Acting

In the new film, The Woodsman, Kevin Bacon plays a sex offender just released from prison. Bacon was first recognized in the 1982 film Diner, and went on to roles in Mystic River, A Few Good Men, Flatliners, and Footloose. He's made over 50 films and inspired the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, in which players try to link another actor with Bacon in as few steps as possible. He is married to the actress Kyra Sedgwick, who also co-stars in The Woodsman.

Annette Bening is nominated for a best actress Academy Award this year for her work in the film Being Julia. She has already won a Golden Globe for the role. Her other films include American Beauty, Bugsy and The Grifters. Bening is married to actor Warren Beatty; she has four children.

Actress Lauren Ambrose plays daughter Claire Fisher on the HBO drama series Six Feet Under. Her other roles include a teen introvert turned popular surfer chick with multiple personality disorder in the film Psycho Beach Party and a star student of Kevin Kline's in the film In and Out. Also a classically trained opera singer, Ambrose appeared on stage last year in the Sam Shepard play Buried Child at London's National Theatre.

Grammy-winning rapper and actor Will Smith has had success in music, movies and television. He began his career as the Fresh Prince with DJ Jazzy Jeff. Since then, he has acted in numerous films and been nominated for an Oscar, for his performance in Ali. (This interview originally aired Dec. 17, 2001.)

Comic actress Amy Sedaris offers a prequel to her Comedy Central series in the film version of Strangers with Candy. Amy, sibling of author David Sedaris, co-wrote the script with Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello, friends from her days in the Second City improvisational theater troupe in the late 1980s.

Comedian and actor Will Ferrell talks about his new film Stranger Than Fiction. Ferrell plays an accountant who finds that his life has a voiceover that only he can hear. It turns out he's the subject of a novel, and that the writer plans to kill him. Ferrell became famous as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2002, and has gone on to star in movies such as Old School, Elf and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Ricky Gervais appears in the new film Night at the Museum, in which insects come to life after a spell is cast at The Museum of Natural History. Gervais is the creator and star of the British TV comedy series The Office, which has been adapted into a hit show starring Steve Carrell. He's won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and three BAFTA Awards. Gervais also writes the Flanimals series of children's books.

Actor Mark Wahlberg is an Academy Award nominee for best supporting actor for his role as a police sergeant in the film The Departed. After a number of smaller film roles, Wahlberg became known for his role as a porn star in Boogie Nights. Wahlberg's other films include The Perfect Storm, Three Kings, The Italian Job, and Invincible.

Shes up for an academy award for her portrayal of the mother of a drug addict who is also an addict herself in the film –Requiem for a Dream.— This is her 5th nomination and could be her second win. She won the Academy Award for the 1974 film –Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore.— Burstyns other films include –The Last Picture Show,— –The Exorcist,— and –Same Time, Next Year— (she starred in the Broadway version too and won a Tony).

On TV's Rescue Me, the comic, actor and writer Denis Leary plays a highly strung, highly macho fireman Tommy Gavin, who deals with raging fires and his own raging male ego. Season 4 of Rescue Me starts next week on the FX network.

Leary, who's worked in films including The Thomas Crown Affair and The Ref, sidelines as a singer, too; his comedy CD No Cure for Cancer spawned the provocatively titled hit single "Asshole."

Oscar-winning actress stepped behind the camera to direct the new dramedy Then She Found Me. She helped adapt the script as well, from the novel by Elinor Lipman. And Hunt stars in the film alongside Bette Midler — who plays her birth mother.

Before Boogie Nights, before Far From Heaven, before Short Cuts, she appeared as identical half-sisters — one of them evil — on the soap opera As the World Turns. She won a Daytime Emmy in 1988; for her film work, she's earned four Oscar nominations.

Twitchy undertaker, cubicle fiend, sassy convenience-store clerk — Rainn Wilson has long gravitated toward eccentric characters. But is The Office actor attempting the leap to sex symbol through his titular role in The Rocker? Given the hair-metal coif and the still-goofy humor, probably not.

In his latest movie, Traitor, Don Cheadle plays a CIA operative who goes undercover to work with a terrorist group — but then becomes a suspected terrorist himself.