Arts Audio/Video - NPR

In "Flash of Genius," Greg Kinnear plays Robert Kearns, a professor who invented intermittent windshield wipers. Based on a true story, Kearns claimed that Detroit automakers stole his idea and sued them in a long, drawn-out battle. Host Liane Hansen chats with Kinnear about his movie.

Two popular movies are making audiences squirm. Towelhead addresses cultural tensions in the story of an Arab-American girl blossoming into womanhood, and Lakeview Terrace is about a cop who is wary of the interracial couple who just moved onto his block.

Screen legend Paul Newman — who navigated celebrity without scandal, gave effortlessly to charity and even made getting old a graceful process — died Friday at the age of 83 after battling cancer.

Many times, voice actors hired to record audio books complement the material. But sometimes, when narrators turn to bombast or bad accents, they are a distraction, commentator Nate DiMeo says.

Famous for his work on the first oral contraceptive in 1951, chemist Carl Djerassi has published a number of novels and plays over the last 20 years. His latest play, Taboos, grapples with the questions of sex divorced from reproduction.

Spike Lee's latest highlights the oft-neglected contributions of African-American servicemen in World War II. But an overstuffed screenplay and an uneven tone undercut the effort.

Miracle At St. Anna, based on James McBride's novel, follows four soldiers of the all-black 92nd Infantry Division after they're cut off by Axis forces in the Tuscan countryside during World War II.

In her new memoir The Legs Are The Last To Go, actress Diahann Carroll talks about her glamorous career and lifestyle — and simplifying. But she says, "Stepping away from glamour is not an easy thing to do."

Robert Downey Jr. is a name well-known to moviegoers, but did you know that the actor's father also happens to be in the movie business? Robert Downey Sr. is an acclaimed director whose early underground films have just been restored.

Actor Bryan Cranston recently won the Emmy for outstanding actor in a drama series for his performance in the AMC's Breaking Bad. Cranston plays a high-school chemistry teacher who begins producing crystal meth after being diagnosed with cancer.