Society & Culture

She stars in the new film Casa de Los Babys, by director John Sayles. She received a Golden Globe nomination for her starring role in the film Secretary. Her other films include Adaptation and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

His new semi-autobiographical novel, The Fortress of Solitude, tells the story of Dylan Ebdus, a white kid growing up in an African-American and Latino neighborhood in New York. His last novel, Motherless Brooklyn, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. His other books include Girl in Landscape and Amnesia Moon.

Film critic David Edelstein discusses Under the Tuscan Sun, based on the book of the same name.

Mizrahi is part of a new Turner Classic Movies series, Style in Motion, in which six fashion designers host an evening of classic Hollywood films that influenced their careers. The series runs Monday nights in October, with Mizrahi hosting Oct. 13.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Woody Allen’s new comedy “Anything Else” starring Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews the new Sofia Coppola film, Lost in Translation. The film stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan considers Lucky Girls (Ecco), the debut short story collection by Nell Freudenberger.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Once Upon A Time In the Midlands, starring Robert Carlyle.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Against Love: A Polemic by Laura Kipnis (Pantheon).

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Thirteen, starring Holly Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood.

Writer Daniel Glick's new book is Monkey Dancing: A Father, Two Kids, and a Journey to the Ends of The Earth. After Glick's wife left him for another woman, and his older brother died, he took his two children, ages 9 and 13, on a trip around the world, seeking out endangered places. Glick was a Newsweek correspondent for 12 years, and has written for many other publications including Rolling Stone and The New York Times.

Maureen Corrigan reviews Breaking Her Fall by Stephen Goodwin.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews The Secret Lives of Dentists.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers dictionaries today and yesterday.

He is on the brink of becoming the world's first openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church. He was elected by the Diocese of New Hampshire, but the appointment must be approved at the church's national general convention next week. His nomination has divided the church. Robinson, who is 56 years old, was married for 13 years. He continues to be close to his ex-wife and two daughters. For the last 15 years he has been in a relationship with another man.

TV critic David Bianculli on the new Bravo cable makeover show, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. NBC will broadcast an episode of the show tonight.

Fashion journalists Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine are hosts of the BBC show What Not to Wear which gives advice to women on what not to wear/what to wear if one has, for instance, big arms, flabby tummy, thick legs, etc. Their book, What Not To Wear is available now in paperback.

Shields died July 17, 2003, of breast cancer. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her best-selling novel The Stone Diaries. Her books are often about middle class people leading quiet lives. Her other novels include Larry's Party, which won Britain's Orange Prize, The Republic of Love and Swann: A Mystery. She also wrote a biography of Jane Austen as well as plays, poetry and story collections. In 1998 Shields was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time of the interview, she was in stage 4, a late stage of the disease. Her most recent novel, Unless, was written after her diagnosis.