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Jill Schary Robinson, a memoirist, novelist and mother of UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer, has died at 88.

Robinson died Saturday at her home in Beverly Hills, CA, according to a statement from her family. A cause of death was not specified.

Born in 1936 in Los Angeles, Robinson was the daughter of two artists. Her father, Oscar and Tony winner Isadore “Dore” Schary, was head of production at MGM from 1948-1956. Her mother was painter Miriam Svet.

After starting as a copywriter for Foote, Cone & Belding, Robinson trained with iconic Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown and embarked on a career in journalism. She wrote about women’s issues for Cosmopolitan, covered political trials for the Soho Weekly News, and appeared on Los Angeles radio stations Klac and Kpfk.

Robinson’s 1963 memoir, With a Cast of Thousands, chronicled her experiences growing up in Hollywood during the Golden Age. It was followed by Thanks for the Rubies,...

Jill Schary Robinson, the memoirist, journalist and novelist whose father, Dore Schary, headed MGM in the 1950s and son, Jeremy Zimmer, is the founder and CEO of the United Talent Agency, has died. She was 88.

Schary Robinson died Saturday at her home in Beverly Hills, her family announced.

She wrote her first memoir, 1963’s With a Cast of Thousands, which chronicled her experiences growing up in Hollywood during the Golden Age, then followed with 1972’s Thanks for the Rubies, Now Please Pass the Moon and 1974’s Bed/Time/Story.

Bed/Time/Story won a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and became the 1980 NBC telefilm A Cry for Love, starring Susan Blakely and Powers Boothe in a moving story about love and addiction.

“No one has written better than she of the bewitching and distorting power the dream factory can have over our lives,” The New York Times once wrote.

Gayle King, co-host of “CBS Mornings” and editor-at-large of Oprah Daily, received the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism from Arizona State University on Tuesday at a ceremony in Phoenix.

Since 1984, the honor has been reserved for accomplished journalists who have demonstrated exemplary leadership skills. The award is named after the late Walter Cronkite, who anchored CBS Evening News for nearly two decades. Previous recipients include Al Roker, Anderson Cooper, Bob Woodward and more.

“Gayle King’s career and accomplishments are remarkable, and her professionalism embodies everything that Walter Cronkite valued in journalism,” said Battinto L. Batts Jr, dean of Asu’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. “Her approach to covering important events and interviewing politicians, leaders and celebrities is unparalleled. It’s an honor to present Gayle with this prestigious award.”

The three-time Emmy winner’s work has led her to cover pivotal moments in national history,...

Todd Haynes is without a doubt one of America’s most cinema-literate filmmakers, whether interrogating the Douglas Sirk melodrama in “Far From Heaven,” B-horror movies in “Poison,” or silent films in “Wonderstruck.” However, as revealed in this week’s New Yorker profile with the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, Haynes’ most formative moviegoing experience was the 1964 musical “Mary Poppins” — which he first saw at the age of three.

In the New Yorker story, Haynes described falling into a “total imaginative rapture” with the Julie Andrews-starring Disney classic, and that he immediately wanted to create a “fanatical, creative, obsession response where I had to replicate the experience.” Haynes said that he drew hundreds of “Poppins” pictures, sang the songs, and made his family dress up as the characters. “I could feel my parents behind me, worrying about what this might mean, or worrying whether they should be worried, and I always felt defiant of their concerns,...

Burbank, CA, August 22, 2019 – Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced today that 1939’s acclaimed and beloved classic The Wizard of Oz will be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Digital on October 29th. Directed by Victor Fleming (Gone With the Wind) and starring Judy Garland as Dorothy Gayle, The Wizard of Oz is widely considered to be one of the most influential films in cinematic history.

Adapted from L. Frank Baum’s timeless children’s tale about a Kansas girl’s journey over the rainbow, The Wizard of Oz officially premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theater on August 15, 1939. The film was directed by Victor Fleming (who that same year directed Gone With the Wind), produced by Mervyn LeRoy, and scored by Herbert Stothart, with music and lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg. Ray Bolger appeared as the Scarecrow; Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion, Jack Haley as the Tin Woodman.

Neil Simon, the creator of such Pulitzer and Tony award-winning plays as The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park and Lost in Yonkers, has died at 91. He died last night at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City from complications from pneumonia.

