Terry Gross

He's starring in the new film Die Mommie Die! directed by Mark Rucker and written by Charles Busch, who also stars in the film. The film blends melodrama, mystery and comedy. Hall has also appeared in director Paul Thomas Anderson's films Hard Eight, Boogie Nights and Magnolia. He also played a Joe Friday-type cop in an episode of Seinfeld, on the trail of overdue library books.

His career got a jumpstart with his role as a bail bondsman in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown. He's starred in Mulholland Dr., Me, Myself & Irene and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. He plays Marshall Sisco in the new ABC series Karen Sisco.

She had several hits in the late '50s and early '60s, including "Mean Mean Man," "Let's Have a Party" and "Fujiyama Mama." In the '70s she kept recording music, mostly gospel. She's 65 now and still touring. She's just released her first studio recording in 15 years, Heart Trouble. Guest musicians, including Elvis Costello and The Cramps, join her for several tracks.

The Oscar-nominated actor, who died Oct. 11, often played police officers and private eyes. "These guys are straight shooters," he said in 2003. "I take the mantle of that and pretend it's me."

He became a star for his role as Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. He's been nominated for numerous Academy Awards, and he stars with Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins in the suspenseful drama Mystic River.

Summer grew up singing gospel in church choirs in Boston and, in her teens, joined the German cast of Hair. While abroad she recorded Love to Love You Baby, which became a huge hit. She returned to the United States a disco star. Her other hits include Bad Girls and Hot Stuff. She's written a new memoir about life in the disco spotlight called Ordinary Girl.

With his wife, writer Maggie Barrett, he'd planned to begin work on a book about Tuscany in mid-September, 2001, but the project was interrupted by the terrorist attacks. He photographed the excavation of Ground Zero, culminating in an exhibition that is now on tour around the world. Several months later, they resumed work on the Tuscany project. The book, Tuscany, is out now.

Kahn was only 11 years old when his father, legendary architect Louis Kahn, died. We talk with Kahn about My Architect, the award-winning documentary in which he attempts to understand his father through his buildings and his relationships.

His book The Human Stain is about a professor accused of racism who has a secret about his own ethnic identity. It's just been adapted into a new film starring Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman. The Human Stain won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. It is the third of a trilogy that includes his American Pastoral and I Married a Communist.

His new book Brundibar is based on a Czech opera of the same name. It was set to music by Hans Krasa, who was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camp Terezin and later killed in Auschwitz. The opera was performed 55 times by the children of Terezin. Sendak has also written and illustrated the classic children's books Where the Wild Things Are, In The Night Kitchen and Outside Over There. Time magazine has said, "For Sendak, visiting the land of the very young is not something that requires a visa.