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The Fox television network has a new, controversial reality show premiering this week -- Who's Your Daddy, where an adopted woman tries to pick out her biological father. Variety critic Brian Lowry says Fox doesn't shy away from shows bordering on the tasteless. In fact it encourages them.

The highlights of Cicely Tyson's life and career tell a story of personal excellence -- and interesting choices. The Oscar-nominated actress is back on the silver screen in two recent films, and talks with NPR's Ed Gordon about balancing her acting career with her active humanitarian efforts.

New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell talks about the life and career of actor, writer, director and civil rights activist Ossie Davis. A familiar face on stage and screen -- as well as the front lines of the fight against racial injustice -- Davis died Friday at 87.

Actor Jerry Orbach, best known for his long-running role as Lennie Briscoe on TV's Law and Order, died Tuesday at age 69. Orbach also enjoyed a successful Broadway career, winning a Tony for his role in Promises, Promises, and appeared in films such as Crimes and Misdemeanors and Dirty Dancing. We listen to a Nov. 21, 1989, interview with Orbach.

In The Thin Blue Line, director Errol Morris' uncovers evidence he believes could save a man's life. Following the release of the movie, Randall Dale Adams, convicted of murder, was freed from a life's sentence. This story was originally broadcast on Aug. 19, 1988.

He is the creator, executive producer and head writer of the HBO series Deadwood, a Western drama set in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Deadwood began its second season this week.

Rapper and actor Will Smith talks about his new film Hitch. Also, the first season of his fish-out-of-the-projects TV sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is now out on DVD.

World of Warcraft, a new multi-player online game, has participants including reviewer Robert Holt captivated. He says the highly stylized fantasy world may be the best role-playing game yet.

Milch co-created NYPD Blue, for which he won two Emmys. He is the creator, executive producer and head writer of the current HBO series Deadwood, a Western drama set in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Milch left a teaching job at Yale University to go to Hollywood and work on the show Hill Street Blues. This interview was originally broadcast on March 25, 2004.

NPR's Ed Gordon speaks with Actress Kimberly Elise, who stars as Helen McCarter in the box office hit Diary of a Mad Black Woman. The film deals with the struggles that women encounter while finding their own identity, and the self-image of African-American women.

Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviews the German and Turkish film Head-On, a love story that begins with attempted suicides from both protagonists.

A Kurdish movie honored at a variety of international film festivals opens in New York and Los Angeles. Turtles Can Fly is set in the days just before the U.S. invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein. It's a portrait of a village -- and especially of children -- on the brink of change.

Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviews the new Israeli movie Walk on Water. He says the film takes on too many social topics but still manages to hold the viewer's attention.

Guitarist, songwriter and vocalist James Hetfield was a founding member of the metal band Metallica. His time in rehab is chronicled in the documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, which tracks the band at a time of crisis and is now on DVD. We rebroadcast an interview with Hetfield from Nov. 9, 2004.

Proud of its reputation and humble beginnings in Dakar's smaller suburbs, Senegal's "Neighborhood Film Festival" has become part of an evolving film industry in Africa. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports.

A Series of Unfortunate Events is likely to be a boon for the nation's movie theaters. The dark comedy is based on three of the popular Lemony Snicket books. Jim Carrey plays the villain. NPR's Bob Mondello reviews the film.

Clint Eastwood's latest directing effort, Million Dollar Baby, features Eastwood as a boxing trainer and Hillary Swank as a woman trying to break into the fight game. Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan offers a review.

After being introduced at the age of 12 to a set of religious rules, Jennifer Traig developed a hyper-religious form of obsessive-compulsive disorder known as "scrupulosity." She chronicles her disorder in the memoir Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood.

With the Oscar nominations looming, film critic Bob Mondello notes that there seem to be dozens of men in the running for best actor, but almost no women on the distaff side of the equation.

Cheadle stars in the new film Hotel Rwanda playing a hotel manager who shelters over a 1,000 refugees from genocide. It's based on the true story of Paul Rusesabagina. Cheadle's other films include Devil in a Blue Dress, Boogie Nights, Ocean's Eleven, and Traffic. This interview was originally broadcast on April 6, 2004.

NPR's Liane Hansen meets former CIA official Frederick Hitz at Washington, D.C.'s Spy Museum. Hitz's new book, The Great Game: The Myth and Reality of Espionage, compares spy novel secret agents with real-life operatives.

In February 1860, Abraham Lincoln, an unknown lawyer from the West with no formal education, delivered a speech before a New York audience that transformed him into a serious presidential contender. A new book re-examines the Cooper Union speech credited with propelling Lincoln to the White House. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with scholar Harold Holzer about his new book, Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President.

Singer Sam Phillips began her music career as a Christian singer. She took her faith with her and began to make pop music that are modern torch songs, songs of love and pain. The music on her latest CD, A Boot and A Shoe, is stark, with production from T Bone Burnett. NPR's Melissa Block talks with Phillips about the characters and many angles the writer uses to compose music that is more impressionistic than storytelling.

The new action-adventure film Van Helsing centers on the venerable doctor, an expert on vampires who masterminded the counterattack on Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel about the blood-sucking count. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

If you're a mother of young children, you may not have much musical freedom. The songs you listen to are, inescapably, the songs your kids are listening to. Catherine Savage is one of those moms. She discusses her favorite music from children's movies.