Simon was a giant of popular content creation, the playwright behind works that were performed worldwide by high schools, local theater groups and Broadway, where he was dominant in the last half of the 20th century. Simon’s unparalleled career in the theater included more than thirty plays and musicals that opened on Broadway over a span of four decades.

He made his playwriting debut in 1961, with Come Blow Your Horn and concluded his Broadway run with 45 Seconds From Broadway in 2001.

“No playwright in Broadway’s long and raucous history has so dominated the boulevard as the softly astringent Simon,” wrote John Lahr in The New Yorker in 2010. “For almost half a century,...

“I was saying to my friend the other day that just proves being gay doesn’t change anything. Everybody has all the faults and failings of everybody else. A gay friend of mine said, ‘Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean I’m fabulous all the time.'” – Alfred Molina, actor in Prick Up Your Ears

Many of today’s Lgbt films are hagiographies about great people in the international movement toward sexual equality. In film, adulation usually results in flat characters and boring scenes (see: The Imitation Game). In Stephen Frears’ groundbreaking Prick Up Your Ears — which Metrograph screens from September 1-7 for its 30th anniversary — Gary Oldman brings pioneer queer playwright Joe Orton to life, warts and all. Alfred Molina plays Joe’s long-time boyfriend, mentor, and murderer, Kenneth Halliwell.

The story is structured with flashbacks to Joe and Kenneth. Wallace Shawn plays real-life Orton biographer John Lahr,...

Rereleased 50 years after Orton’s death, this Frears-directed 1987 biopic sees Gary Oldman and Alfred Molina in utterly convincing form

The title of this rereleased classic is the invention of Joe Orton’s biographer John Lahr, on whose book this is based: for a brief 60s moment, this brilliant young dramatist really did force London’s theatre world to listen to his outrageous and very tumescent wit. Then, after a grisly, gloomy murder-suicide, it was all over. Orton was bludgeoned to death 50 years ago by his partner, Kenneth Halliwell, apparently convulsed with jealous rage at Orton’s success, undiminished cottaging and ingratitude for the stability and mentorship that Halliwell had given him. (Maybe Kenneth was in his way Orton’s Bosie, or his vengeful Marquess of Queensberry, or both.)

Stephen Frears’ terrific 1987 movie – adapted by Alan Bennett from the Lahr book – is back in cinemas and Gary Oldman’s superb livewire...

Recent indie upstart Broad Green has announced they are developing John Lahr's biography Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh for a biopic on the titular playwright. No talent is attached yet, but the potential is enticing.

Williams, legendary for work such as A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie, has a life ready for any number of interpretations. Struggling with mental illness at an early age and battling rampant addiction, attracting and creating stars with consistently controversial and revolutionary writing, not to mention temptestous family and love lives - if nothing else, we have a catnip coctail for any actor who could fit the bill.

Could this be heading toward a fluffy, star-filled treatment a la Hitchcock or something more character-focused like Capote? Lahr's book, a finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award winner, dives deeply into all aspects of Williams's life,...

Broad Green Pictures buys screen rights to biography detailing Williams’s life, from first Broadway success in 1944 to his lonely death in a New York hotel room

The Hollywood production company behind recent indie hit 99 Homes and Eden is making a biopic of American playwright Tennessee Williams, reports Deadline.

Broad Green Pictures has picked up screen rights to the 2014 biography Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by former New Yorker theatre critic John Lahr, and will now look for a screenwriter to develop the project. The volume was the Guardian’s book of the week in October 2014, with reviewer Sarah Churchwell praising a “compulsively readable, thoroughly researched” biography, while criticising Lahr’s propensity for “gaps and repetitions”.

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John Lahr, long-time drama critic for The New Yorker and winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for his acclaimed biography Tennessee Williams Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, will talk about his newest book, Joy Ride Show People and Their Shows W. W. Norton September 21, 2015, a collection of some of his most popular and engaging New Yorker pieces, which puts the plays on Mr. Lahr's watch in the context of the lives of the artists who created them. Lahr will speak tonight, October 7, at 700pm at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place.

John Lahr, long-time drama critic for The New Yorker and winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for his acclaimed biography Tennessee Williams Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, will talk about his newest book, Joy Ride Show People and Their Shows W. W. Norton September 21, 2015, a collection of some of his most popular and engaging New Yorker pieces, which puts the plays on Mr. Lahr's watch in the context of the lives of the artists who created them. Lahr will speak on Wednesday, October 7, at 700pm at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place.

