His TV series, Primetime Glick, is a spoof of celebrity talk shows. Short plays Jiminy Glick, the self-absorbed host of the fictitious talk show. He interviews A-list celebrity guests, but often gets information about these guests wrong. The new season of Primetime Glick premieres this weekend. Martin Short was a cast member on both Saturday Night Live and SCTV. His movies include Father of the Bride, The Three Amigos, and Innerspace.
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Don't Worry About Me, the posthumously released CD from Joey Ramone. The lead singer of the punk band the Ramones died last April at the age of 49.
His book is called Them: Adventures with Extremists. (Simon and Schuster). He traveled around the world interviewing different types of extremistsfrom Islamic fundamentalists in a Jihad training camp, to Ku Klux Klansmen at rallies. Them was first published in the U.K. in the spring of 2001.
South African surgeon, journalist and documentary filmmaker Jonathan Kaplan has treated patients in many war torn locations, including Kurdistan, Mozambique, and Eritrea. He writes about his experiences in his new book, The Dressing Station: A Surgeons Chronicle of War and Medicine (Grove Press). He began his medical career in South Africa, where he first cared for patients wounded by political violence.
Michael Kinsley, editor of the online newsmagazine Slate. Hes just announced that hes stepping down from the position. Slate has been a very successful Web site, with over 2 million visitors each month. Kinsley told the New York Times that throughout his career, he has changed jobs every five or six years since he tends to get bored. He will continue to write for the Web site. Previously, Kinsley was editor of the New Republic magazine and co-host of CNNs Crossfire.
Jane Farrell-Beck and Colleen Gau, authors of the book, Uplift: The Bra in America. It's a sociological and historical look at the undergarment. Farrell-Beck is Professor of Textiles and Clothing at Iowa State University. Colleen Gau is President of CPRTex, Inc., a home-based conservation of textiles business, and a writer.
Singer Brenda Lee is one of the early rock 'n' roll singers, with hits such as "I'm Sorry," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and "Break it To Me Gently." She's just been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, class of 2002. She's also in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Lee was born Brenda Mae Tarpley in Atlanta. At the age of 13, in 1957, she made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry. She's performed around the world. Her new memoir is Little Miss Dynamite: The Life and Times of Brenda Lee.
Founder of the Federal Witness Protection Program, Gerald Shur, and journalist Pete Earley. They've collaborated on the new book, WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program (Bantam Books). Shur started the program in the 1960s after realizing that many witnesses would not testify because they were afraid of being killed as a result. WITSEC assigns a new identity and relocates witnesses and their dependents. Witnesses have included everyone from mobsters to drug traffickers to terrorists in the first world trade center bombing. Shur headed the program for 34 years.
Journalist Christopher Dickey is the Paris bureau chief and Middle East regional editor for Newsweek magazine. He's co-author of the cover story for the Sept. 23 issue, "How We Helped Create Saddam: And Can We Fix Iraq After He's Gone?" Dickey is also a novelist, and author of Summer of Deliverance: A Memoir of Father and Son about his relationship with his father, poet and novelist James Dickey.
Cartoonist Daniel Clowes. Drawn in 1950s pop culture style, his comics are darkly humorous satires of middle class America. His graphic novel Ghost World (first published in 1993) is the basis of the film of the same name. Ghost World has just been nominated for an academy award in the Adapted Screenplay division. Clowes' first comic book series was Lloyd Llewellyn, followed by Eightball
Country music star Waylon Jennings died this week at the age of 64. Born in 1937 in Littlefield, Texas, he was a disc jockey at 14, and had already formed his own band at the age of 12, making guest appearances on local station KDAV's Sunday Party, where he met Buddy Holly in 1955. Jennings became Holly's bass player. It was Jennings who gave his seat up to the Big Bopper on the plane that crashed and killed Buddy Holly.
Music critic Milo Miles remembers Dave Van Ronk, the folk performer who died last Sunday at the age of 65. He was an early leader of the urban folk movement in the late 1950s.
Film critic John Powers reviews Iris, about the life of Iris Murdoch. It stars Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent and Kate Winslet. All three actors have been nominated for Oscars.
Reverend Christopher Keenan is the Chaplain of the Fire Department of New York. He succeeds the Rev. Mychal Judge, who was killed on September 11th 2001 when hit by falling debris at the World Trade Center. Keenan is a Franciscan friar who was born in New York City. In the 80s, he established hospices for AIDS patients, and more recently, he's worked with the homeless.
Chris Giannou, surgeon for the International Committee of the Red Cross. For about 20 years he has been a medic in war torn parts of the world including Burundi, Somalia, and in a Palestinian Refugee Camp. As such he has seen the devastation on human beings from landmines. Giannou is currently leading the Red Cross's campaign for a ban on anti-personnel landmines worldwide, which kill or injure hundreds of civilians each week. Giannou has just returned from six weeks in Afghanistan.
Cass Sunstein talks about the precedent the 1942 case set for the Bush Administration in setting up military tribunals for the al Qaeda suspects. Sunstein is considered by many to be one of the nations authorities when it comes to interpreting the U.S. Constitution. Hes the author of One Case at a Time: Judicial Minimalism on the Supreme Court, (Harvard University Press). Sunstein teaches at the University of Chicago.
Journalist Gary Cohen's article in this months Atlantic Monthly is about the World War II case that the Bush administration says sets the precedent for use of military tribunals. Cohen studied 3,000 pages of trial transcripts at the National Archives and the Roosevelt Presidential Library, in Hyde Park, New York for the article. Cohen is a former member of the investigative unit at US News & World Report.
The Oh Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack sold more than 4 million copies. This surge of interest in american roots music prompted many of the performers to go on the road together in the Down From the Mountain tour. Critic Milo Miles caught up with them in Boston.
Actor Nicolas Cage stars in the new film Windtalkers. A group of Navajo soldiers developed an unbreakable code based on their language for use during World War II. Cage plays Joe Enders, a Marine guard assigned to protect the Native American code talkers. Cage won an Academy award for his role in the film Leaving Las Vegas. He's starred in many other hit films, including Raising Arizona, Moonstruck and The Rock.
