 coming-out speech. McGreevey was governor from January 2002 to November 2004, when he resigned. In addition to coming out as a homosexual, McGreevey appointed alleged Israeli lover Golan Cipel to the position of New Jersey's Homeland Security adviser. Since the publication of The Confession, Cipel has stated that he was not McGreevey's lover, as detailed in McGreevey's book.

How do you draw the line between dramatic license and historical accuracy? That was the essence of the controversy over the recent ABC docudrama The Path to 9/11, just as it was a few years ago with the CBS miniseries that put words in Ronald Reagan's mouth that he never uttered. Docudrama may be a new word, but it raises old questions about truth and fiction.

Writer Alice McDermott won the National Book Award in 1998 for her novel, Charming Billy. McDermott has just brought out a new novel called After This, and our book critic says that it's a stunner.

Louis Wiley is executive editor of the PBS documentary series Frontline, which has been affected by the Federal Communications Commission's crackdown on indecency in broadcasting. The FCC has increased fines tenfold for material they deem indecent.

Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein was appointed to his post in 2002. Previously, he was senior legislative aide to Sen. Tom Daschle.

Tim Winter is executive director of the Parents Television Council (PTC). Last week, the PTC filed an indecency complaint with the FCC over the NBC broadcast of the Emmy Awards because of language used by actresses Helen Mirren and Calista Flockhart.

Attorney Stephen Weiswasser advises stations on what material may be deemed indecent. He is a partner in law of Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. He says the FCC guidelines are difficult to interpret.

Writer Jonathan Franzen's massive 2001 bestseller The Corrections was based, in part, on his own life. His new book is a memoir, The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History. Franzen's other books include The Twenty-Seventh City, Strong Motion and How to be Alone.

Our linguist Geoff Nunberg doesn’t profess to know much about astronomy. But when astronomers changed the definition of the word planet, they entered his territory — language.

Middle East peace expert Sari Nusseibeh is the founder of the Palestinian Consultancy Group and the Israeli-Palestinian Science Organization, the president of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem and a professor of Islamic philosophy. He co-wrote the People's Voice Initiative to build grassroots support for a two-state solution. Until December 2002, he was the representative of the Palestinian National Authority in Jerusalem.

Film critic John Powers reviews the DVD release of Billy Wilder's classic Double Indemnity, starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck.

Bruno Kirby died Monday at the age of 57 from complications of leukemia. Kirby played the would-be comedian in Good Morning, Vietnam and Carrie Fisher's boyfriend in When Harry Met Sally. Over the years Kirby played in dozens of movies, TV shows and on Broadway. This interview originally aired on July 27, 1990.

The black comedy Little Miss Sunshine revolves around a 7-year- old girl and her dream of winning a childrens' beauty pageant. The movie is the feature debut of the husband-and-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who made their names directing music videos for groups such as REM and The Smashing Pumpkins. Our film critic has a review.

The word lifestyle has moved around in our culture since it first appeared more than 35 years ago. Our linguist says the word has gone from being a way to differentiate the '60s counterculture to a marketing tool and now to a political catchphrase.

Our rock critic reviews Pick A Bigger Weapon a new hip hop album from The Coup.

Our book critic reviews The Abortionist's Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde. The novel's plot centers around the death of an abortion clinic doctor and the possible murder suspects involved.

Edmund White has been writing about gay culture in fiction and nonfiction since the 1970s. He has a new autobiography, My Lives. White is director of the creative writing program at Princeton University.

Coach Bill Resler and former player Devon Crosby Helms are at the heart of the basketball documentary The Heart of the Game. The film follows the Roosevelt High School Roughriders, a Seattle-area girls' team, for six seasons.