Category Lifestyle

Patti LuPone, Live from Her Basement

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Patti LuPone’s basement looks like a cross between a penny arcade, a TGI Fridays, and an after-hours piano bar. You’ve probably seen it, too, if you’ve followed her on social media…

Mandy Patinkin Is Still Singing

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story One recent afternoon, I picked up my cell phone to see that I had a missed call and voice mail from an unknown number. “Hey, Rachel, this is Mandy Patinkin calling,”…

Barbra Streisand Can Hear Herself Again

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Barbra Streisand called me on a Tuesday afternoon. Well, to be more accurate, one of her many publicists did, and then patched me into Streisand’s home in Malibu (well, really, a…

Kirsten Dunst’s Feminine Urges

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story You may have seen the recent meme involving the phrase “the feminine urge to,” followed by some pithy example of melancholy or chaotic behavior. “The feminine urge to stop replying to…

Cynthia Nixon’s “Emily Thing”

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Nixon often divides the world into “thinkers” and “actors,” but she is an actor with a talent for channelling thinkers.PHOTOGRAPH BY CLAUDE MEDALE / CORBIS VIA GETTY When Cynthia Nixon was…

Anna Deavere Smith Contains Multitudes

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Halfway through the first act of Anna Deavere Smith’s new one-woman show, “Notes from the Field,” Smith, whose plays are made up of what she calls “portraits” of Americans, takes on…

Oppenheimer, Nullified and Vindicated

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story “Architect of Atomic Bomb Cleared of ‘Black Mark.’ ” That was the headline last December 18th, when the Times ran a long story on page 16 reporting that Secretary of Energy…

The Rise and Fall of Smooth Jazz

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Whenever I’m asked to provide a “fun fact” about myself, I usually say that I worked as a smooth-jazz radio announcer back in college. It wasn’t the kind of unsuitable, faintly…

A Canine Detective Story in “Shadow of a Dog”

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Armed with night-vision trail cameras, a large cage, and a generous cache of hot dogs, Jim Tierney embarks on nighttime stakeouts in and around New York. The opening scenes of “Shadow…