From anime to pitch-black thrillers, here's our pick of the underappreciated movies of 1987...

Sometimes, the challenge with these lists isn't just what to put in, but what to leave out. We loved Princess Bride, but with a decent showing at the box office and a huge cult following, isn't it a bit too popular to be described as underappreciated? Likewise Joe Dante's Innerspace, a fabulously geeky, comic reworking of the 60s sci-fi flick, Fantastic Voyage.

What we've gone for instead is a mix of genre fare, dramas and animated films that may have garnered a cult following since, but didn't do well either critically or financially at the time of release. Some of the movies on our list just about made their money back, but none made anything close to the sort of returns enjoyed by the likes of 1987's biggest films - Three Men And A Baby, Fatal Attraction...

The shortlist is announced today for the eighth annual Sheridan Morley Prize for Theatre Biography - the nominees are Tennessee Williams Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr, Our Time of Day My Life with Corin Redgrave by Kika Markham, What do I Know People, Politics and the Arts by Richard Eyre, Covering Shakespeare by David Weston and I Know Nothing The Autobiography by Andrew Sachs.

New Yorker magazine critic David Denby, whose erudite and often contrarian film reviews have been essential reading for New York cineastes since he began as the film critic for New York magazine in 1978, will give up the reviewing duties he’s split with the equally erudite and contrarian (but generally funnier) Anthony Lane at the turn of the year. Denby — a self-described “Paulette” due to the influence of the New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael on both his critical discernment and his sometimes caustic attitude toward the film industry — will remain with the magazine as a staff writer and critic-at-large.

Word of the change came through a Tweet posted by Denby’s New Yorker colleague John Lahr, congratulating him for 16 years at the magazine where he and Lane have alternated writing the weekly movies column. Lahr is the former drama critic, now also an at-large contributor. The Tweet prompted speculation...

New Yorker staff writer John Lahr caused a bit of a stir on Friday night when he tweeted, "Farewell David Denby, a masterly film critic and cohort, after a distinguished sixteen year ride at the New Yorker. Power to your pen!" Denby isn't entirely gone from the publication, though. He told Indiewire that he'll be staying on as a staff writer: "I will write some longer pieces on movies and other things, contribute to the web when I have something juicy to say. Right now, I'm finishing a book (nothing to do with movies)." As an alternating film critic with Anthony Lane, Denby has seen his share of controversy over the last decade and a half: Denby was once banned by Scott Rudin from screenings for publishing an early review of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and most recently drew criticism for calling author Cheryl Strayed "big-bodied" in his review of Wild.

An institution is leaving an institution. On Saturday morning, New Yorker writer John Lahr tweeted a farewell to David Denby, who has been a film critic at the publication for 16 years. He's seen his share of controversy over the last decade and a half: Denby was once banned by Scott Rudin from screenings for publishing an early review of Girl with a Dragon Tattoo and most recently drew criticism for calling author Cheryl Strayed "big-bodied" in his review of Wild. (We should note here that he is also the author of Snark: It's Mean, It's Personal, and It's Ruining Our Conversation). People are already speculating as to who will replace him. If the publication chooses to go with someone from within, Richard Brody, the movies editor for the Goings on About Town section and the author of Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard, would be an...

The 20 books on the short list for the 2014 National Book Awards were just announced. Just as in the other NBA, they can't all be champions: The winners in each category will be announced November 19.FictionAnthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot SeeRabih Alameddine, An Unnecessary WomanMarilynne Robinson, LilaPhil Klay, RedeploymentEmily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven Nonfiction Evan Osnos, Age of Ambition Roz Chast, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant Edward O. Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence Anand Gopal, No Good Men Among the Living John Lahr, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh Poetry Claudia Rankine, Citizen Louise Glück, Faithful and Virtuous Night Fred Moten, The Feel Trio Fanny Howe, Second Childhood Maureen N. McLane, This Blue Young People's Literature Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming John Corey Whaley, Noggin Steve Sheinkin, The Port Chicago 50 Deborah Wiles, Revolution Eliot Schrefer, Threatened ...

