Veteran Stage, Film Actor Ben Gazzara Dies At 81
Ben Gazzara died Friday at a hospital in New York of pancreatic cancer. The actor known for his brooding, tough-guy presence was 81. Gazzara appeared in dozens of films, television shows and stage productions over his long career. On the TV show Run For Your Life, which ran for three season in the 1960s, Gazzara [...]
‘Best Practices’: Learning To Live With Asperger’s
When he was 30 years old, David Finch’s wife, Kristen, sat him down and asked him a series of odd questions: “Do you notice patterns in things all the time?” “Do people comment on your unusual mannerisms and habits? “Do you feel tortured by clothes tags, clothes that are too tight or made in the [...]
RuPaul: Famous, Fierce And Fashion Forward
Legendary entertainer RuPaul has been famous for twenty years for his drag persona – sky-high wigs, even higher heels and glamorous dresses. But even though he’s known for his over-the-top outfits, RuPaul says that everyone is performing in drag, one way or another. “I’ve had talk show hosts ask me, so why are you wearing [...]
Pop Culture Happy Hour: ‘Smash’ Talk And Getting Serious About Reading
We kick off this week’s show (our 75th!) exactly where you’d expect to find us: having a thorough debate about the merits and demerits of NBC’s heavily hyped new series Smash, which will debut on regular television on Monday night, but which you can find on Hulu or iTunes right now, if you’re curious (and [...]
Going In ’50/50′ On A Cancer Comedy, With Laughs
This interview was originally broadcast on September 28, 2011. 50/50 is now available on DVD. When screenwriter Will Reiser was 24 and diagnosed with a rare form of spinal cancer, he coped by thinking up ideas for cancer comedies with his best friend, actor Seth Rogen. “We wanted to do a parody of The Bucket [...]
A Creepy Hotel, And Characters To Spare
The greatest shock in The Innkeepers is that this old-school ghost story offers neither originality nor scares — because the young director Ti West knows full well how to do both. In his 2009 breakthrough, The House of the Devil, he dropped a young babysitter into hell and his audience into a surprisingly effective take [...]
Cult Horror, Plus Some Hatred On The Homefront
When the ABC show Lost ended its run after six seasons, there was an understanding among its devoted fans — and there were said to be one or two of them on the Internet — that only a fraction of the many questions it posed would be answered. The finale nonetheless cleaved them into two [...]
Painting Sheds New Light on the ‘Mona Lisa’
The Mona Lisa is one of the most enigmatic and iconic pieces of Western art. It has inspired countless replicas, but one such replica at the Madrid’s Museo del Prado is attracting attention in its own right: conservators say that it was painted at the same time as the original — and possibly by one [...]
When All ‘Sense’ Takes Its Leave Of Us
The afflicted party starts to grieve without warning, compelled by unseen forces to pause mid-stride and remember an entire life’s worth of regret, lost love and missed opportunity. Then, once the tears are gone, the ability to smell exits with them. This is the irreversible ailment that soon envelops the entire world in Perfect Sense [...]
‘Big Miracle’: A Whale Tale As The Cold War Wanes
When it’s mammal-saving time at the movies, the plot typically unfolds as a pitched battle between critter-loving gods and oil-drilling monsters. I wouldn’t call Ken Kwapis’ impish Big Miracle a radical departure from the rule. But it’s at least refreshing that, in this story of a struggle to save three stranded gray whales off the [...]
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