NPR Topics: Arts & Life

Berry Bad: Threat To Trees Lurks On Holiday Tables

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500

Its alluring crimson fruit makes it an enduring star of the Thanksgiving centerpiece, but Asiatic bittersweet is strangling trees across New England. In many states, it's illegal to collect or move the invasive vine.

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'The Vibrator Play': Why Yes, It Is About Exactly That

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:00:00 -0500

Any short list of important young American playwrights would have to include Sarah Ruhl, who at age 35 has had work performed at major theaters around the country. She made her Broadway debut Nov. 19, with a period drama called In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play. But as Jeff Lunden reports, it's as much about intimacy and honesty as about sexuality.

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James Franco Checks In To 'General Hospital'

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0500

The star of Milk and Pineapple Express — and a little movie franchise called Spider-Man — will be spending some time in Port Charles over the next couple of months. His guest-starring stint may help "freshen the image of daytime," says the soap opera's executive producer.

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'Broken Embraces': The Very Picture Of Romance

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Brace yourself: Things are about to get meta. Pedro Almodovar's latest picture strings a colorfully knotty love story across layers of dark film-within-a-film intrigue. Complex of plot, deft in its blending of comedy and melodrama, and a treasure trove of golden-age movie references, the film is what you might call a lushly tragic lark — a heartfelt, if not quite heartbreaking, paean to romance and to the romance of cinema. (Recommended)

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Real-Life Physics Problems Star On TV

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0500

The stars of The Big Bang Theory are two fictional Caltech physicists, but the physics problems they study are real. Bill Prady, the program's co-creator and executive producer, talks about including real-world science in the script, from dark matter to magnetic monopoles.

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Judd Apatow On The Alchemy Of 'Funny People'

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:53:00 -0500

Judd Apatow, known for films like The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, was the guiding force behind the comedy Funny People, out now on DVD. The movie focuses on a comedian (Adam Sandler) who reassesses his life after a dire medical diagnosis. Apatow, a former comic himself, talks about why he made the movie — and what he finds funny.

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Tim Burton's Drawings On Display

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:13:50 -0500

By Claire O'Neill Tim Burton is probably the only person who could get away with using a monster's mouth as the entrance to an art exhibition. You know him for his films Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Of all film director-pr...

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'The Onion': Mocking All Who Deserve It Since 1988

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:00:00 -0500

America's Finest News Source has released a book celebrating its 21 years of satire (with a wink). Onion editors Joe Randazzo and Joe Garden talk with Renee Montagne about the serious business of being funny. Also: See the fun The Onion has had at NPR's expense.

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Go Pink: Stamberg And Reichl Make Cranberry Relish

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500

In an NPR tradition, the Friday before Thanksgiving is the time for Susan Stamberg to share her weird-sounding — but delicious — recipe for cranberry relish. This year, she's found a real fan: food expert Ruth Reichl.

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Under A 'New Moon,' A Surprising Lack Of Passion

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:15:00 -0500

If you have teenage girls in your life, you don't need to be told that New Moon, the second part of The Twilight Saga, hits movie theaters this weekend. Even though the world may have had enough of star-crossed sweethearts Edward and Bella by the series' end, critic Kenneth Turan says there's not enough of them in this installment.

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Herzog's 'Bad Lieutenant': He's Crescent City Crazy

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:55:00 -0500

"A man without a gun, that's not a man," says the pain-wracked, drug-addled anti-hero cop at the center of Port of Call: New Orleans. You get the feeling that director Werner Herzog, that dedicated chronicler of alpha-male lunacy, agrees — and you can't help but notice that his crime drama is every bit as over-the-top eccentric as its protagonist.

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'Oprah Winfrey Show' To Go Off The Air In 2011

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:41:00 -0500

The talk-show icon will call it a wrap after 25 seasons, her production company said. A formal announcement is expected on Friday's edition of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

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John Woo's 'Red Cliff': An Epic Cut Down To Size

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:30:00 -0500

The director of Face/Off and Mission: Impossible II returns to his Hong Kong-cinema roots with a battle epic based on a war fought in China 18 centuries ago. Critic Mark Jenkins says that while Red Cliff's scope is certainly impressive, the edited-down U.S. release could use some psychological strife to go with its clanging swords and clashing ships.

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An Actor Reads Health Care Bill

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0500

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has proposed reading the 2,074-page Senate health care bill on the floor of the Senate. Floyd King, a veteran actor for the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, performs a dramatic reading of a section of the bill.

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Judith Fox Turns A Close-Up Lens On Alzheimer's

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0500 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120568216&ft=1&f=1008 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120568216&ft=1&f=1008

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