Television

Douglas, Damon Illuminate HBO's 'Candelabra'()  

Michael Douglas stars as the flamboyant pianist and entertainer Liberace in Steven Soderbergh's new HBO biopic, Behind the Candelabra.

May 23, 2013 Steven Soderbergh's latest film is a showbiz story about Vegas icon Liberace and his secret lover — played, respectively, by Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, both terrific in their roles. It premieres Sunday on HBO.

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Movie Reviews

'Plimpton!': A Fond Look At A Man Of Letters()  

But Could He Cook, Too? Journalist, raconteur, bon vivant and bona fide literary force, Paris Review founder George Plimpton — pictured here photographing birds on a trip to Africa — is the subject of an admiring documentary.

May 23, 2013 An affectionate documentary portrays the Paris Review founder as a man devoted to illuminating how talent and creativity work — both for himself, and for the rest of us.

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Pitbull Gets 'Epic': 'You Constantly Have To Defend Your Success'()  

Pitbull's latest album is titled Global Warming, and he voices the character Bufo in the new movie Epic.

May 23, 2013 Armando Christian Perez — better known as Pitbull or Mr. Worldwide — has sold five million albums and had No. 1 hits in more than 15 countries. He tells NPR's Michel Martin about using music as an escape and playing a well-dressed toad in the animated film Epic.

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The Race Card Project: Six-Word Essays

Living In Two Worlds, But With Just One Language()  

Elysha O'Brien and her husband, Michael, with sons (left to right) Gabriel, Joseph and Michael. Elysha never learned Spanish but is determined that her children will.

May 23, 2013 Elysha O'Brien calls herself a "Mexican white girl." Not just because of her ethnically ambiguous appearance, she says, but also because she can't speak Spanish. Fearing their children would experience discrimination if they spoke Spanish, her parents chose not to teach them their native tongue.

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Monkey See

'Before Midnight': Jesse And Celine Are Older Now, And So Are We()  

Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in Before Midnight.

May 23, 2013 It took Jesse and Celine 18 years to find themselves back where they started in the lovely third installment of the series that began with 1995's Before Sunrise.

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Parallels

China's Artist Provocateur Explores New Medium: Heavy Metal()  

The video for Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's newly released song starts by re-creating the conditions of his captivity during the 81 days he was held in police detention in 2011, and later dissolves into a dystopian nightmare.

May 22, 2013 In 2011, police detained Ai Weiwei for 81 days. Now, he's released a song that's turned the experience into a heavy metal protest song, along with a dystopian nightmare video. The lyrics are explicit and angry. Ai says his music is for the many political prisoners who remain jailed.

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Sweetness And Light

Backing Becks: Don't Knock The Soccer Star's Talents()  

David Beckham spent six years in the U.S. with the LA Galaxy before returning to Europe earlier this year.

May 22, 2013 After the announcement that David Beckham is retiring, there's been much discussion about how good of an athlete he's really been. Sports commentator Frank Deford says Beckham's talents have been overlooked.

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Monkey See

Cannes Diary: Delusions Of 'Gatsby' (And Dreams Of Notoriety) ()  

The cast of Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, which writer Raj Ranade says has set a high bar for other contenders at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

May 22, 2013 All is Gatsbyish excess on the Croisette, where the Cannes Film Festival's early tone might well have been set by Baz Luhrmann's lavish film — and by Sofia Coppola's accomplished The Bling Ring.

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Code Switch

Obama's Shout-Out To A 'Morehouse Man'()  

Morehouse graduate Leland Shelton is congratulated as he is acknowledged by President Obama.

May 21, 2013 When President Obama spoke at Morehouse College, he singled out — and surprised — a graduate who had faced long odds.

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Kitchen Window

Real Butterscotch: The Beauty Of Sugar And Dairy Transformed()  

Butterscotch Budino With Caramel Sauce And Salt

May 22, 2013 When a few humble elements are combined in perfect balance, butterscotch is born. And food writer Deena Prichep says she turns this childhood favorite into a dinner-party star with counterpoints like flaky salt or crunchy nuts.

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Krulwich Wonders...

How Benjamin Franklin Invented A Weight Loss Program, Using Balloons ()  

The Running Footman

May 22, 2013 "Someone asked me," Benjamin Franklin once said, "what's the use of a balloon?" They don't do much. They just float. What are they good for? And Franklin replied, "What's the use of a new-born baby?" They just sit there. They don't do much. You have to imagine possibilities. This is Franklin, in the 1780s, thinking about balloons.

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13.7: Cosmos And Culture

The Inevitable Question?()  

The galactic center

May 22, 2013 Confronted with the amazing advances made by science, why do so many still cling to God as a creator? Could the answer be that we need to be created in order to be special? Or are we afraid of our own unique place in the Universe? Marcelo Gleiser knows what he thinks.

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