The Frame

Young Jean Lee's play, "Straight White Men," is an examination of privilege that provokes and challenges audiences; movie theater owners are getting creative about selling "Star Wars" merchandise and concessions; Lorely Rodriguez, aka Empress Of, is getting raves for her debut album.

Spike Lee's latest provocation likens the level of gun violence in Chicago to a war zone; Rooney Mara's performance in "Carol" adds to her already impressive list of credits; the beloved "Charlie Brown" holiday special, now in its 50th year, wasn't originally embraced by network executives.

Eddie Redmayne, last year’s best actor Oscar winner for “The Theory of Everything,” talks about portraying a trans-woman in “The Danish Girl”; Latin Grammy-winner Natalia Lafourcade deconstructs her song, “Hasta La Raíz”; This year's Independent Spirit Award winners will likely differ a lot from the Oscars.

As producer of the "Hunger Games" movies and a former studio executive, Nina Jacobson has a platform to demand gender equality in Hollywood; Pixar president Ed Catmull has helped build the studio into the empire it is today.

Ryan Coogler grew up watching the "Rocky" movies, and now he's director and co-writer of the spin-off, "Creed"; How "Toy Story" saved a struggling special effects firm called Pixar; "The Hunting Ground" inspires the question: can journalism and advocacy co-exist in documentaries?

Todd Haynes has directed several films with women as protagonists and his latest is “Carol,” which stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara; MADtv debuted 20 years ago and managed to stay on the air for 14 seasons; a club owner considers L.A. nightlife after the Paris attacks.

Series creator Kurt Sutter is disappointed but not bitter about the cancellation of "The Bastard Executioner"; it's been 20 years since MADtv set out to be the west coast version of "Saturday Night Live"; "The Hunting Ground" examines sexual assaults on college campuses.

Writer-producer John McNamara and director Jay Roach talk about the struggle to make "Trumbo," about the 1940s Hollywood blacklist victim; Nancy Tartaglione, international editor for Deadline.com, on the importance of cinema in France; Rashard Bradshaw, aka Cakes da Killa, is a loud and proud gay rapper.

The Marvel comics character Jessica Jones has a dark backstory, which is what inspired producer Melissa Rosenberg to create a TV series about her; in the documentary "Song of Lahore," a group of Pakistani musicians use a jazz standard and You Tube to find a global audience; Pandora will enter the on-demand music streaming business.

After taping an episode in Cuba earlier this year, Conan O'Brien travels to Armenia with his assistant, who gets to visit her family's homeland; the terrorist attacks in Paris have caused two networks to postpone sensitive episodes, and several bands have canceled European dates.

Jenny Lewis has played Coachella with her previous bands, but she’s there this year as a solo artist; the Alvin Ailey dance troupe shows middle schoolers how to turn emotion into motion (pictured); talking shop with two acclaimed narrators of audio books, llyana Kadushin and Kevin T. Collins; and a farewell to R&B singer Percy Sledge.

The Coachella music festival brought tens of thousands of music fans out to the desert for three days of fun in the sun; Trevor Noah performs in the U.S. for the first time since being named host of “The Daily Show”; Kristen Schaal's career gets a boost from her first co-starring role on a major network (pictured).

Netflix debuts the latest adaptation of Marvel Comics' "Daredevil" (pictured); women singers are not allowed to perform solo in Iran, which is partly why Delaram Kamareh came to the U.S.; the audience for electronic dance music is widely diverse, but that's not the case for the genre's DJs and producers.

"Made Men" creator Matthew Weiner (pictured, holding Emmy Award) is saying a long goodbye to his landmark series; Lauren Bon, the artist behind Metabolic Studio, looks at water and the drought through a creative lens; HBO's "Veep" is back, and so is Tony Hale as the president's personal assistant.

Whether you're attending Coachella or following via YouTube or Sirius, you need to know who's playing and when; director Jay Chandrasekhar used a crowd sourcing campaign to fund 'Super Troopers 2'; Judith Hill (pictured) goes from backup singer to releasing her debut solo album with a little help from Prince.

On the 100th anniversary of her birth, we revisit a 1948 performance by Billie Holiday (pictured) at the Shrine Auditorium; the band Night Terrors of 1927 is a Coachella Music Festival newbie; writer/director Alex Garland explores artificial intelligence in the new film, "Ex Machina."

WonderCon turned the Anaheim Convention Center into pop culture nirvana over the weekend; the hip-hop old schoolers from De La Soul (pictured) are in the studio with an album financed by their fans; getting the new TV show “American Odyssey” on the air was an odyssey unto itself.

Tips on which "Mad Men" episodes to watch before the series begins its swan song (pictured); the landmark exhibition by Chinese dissident artist Ai Wei Wei is in its last month on Alcatraz Island; animal trainer Teresa Ann Miller talks about casting and wrangling 250 dogs for the new movie, “White God"

Comic book editor Janelle Asselin is reviving the romance genre in a new magazine anthology (pictured); L.A. stage actors are voting on contract changes that would pay them more, but could result in fewer roles; 'Game of Thrones' novelist George R.R. Martin drops an excerpt from his next book. (Spoiler alert!)

Director Bob Yari (pictured, far left) recently shot the first American feature film in Cuba in more than 50 years; 2015 is already shaping up as perhaps the best year for hip-hop music ever; Amber Tamblyn's third book of poetry is about young actresses who died tragically.

Should Trevor Noah’s Tweets cost him his job as the new host of "The Daily Show"?; “Furious 7” director James Wan (pictured at left, with Vin Diesel) reveals why he needed to finish the film after the death of actor Paul Walker; The Los Angeles Philharmonic completes its tour of Asia, jet lag and all.

Comedy Central drops a surprise by announcing Trevor Noah (pictured) will replace Jon Stewart; young musicians from L.A. and Fukushima get to work with Gustavo Dudamel; Dreamworks gets a much-needed hit with "Home"; transgender actors are in demand during TV pilot season.