Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant on Writing Movies for Fun and Profit

The Business with Kim Masters.

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The Business with Kim Masters

The Business

Kim Masters with Simon Kinberg, producer of X-Men: First Class, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Elysium, and others.

Post Production

Kim Masters on fine tuning 'The Dark Knight' without Heath Ledger

Heath Ledger

Here's Kim Masters and Bob Mondello on Heath Ledger.

The Most Expensive Movie Ever

At a total cost of $14.97 'Spider-Man 3' is the most expensive movie in history. Wait, I meant $350 million not $14.97. Anyway, Spidey beats even 'Cleopatra' for costliest movie of all time -- Kim Masters throws in her 2 cents.

Shaye's Mimzy

Bob Shaye, through New Line Cinema, has brought us the gnarly "Pink Flamingoes" and the regal "Lord of the Rings". Now, he's directing a family fantasy, "The Last Mimzy". Kim Masters reports.

Producing The Oscars

Kim Masters talks with Academy Awards show producer Laura Ziskin

Hollywood Candidate(s)

The next run for the presidency is shaping up to be a good one. The Democrats have, for a change, a viable candidate. They also have that most rare of aces...a second viable candidate. Hillary is a good choice, who is also a woman; Obama is a good choice, who is also a black man. This, needless to say, is a first and should yield a helluva race.

But, before the campaign starts there is the little matter of Hollywood alliance to be decided. MovieLand has two kinds of constituents: liberal and really liberal, and whoever wins the support of the LA elite will probably walk away with a decisive advantage. Certainly, both Hillary and Obama appeal to creative types everywhere but there is already a split forming in the Tinsel-Town community, with some power players choosing sides early on while others play it safe, waiting to see where the chips will fall.

Kim Masters comes out strong on the topic. Here is her story at NPR (4 min.), here is her story at Slate.

Cate Blanchett

Every time I see a character brought to life by Cate Blanchett I come away feeling slightly changed, a bit smarter, as if I've been propelled forward just a tad. By turns endearing and naive, then thrilling or even frightening, Blanchett is always fun to watch and has the chops to carry any scene.

Even when she plays a distasteful character -- as she did in "The Shipping News" as Petal, the elegantly trashy skate who strings along a feeble and needy putz (Quoyle, played by Kevin Spacey) just for sport -- she still engenders empathy, often to the point of seeming to be exactly the kind of person you wish you knew in real life. The more risky the role the more she rises to the challenge, as in "Bandits" (who else could have pulled that off?). Sometimes, she is the very best thing about a given movie, as she was in "The Gift". Other times she is flat-out and conventionally just plain good, as she was in "Elizabeth". She is also one of the few actors whose mere presence in a movie is enough to make me want to see it.

She is seen next portraying two complex characters (it's almost redundant to say this about the roles she takes); one is a prostitute in "The Good German", the other a teacher who has an affair with a sixteen year old student in "Notes on a Scandal" (pictured with Judi Dench). NPR's Melissa Block talks with Blanchett.

NPR has a couple other good stories from the past few days: A talk with Tina Fey, the first female head-writer at Saturday Night Live (as well as writer of "Mean Girls").

Kim Masters on the obstacles black actors face in Hollywood and why Will Smith is the biggest movie star in the world.