Actors

Movie critic Steven Schiff reviews "A Dangerous Woman" starring Deborah Winger. (PARTIAL REVIEW)

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new film, "Widow's Peak," starring Mia Farrow, Joan Plowright, and Natasha Richardson.

Whitaker is one of the most respected character actors in Hollywood, with a reputation for playibg roles that defy stereotypes associated with black actors. Whitaker was the British soldier kidnapped by the IRA in the "Crying Game." In "The Color of Money," he had a brief part as a pool hustler. He also starred in "Good Morning, Vietnam." His biggest starring role was portraying jazz great Charlie Parker in the movie, "Bird." Whitaker is currently co-starring in Robert Altman's new film, "Ready to Wear (Pret-A-Porter)."

The stars of the Emmy Award winning TV series Sharon Gless (Christine Cagney) and Tyne Daly (Mary Beth Lacy). The two play New York City Police detectives. The series aired on CBS from 1982 to 1988. This Tuesday, the two will be reunited in the two-hour TV movie "Cagney & Lacey: Together Again." "C&G" was the first TV crime show in which the two central characters were female.

Guest film critic Steve Vineberg reviews "To Die For."

South African playwright and actor Athol Fugard. For years Fugard fought apartheid on the stage in his plays including "My Children! My Children," "The Blood Knot," (in which he put a black actor alongside a white actor on the same stage) and "Sizwe Banzi is Dead." For his efforts Fugard's passport was revoked, and he was put under virtual house arrest from 1967-1971. His new play "Valley Song" is his first play in the post-apartheid Africa.

Film critic Stephen Schiff gives us his year's best.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Leaving a Doll's House, a memoir by British actress and Philip Roth's ex-wife Claire Bloom.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Contesting Tears: The Hollywood Melodrama of the Unknown Woman" by Stanley Cavell about the weepy women's movies of the 30s and 40s.

Journalist William Mann has written a new biography of actor William Haines, "Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood's First Openly Gay Star" (Viking). In 1930 Haines was a big box-office draw. He was also openly-gay to reporters, studio chiefs,and fellow actors. Eventually Haines was booted out of Hollywood, because he refused to give in to studio pressure to conform. He began a highly successful career as an interior designer.

Film critic John Powers reviews “Holy Smoke” the new Jane Campion film starring Harvey Kietel and Kate Winslet.

Film critic John Powers reviews “Hanging Up” the new film by the Ephron sisters, and directed by Diane Keaton.

Actor, singer and drag queen Ru Paul. The six-foot seven entertainer is even taller in heels and has fashioned for himself a supermodel persona. He attributes his mainstream appeal to his non-threatening sexuality and his “non-bitchy” drag queen personality. Ru Paul is appearing out of drag in the new comedy “But I’m A Cheerleader.” He plays an ex-gay rehab counselor. Ru Paul’s other films include “Crooklyn,” “The Brady Bunch Movie,” and “Wigstock the Movie.” (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).

Film Critic Henry Sheehan reviews the Dancer in the Dark, the new film directed and written by Lars von Trier.

Film Critic Henry Sheehan reviews the new film “Dr. T and the Women”.

Actress Kate Winslet, 24, became a star with her role in the blockbuster Titanic. Her breakthrough role came earlier, in Heavenly Creatures, a film based on a true story of two young girls who murder one of their mothers. Her other films include Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, and Jane Campion's Holy Smoke. She's currently starring in the film Quills.

Her films include Addams Family Values, The Ice Storm, Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas, The Opposite of Sex, and the new film The Man Who Cried.

British actress Charlotte Rampling. Shes known for her great beauty. She was a model before beginning her film career in the sixties with hits such as Georgy Girl and The Damned. She may be best known for The Night Porter, a 1974 classic about a concentration camp survivor reunited with the Nazi guard who tortured her. Ramplings new film is the French Under The Sand, about a woman whose husband mysteriously disappears during a seaside vacation.