Search results for

-- Ben Williams of Slate presents a weekly roundup of what film critics are saying about this weekend's new major studio film premieres: Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, Suspect Zero and The Brown Bunny.

Day to Day and San Francisco Chronicle book critic David Kipen reviews The Art of the Interview: Lessons from a Master of the Craft by Lawrence Grobel.

The comedy of Stanley Laurel and Oliver Hardy transcended the language barrier. But the duo didn't take any chances -- film historians have discovered a rare edition of a classic Laurel & Hardy film where the duo performs in German. Writer Mark Jordan Legan offers an appreciation.

Slate media critic Seth Stevenson comments on Citibank's new television ad campaign, touting the company's new rewards program aimed at making customers feel as though they're being treated well by the company.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews The Manchurian Candidate, starring Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep and Liev Schreiber. Jonathan Demme directed the remake of the 1962 classic thriller.

Franks, formerly the commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, led the American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. He says the United States did not anticipate the insurgency that followed the invasion of Iraq, and he warns against underestimating Osama bin Laden. He's written a new memoir, American Soldier.

Tony-winner Phylicia Rashad returns to Broadway this fall in August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. She tells NPR's Michele Norris she likes to surround herself with nature while preparing for her roles.

Larry David, the co-creator of the hit series Seinfeld, scores another hit with a show about nothing -- Curb Your Enthusiasm. Watch scenes from the show's second season, now available on DVD.

The Showtime cable series Dead Like Me, about the Grim Reapers who live among us to escort the newly dead to their reward, has returned for a second season on Sunday nights. NPR's Liane Hansen talks to the show's executive producer, John Masius, about the evolution of the series and future story lines.

He's the founder of the Newport Folk Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Newport Jazz Festival, which turns 50 this year. A new three-CD set, Happy Birthday Newport: 50 Swinging Years, celebrates the milestone. In the early 1950s, Wein founded the jazz clubs Storyville and Mahogany Hall in his hometown of Boston, where jazz giants Art Tatum, Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Miles Davis played. In 1954 he launched the Newport Jazz Festival, where he presented Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Dave Brubeck and others. The other music greats he knew and worked with: Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong. Last year, Wein published his autobiography, Myself Among Others: A Life In Music.