Scandal! Behind-the-Scenes Strife! Spinal Tap!

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Blind Items: In NPR's internal In Character wars, who said what about whom? And which fictional figure best embodies the In Character ideal? Read on ...

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Excuse me. Ahem. 'Scuse me. (Is this thing on?)

Austin Tichenor of the Reduced Shakespeare Company here.

Sorry to butt in here on the official NPR website. I've hacked my way onto the In Character blog because I ... I ...

I just need to share with you some shocking revelations. Revelations we uncovered back in mid-July, about the tensions and dissensions the In Character series has stirred up among NPR's most distinguished journalists.

Listen! To Madeleine Brand's startling Spinal Tap fetish!

Hear! Robert Siegel clam up about how he really feels!

Be shocked! When Peter Overby raises his voice!

And awed! At what David Kestenbaum is willing to say in front of a live mic!

Also: Check out this exclusive web-only interview I conducted with Scott Simon, in which the Weekend Edition host reveals everything his corporate masters at NPR wouldn't let him say!

Seriously: Click over and listen to the piece we did for In Character, which is finally showing up on the series homepage now that various technical difficulties have been overcome. (I'm lookin' at you, Trey Graham).

You'll hear some of your favorite NPR journalists as you've never heard them before. You'll hear what Nina Totenberg thinks about what we think about whether two fictional girl detectives are too many.

And you'll discover, toward the end of the piece, which fictional figure we at the RSC think best represents the In Character ideal -- a single character who embodies everything we are as Americans.

Then click over and listen to the Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast. It's "All Things Reduced" at ReducedShakespeare.com.

Just be sure to come back here, and tell us what you think about In Character's choices. Your comments chariot awaits ...

-- Austin Tichenor

12:50 PM ET | 08-14-2008 | permalink

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On Air: Charlotte A. Cavatica

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Illustrator Garth Williams told the author of The Annotated Charlotte's Web that E.B. White himself amended Williams' concept for Charlotte, which had originally been based on arachnological illustrations:

"He put two dots on the edge of her face looking down and put 3 strokes to suggest hair on the top of her head."

The effect worked, Williams conceded, and Charlotte became a likable heroine without being recognizably anthropomorphic -- "but I contend [White] cheated."

Garth Williams/HarperCollins

Baltimore, Md., librarian Fran Glick was the NPR.org user whose essay about Charlotte A. Cavatica caught our attention back in February.

Now, from All Things Considered host Melissa Block, comes this on-air appreciation of the elegant, if complicated, arachnid at the center of Charlotte's Web.

Block talks to the granddaughter and stepson of author E.B. White -- and to the author of The Annotated Charlotte's Web -- about how much painstaking research went into the creation of the character.

And about how adults and children differ in their reactions to her story.

The producer of the 1970 audiobook edition talks about White's own "ridiculous" reaction when he tried to record the book's infinitely sad closing sequence.

(What was your reaction as a kid? How does it affect you now? Share your Charlotte stories in the comments.)

And it wouldn't be an 'In Character' story without some extras, so you can hear White himself read a passage from the book. It's all over here on the story page.

Enjoy.

-- Trey Graham

4:44 PM ET | 08- 4-2008 | permalink

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Your Turn: Mame Dennis

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"Life is a banquet": Rosalind Russell (in the 1956 Broadway production of Auntie Mame) made an irresistibly puckish boho queen.

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Auntie Mame was one of the first characters you nominated when we launched In Character early this year.

From Auntie Mame. Book by Patrick Dennis
Play adapted by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Movie directed by Morton DaCosta
Nominated by Michael Whistler

My mother deemed one movie important enough for repeated family viewing: Auntie Mame, based on the novel by Patrick Dennis and starring the unforgettable Rosalind Russell.

Mame Dennis challenges her young charge Patrick to "Live! Live! Live!," presenting a world which is filled with miracles and not obstacles, hope instead of despair. Amid the chaos she creates, she ensures that he lives in a world filled with warmth, vivacity, charm, culture, adventure and beauty.

Sitting in that living room watching the movie, I could see the world my mother tried to offer me through Mame's - one where wit trumps power, charm overcomes fear, and generosity is the greatest act of human courage. Auntie Mame taught me the simple virtue of human love: the bravest person has the most to give, the most fearful has the least of all.

In short: Auntie Mame taught me to be a man.

Tags: Independent Women | Literature | Movies | Theater

10:01 AM ET | 08- 1-2008 | permalink

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