Adam Shankman

Adam Shankman has one of the coolest, most stressful jobs around: He's producing the Oscars. The Hairspray director, who is also a judge on So You Think You Can Dance, joins Fresh Air to dish about seating arrangements and speeches.

John Waters' movie Hairspray, about a full-figured teen who bops her way to popularity (and fights for racial integration) on a TV dance show in '60s Baltimore, was a cult camp classic that became a hit Broadway musical. Now that stage musical has been re-adapted into a film — starring John Travolta, no less, in the role created by Waters' drag-queen muse Divine.

We talk with director and choreographer Adam Shankman, who directed The Wedding Planner and choreographed Boogie Nights — not to mention the legendary musical episode of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.