NBC's David Bloom died suddenly from a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) while covering the war in Iraq 10 years ago tomorrow.

A decade later, David's death is still difficult to accept. It is still shocking and still hurts. Like the loss...

The third week of February marked the inaugural Rehoboth Beach Writers Project that brought my friends Wendy Burden, Amy Dickinson and Pamela Hart to this coastal town in Delaware.

We stayed in a beautiful cottage a block from the beach and I think we all agree...

About a year before my father died, our family staged a by-the-book intervention to try to get him to stop abusing Valium. While we ultimately failed in changing his behavior I remember finding the process in and of itself a huge success. For us. Just telling him what his addiction...

Ann Leary's latest novel The Good House will have you reaching for a big glass of wine then pausing before that perfect first sip -- both a paean to drinking and a cautionary tale told with a fresh, yes, gimlet eye.

The upcoming awards season begs the comparison between these two indie films that continue to garner Golden Globe and Oscar buzz nationwide. So here goes -- for all its forced zaniness, Silver Linings Playbook is a formulaic love story and for all its genuine oddity, The Sessions is a...

I imagine most writers have a dedicated writing buddy -- and hope many have been as lucky as I have. Pamela Hart and I met in 1974 at Boston University. Pam was and is one of the most beautiful women I've ever known and also a masterful poet. It's official,...

No Way Out But One debuts this week on the Documentary Channel and is as much an examination of this country's family court system as it is the very personal story of Holly Collins.

Collins became an international fugitive when she fled the U.S. with her three children...

There is as much about Ethel Kennedy in this film as there isn't -- a well-played hat trick by filmmaker/daughter Rory Kennedy who takes on one of the most private, emotionally guarded women in American history who is not only her mother but...

Of all the things that inform Lee Woodruff's worldview -- marriage, motherhood, journalism, and war -- the most significant is that everything can go to hell in an instant. In fact, that was the title of her first bestselling book (co-authored with her husband, ABC's Bob Woodruff), an...

I don't want to give away the funniest lines in Dax Shepard's surprisingly excellent Hit and Run -- and there are lots of them, but about three minutes into the film when Shepard's character says "Bye, Randy!" to Tom Arnold and he answers, "You, too!" I was all in.

Pauline Kael, I'm glad you missed this.

What perhaps hurts most is the familiarity and innocence of this crime scene. You pick what movie (and Batman is a movie, not a film) you want to see, angst about the ticket purchase online or in line, give yourself enough time...

Reno Road NW -- aka 34th Street.

It's just under three miles -- a mere ribbon of a road connecting Chevy Chase to Massachusetts Avenue that embraces Tenleytown along the way -- no office buildings, just homes and an unmarked embassy or two, but for me it registers almost every...

Elizabeth Reaser, an American actress whose standout roles on TV's The Good Wife, Grey's Anatomy and films that include The Family Stone, Young Adult and yes, Twilight, place her firmly above the 'up and coming' status in the viewing culture -- currently stars on Broadway in a role that both...

What's it like to come back to the United States when you're not only a soldier but a wife and mother? Return, a film written and directed by Lisa Johnson, stars Linda Cardellini as just such a woman who faces the daunting challenge of coming home.

It's an old story that's not often told or told well in Hollywood, but this year's Sundance Film Festival premiered two films --Smashed and Predisposed -- that showcase addiction and all its glorious collateral damage with effective grace and a deft touch, thanks to some outstanding writing and performances. Without...

Every now and then a piece of writing appears in a magazine that is so compelling, so readable and so out there that you steal the magazine from the waiting room or salon, or stay on the exercise bike long after your usual time, or email the link to everyone...

There is something so wrong it's right about The Descendants.

Consider this:

"I'm going to hit you"???

How often do you go to the movies and have either the narrator or the character tell you exactly what is about to happen? Yet this occurs...

Stick Fly opened last week on Broadway -- produced by Alicia Keys, written by Lydia Diamond and directed by Kenny Leon -- to positively mixed reviews -- including one perfectly titled "Guess Who's Coming to Martha's Vineyard?"

That's because this play, billed as an explosive comedy of manners, centers...

This Wednesday we will say goodbye to New York City firefighter Tommy Gavin and the guys of 62 Truck with the season and show finale of Rescue Me -- a timely farewell that coincides with the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, an event that served as both impetus and main...

Maybe it's the title of this movie that's part of its problem. Like many others who thought they liked The Help only to be vaguely (or not so vaguely) troubled soon after, I've been worrying about this film in my mind ever since I saw it a few weeks ago.