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NPR's Scott Simon talks to writer Peter Ackroyd about his new book, Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination. Ackroyd discusses some of the defining features of English literature and culture, such as a reverence for nature, privacy, and squeamishness about sex.

The last installment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy opens in theaters next week, and the three films could eventually earn $3 billion in worldwide ticket sales. But the project almost never happened -- Kim Masters reports on New Line Cinema's $400-million gamble on director Peter Jackson's sweeping vision.

A new exhibit celebrates Joseph Cornell, one of the most influential and idiosyncratic American artists of the 20th century. The self-taught artist created small wooden boxes filled with knickknacks he collected in New York junk shops. As David D'Arcy reports, the results were beautiful, almost religious creations that inspired just about every visual artist who followed him.

Angels in America, playwright Tony Kushner's epic meditation on AIDS, hope and despair in 1980s America, is finally making the move from the stage to the small screen. The television movie boasts an all-star cast, and its first installment airs Sunday on HBO. NPR's Lynn Neary reports.

Love Actually is a new film from writer and director Richard Curtis, who put together a series of vignettes about different types of love. The all-star cast includes Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Colin Firth, Billy Bob Thornton, and Keira Knightley. Hear Curtis and NPR's Scott Simon.

The incandescent, influential funk musician Betty Davis died on Wednesday. She made a string of albums in the mid-1970s that helped to shape stylish, Afrofuturist strains of funk and hip-hop.

With President Biden set to appoint the first Black woman Supreme Court justice, Black women in the legal profession reflect on the limits and promises of representation.

Weekend Edition Sunday begins its three-week-long CD Wish List series, with music insiders picking the best albums that have yet to be issued on CD. This week's picks come from JoAnn Falletta, music director for the Buffalo Philharmonic and Virginia Symphony orchestras; Sibley Music Library's Jim Farrington; and Rick Luningham of the Ernest Tubb Record Shops.

The documentary, Bringing Down a Dictator, tells the story of the downfall of Yugoslavia's former president Slobodan Milosevic. Hear executive producer Peter Ackerman.

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Andrew Bolton, curator of a show at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art called "Bravehearts: Men and Skirts." The exhibit reveals how skirts came to thought of as feminine attire, since men have worn skirts throughout history -- and many still do.