Some of the nicest touches at the 2012 SAG awards broadcast were the segues mentioning local actors who had appeared in movie shoots based in their home town.

The Tony Awards could learn a thing or two from these shout-outs at the SAG ceremony. Local theater productions benefit greatly from casting homegrown thespians.

We in Washington D.C. have Ed Gero, known principally for his fine work in Michael Kahn’s Shakespeare Theatre and currently for his brilliant run as Mark Rothko in John Logan’s "Red" at the Arena Stage in colaboration with Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

Amidst a stage dressed as...

A sports story is unfolding in Washington, D.C., that would make a great old fashioned Hollywood movie.

Ever since third baseman Ryan Zimmerman’s mother Cheryl was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1995, the Washington Nationals star has continued to devote his time and efforts towards raising funds to find a cure for the disease.

Cheryl Zimmerman, herself a two-sport athlete in lacrosse and field hockey, showed symptoms of the disease when Ryan was only eleven years old. He and his brother helped to care for her by doing household chores.

When Ryan grew up to be a major leaguer he decided to raise awareness for his mother’s disease. At age twenty he established a charity to...

This week’s news is full of the fifth anniversary of the Katrina devastation. Hopefully the Emmy awards will also follow suit by awarding Agneiszka Holland best director for “Do You Know What It Means,”  the pilot of the specutacular new HBO series, "Treme." 

This latest gem by David Simon deserves all the accolades: a unique show following the lives of musicians and everyday people as they pick up the pieces after the hurricane damage.
 
From its first dramatic offering, Simon pegged what bravery and uncertainty these New Orleans citizens faced once they returned to their nearly destroyed homes. It was an inspired choice for "Treme's" first show’s director to be Holland. She is a brilliant, Polish-born director who had previously penned and directed films about the Holocaust, including the Oscar...

I am European-born and so were my parents. I realize the Europeans view sex and affairs of the heart differently than us prudish Americans.

This difference came to light recently when I came out of the movie theater after seeing the passionate French movie about a married man’s affair, “Mademoiselle Chambon.” My American friends strongly disagreed with my European take on the movie after I commented that the husband would be seeking his child’s schoolteacher for another round of their affair after his wife delivered their second child.

However, when it comes to having sex with a minor, my native origins are thrown out the window and I stand with my adopted country...