The Frame

Author, religion scholar and TV consultant Reza Aslan adds talk show host to his credits with "Rough Draft"; Oscar nominee Lon Burden breaks down the sound design for a crucial scene in "The Revenant"; the toughest Oscars trivia contest happens at a pub in Santa Monica.

The Black Version is a group of improv performers who put an Afro-centric spin on mainstream movies; Leonardo DiCaprio sees environmental parallels between the 1820s when "The Revenant" is set and modern-day America; eligibility rules for the Oscars raise questions for the original score nominees.

Will this year’s Academy Awards be the tipping point for racial representation in Hollywood? Marc Bernardin of The Hollywood Reporter weighs in; The Song Exploder podcast takes apart a song with the band Clipping; "Inside Out" writer Meg LeFauve gets a Pixar education and now takes on Ms. Marvel.

USC's Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg tracked the representation of women, people of color, and the LGBT community in film and television and found Hollywood is still "a straight, white boys club." Then co-star and co-creator of the HBO show 'Togetherness', Steve Zissis, mines his life-- failures and all-- for the show. And comedian Kamau Bell is excited to see Chris Rock turn #OscarsSoWhite into comic gold at the Academy Awards.

Comedian Paul Rust went from Iowa to working with his childhood heroes Judd Apatow and Paul Rubens, and now he's landed the Netflix series "Love," which comes out today. The Coen Brothers bring water ballet back to the big screen in "Hail, Caesar!" with the L.A. aquatic dance troupe Aqualillies. Also, we deconstruct the Oscar race for Best Picture with John Horn and Kyle Buchanan from The Awards Show Show.

Writer-director Robert Eggers' impressive feature debut is about witches in colonial New England; after camera assistant Sarah Jones was killed on a film set, her parents became advocates for production safety; the play 'Placas' tells the story of a man who escapes one of the world's most brutal gangs.

David Javerbaum created @TheTweetOfGod, which led to the hit Broadway play, "An Act of God," currently starring Sean Hayes; faced with low ratings, ABC fires network chief Paul Lee; singer-songwriter M. Ward revisits his early years in the Conejo Valley on his new album.

The producer of the Record of the Year Grammy talks about what went into making the dance hit, "Uptown Funk"; France's Academy Awards entry for Foreign Language Film was actually shot in Turkey by a Turkish-born filmmaker; Edward Gero played Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in a show at Arena Stage.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Alejandro G. Iñárritu of "The Revenant" are among the filmmakers and actors on The Frame's annual Academy Awards preview. You'll also hear from Sylvester Stallone, Brie Larson, Bryan Cranston and many others.

Sylvester Stallone turned down the part of an ailing Rocky Balboa in "Creed" twice before agreeing to do it-- with the help of an acting coach. Now he's nominated for an Oscar. Grammy nominated musician Lianne La Havas finds inspiration in Jamaica. How only Kanye West could pack Madison Square Garden while playing an album off his laptop.

Previewing the most anticipated features and documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival (pictured); Bill Robles has drawn the trials of everyone from Charles Manson to Lindsay Lohan; 'Mommy' is the fifth feature from 25-year-old Xavier Dolan.

Journalist Ben Fritz and former Navy officer-turned-actor Ricky Ryba on the marketing and accuracy of "American Sniper" (pictured); Frances McDormand and Suzzy Roche discuss "Early Shaker Spirituals"; the documentary "Red Army" looks at how the former Soviet Union built a hockey dynasty.

Former Disney exec-turned-producer Nina Jacobson discusses how an actor’s pay is determined in the industry; composer Hans Zimmer (pictured) discusses the making of his Oscar-nominated score for Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar"; Michael Chabon is the most recent novelist trying his hand at writing pop song lyrics.

Classical music legend Neville Marriner (pictured) is in L.A. to conduct the Colburn School student orchestra; Stephanie Allain, an executive producer of "Dear White People" and director of the L.A. Film Festival, on why Hollywood isn't diverse enough; Doug Lussenhop, aka DJ Douggpound, brings his sound-rich act to Riot LA.

Who got left out of the Academy Award nominations, and why; screenwriter Jason Hall on adapting war hero Chris Kyle's raw memoir for the big screen; and L.A. Opera adapts "The Marriage of Figaro" into a story about illegal immigration.

Neil Young (pictured) wants his hi-res audio player to let fans hear music the way it sounds in the studio; TV producers are previewing new shows for the new year; and an L.A. artist has turned his studio apartment into a museum.

Chris Lemmon's one-man stage revives his dad's stories and spirit (pictured); Film L.A. reports that film production is down, but TV production is way up over the past year; In-Q has carved out a place for himself where spoken word, poetry and music intersect.

The British actor talks about his new movie, "Match" (pictured); author Annabelle Gurwitch on the parallel universes surrounding awards season in Hollywood; the stage actors union is considering changes that could turn the theater scene upside down.

Jenni Konner, executive producer and writer of "Girls" (left, with star Lena Dunham), talks about season four; What do the Golden Globe, Writers Guild and Producers Guild nominations mean for the upcoming Oscars?; Disney's "Fantasia" film transforms into a video game with a modern update.

French artist Pierre Huyghe transforms an exhibition space at the L.A. County Museum of Art (pictured) into a quirky biosphere; the winter TV season has arrived; a new public radio show/podcast is about the invisible forces that control human behavior.

Mark Duplass talks about the new HBO series, "Togetherness" (pictured), he created with his brother, Jay; what's the market for the new high-end audio players from Sony and Neil Young?; a landmark mural of Anthony Quinn is being restored in downtown L.A.

The roster for the Coachella festival (pictured) has Drake, AC/DC and Jack White as headliners; Mica Levi conducts a live performance of her award-winning movie score; a look at the latest gadgets debuting at the Consumer Electronics Show; an effort to expand Wikipedia entries for African-American artists.