Australia ** When you name your movie after a country, it's pretty obvious that you're not trying to make a grungy little indie about, say, convenience stores. Baz Luhrmann's "Australia" is a big, bold historical epic with sweeping cinematography, grand passions and lots of cattle. Nicole Kidman is the starchy English chick who inherits a big spread, as well as hunky cow man Hugh Jackman. ...more

March 5, 2009

Forget all those inaugural concerts. The most pressing musical issue in the nation's capital is whether a stone-face senator from Oklahoma will hit the high notes in "Rocket Man" to pay off a college football bet. Senator Settles BCS Bet By Singing "Rocket Man" ...more

January 14, 2009

Oscar-winning writer and director Paul Haggis owns four Toyota Priuses and is high on the waiting list to buy a $100,000 Tesla electric roadster. But when he heard about the new Honda FCX Clarity, a hydrogen-powered car that gets 270 miles on a tank and emits nothing but water, he was desperate to drive it. ...more

June 22, 2008

In its 75th year, the "Christmas Spectacular" at Radio City Music Hall is a relatively mellow affair. ...more

November 22, 2007

Gennaro Castiglione didn't re-enter the restaurant business to become a star. He achieved star status a long time ago. ...more

October 15, 2007

Luciano Pavarotti, 71, who died early Thursday of pancreatic cancer at his home in Modena, Italy, combined a lustrous lyric tenor voice with a radiant and expansive personal charm to win the largest and most diversified audience ever accorded an opera singer. ...more

September 7, 2007