Iris Barry is "one of the secret heroines of the history of cinema—in fact, of the very idea that there is such a thing as a history of cinema," argues Richard Brody. Also in the New Yorker, Hilton Als reviews John Lahr's Tennessee Williams biography. For the Los Angeles Review of Books, Jordan Cronk talks with Michael Koresky about his new book on Terence Davies. At Flavorwire's Jason Bailey has posted an excerpt from his book on Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. And now that David Cronenberg's written a novel, Saul Austerlitz looks back on the many other filmmakers who've tried their hands at literature. » - David Hudson...

Iris Barry is "one of the secret heroines of the history of cinema—in fact, of the very idea that there is such a thing as a history of cinema," argues Richard Brody. Also in the New Yorker, Hilton Als reviews John Lahr's Tennessee Williams biography. For the Los Angeles Review of Books, Jordan Cronk talks with Michael Koresky about his new book on Terence Davies. At Flavorwire's Jason Bailey has posted an excerpt from his book on Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. And now that David Cronenberg's written a novel, Saul Austerlitz looks back on the many other filmmakers who've tried their hands at literature. » - David Hudson...

The Shakespeare Guild's 2014-15 season will open with a conversation that will launch the U.S. author tour for a biography that actress Helen Mirren calls 'a masterpiece about a genius.' Only John Lahr, she says, 'with his perceptions about the theater, about writers, about poetry, and about people, could have written this book.' John Lahr will discuss his acclaimed biography of Tennessee Williams tonight, September 24, at 6 p.m. at The Players, 16 Gramercy Park South, New York. Admission 20 in Advance 25 at the Door.

The Shakespeare Guild's 2014-15 season will open with a conversation that will launch the U.S. author tour for a biography that actress Helen Mirren calls 'a masterpiece about a genius.' Only John Lahr, she says, 'with his perceptions about the theater, about writers, about poetry, and about people, could have written this book.' John Lahr will discuss his acclaimed biography of Tennessee Williams on Wednesday, September 24, at 6 p.m. at The Players.

When, in 2002, the one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty moved to Broadway from the Public Theater, Marc Peyser, writing for Newsweek, noted that it'd "acquired the credit 'Constructed by John Lahr. Reconstructed by Elaine Stritch.' 'The reconstruction means I had the last say,' she says. 'Damn right I did.'" Stritch passed away on Thursday, and the following day, John Lahr wrote for the New Yorker: "Elaine Stritch’s death, at the age of 89, marks the end of an era—the end of old-school, succeed-or-die, knock-’em-dead, Broadway show-biz. We collect remembrances from, among others, Woody Allen: "I was crazy about her." » - David Hudson...

When, in 2002, the one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty moved to Broadway from the Public Theater, Marc Peyser, writing for Newsweek, noted that it'd "acquired the credit 'Constructed by John Lahr. Reconstructed by Elaine Stritch.' 'The reconstruction means I had the last say,' she says. 'Damn right I did.'" Stritch passed away on Thursday, and the following day, John Lahr wrote for the New Yorker: "Elaine Stritch’s death, at the age of 89, marks the end of an era—the end of old-school, succeed-or-die, knock-’em-dead, Broadway show-biz. We collect remembrances from, among others, Woody Allen: "I was crazy about her." » - David Hudson...

“I’d like to propose a toast.” They’re just six simple words introducing “The Ladies Who Lunch” in the musical Company, but they’re the six words that introduced the scene that got theater and cabaret audiences talking about Elaine Stritch, who died today at age 89.

This bit, which unfolds over about 12 minutes with the tension of an ace Hitchcock thriller, is about as apt a descriptor of Stritch’s legacy as any: In the benchmark 1971 D.A. Pennebaker documentary Company: Original Cast Album, Stritch famously tries to get through a marathon show album recording. Tugging at her hair with voice tired and weary,...

With the release of Sam Raimi’s CGI-heavy fantasy film Oz the Great and Powerful coming this weekend, it seems appropriate to look back in time more than 70 years to the release of one of the most influential films of all time: The Wizard of Oz. Based on L. Frank Baum’s children’s book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the story had been made into a film previously (once as a silent film in 1925 and again as a short film in 1933). However, it was Victor Fleming’s musical rendition of the story that left the brightest mark on the cinema landscape. This commentary was included on the 2005 DVD release, which is also included on the 70th anniversary 2009 DVD and Blu-ray discs. The late Sidney Pollack serves as emcee for the commentary, introducing archival interviews with cast, as well as family members of deceased cast and crew. The Wizard of Oz (1939) Commentators: John Fricke (historian), with archival...

