Contributing editor for Vanity Fair David Margolick. In his new book “Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Café Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights” (Running Press), Margolick traces the history and impact of the song “Strange Fruit,” a ballad about lynchings which became Billie Holiday’s signature song. It was written by a Jewish school teacher who was inspired to write the song after seeing a newspaper photograph of a lynching.
Actor Sidney Poitier. He is the leading African-American actor of his generation. He was the first, and so far, the only African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor which he did in 1963 for his performance in “Lilies of the Field.” His other films include, “The Defiant Ones,” “A Patch of Blue,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” and “To Sir, With Love.” He’s written a new autobiography, “The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography” (Harper).
Macabre cartoonist and illustrator Edward Gorey died on Saturday at the age of 75 of a heart attack. His illustrations are the opening credits of the PBS show "Mystery." He wrote over 100 books including “The Gashlycrumb Tinies” an alphabet book which began “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs.” One of his other books “The Doubtful Guest” was a classic, about a creature who shows up uninvited at a dreary mansion and becomes a member of the family. Toward the end of his life, GOREY lived in a 200 year old house in Cape Cod, with his five or six cats. (REBROADCAST from 4/2/92)
Actor Edward Norton. His first major role was in the 1996 film "Primal Fear" as a quiet, stuttering altar boy accused of a brutal murder. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal. Norton went on to roles in Woody Allen's "Everyone Says I Love You," "The People vs. Larry Flint" and "Fight Club." He was nominated for an Academy Award again for his role in "American History X." He directed and stars in the new film "Keeping the Faith."
Director Barry Blaustein is making his directorial debut with the new documentary film “Beyond the Mat.” The movie takes a look at the personal lives of the stars of the World Wrestling Federation, men with names like “Mankind” and “Jake the Snake.” Blaustein previously was head writer and supervising producer at Saturday Night Live and he co-wrote many of Eddie Murphy’s best-loved characters like “Buckwheat,” “Velvet Jones,” “Gumby,” and “Mr. Robinson.”
Daniel Gross is a New York-based writer and columnist for Investment News and the author of “Bull Run: Wall Street, the Democrats, and the New Politics of Personal Finance” (PublicAffairs). He has worked as a reporter at the New Republic and Bloomberg Business News. Gross is the author of Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time (Wiley, 1996).
We talk about the Taliban with Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid. His new book is called Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (Yale University Press). In the mid 1990s, the Taliban Movement gained power in Afghanistan, a country in the wake of a civil war. The Taliban declared they wanted to restore peace and enforce traditional Islamic law. Instead, The Taliban has shown itself to be a troubling development in Islamic radicalism. It has launched a genocidal campaign against Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan. It has sanctioned acts of international terrorism.
Actor, writer, director and producer Peter Berg. He is the creator and executive producer of the new controversial ABC series Wonderland. The show is set in a mental hospital. Some call it the most accurate portrayal of the mentally ill on network television, while some mental health organizations say that the series further stigmatizes mental patients. As an actor, Peter Berg has started on the TV show Chicago Hope, and has appeared in movies like The Last seduction, Copland, and the Great White Hype.
Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch is new movie is called Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, starring Forrest Whitaker. Jarmusch often acts as writer, director, and producer of his films. His other films include Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, Mystery Train, Night on Earth, and Year of the Horse.
We will talk about the psychology of sports and athletes with Doctor Michael Miletic. He is one of the few psychoanalysts currently treating active professional athletes. Miletic serves as a psychiatric consultant to the Detroit Pistons, several professional Hockey teams, and the parents group of the National Football League Players Association. Miletic himself was an athlete. He was even a member of the Canadian Olympic weight lifting team, until an injury cut his career short.
Essayist and feminist journalist Barbara Ehrenreich. For three weeks last year Ehrenreich worked for a cleaning service in Portland, Maine. She writes about her experience, and the politics of house cleaning in this month's issue of Harper's magazine. The article is called "Maid to Order: The politics of other women's work" (April 2000). She is a contributing editor of Harper's. Her articles, reviews, essays and humor have appeared in Time, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, and The Wall Street Journal.
Actor Om Puri is a star of Bombay's film industry, known as Bollywood. In his two decades of acting he's worked with every major Indian film director including Satjayit Ray. In western films he had roles in "Ghandi" and "City of Joy," and in the TV series "The Jewel in the Crown." Recently he's had starring parts in two British films "My Son the Fanatic," and the new film "East is East."
Actor John Spencer. He plays Leo McGarry, the Chief of Staff to the President in the tv series "The West Wing." The show, set in the Whitehouse, and concerning a fictional democratic President and his staff has just won a prestigious George Peabody award. In this first season of the show, Spencer's character has had to deal with his former alcoholism becoming a matter of public scrutiny. Spencder previously was a regular on "L.A. Law" and began his career on "The Patty Duke Show."
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews two new CDS from two Southern hip hop groups: "Tha G-Code" (Cash Money) by Juvenile and "World Party" (Arista) by Goodie Mob.
