Novelist Barry Hannah died earlier this week. A native of Mississippi, Hannah won the William Faulkner Prize for his 1972 novel Geronimo Rex. Today, we remember the Souther author, who appeared on Fresh Air in 2001.
The British comedian's latest project is an animated series on HBO, developed from his wildly successful podcast, The Ricky Gervais Show. He talks to David Bianculli about the new show -- and explains what it was like to create the award-winning sitcom The Office.
After Hustvedt suffered several unexplainable seizure-like episodes that defied medical diagnoses, she decided to chart her experiences -- and the murky intersection between mind, brain and body -- in a new book, The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves.
When Confidential magazine launched in 1952, it feasted on the type of juicy gossip that could launch -- or ruin -- a career. Journalist Henry Scott details the rise and fall of the gossip rag in his book, Shocking True Story -- and explains how Hollywood reacted.
Actress Chloe Sevigny is known for her fashion sense, but she doesn't mind wearing a prairie dress for her Golden Globe-winning role as a wife in a polygamous family on HBO's Big Love. Sevigny explains how she prepared to play second wife Nicki Grant -- and remembers her other film roles.
Though they work as a tradition African-American string band, Carolina Chocolate Drops' members throw in some modern twists. The Durham, N.C.-based trio plays a wide variety of instruments, including the banjo, fiddle, jug, bones and harmonica. All of those sounds are featured on the band's newest record, Genuine Negro Jig.
In A Prophet, a young Corsican Arab must earn his place in the hierarchy of a French prison by murdering a fellow inmate. Director Jacques Audiard neither victimizes nor glorifies his protagonist, says critic David Edelstein. The result is a gripping, realistic prison drama.
William Hurt has been nominated for four Academy Awards, and won in 1986 for his role in Kiss of the Spider Woman. Hurt prepares for his performances by burying himself deep inside the character — for his role as an ex-con in the film The Yellow Handkerchief, Hurt spent a night in a Louisiana prison.
The new Israeli movie Ajami, shortlisted for an Oscar, is filled with the daily collisions of everyday urban life in the the port city of Jaffa. Movie critic John Powers says that the interesting characters and situations that fill Ajami remind him of the HBO series The Wire.
Ewan McGregor has played a heroin addict in Trainspotting, a young Obi-Wan Kenobi in three Star Wars films, and a poet in Moulin Rouge. In his latest film, Roman Polanski's Ghost Writer, McGregor plays an unnamed writer uncovering a political scandal. He recounts his favorite acting roles — and how he prepared for them.
The actor has been nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of a solider disarming explosive devices in the Iraq war thriller The Hurt Locker. Renner describes what it was like to spend hours a day in a Kevlar suit — as well as how it felt to portray a serial killer in the movie Dahmer.
Linguist Geoff Nunberg doesn't enjoy everything about the English language. There are phrases that get on his nerves and words that he prefers not to use. And Nunberg says he's not the first person to have linguistic pet peeves — nor will he be the last.
The singer-songwriter has released his first album, Way Out Here, and rock critic Ken Tucker says it's one of the best country music debuts in a long while.
Journalist David Weigel recently attended the Tea Party convention and the Conservative Political Action Conference. Weigel, who covers the Republican Party for The Washington Independent, explains how the conservative message is shifting — and how party officials are dealing with the changes.
Using White House visitor logs, writer Paul Blumenthal dug into negotiations that took place among pharmaceutical lobbying firms, the White House and Congress while the health care bill was being drafted. Blumenthal describes how he used public records to determine who was meeting with whom — and how various interest groups have influenced the debate.
William Halsted is credited with creating the United States' first surgical residency program and transforming the way operating rooms are sterilized. He was also a morphine addict. Plastic surgeon Gerald Imber details Halsted's dual lives in the new biography Genius on the Edge.
In California, lawyers are two weeks into a landmark federal court case challenging California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in that state. Margaret Talbot has been blogging about the trial for The New Yorker's Web site, and she has written about it in this week's issue of the magazine. A veteran journalist and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, Talbot writes about family life, women's work, children's culture, and politics and moral debates as they intersect with science and law.
Music critic Ken Tucker reviews a refreshingly earnest and seductive new album from British dance act Hot Chip. In it, the group embraces its taste for techno, soul and gospel while also paying homage to the great American songwriters of the '60s and '70s.
The new releases Shutter Islandand The Ghost Writer both take places on islands off the coast of the Eastern seaboard. Critic David Edelstein explains how the two movies, made by Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski respectively, are a study in contrasts — in directors, plot, and mood.