The New Yorker's John Lahr is stepping down from the magazine's top theater critic post after 20 years and passing the torch to Hilton Als. London-based Lahr, 71, will continue to write the lengthy profiles the New Yorker is known for, while Als -- who lives in New York City -- will pen the weekly's take on the theater scene, the Condé Nast-owned publication said Monday in a statement to TheWrap. Before becoming theater critic, Lahr  contributed profiles to the magazine. "Noel Coward once said, 'I'm not vain but I'm proud.' Me too,"...

It was just about weeks ago when it was announced that the acclaimed Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (with Blair Underwood as “Stanley,” Nicole Ari Parker as “Blanche, Daphne Rubin-Vega as Stella, and Wood Harris as “Mitch”) would extend its run through August 19, 2012. Not anymore. It was announced earlier today that the show will no end its run on July 22 instead. Reasons given were to prep for the show's fall engagement in London. The play has received mostly positive reviews, with the New Yorker's veteran theatre critic John Lahr's biting review (summoning the words of the...

It's been a newsy day. We lost Tonino Guerra and Ulu Grosbard, the Hong Kong and New Directors/New Films festivals have opened, Takashi Miike has yet another film on the way and Casablanca, celebrating its 70th, is playing coast to coast. It's also been a fine day for posters, so I'm pepping up today's Briefing with a few for festivals and events happening soon or already ongoing. Kevin Tong designed the one above for the three films that Edgar Wright will be on hand to present at the opening of the Alamo Drafthouse on Slaughter Lane in Austin this weekend.

The lineup and schedule for Ebertfest 2012, running April 25 through 29, has been set and Roger Ebert discusses each of the titles in his Journal. Among the highlights: David Bordwell will lead a discussion of Citizen Kane, Patton Oswalt will host a session on Kind Hearts and Coronets and it looks...

"His maternal grandmother, he says, wrote the libretto for Strauss's Salome. Her anarchist husband was bayoneted by German police. Henry Louis Gates mapped the family history. The Aga Khan took him up the Nile on his yacht. The Nazis chased him out of Berlin at age 7; upon arrival in New York, one of his only English phrases was 'Please do not kiss me.' He married Diane Sawyer. 'I know!' he says, when you look amazed."

Mike Nichols is the subject of an entertaining profile by Jesse Green in this week's New York. At the age of 80, Nichols is reviving Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman on Broadway (the show's currently in previews and officially opens on March 15): "Philip Seymour Hoffman, with whom he'd worked on The Seagull and Charlie Wilson's War, agreed to play Willy; Linda Emond, Andrew Garfield, John Glover, and the rest of the luxury cast signed on instantaneously.

The actor and director has angered some with his comments on the British stance on the Falklands. But he has a long history of speaking out passionately when he perceives injustice

In the midst of the row that has engulfed Sean Penn over his comments on "ludicrous and archaic" British colonialism regarding the Falkland Islands, the words put into Penn's mouth by Trey Parker and Matt Stone in their animated film Team America, inevitably have resurfaced, laden with a certain resonance. "Last year I went to Iraq," Parker and Stone had Penn declaiming in their satirical assault on the self-regard and simplistic views of Hollywood A-list activists. "Before Team America showed up, it was a happy place. They had flowery meadows and rainbow skies and rivers made of chocolate."

In the fall-out from his remarks made in Argentina, when visiting President Kirchner, there has been something of the tone of...

Hello, Zoners!

I’m on vacation—but I would never miss my Fantasy League post! Fortunately, because I’m relaxing at my sister’s home, I have access to everything I need to write.

Last week brought us Stephen tramping through the Letterman set, discoursing on Donald Trump’s “wisdom,” and coining the phrase “journalistic grintegrity.” Of course, nothing is likely to equal the incredible news that dominated headlines and provided plenty of fodder for both Jon and Stephen. Nonetheless, the week ahead looks like fun to me, as Stephen welcomes a socially conscious rapper, an Oscar-winning actor, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and an expert on man’s best friend.

By the way, even though Stephen’s our man, I would like to give a big thumbs-up to Jon, who I think was truly at the top of his game last week. Now…let’s go!

Monday, 5/9: Lupe Fiasco

After four years,...

