Watching a giant chimpanzee named Freddie groom his tiny son, Oscar, is one of the highlights of the Disney nature film "Chimpanzee." By unfolding each section of hair, Freddie thoroughly looks for fleas and ticks on Oscar. Grooming holds this family of primates together.

"Chimpanzee politics are nicer than ours," primatologist Jane Goodall, 78, said to Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show" after she forced Stewart to give her a formal chimpanzee greeting. He touched the top of his head as she made a certain movement. They exchanged squeaks, grunts, oooohs and ahhs and only then would Goodall sit for her interview.

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Rich, poor, Republican, Democrat. What could happen to our world if we don't address poverty? "The Hunger Games" is fiction. Or maybe not.

Do we have blinders on to the acute need for wealth to be redistributed? Are we choking our families and leaving our children to have to face up to a bleak future? Will Capitalism triumph over poverty or destroy us all?

"The Hunger Games" is about children left to fight for their lives in a post-apocalyptic dystopian world -- as ghetto children do today. We just don't talk much about them, much less make movies about them.

The writer of this trilogy, Suzanne Collins, is the true star of this film. She wrote the novel, co-produced it and co-wrote the screenplay that is directed by Gary Ross. Ross also co-wrote the screenplay along with Billy Ray.

Collins' idea came from watching...

In 1971, on our first date, Claude Picasso, Pablo's son, moved into my apartment in New York City. As a model, I was on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Newsweek and New York  Magazine. Claude was going through a divorce and so was I. He had difficulty making a living as a photographer so I offered to help him out financially. His mother, Françoise Gilot, gave me a three pieces of Picasso jewelry to show her gratitude.

In 1973 upon Picasso's death, Claude and I became engaged. There was no hope for him to inherit Picasso's fortune due to the Napoleonic Code. Napoleon, like Picasso, had been a philanderer and had protected his assets. This French code or law said any child born out of wedlock could not inherit if there were no will. Enfin, Pablo Picasso would not leave a will because he felt the...

Because the faltering TV series "Pan Am" was pulled from the schedule this past week -- its actual fate yet to be decided by ABC -- I was inspired to write the following piece about my trip to Hawaii with my mother.

We were flying to Oahu from San Francisco. It would be our first layover on our trip around the world as a guest of Pan Am. I had been a stewardess for six months so I had benefits.


As we landed at the Ohana Honolulu Airport, I tried to imagine the Japanese bombing this peaceful island. Pearl Harbor was a lagoon harbor three miles to the west. No, I told myself, that was long ago and far away.

Tokyo was our next...