Chalfant is starring in the highly acclaimed Off Broadway play "Wit," about a scholar of John Donne undergoing grueling treatments for terminal cancer. She previously found success in Tony Kushner's "Angels in America."
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a re-issue of Judy Garland's songs titled "Judy" on the label 32 Records. It is a four cd-set with a video and 100 page book of photos and interviews. Also Rhino records has re-issued "Judy Garland in Hollywood."
Film critic John Powers reviews "Velvet Goldmine" the new film written and directed by Todd Haynes. The film looks at the early 70's "glam rock" scene. Haynes earlier film was "Safe" about a suburban house-wife who becomes allergic to nearly everything.
Haynes explores the world of glam rock in his new movie "Velvet Goldmine." This period included such artists as Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and David Bowie. Haynes previous film "Safe" told the story of a suburban housewife who gets a rare condition and becomes allergic to nearly everything.
Pierce plays "Niles Crane" on NBC's sitcom "Frasier." He has received two Emmy Awards for this role. Pierce has also appeared in the films: "Bright Lights, Big City," "Little Man Tate," "The Fisher King," "Crossing Delancy," "Sleepless in Seattle, and "Nixon." His voice also appears in the new movie "A Bug's Life." He currently lives in Los Angeles.
TV critic David Bianculli reviews a new documentary devoted to the making of a single episode of the cop show "Homicide.' Despite the unusual premise, he thinks PBS should make more programs like this.
Our classical music critic will read two of his poems written about his 94 year old mother who has Alzheimer's and in a nursing home. The poems are: "The Two Horses (A Memory)" and "He Tells His Mother What He's Working On."
Hagen taught acting for more than 40 years, working with such actors as Jack Lemmon, Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Broderick and the late Geraldine Page. Her first book about acting, "Respect for Acting" was published in 1973 and is still in print. Her follow up to that is the book "A Challenge for the Actor." (1991) She and her late husband Herbert Berghof founded the HB Studio in New York.
The singer and pianist has a new CD titled "Sing It" on Rounder Records. It features her with Tracey Nelson and Irma Thomas. She has been compared with Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Dr. John, Leon Russell, and, Jerry Lee Lewis. She's been called the bayou queen of the piano. Her latest solo album came out last year on Rounder. "Let Me Play With Your Poodle." The concert was recorded in September in Austin, Texas as a benefit for the public radio station KUT.
In 1980, Debbie Morris was a 16 year-old high school junior who was kidnapped, raped, and beaten by Robert Lee Willie. Willie's story was portrayed by Sean Penn in the film "Dead Man Walking." She has written about her life in "Forgiving the Dead Man Walking." (Zondervan)
Film critic John Powers reviews two new movies about the horrors of World War II: "Life is Beautiful" and "Apt Pupil." They take wildly different approaches on the subject.
President Carter has written 13 books since leaving office. His latest is "The Virtues of Aging" (Ballantine). In his retirement, Carter founded The Carter Center and launched The Atlanta Project a communitywide effort to attack the social problems associated with poverty.
Updike's newest book features Henry Bech, the moderately well known Jewish-American writer who was the hero of Updike's previous novels, "Bech: A Book," and "Bech is Back." His newest book is "Bech at Bay" (Knopf).
David Remnick is the author of the new book "King of the World" (Random House) about heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. Remnick was appointed editor of the New Yorker Magazine this year, and is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of "Lenin's Tomb."
Herzog's latest movie is a documentary, "Little Dieter Needs to Fly: Escape from Laos" the true story of Dieter Dengler, the only U.S. pilot to have sucessfully escaped from a North Vietnamese-controlled prison. Herzog's other works include the feature films "Aguirre: The Wrath of God," "Heart of Glass," "Fitzcarraldo," and "Nosferatu."
In light of the recent beating death of gay student Matthew Shepard, a discussion of anti-gay violence with documentary film maker Arthur Dong. In his 1997 film "Licensed to Kill," Dong interviews convicted murderers of gay men and asks them "Why did you do it?" Twenty years ago, Dong himself was the victim of a gay bashing. Dong is a Peabody Award winner and Oscar and Emmy nominated independent filmmaker. His other films include "Coming Out Under Fire," and "Forbidden City, U.S.A."
