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Michele Norris talks with actor John Leguizamo, who stars in Cronicas. Leguizamo plays a Miami-based journalist working in rural Ecuador. Although the film is in Spanish, he switches throughout the film between English and Spanish.

In his autobiography, Batman and Me, Kane tells how he came up with the idea for the caped crusader, and what influence he had on the TV series and previous Batman movies. Kane drew Batman from its inception in 1939 to the late 60s. DC Comic still publishes Batman. The new movie Batman Begins has just hit theaters nationwide. This interview was originally broadcast on March 23, 1990.

Film critic Kenneth Turan reviews My Summer of Love, a teen film from director Pawel Pawlikowski. Turan says the film is not your usual Hollywood teen fare. Fore one thing, it was named best British film of 2004.

The FBI has cited information compiled by online sleuths in many of the more than 730 riot-related cases filed in federal court so far.

Michael Lewis' latest non-fiction offering, Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life, examines Lewis' relationship with his high school baseball coach, and how it affected him throughout his life. David Kipen has a review.

NPR's Bob Mondello reviews the new British crime thriller, "Layer Cake." The film was directed by Matthew Vaughn. It stars Daniel Craig and Michael Gambon. The tricky noir plot is about a drug dealer planning to retire after one last errand for his boss.

As a columnist for The New York Times, Frank Rich writes about the intersection of culture and news. His pieces -- often touching on politics, religion and the arts -- are a fixture of the paper's Sunday editions.

News & Notes profiles a tap dance prodigy with a unique approach combining dance with music, a classical flute player and an athlete who's also a student leader.

We catch up on the story of comedian Dave Chappelle's disappearance. Michele Norris talks with Christopher John Farley, a senior editor at Time Magazine. Farley published an exclusive interview with Chappelle in this week's Time - just a week after many news outlets reported that Chappelle walked off the set of his Comedy Central show.

To navigate through the world, we give the physical things around us names. Sometimes the sound of the words themselves delights the ear; and for commentator Brian McConnachie, that's enough of a reason to marvel.

Last Night is James Salter's second story collection, 15 years after he published Dusk. Salter give us an America rich and lustrous and poor enough in spirit to break your heart three times over.

Ed Gordon talks with actor Morgan Freeman, who's been called one of the most respected figures in modern U.S. cinema. Freeman won his first Oscar earlier this year for best supporting actor for his role in Million Dollar Baby. The 67-year-old actor's latest film Unleashed opens in theaters around the country Friday.

Day to Day television critic Andrew Wallenstein talks about two recent scandals regarding television personalities and the way the networks are handling them. Pat O'Brien, host of the gossip show The Insider, recently completed treatment for alcohol abuse, and Paula Abdul is accused of favoritism -- and maybe more -- in her role as judge on the hit show American Idol.

Hotel is the new CD by the electronic musician Moby. Moby's 1999 CD Play mixed old blues and gospel music with modern electronica. Music critic Mikel Jollett feels a bit nostalgic for the old days of the 90's after hearing the new Moby CD. He says it doesn't have the spark of his older work.

At age 70, the late writer and former boxing "cut man" F.X. Toole published his first book, a collection of short stories about boxing called Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner, to critical praise. We rebroadcast a Sept. 26, 2000, interview with Toole.

The latest work from the author of In the Company of Men premieres at New York's Lucille Lortel Theater. Neil LaBute's Fat Pig tells the story of a weight-challenged woman and a gutless executive who fall in love. Andrea Shea reports.

Los Angeles Time movie critic Kenneth Turan says the new movie Closer attempts to deal with the depth of human emotions involving love and relationships. Instead, you'll find empty people trying to fulfill their selfish desires.

The complete 45-episode series of the TV show Pee-Wee's Playhouse is now out on DVD. Reubens originally created the Pee-Wee character at the Los Angeles improv group called The Groundlings. Pee-Wee's Playhouse went on the air in 1986. It ran on CBS for 5 years, garnering 22 Emmys.

Playwright David Henry Hwang's award-winning plays include 1980's FOB (or "Fresh Off the Boat") and M. Butterfly. For our series Scenes I Wish I'd Written, Hwang discusses an exchange from Tony Kushner's play Angels in America.

Los Angeles Times movie critic Kenneth Turan says the film Alexander, starring Colin Ferrell as the conqueror Alexander the Great, plays like a fantasy self portrait of writer-director Oliver Stone.

"Danza Voluminosa" is an unconventional dance group -- whose performances are part-ballet, part-contemporary dance. But the dancers are larger than most weighing in around 200 pounds. Their choreographer says the company is creating a new aesthetic. NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports.

Actress Carol Channing is back on the road in The First 80 Years Are The Hardest. The octogenarian is touring in a one-woman show.

Alan Cheuse reviews the Girl Who Played Go, by Shan Sa, a novel following a two characters' intersection at the 3,000-year-old game of Go, played with black and white stones. The novel debuted last year and has just been published in paperback.

Singer Mavis Staples is best known for her part in The Staple Singers. The group will be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2005 Grammy Awards. We rebroadcast an interview with Staples from June 2, 1989.

An exhibit in Rome sheds new light on Leonardo da Vinci's versatility as architect, engineer and a visionary, many of whose inventions were precursors of today's technological achievements.