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.

Gigi Saul Guerrero, who was born in Mexico, directed the episode that's part of the Hulu horror anthology series, “Into the Dark”; Variety's Todd Spangler on Netflix losing subscribers in the U.S.; composer Bobby Krlic (aka The Haxan Cloak) on writing the score for “Midsommar.”

Writer/director Riley Stearns and stunt coordinator Mindy Kelly talk about their film that's set in a sexist karate school; is Disney having buyer’s remorse over its purchase of Fox's film studio?; behind the appeal of the band Durand Jones & The Indications.

The acclaimed visual artist and musician walks through his retrospective with his wife and frequent collaborator, Jo Harvey Allen; breaking down the Emmy nominations; in the studio with singer-songwriter J.S. Ondara.

The singer is the subject of a warts-and-all documentary, "David Crosby: Remember My Name"; The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Johnson talks about his story on the so-called "Con Queen of Hollywood"; catching up with Linda Ronstadt.

Kumail Nanjiani's "Stuber" and writer/director Lulu Wang's "The Farewell" just opened in theaters, as did the documentary "Sea of Shadows," about drug cartels invading a fishing village in Baja California. Morgan Neville's four-part documentary about music producer Rick Rubin debuts on Showtime. And we also visit with the French piano duo Katia and Marielle Lebeque.

The director and actor talk about their new film, "Sword of Trust"; The Hollywood Reporter's Eriq Gardner on so-called "deep fakes" in Hollywood — ultra-realistic manipulation of digital imagery; a profile of the singer and pianist Rhye.

Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville examines the career of the idiosyncratic record producer; the dilemma faced by cultural instititutions when they have received donations from alleged sexual predators; Black artists make a statement in "Soul of a Nation."

The comedian and actor wanted to go in a different direction after "The Big Sick," so he signed on for an atypical buddy-cop comedy; the latest battle in the video streaming wars; "Sea of Shadows" chronicles a marine life disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

The piano-playing sisters perform everything from the classics to contemporary works by the likes of Thom Yorke and Bryce Dessner; will Jeffrey Katzenberg's big idea for short content fly?; the long-running Tuesday Night Café in Little Tokyo.

The film is based on a true story from the writer/director's own family about refusing to tell their grandmother that she is gravely ill; an appreciation of Brazilian songwriter João Gilberto, who has died at the age of 88.

"Midsommar" filmmaker says it's a horror film about co-dependency and the showrunner of the new ABC comedy "Mixed-ish" wants to inspire nuanced conversations about race. Given the massive TV audience for the World Cup why hasn't Hollywood tapped soccer fever for a great movie? All that and more on The Frame Weekend.

The play "Good Boys," written by "Riverdale" creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, is updated in light of the Kavanaugh hearings; LA's Rogue Machine Theatre company tackles racism and gun violence with "Gunshot Medley: Part 1"; why are there so few movies about soccer?