"Sidney Lumet, a director who preferred the streets of New York to the back lots of Hollywood and whose stories of conscience — 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, The Verdict, Network — became modern American film classics, died Saturday morning at his home in Manhattan. He was 86." Robert Berkvist in the New York Times: "'While the goal of all movies is to entertain,' Mr Lumet once wrote, 'the kind of film in which I believe goes one step further. It compels the spectator to examine one facet or another of his own conscience. It stimulates thought and sets the mental juices flowing.' Social issues set his own mental juices flowing, and his best films not only probed the consequences of prejudice, corruption and betrayal but also celebrated individual acts of courage."

"Nearly all the characters in Lumet's gallery are driven by obsessions or passions that range from the pursuit of justice,...

Only days ago "The Deadly Affair" arrived at my doorstep, yet another of Sidney Lumet's films I had never seen before since having been born two-thirds of the way into the director's legendary career, it's always been a game of catch-up. Then again, it was that way for most in his field, even if they were contemporaries.

After passing away far too soon at the age of 86, Lumet leaves behind a half-century-long career that will no doubt be scrutinized for being inconsistent, a richly ironic assessment given that in person and on film, he was known as a straight shooter, and perhaps one of the only filmmakers who could say their final film ("Before the Devil Knows You're Dead") was as vital and strong as their first ("12 Angry Men"). However, that certainly isn't the only reason why Lumet was a rarity.

In a world full of auteurs, Lumet was a collaborator,...

Geoffrey Rush is one a select few actors who have earned the "Triple Crown of Acting" -- an Oscar, a Tony and an Emmy.

The Australian actor earned his fourth Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Lionel Logue, the King's speech therapist in "The King's Speech." Rush not only stars, but also served as an executive producer of the film, which is nominated for Best Picture of the Year.

Rush's talents were discovered long before his currently acclaimed role.

Premiering Sept. 7 on HBO, "My Trip to Al-Qaeda" is a documentary based on journalist and author Lawrence Wright's one-man show of the same name. Composed largely of Wright performing his piece in front of an audience, "My Trip to Al-Qaeda" chronicles his personal experience researching and investigating al-Qaida and Sept. 11 for his Pulitzer Prize–winning book, "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11"—a tome that has since become the go-to reference on the subject. Wright had previous experience with filmmaking: He had written screenplays for political films such as "Noriega: God's Favorite" and the 1998 Denzel Washington–starrer "The Siege." That film's plot revolved around terrorist attacks that lead the U.S. to declare martial law and place Arab-Americans in detention camps.Imbued with personal reflections as well as a journalist's eye, "My Trip to Al-Qaeda" offers invaluable insight into the historical occurrence, telling the tale in an intimate and humane way.

Though the economy was still in dire straits, Broadway carried on during the 2009-10 season, with visits from such high-voltage marquee names as Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig, Christopher Walken, Denzel Washington, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Liev Schreiber, and Scarlett Johansson. A little group called Green Day rocked Broadway's world with the stage adaptation of the band's hit album "American Idiot," Twyla Tharp paid tribute to Frank Sinatra in "Come Fly Away," and Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins formed a "Million Dollar Quartet." "Fela!," Bill T. Jones' combination dance party, concert, and musical biography, transferred to the Main Stem from its Off-Broadway run, as did Geoffrey Nauffts' tender and moving play "Next Fall." "Red" and "Time Stands Still" offered searing portraits of artists coping with crises, while Sarah Ruhl's "In the Next Room or the vibrator play" captured the repressive Victorian era. Broadway fare also...

Bill Hicks, who died of cancer in 1994 at the age of 32, was a stand-up comedian from a suburban, middle-class southern Baptist background. Hooked on performance from the age of 13, he evolved into a serious critic of American society. Hicks belonged to the mumbling, dragged-from-the-guts style of expressive, stream-of-consciousness comedy that developed from Lenny Bruce in the late 1950s, rather than the wisecracking, sardonic form of commentary associated with Bruce's contemporary, Mort Sahl. Frankly, I always preferred Sahl to Bruce and I find Hicks more interesting than entertaining. This movie is well assembled, but oddly muffled, and should be supplemented by the book Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines: Bill Hicks, which has an excellent foreword by John Lahr.

DocumentaryComedyPhilip French

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Bill Hicks left behind the legacy of an iconic comedy talent. But is American: The Bill Hicks Story the right film for the right man?

