Janice Kaplan

Patricia Cornwell’s 19 crime novels featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta have helped bring forensic science to national prominence. With 100 million copies of her books now in print, Cornwell is often hailed as an expert on blood, bad guys, and DNA. Her interest is more than theoretical, and she funds numerous forensic organizations around the country. With her newest Scarpetta book, Red Mist, just out, she talks about crime, TV, and Angelina Jolie. (more…)

In his bestselling thrillers, David Baldacci often predicts real-life threats before they hit the news. His first novel, Absolute Power, became a Clint Eastwood movie, and in the nearly two dozen books he’s written since, he combines action, intrigue, and inside-the-beltway dealings. His books are virtually an international industry, with some 110 million in print. His latest novel, Zero Day, launches a new series with a hero named John Puller, a loner military investigator. Here he talks about writing books and kicking butt with Janice Kaplan. (more…)

Movie stars appearing on stage typically make their first entrance to a burst of applause. He’s famous! I know him! the excited audience seems to be saying. But no such welcome greets either Ben Stiller or Edie Falco, now starring on Broadway in The House of Blue Leaves. From the first moment, both so fully inhabit their fictional characters that it’s impossible to consider their outsize fame.

In a play about the shocking lengths we go to for stardom, that’s saying a lot.

Stiller plays Artie Shaughnessy, a New York zookeeper who dreams of moving to Los Angeles with his girlfriend Bunny (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and becoming a songwriter. (more…)

Tom Stoppard may be the Shakespeare of the modern age. His plays, from Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead to Coast of Utopia, are brilliantly crammed with ideas, philosophies, and history. When his most commercially popular play Arcadia first opened in 1993, critics gushed that it was an enduring masterpiece, and the West End revival two years ago moved some reviewers to call it "the greatest play of our age."

Now director David Leveaux has brought the show to Broadway with a luminous cast that does justice to Stoppard's enthralling dialogue. The near-perfect blend of humor, tragedy, and love in this play should shake any audience to the core. But at intermission during a recent preview performance, the man next to me grumbled that he had no idea what was going on.

"Really? I can't imagine that," says Stoppard, when told of the exchange. "I suppose some in the audience might miss a few things, but it's really just a detective story." (more…)

Blanche DuBois will probably have a busy year.
Given that this is the Tennessee Williams centennial, expect to see her wafting across stages all over America, gratefully relying on the kindness of strangers. Numerous theater companies have already announced plans for Tennessee celebrations, and his iconic plays (more…)

To understand Barbra Streisand, you have to know why she loves the color burgundy.

“I got sent to a health camp when I was about 6 years old, and we all had to wear the same starchy blue uniform,” she says with a shudder. “The lady who took care of me after school knit me a burgundy sweater. It was the only thing that gave me any individuality.”

One of the most extraordinary singers in the world, Streisand, 67, has sold more than 100 million albums —making her the top-selling female artist in the U.S.—and won Oscars, Grammys, and Emmys. She amazes as a woman who can do anything and has everything, yet the rebellious girl, wanting to be different, is never far from the surface. (more…)

One day when they were in South Africa shooting a movie together, Matt Damon and Clint Eastwood went out for a beer. Several months later, Damon jokes about the evening.

“I’m not sure if you remember,” he says, flashing a broad smile at Eastwood, “but you leaned over and told me, ‘You know, I really do know what I’m doing.’”

“It’s pretty sad I had to explain that,” Eastwood says, with a slight twinkle in his eye.

“No, no, believe me, I knew it!” Damon replies.

The two have reunited on this sunny day along with (more…)