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Kevin Costner's latest film is Open Range, a western that takes the actor and director back to familiar territory. Robert Duvall and Annette Bening co-star. Los Angeles Times film critic Ken Turan offers a review.

The fictional White House drama, The West Wing, captures its fourth Emmy for Best Drama Series, beating out the critics' favorite, The Sopranos. And Everybody Loves Raymond wins an Emmy for Best Comedy Series for the first time. Hear NPR's Bob Edwards.

For the past decade, author James Carroll has produced a string of nonfiction bestsellers. He returns to the novel with Secret Father, a psychological spy thriller set in Berlin during the beginning of the Cold War. Alan Cheuse has a review.

Barry Levinson is the director of such award-winning movies as Good Morning Vietnam and The Natural. His first novel, 66, is the story of a group of friends struggling to retain their youths while taking on adult challenges. NPR's Susan Stamberg reports.

Illusionist David Blaine has suspended himself from a crane over London's Thames River, planning to endure starvation in a glass box for 44 days. But many Londoners express boredom with Blaine's latest stunt, deeming it unoriginal. Hear Sally Pook of London's Daily Telegraph.

A sign in Springfield, Mass. warns young Latinos: "No Hangear" -- don't hang out on this corner. Spanglish -- a cross between Spanish and English -- it seems, is everywhere. NPR's Bob Edwards talks with Ilan Stavans, author of a new book, Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language. Hear a Spanglish translation of Don Quixote.

Herb Gardner, a playwright known for smart, witty comedies such as A Thousand Clowns and the Tony award-winning I'm Not Rappaport, died this week of lung disease. He was 68. NPR's Michele Norris has a remembrance.

Two regular New Yorker contributors who specialize in lighter pieces talk about following in the footsteps of the magazine's legendary humorists and wits. Hear NPR's Scott Simon, screenwriter Paul Rudnick and author Susan Orlean.

Theologian Elaine Pagels has written Beyond Belief, The Secret Gospel of Thomas. The text of the gospel, discovered in 1945 in Egypt, paints a different vision of Jesus than do the Gospels that made it into the official biblical canon. Pagels speaks with NPR's John Ydstie.

The Scottish band Belle and Sebastian had been keeping to the shadows -- but that's about to change with release of the group's sixth album, Dear Catastrophe Waitress. Band founder and singer Stuart Murdoch explains to NPR's Steve Inskeep that the group was young and more than a little freaked out by the attention they first earned. Now that they've got an international following, Murdoch says the band is ready to take center stage.