After reading Manohla Dargis' piece in the New York Times and then her subsequent interview with Jezebel.com, I felt the need to write the following open letter to those persons running feature film studios in the United States.

Dear Sirs (+ the one madam co-chair):

I...

"People just don't want to know about this issue - it's hidden, it's criminal, it's perverse and yes, it's happening on our own doorstep. 'Journey' is a remarkable piece of collaborative, creative and confrontational art that profoundly challenges people's perspective. Come and see for yourself and tell us if you...

Carrie Fisher has been called a lot of things in her life: an actress; an author; a screenwriter; a wife (she was married to musician Paul Simon and, briefly, to powerhouse talent agent Bryan Lourd, with whom she has a daughter); an alcoholic; bipolar; the Princess of Alderaan; and a...

Roses beckon from the street level of the Marlborough Gallery in Chelsea. Pale, ballet pink, Venetian rose and brick red blossoms with bright green stems stand out from the grey pavement outside of the gallery. Artist Will Ryman meant for his exhibition, titled A New Beginning to serve as a...

We are in the midst of a culinary orgie, thanks, in part, to the Food Network, Top Chef, Nora Ephron, and Julie Powell. Even the New York Times has gotten into the act, running pieces by both Michael Pollan and Maureen Dowd in a recent Sunday...

"Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend. "
- Ludwig van Beethoven

True artists are their art. There is no separation between the human being and their creation; humans...

Eva Mendez walks an alley in Vancouver searching for dirty needles. Joaquin Phoenix receives a ceremonial whacking by a heavy reed from a member of the Yawanawa tribe in the Amazon. Cameron Diaz celebrates the winter solstice in the mountains of Peru. Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist, Flea, weighs babies...

I recently went to see a new musical on Broadway called "[title of show]." It was seriously funny. It was also very real-ish. The show stars co-creators Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen, along with their talented friends Susan Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff and music director/accompanist, Larry Pressgrove. They star as...

The life of a touring rock group isn't all glitz and glamour, especially a group that acts as their own roadies. "We sometimes do our own lighting and we unload the equipment, smoke machines, projector, and make sure everything works. Then we rehearse and do a sound check," says guitarist...

This past weekend we all witnessed a cultural phenomenon step beyond the confinement of a small screen to one decidedly larger. The women of Sex & the City are on display in theaters nation-wide. Even before all of us movie-going women have seen it, we've cast our ballot by...

Scottish writer Alison Louise (A.L.) Kennedy's words fall together on the page with such elegant precision, you barely notice how hard she must have worked to get them to that point. Her prose runs the gamut from short stories about love and sex, as in Original Bliss, to...

In a time where stories about dysfunctional families rule, author Kelly Corriganhas pulled away from the pack and written a love letter to her family and living in 'the middle place,' or as she defines it, "the sliver of time in life when parenthood and childhood overlap." The Middle...

Christine Ebersole spends a big part of her workday inhabiting the lives of both real and fictional characters on stage and screen: in her Tony Award-winning role as Big and Little Edie Beale in Grey Gardens, and in films such as Amadeus, Dead Again and My Girl 2. Christine...

Dubbed the "Bono of South Asia," Salman Ahmad is a musician and founder of the Sufi-rock band, Junoon Urdu for "obsessive passion"); an activist, who is a UN-appointed HIV/AIDS ambassador for South Asia, a medical doctor; a teacher, as an...