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Steve Martin became famous as an actor and comedian. Lately, though, he's gaining accolades for another talent: writing. Martin's latest book is The Pleasure of My Company. He talks with NPR's Neal Conan about life on the stage and the page and takes your calls.

Critic David Bianculli has some thoughts about the fall season and cable's impact on network television. He says ABC may have the year's two best shows: the prime-time soap opera Desperate Housewives and the action/suspense show Lost.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow tells the story of a reporter and a hotshot pilot trying to save the world. The film's digitally created universe is both a nostalgic nod to the sci-fi serials of the 1930s and a stunning modernist vision. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

Gretchen Berland uses experience from her previous career of making documentaries to compose video projects on health-care topics. She has won a $500,000 "genius award" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The Falls, the latest novel from Joyce Carol Oates, is a dark, fast-moving tale that begins with the suicide of a newlywed seminary student who leaps into Niagara Falls. Critic Alan Cheuse has a review.

Red Lights, the new film from French director Cedric Kahn, is a taut, atmospheric thriller about a husband and wife who think they're going on vacation but are actually about to descend into a chaotic abyss. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

Day to Day book critic David Kipen offers his appreciation of English-born writer Christopher Isherwood, whose novella Goodbye to Berlin provided the inspiration for the musical and film Cabaret.

HBO on Sunday night will begin airing episodes for season three of The Wire, a series about the dueling bureaucracies that govern cops and criminals in Baltimore, set against the backdrop of the drug trade. Variety critic and columnist Brian Lowry has a review.

Tom Moon reviews Jill Scott's new CC, Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2. Scott had an incredibly successful debut recording 4 years ago. She has kept a fairly low profile until now. Tom Moon says her new recording is in a tradition of great soul singers writing about the political in personal terms.

The film Mean Creek, starring Rory Culkin, dives into the messy reality of teen life, combining sensitivity and teen themes in a plot with echoes of Deliverance. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

Day to Day television critic Andrew Wallenstein reviews Speedo, a PBS documentary about demolition derbies.

Music commentator Miles Hoffman, a nationally renowned violist, and NPR's Steve Inskeep visit the Library of Congress' small, priceless collection of Stradivarius instruments. Hoffman plays some of the rarest instruments in the collection, including a violin called the "Betts," crafted in 1704 by Antonio Stradivari.

An American poetry therapist and a Haitian-American U.S. Army veteran founded a public high school four years ago for the growing Haitian community in the small city in Delray Beach, Fla. They named the school the Toussaint L'Ouverture School for the Arts and Social Justice, after the father of Haiti's independence movement. These students, most recently arrived from Haiti, learn in their native Creole language and in English. Hear a report from Youth Radio.

Built in 1929, the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles has been the scene for many movies and outdoor concerts. Like many outdoor venues, it's a romantic setting but troublesome for acoustics. On June 25, the venue's new shell will be unveiled. It's designed to give musicians more space and better acoustics -- the latest in a series of redesigns over the years. Gene Parrish reports.

An innovative program in New York will have diverse artists contribute samples of their work to a trust. Over time, some of the works should increase in value. The money raised will allow the trust to pay out pensions when the artists retire. NPR's Rick Karr reports.

Camp Alpha, a U.S. military base in Iraq, was built directly on top of the ancient temple area of Babylon. The base's location was chosen to protect the archeological site from looters. Instead, the base has resulted in damage that some antiquities experts characterize as "horrifying." Hear NPR's Renee Montagne and archeologist John Russell.

NPR's Madeleine Brand speaks with NPR arts editor Bill Wyman about the cancellation of this year's Lollapalooza music festival, due to poor ticket sales.

NPR's Andrea Seabrook talks with author Chuck Palahniuk about his new book Stranger than Fiction, his writing craft and the reactions he likes provoke in his readers. Palahniuk is most well-known for his novel Fight Club.

NPR's Bob Mondello reviews the new film King Arthur. He says the movie falls short because not only does it fail to follow the Arthurian legend, but all the dialogue, action scenes and wardrobe just seem silly.

NPR's Tavis Smiley welcomes the wonderful and witty Margaret Cho into his Los Angeles studio. Cho's biting, socially conscious humor has been compared to that of George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce. She has a new stand-up comedy film called Revolution, premiering on the Sundance Channel's June "Out Loud" Celebration.

Kikkan Randall and Jessica Diggins are the first American women ever to win a medal in cross-country — and they made it gold.

In Dexter, the new Showtime series starring Michael C. Hall of Six Feet Under fame, a forensics expert investigates serial killers by day and turns into one at night, stalking and murdering criminals.

Borat features British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as a fictional television journalist from Kazakhstan on a tour of the United States. The satire is biting and discomforting. But it's also funny and well-suited for our times.

Nicole Holofcener's Friends with Money is a "modern comedy of manners," according to Morning Edition and Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan. The film features Catherine Keener, Jennifer Aniston, Frances McDormand and Joan Cusack as four Los Angeles women who have issues with love and money.

Actor and comedian John Leguizamo has a recurring role on NBC's ER. He can also be seen in Edward Burns' film The Groomsmen. This interview originally aired on July 18, 2005.