David Von Drehle has written a new book, "Among the Lowest of the Dead: the Culture of Death Row." He looks at the current capital punishment debate using historical and personal observations and accounts of death row inmates, victims and survivors, and the people in charge of the executions. He says keeping people in prison is a bargain compared to the price of death row appeals and the fact that only 5% of death row executions actually occur. Von Drehle is arts editor of the Washington Post.
Thomas directed the new movie, "The Brady Bunch." The film is adapted from the TV series that ran from 1969-74. But there's a twist: the innocent family is transported with all its 70's values and fashion into the 90's. Thomas also directed "Only You" and "My Breast," and played Sergeant Lucy Bates on the TV series "Hill Street Blues."
Chicago police officer Eric Davis, known as "21" in the rap group the Slick Boys. Davis and two other officers founded the group in 1991 to provide positive role models for the inner-city kids they encountered on their jobs every day. The group has received national acclaim for their songs about the importance of getting an education and staying off of drugs and out of gangs. Davis grew up in the Cabrini-Green development of Chicago, where the three officers work.
Engineer Fred Cuny is a relief worker for the International Rescue Committee. He worked in Sarajevo to restore gas and water to civilians in early 1994. He just returned from Chechnya, where he was evaluating the humanitarian situation.
Clinical neurology professor and doctor Oliver Sacks is the author of six books about his patients, people with autism, Parkinson's Disease, Tourette's Syndrome, and other neurological disorders. Sacks was portrayed by Robin Williams in the 1991 film version of his book "Awakenings." His other books include "A Leg to Stand On," and "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat." His newest is "An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales," which tells the stories of the disorders of seven of his subjects.
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Mr. Payback," a new interactive film. He says that, despite multiple viewings and multiple outcomes, he had a hard time following the plot.
The Canadian writer has a new novel called "The Cunning Man." It follows the life of a Toronto-based doctor during World War 2 who witnesses the death of a father at the High Altar. The Washington Post has called it "one of [the] author's most entertaining and satisfying novels." Davies, now 81, has had three successive careers -- he began as an actor, then was a journalist and newspaper publisher, and in 1981 retired as professor of the Massy college at the University of Toronto.
Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the new book, "Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s" by Ann Douglas, a critical look at cultural figures from the jazz age.
Sargent Shriver is currently Chairman of the Special Olympics. He was organizer and first director of the Peace Corps, elevating it to become one of the most successful programs of the Kennedy Administration. Shriver headed President Johnson's War On Poverty in the 60s. During his tenure he also created VISTA, Head Start, Job Corps and many other successful programs. He recently received the Medal of Freedom from President Clinton -- the country's highest civilian honor.
Ramone has been called the "Pope of pop," producing and engineering artists from Bob Dylan to Gloria Estefan, Paul McCartney, Barbra Streisand, Paul Simon, Billy Joel and dozens of others. Last year he produced Frank Sinatra's "Duets 2." Ramone has just finished recording a classical album with the Curtis Institute Orchestra and produced the cast recording of Stephen Sondheim's "Passion."
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews new releases by alto saxophonist Gary Bartz: Episode One, Children of Harlem (Challenge) and The Red and Orange Poems (Atlantic).
Raimi is best known for 1982's cult classic "The Evil Dead," which Steven King called "the most ferociously original horror film of the year." He has just directed his first big budget film, "The Quick and The Dead," starring Sharon Stone and Gene Hackman. It's a western with a touch of humor. He also directed 1990's hit "Darkman."
Berenbaum was afraid of bugs until she took a course on insects in college. Her new book is "Bugs in the System," which tries to show insects in a new light. Berenbaum demonstrates the importance of insects in everyday life and throughout history, and explores the lifestyles of some of the more than ten quintillion insects that inhabit the earth at any given moment. She also hosts the annual Insect Fear Film Festival, which will be held this weekend, February 25 & 26, at the University of Illinois.
Williams spent the first ten years of his life believing he was white in segregated Virginia, and that his dark-skinned father was Italian. When his parents' marriage ended, his father took him and his brother to Muncie, Indiana, where the boys learned that they were half black. Williams' new memoir "Life on the Color Line" is about the struggle and repression he faced growing up between the races. Publisher's Weekly calls it "(an) affecting and absorbing story."
Political satirist and impressionist Jim Morris began lampooning the presidents around the time Reagan was sworn in to office. Since then he's impersonated Bush and Clinton, as well as presidential contenders, Michael Dukakis, Paul Tsongas, and Ross Perot. The New Yorker says of Morris, "Like an obsessive character actor, Mr. Morris doesn't just impersonate his subjects; he becomes them."