I can still remember seeing Bill Hicks for the first time, a late night Channel 4 Just For Laughs special called Relentless. I can still remember the intro music (which was, as I would later discover, Hicks' very own take on Hendrix), the opening gags ("Comedy is the greatest job in the world. It's not the sharing of laughter and all that horse shit... It's the fact that I don't have a boss. Picture that... And envy me").

I remember scrabbling for a VHS cassette. I remember feeling I was watching something special, huddled in front of the TV in my parents' living room. As a fifteen, maybe sixteen-year-old, I think that in that slightly cherubic, sad-eyed, pasty, acerbic, razor-edged motormouth I saw everything that I was,...

There is no shortage of one-person shows. Indeed, there is a glut of them on both coasts. Some are good, some not so good.How do you avoid the mediocre and present something that resonates with audiences? Back Stage spoke to solo performers who have successfully scored with theatergoers to gain insight into the choices they've made and the artistic challenges they've faced. New York's current and recent top-notch offerings include Carrie Fisher's "Wishful Drinking," Anna Deavere Smith's "Let Me Down Easy," Judith Ivey's "The Lady With All the Answers," Charlayne Woodard's "The Night Watcher," Antoinette Lavecchia's "How to Be a Good Italian Daughter (In Spite of Myself)," Yisrael Campbell's "Circumcise Me," and Sueli Rocha's "The Glue Trap." L.A. is hosting Naomi Grossman's "Carnival Knowledge: Lost, Lust, and Other Oddities," Patt Benson's "Growing Up With Uncle Miltie," and Jeffrey Combs' "Nevermore…...

Chicago – The Warner Brothers Blu-Ray release to mark the 70th anniversary of the beloved “The Wizard of Oz” is perhaps the most exhaustive and complete “Collector’s Edition” release to date. Warner Brothers, a studio that knows how to treat their classics, releasing gigantic sets for “Blade Runner” and “Casablanca” in recent years and with another for “Gone With the Wind” coming soon, has done it again, and arguably better than ever.

Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0

As for the film itself, what more could possibly be written about “The Wizard of Oz”? By some standards, it’s the most watched movie in world history, a film that has transcended its genre to simply become a part of the history of the planet. Have you ever heard someone criticize or complain about “The Wizard of Oz”? Me either.

The Wizard of Oz: 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on September 29th,...

Hitting shelves tomorrow, The Wizard of Oz 70th Anniversary DVD Editions are amazing treatments for the classic film. Newly remastered and filled with bonuses, the DVD releases are absolute must-owns. The Blu-Ray release is obviously the clear winner here, but this is a great example of not skimping for those who haven't made that upgrade yet. The 2-disc edition gives you a treasure trove of bonuses, and a brilliant-looking version of the film that gives you the advantages of the 8K resolution scan remastering, which results in an instantly noticeable improvement over previous DVD releases. The 2-disc includes - Disc 1 Remastered feature with Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio (New) Sing-along Track (New) Commentary by John Fricke with Barbara Freed-Saltzman (daughter of Arthur Freed), Margaret Hamilton, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, John Lahr (son of Bert Lahr), Jane Lahr (daughter of Bert Lahr), Hamilton Meserve (son of Margaret Hamilton), Dona Massin (MGM choreographer), William Tuttle (make-up artist), Buddy Ebsen,...

Broadway star Elaine Stritch is facing legal action from a disgruntled writer who alleges he's yet to receive payment for working on her 2001 one-woman show.

The actress took to the New York stage for Elaine Stritch at Liberty, a musical that ran for 15 months and earned the 84 year old her first Tony Award.

But John Lahr claims he is still waiting to be rewarded for helping to turn her life story into a stage show - and he's suing Stritch to get hold of his money.

He recently filed suit at Manhattan Supreme Court after failing to settle the dispute out of court.

Lahr's lawyer Carl Koerner says, "We had hoped to resolve it amicably. John Lahr is a writer and a very prestigious one. It's never been his goal in life to be a plaintiff."

However, Stritch is denying the accusations, insisting the show would never have been a success if it wasn't for Lahr's writing talent.

When asked if she had snubbed Lahr, she tells the New York Post, "Noooo! He made it possible for me to do my show, so I'm indebted to him for life. I have nothing bad to say about him... He's a brilliant audience and he brought out the best in me..."

Lahr is suing for unspecified damages, restitution, and a 20 per cent share of the profits from the play.