Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the new movie "Shadowlands" starring Anthony Hopkins and Deborah Winger. It's based on the lives of British writer C.S. Lewis and the American poet who became his wife, Joy Gresham. Whitehead, who is Fresh Air's regular jazz critic, is filling in for film critic Stephen Schiff this week.
Comic writer and actor Chris Elliott. He was an Emmy award winning writer for "Late Night with David Letterman," where he originated such characters as "the panicky guy" and "the guy under the seats." Elliott followed his success on the Letterman show with his own FOX TV-series, "Get A Life," about a young adult man who lives with his parents and has a paper route. It was a cult hit. Elliott comes to the business naturally.
Poet and novelist Michael Ondaatje. He won Britian's highest literary prize, the Booker Prize, for his novel set in post World War II, "The English Patient," (Vintage Books). Ondaatje was born in Cyelon (now Sri Lanka), emigrated to England, and now lives in Canada. He also has written a personal memoir, "Running in the Family," (Vintage) about his eccentric family. Both books are now out in paperback. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)
Jazz Vibraphonist Gary Burton. He invented a four-mallet grip for the instrument that is used by many contemporary players. Burton left Stan Getz's quartet in the mid 60's (at the age of 24) to form his own combo; a few years later he hired a young guitarist named Pat Metheny, giving Metheny his first taste of big time jazz. Burton has been teaching percussion and improvisation classes at the Berklee School of Music in Boston; in 1985 he was named Dean of Curriculum there. Burton has over fifty albums to his credit and three Grammy award.
Former special assistant for National Security Affairs under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, McGeorge Bundy. He's co-authored a new book with Admiral William Crowe, "Reducing Nuclear Danger," XXXX. Terry will talk with Bundy about the threat that still exists of nuclear disaster from such countries as Iraq and North Korea.
Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn is a pioneer in the area of behavioral medicine. Since 1979 he has used Eastern "mindfulness meditation" techniques in treating chronic pain, stress, and life-threatening disease. He founded the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, Mass. His clinic was featured in Bill Moyer's PBS series, "Healing and the Mind." Kabat-Zinn's new book is "Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life." (Hyperion).
Actor Nathan Lane. He's currently starring in the new Neil Simon comedy on stage, "Laughter on the 23rd Floor." He played Nathan Detroit in the Broadway revival of "Guys and Dolls." Playwright Terrance McNally has written roles for Lane and says, "I need an actor like Nathan to fully express myself. I can't do it with just the words.
Broadway Composer Charles Srouse. His hits include, "Bye Bye Birdie," "Applause," and "Annie." He's also written the film scores for "Bonnie and Clyde," and "The Night They Raided Minskys," and others. Strouse newest production is the sequel to "Annie," -- "Annie Warbucks." It's his second stab at an "Annie" sequel, and it comes after a string of flops. When asked if he'd ever just wanted to quit he said, "Never. . .
Classical Music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new recording of Leonard Bernstein's "On the Town" and the television concert of the same show. (Deutsche Grammophon).
British religious scholar Karen Armstrong. Her new book, a bestseller in England, is "A History of God" (Knopf). "All religions have been designed to help us touch the God in each other" Armstrong says of her research, which traces 4000 years of Monotheism in the form of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The author, a Catholic nun for seven years in the 1960's, left the order to take a degree at Oxford, and now teaches at the Leo Baeck College for the study of Judaism.
How did a second tier New York department store called Bloomingdale's --where the city's domestic help bought their uniforms in 1950-- evolve into "the most celebrated store in the world": the pinnacle of designer fashion and self promotion? The answer can be found in Marvin Traub, the former chairman of Bloomingdale's for forty years. His new memoir is called "Like No Other Store..." (Times Books).
Filmmaker John McNaughton whose first film was the cult hit of 1990, "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer". "We all have the murderous urge," McNaughton says of his main character in that film, who as an anonymous everyman, kills many people without recognition nor retribution from society at large.
