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.
Gerald Early is Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters at Washington University in St. Louis. He is also a former commentator for Fresh Air. Early is the editor of the new book, The Sammy Davis Jr. Reader: The Life and Times of the Last Great Hipster (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). The book includes writings about him by his friends, as well as profiles, reviews and interviews. Early also edited The Muhammad Ali Reader.
Her latest film is David Mamets State and Main. She also starred in Mamets earlier films The Spanish Prisoner and The Winslow Boy. Pidgeon is also known for her work on stage. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and appeared in many plays including the London production of Speed the Plow, and The Old Neighborhood on Broadway. Pidgeon is also a singer/songwriter. Her latest CD is called Four Marys.
His new book, Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis is the second volume of his biography of Hitler. It has been nominated for the Whitbread Prize. The first volume, Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris was an editors choice of the New York Times and is now available in paperback. Kershaw is a professor of modern history at the University of Sheffield.
Leila Ahmed is Professor of Women Studies in Religion at the Harvard Divinity School. She written extensively on feminism and Islam, and is the author of a new memoir about growing up in Egypt during the 1940s and 50s. It called A Border Passage: from Cairo to America - a Woman Journey.
Program Director for the International Center for Transitional Justice, Paul van Zyl. As such he helps emerging democracies to reckon with the human rights abuses in their past. Van Zyl is from South Africa and was the executive secretary of South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The center is now working with the U.N. to design a justice policy for post-Taliban Afghanistan. The International Center for Transitional Justice is located in New York City.
Film critic John Powers reviews the French film that has become a hit in France and has received a cult following, Amelie. Its just been released in the US
Larry Goodson is associate professor of international Studies at Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts. He the author of the book, Afghanistan Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban (University of Washington press). Goodson writes that Afghanistan has become the archetype of a failed state and a perfect example of how nonstate actors move into the vacuum created when a state fails. He also writes about the divisions in the Afghan population: ethnic, linguistic, regional, sectarian, racial, and tribal.
Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic. His new film No Mans Land (United Artists) is about three soldiers trapped in a trench between enemy lines, during the war in Bosnia. During the war in early 90s, Tanovic was the Bosnian army's cameraman, documenting the war for the army archive. He also directed many documentary films about the war and his hometown of Sarajevo. No Mans Land won the Best Screenplay award at this years Cannes Film Festival. Its also been shown at this years Toronto Film Festival and the Sarajevo International Film Festival.
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the new box set, Artie Shaw: Self Portrait (RCA/Bluebird). The five-CD box set of Shaws music was edited by Shaw himself.
Comedian Bernie Mac has traced his own path to the top, staying in Chicago and other spots — anywhere but Los Angeles. Now he's the star of The Bernie Mac Show, a sitcom on Fox. As his book I Ain't Scared of You is released, we talk with Mac about his days honing his craft, his ideas about what makes a star — and who's better, Sinatra or Williams.
LeRoy is the author of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, a collection of autobiographical stories, and Sarah, a novel about a 12-year-old hustler. LeRoy writes for NY Press, Shout and The Face.
Dalton Conley is the author of the memoir, Honky (Vintage books) about growing up white in a predominately African American and Latino neighborhood on the Lower East Side of New York. Conley is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Advanced Social Science Research at New York University.
Ken Wells is senior writer and features editor for The Wall Street Journals Page One. He is also the author of two novels: his latest Juniors Leg (Random House), and Meely LaBauve (published last year). Both novels are set in south Louisiana on the bayou where he grew up himself.
Jazz trumpeter Steven Bernstein. With his quartet, Sex Mob, hes just released a new CD which pays homage to the music of James Bond films. Its called Sex Mob Does Bond (ropeadope records) and is the sextets third album. Bernstein also heads two other groups: Diaspora Soul which specializes in performing versions of ancient Jewish melodies, and Millennial Territory Orchestra with which he explores jazz from the 1920s and 1930s.
