Columns
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‘You Can’t Write That … Wait, Have You Got More Like It?’
Comedy writers often find that the most serious of situations can provide fodder for the funniest lines … if you’re willing to fight for them
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Peter Desberg and Jeffrey Davis -
Lyle Lovett Makes Writer’s Block Work for Him, Again, in ‘Release Me’
Review: It’s hard to complain about Lovett’s spate of mostly-covers albums when he resurrects such juicy blues, country, and Texas-music obscurities
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‘The Artist’ Producer Thomas Langmann Learned From His Film Family
Thomas Langmann, producer of Oscar-winner “The Artist,” learned the value of taking risks and the joy of a challenge as a child on the beaches of St. Tropez
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Carole Mallory -
Comcast Doing a Shoddy Job of Getting Into Netflix’s Business
Comcast actually has the nerve to charge current TV subscribers $5 a month for Streampix if they don’t get Comcast’s cable-TV-Internet bundle
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Michael Stroud -
Berlin Film Fest: A Predictor of Oscar Gold?
Berlin is like a treasure trove of great films waiting to be discovered
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Anke Zwirner -
Pan Am Memories: Aloha to Hawaii And to My Mother
The possibly final episode of TV’s “Pan Am” inspires the author, a former real-life Pan Am stewardess, to remember a visit to Hawaii with her mother
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Carole Mallory -
Chieftains Get the T Bone Burnett Treatment on Guest-Filled Anniversary Album
Fresh from the Grammys, Bon Iver and the Civil Wars are among the drop-ins deferring to the Chieftains’ traditional style on a 50th anniversary album
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Sleigh Bells Go With Death Knells On ‘Reign of Terror’
A spoonful of sugary pop, along with a new penchant for heavy metal, make the morbidity go down on Sleigh Bells’ mortality-themed new album “Reign of Terror”
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Sinead O’Connor Rips Up Pope Again — And Bono — On New Album
It’s not just the provocation that’s a return to form for O’Connor on ‘How About I Be Me (And You Be You)’
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In Praise of Meryl Streep’s Margaret Thatcher
Hollyblog: Meryl Streep deserves an Oscar for her hauntingly realistic and sensitive portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady”
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Kirsty Lang -
When it Comes to Best Actor, How are We to Judge?
The script, and the degree of transformation required by the role, are two critical criteria. Take George Clooney and Jean Dujardin for example
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Mark W. Travis -
How Jim Rash Went From Improv to ‘Community’ to a ‘Descendants’ Oscar Nomination
What all his diverse work has in common — and what he wants for Dean Felton
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What Norman Mailer Would Have Told Me About ‘Safe House’
Perhaps it would have helped screenwriter David Guggenheim to have worked from a graph instead of allowing a chase to become practically the entire plot
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Carole Mallory -
Seeing ‘Red’ with Local Hero Ed Gero in Washington D.C.
Washington-based actor Ed Gero, currently starring in “Red,” has become a treasured fixture on the D.C. stage scene
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Aviva Kempner -
Punch Brothers’ ‘Who’s Feeling Young’: Bluegrass for People Afraid of Bluegrass
Ex-Nickel Creek mandolinist Chris Thile continues to lead acoustic string-band music into the 21st century with his witty songwriting and eight-string shredding