Since Obama's election, I have watched the right wing's smear machine with perverse fascination. The antics of Beck, Hannity, and the rest of the gang have been predictable, pathetic, and desperate, but also weirdly entertaining. At least, I used to think so. It's different when they target someone you know.

I joined the Writers Guild in 1991, after getting a job on a short-lived HBO series. At about that time, the WGA instituted a mentor program, pairing new members with more established writers who could help them navigate the rough waters of show business. I signed up and, through luck...

I'm very excited about the Sotomayor pick because, through really no fault of her own, the debate over her nomination has brought deep and important questions to the fore. Where does morality come from? From religious teaching? Or from experience? And on which do we base our laws?

Perhaps the...

The e-mails and phone calls started coming last week. "Have you seen Susan Boyle? What do you think of her?" Friends ask me because they know me to be an aficionado of good singing (read: "obsessive opera and musical theater queen"). So what did I think of this latest vocal...

There he was, standing at the podium at CPAC, dazzling die-hard conservatives despite the fact that he is a member of a group not usually favored by Republicans. No, not Michael Steele. I'm talking about Jonathan Krohn, conservative wunderkind and theater geek. (I use the term with great affection, being...