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From his breakout role as Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H* to his Oscar-nominated turn in The Aviator, Alan Alda continues to be a presence in American film and on television. Alda speaks with NPR's Joe Palca and listeners about his many roles and his approach to the craft of acting.

Guitarist, songwriter and vocalist James Hetfield was a founding member of the metal band Metallica. His time in rehab is chronicled in the documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, which tracks the band at a time of crisis and is now on DVD. We rebroadcast an interview with Hetfield from Nov. 9, 2004.

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns returns to PBS with Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, a profile of the world's first African-American heavyweight boxing champ.

Singer Mavis Staples is best known for her part in The Staple Singers. The group will be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2005 Grammy Awards. We rebroadcast an interview with Staples from June 2, 1989.

As half of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong, Tommy Chong made a career out of making jokes about being stoned. Along with Cheech Marin, Chong recorded six gold comedy albums and starred in seven films. He currently has a recurring role on FOX TV's That '70s Show. He recently spent nine months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to sell drug paraphernalia.

Alan Cheuse reviews the Girl Who Played Go, by Shan Sa, a novel following a two characters' intersection at the 3,000-year-old game of Go, played with black and white stones. The novel debuted last year and has just been published in paperback.

Los Angeles Time movie critic Kenneth Turan says the new movie Closer attempts to deal with the depth of human emotions involving love and relationships. Instead, you'll find empty people trying to fulfill their selfish desires.

Slate contributor Mark Jordan Legan presents an overview of what film critics are saying about this weekend's new movie releases, including the supernatural horror flick White Noise starring Michael Keaton.

NPR's Bob Mondello reviews the performances of two actors who are expected to garner Oscar nominations for their performances: Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn. Both actors give harrowing psychological portraits of outsiders — Bacon plays a former child molester in The Woodsman and Penn plays a down-and-out salesman in The Assassination of Richard Nixon.

Day to Day presents Sliced By An Artist, a radio play written by elementary school student Kenny Juarez when he was 9 (he's now 11). Actor Dustin Hoffman narrates the story. It's a fantasy about a drinking straw trying to avoid his father's fate of being shredded for a piece of artwork.