Just in time for Election Day, actors David Strathairn and Paul Giamatti are resurrecting the formidable historical figures of Abraham Lincoln and his rival for the Senate in 1858, Stephen A. Douglas, respectively, in L.A. Theatre Works’ production of “The Rivalry,” Norman Corwin’s play about the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates.
What a time for the world to lose Studs Terkel. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author, activist and radio and television star died Friday in his adopted hometown of Chicago. Terkel was 96.
If you don’t know Danny Elfman, you know his music. Better known for his unique film scores and “The Simpsons” theme than his political views, the composer is running an ad in battleground states with a simple message: “President Sarah Palin—think about it.”
There wasn’t a whole lot of love in the room for cable news channel MSNBC during a luncheon in Beverly Hills on Monday for television executives and actors from both ends of the political spectrum.
The Obama campaign is running a big media blitz on Wednesday night, with CBS, Fox, NBC and Univision all airing the Democratic presidential candidate’s muy mysterioso half-hour advertisement at 8 p.m., but ABC and the CW won’t be joining in the Obamathon.
A new book investigates the illicit trade in antiquities and raises uneasy questions over cultural patrimony, the fevers of nationalism and the imperial ambitions of museums.
A couple of months ago, Al Franken’s U.S. Senate bid might have seemed like a long shot, even when it came to politics as (un)usual in his quirky home state of Minnesota. Now, victory may be within reach for the former “SNL” star in his race against Republican incumbent Norm Coleman.
The ghoulish comic “Tales From the Crypt” is taking a spooky look at the possibility of a Sarah Palin presidency. An editorial by Gathy Gaines Mifsud, daughter of publisher William Gaines—a target of a ghastly 1950s Senate investigation on censorship—rails against Palin and her reported McCarthy-esque book-banning stunts while mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.
Former Secretary of State and current dance sensation Colin Powell graced the stage of a London hip-hop concert “in celebration of African culture.” The song he sang and danced to? A Nigerian hit about people spending money gleaned from U.S. Internet scam victims.
What would Gordon Gekko, the ruthless corporate raider from Oliver Stone’s 1987 classic cautionary tale “Wall Street,” have to say about the current state of the American economy? Well, we just might find out.
While sister company Viacom is still suing YouTube for $1 billion, CBS is hoping to get some cash out of the Web video mecca a more polite way. The Tiffany Network has had some success online, and currently has one of the more popular YouTube channels, but the eyeball business isn’t as straightforward as it used to be.
French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio was named this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday. Le Clézio, whom the Swedish Academy fancifully described as an “author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilisation,” has written more than 20 novels since the early age of 23.
Seasoned film star and “Changeling” director Clint Eastwood says American politics aren’t what they used to be; in fact, the grizzled sort-of-libertarian thinks they’re even a little “perverted”—but not like that.
The McCain-Palin campaign team might soon borrow a page from the celebrity crisis management handbook (see Chap. 11: Poke Fun at Yourself on a Late-Night Comedy Show), if the rumor that Sarah Palin is considering an appearance alongside her “Saturday Night Live” doppelgänger Tina Fey comes true before the Nov. 4 election.
Former Time correspondent Andrew Meier presents a riveting exhumation of the previously unknown story of Cy Oggins, an early American-Jewish communist who spied for the Soviets and was killed by them in 1947.
With Georgia on the U.S. mainstream media’s map after its recent war with Russia, a new interest in Georgian history and politics seems to have come to life, especially concerning the cult of personality that Stalin still leads in his native land.
It’s been a rough couple of years for the anchor of the last-place network newscast, but Katie Couric managed to silence many of her critics this week with an interview series that not only got a lot of attention, but scored points for her tough but fair style.
It may sound like an impossible feat to appear in a popular superhero series without even having to physically show up for the job, but that’s just what Comedy Central pseudo-pundit Stephen Colbert has pulled off by lending his name and likeness to Marvel Comic’s “Amazing Spider-Man” #573.
Paul Newman, the iconic blue-eyed film star of big-screen classics like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “The Sting” and “Cool Hand Luke,” died on Friday at his Connecticut home after a long battle with cancer. Newman, who also made a name for himself as a philanthropist with his Newman’s Own food product line and Hole in the Wall Gang camps, was 83.
It’s good to know that there are still people, in this time of great strife, who believe in the power of diplomatic negotiation over brute force ... even if the people in this particular case happen to be two Hollywood directors apparently possessed of egos the size of Sarah Palin’s home state.
Carolyn Eisenberg takes a close look at Melvyn Leffler’s “For the Soul of Mankind” to ask whether our current troubles are rooted in a history that continues to haunt us.
The Nov. 4 election is more than six weeks away, but Brad Pitt has revealed what his vote will be on at least one ballot initiative by donating $100,000 to fight California’s Proposition 8, which aims to overturn the state Supreme Court decision that made same-sex marriage legal last May.
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