Director and screenwriter Bill Condon's new movie, Dreamgirls, is an adaptation of the Broadway hit musical. Condon also wrote and directed Kinsey and Gods and Monsters, for which he won an Oscar.
Film producer Christine Vachon's new book is A Killer Life: How an Independent Film Producer Survives Deals and Disasters in Hollywood and Beyond. She has produced more than 30 feature films, including Infamous, Far From Heaven, One Hour Photo and Boys Don't Cry. This book is a follow-up to Vachon's best-selling first book, Shooting to Kill.
This season's new trend in boxed sets of television series on DVD is something that ought to be called the "megaset." These aren't just single-season collections of TV shows. They are compilations of every episode in a series.
Fresh Air critic at-large John Powers will talk about the events that defined American culture this year. Highlights include the Borat movie, Stephen Colbert's speech at the White House correspondent's dinner, George Allen's use of a racial slur during the 2006 U.S. Senate race in Virginia, and the rise of YouTube.com as a mechanism for rapid dissemination of information. John Powers is also a critic for Vogue magazine.
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews his picks for the best music of 2006. While CD sales figures are down from last year, Tucker says that music is increasingly being distributed in new formats.
Richard Cizik is the vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, a lobbying organization that represents 45,000 churches. He is a conservative Christian who preaches the message of environmentalism from a pro-life perspective. He talks about creation care in relation to the threat of global warming.
Ricky Gervais appears in the new film Night at the Museum, in which insects come to life after a spell is cast at The Museum of Natural History. Gervais is the creator and star of the British TV comedy series The Office, which has been adapted into a hit show starring Steve Carrell. He's won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and three BAFTA Awards. Gervais also writes the Flanimals series of children's books.
Jazz musician Kenny Davern died this week at the age of 71. Davern loved traditional jazz, and played clarinet and soprano saxophone. He was a member of Soprano Summit, along with Dick Wellstood and Bob Wilber. We rebroadcast a live concert with Davern, performing with guitarist Howard Alden and bassist Phil Flannagan. This originally aired on Feb. 18, 1988.
Critic at-large John Powers reviews Preston Sturges: The Filmmaker Collection, a new DVD set of classic 1940s Preston Sturges films. Titles include The Palm Beach Story, The Lady Eve and Christmas in July.
Music critic Milo Miles tells us how the klezmer-fusion band the Klezmatics are keeping the music of Woody Guthrie alive. Their latest albums are Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah and the Grammy-nominated Wonder Wheel. They are currently on tour.
The New York Times called Peter Boyle "one of the most successful character actors of his time." He died Tuesday at the age of 71. Boyle had roles in many films, including Young Frankenstein and Monster's Ball, and played the father on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. His breakthrough role was the 1970 film Joe, in which he plays a factory worker on a rampage against hippies and the counterculture. This interview originally aired on May 25, 1995.
Robert Satloff is executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. His new book, Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands, is about the Arabs who protected or aided Jews in North Africa during World War II.
The end of the year brings with it "word of the year" designations from professional societies and dictionaries. Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers some of the words that made headlines this past year, including some newsmaking racial epithets.
Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) is serving out his term after being ousted by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in the midterm elections. Considered to be the most liberal Republican in the Senate, Chafee is the only one to have voted against the war in Iraq. He made another notable split with the GOP when he opposed the nomination of John Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations.
New York Times reporter Alex Kuczynski's new book is Beauty Junkies: Inside our $15 Billion Obsession with Cosmetic Surgery. No stranger to "beauty maintenance," Kuczynski has had botox, an eye-lift, and liposuction, but gave it up after a bad experience with lip augmentation.
Richard Powers recently won the National Book Award for his book The Echo Maker. Part mystery and part science, the novel is about a 27-year-old man who falls into a coma after a car crash and wakes up with a rare brain disorder. Powers' previous books include The Gold Bug Variations and The Time of Our Singing.
Sam Moore, formerly of the duo Sam and Dave, is the voice most associated with the hits "Hold On! I'm Comin" and "Soul Man." His persona was the inspiration for The Blues Brothers characters immortalized by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi on Saturday Night Live. Moore has a new solo album, Sam Moore: Overnight Sensational.
