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.

Ilene Chaiken runs "Empire" while co-creator Lee Daniels develops his next show for Fox, "Star"; the SxSW Interactive Conference is getting heat for canceling sessions about sexism in the gaming industry; the Hammer Museum will benefit from UCLA's purchase of the Occidental Petroleum building.

The duo's production company, Smokehouse, has examined politics in the TV series, "K Street," and the films “The Ides of March" and "Good Night and Good Luck." Their latest is "Our Brand is Crisis."

Rock star Courtney Love has acted in films and TV, but now she's hitting the boards in Todd Almond's "Kansas City Choir Boy"; the "Steve Jobs" biopic got good reviews from critics, but audiences are staying away in droves; Upright Citizens Brigade is taking its comedy franchise online.

Sean Rameswaram of WNYC and Soraya Nadia McDonald of the Washington Post talk about the week's top stories from the wide world of culture; the new music ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars performs Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" for the first time in an American airport.

Mark Mothersbaugh, a founding member of the new wave band Devo, is also a film and TV composer with a long list of credits that includes "The Last Man on Earth"; an exhibition of Cuban art arrives as the island nation develops a new relationship with the United States.

"Suffragette" screenwriter Abi Morgan and director Sarah Gavron made a period film that has current-day resonance; Disney is going all out to sell "Star Wars" in the world's second-biggest film market; Pakistani and L.A. musicians collaborated to create a new East-meets-West sound.

Filmmaker James Vanderbilt revisits the story that led to Dan Rather and a "60 Minutes" producer losing their jobs at CBS; producer Noah Hawley says the key to making "Fargo" a TV series was to not be bound by the Coen brothers movie.

As the most prominent woman on HBO's "Project Greenlight," film producer Effie Brown has had to address race and gender issues; Lenny Abrahamson wrote a long letter to "Room" novelist Emma Donoghue to convince her that he was the right director for the film version.

FX chief John Landgraf says his warning of there being too much TV for the industry to bear -- and the consumer to watch -- struck a chord with other network heads; How composer Jóhann Jóhannsson created the haunting score for 'Sicario'

The actor has directed a documentary about the rise and fall of the once powerful record store chain; the first-ever Politicon was a sort of Comic-Con for political junkies, journalists and jokesters; Fox is developing more TV shows with comic book heroes, including "X-Men" characters.

Kelly Sue DeConnick describes her feminist sci-fi series, "Bitch Planet," as "Margaret Atwood meets Inglourious Basterds”; Cary Fukunaga encountered severe challenges while shooting "Beasts of No Nation" in Ghana.

Producer Aline Brosh McKenna wants to upend genre stereotypes on her new CW network comedy. (Cue the band!) ; several films hitting theaters this fall are tackling stories of women striving for equality; Kurt Vile has a new album of chilled-out folk music.