Terry Gross

Playwright and actor Wallace Shawn and director/actor Andre Gregory co-wrote and co-starred in the 1981 film, "My Dinner with Andre." The film is currently being revived on a five-city swing in the "Classically Independent Film Festival" by the Independent Feature Project. It was shown in New York and will have future screenings Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

British novelist Nick Hornby, is the author of the best-selling comic novel "High Fidelity." It's about a 30-something record collector, and top-ten list maker who is afraid of commitment. His 1998 novel "About a Boy" (Riverhead Books) has just come out in paperback. It is about a 36 year old man who pretends to be a single parent in order to meet women who are single parents. This originally aired 5/20/98.

Playwright and actor Wallace Shawn and director/actor Andre Gregory co-wrote and co-starred in the 1981 film, "My Dinner with Andre." The film is currently being revived on a five-city swing in the "Classically Independent Film Festival" by the Independent Feature Project. It was shown in New York and will have future screenings Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

Lori B. Andrews is one of America's leading legal experts in the field of advanced reproductive technologies. These include cloning, surrogate motherhood, and harvesting human eggs and sperm. She is a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Her latest book is "The Clone Age: Adventures in the New World of Reproductive Technology." (Holt Publishing) She has been a consultant on reproductive issues to The World Health Organization, U.S. Congress, and the National Institutes of Health. She lives in Chicago.

Former U.S. Senator from Maine, George Mitchell. After leaving the Senate he chaired the Northern Ireland peace talks. His new book is about that, "Making Peace: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Negotiations that Culminated in the Signing of the Northern Ireland Peace Accord, told by the American Senator who Served as Independent Chairman of the Talks" (Knopf).

Minimalist composer Steve Reich. He's considered one of our foremost living composers. There's a new CD "Reich Remixed" (Nonesuch) a dance album in which American, British, and Japanese DJ's pay tribute to Reich, by sampling and reassembling his music. Reich will be the subject of this summer's Lincoln Center Festival. And Reich's "Triple Quartet" written for and performed by the Kronos Quartet, will have its world premiere on May 22nd at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

Today marks the Centennial of Fred Astaire's birthday. First, we'll hear from Will Friedwald on Astaire's singing ability. He says while Astaire didn't have the best voice, he was still wonderful to listen to. Friedwald is author of several books on Singers including: The Tony Bennett autobiography "The Good Life," "Sinatra! The Song is You: A Singer's Art," and "Jazz Singing :America's Great Voices from Bessie Smith to Bebop and Beyond"

Film director Stanley Donen (DAH-nen) talks about directing Fred Astaire in "Funny Face," and "Royal Wedding." Last year, Donen received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures. His other films include: "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) "It's Always Fair Weather" (1955) "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (1954) and "Charade" (1963)

Pianist Peter Mintun talks about how Fred Astaire's movies impacted his career. Mintun is considered one of today’s leading interpreters of popular songs composed between the two world wars which he calls classic melodies that transcend time.

Jazz pianist/composer Dave Brubeck. He turns 80 next year and has been recording for 50 years. There are several new collections of his work: "The Dave Brubeck Collection" (Columbia/Legacy) which reissues five of his classic out-of-print LPs, and "Dave Brubeck: Time Signature: A Career Retrospective"