The Frame

With the State of the Union upon us, Bill Pullman recalls his roles as Commander-in-Chief; trans actress Daniela Vega plays a groundbreaking trans role; Rachel Morrison is the first woman nominated for an Academy Award in cinematography.

The Grammys are slammed for under-representing women; a New York Times essay argues that the Time's Up movement is subverted by award shows; Aimee Mann won the Best Folk Album Grammy — one of the few women to take home a trophy.

How did Pati Jinich, the granddaughter of Eastern European immigrants, end up hosting a popular Mexican food show?; the NAMM show is a dizzying array of instruments and gadgets; The Secret Sisters are nominated for best folk album at the Grammys.

The Irish actor traverses big budget movies like "Star Wars" and indie films like “A Futile and Stupid Gesture”; a new USC study shows how women are underrepresented in pop music; Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are nominated for the Broadway musical, “Dear Evan Hansen.”

Best jazz album nominee Billy Childs talks about how L.A. inspired his hybrid style; as the music industry gathers for the Grammys, what are its challenges?; two filmmakers step out from the shadow of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki.

Kyle Buchanan of Vulture.com and film critic Amy Nicholson maintain that younger and more diverse nominees are a result of the academy broadening its membership; "Baby Driver" director is a Grammy nominee for the film's pop-heavy soundtrack.

John Horn chats with Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal about their ode to Oakland; the SAG Awards put the spotlight on women and the road ahead to gender equality on Hollywood; PJ Morton is nominated for best R&B album (“Gumbo”) and best R&B song (“First Began”).

A report from John Horn at Sundance, where the festival offerings include a film about a certain Supreme Court justice; Pacific Standard Time LA/LA includes a performance festival with Latino/a artists from the U.S., Mexico and South America.

"Small Mouth Sounds" was inspired by the playwright's experience at a three-day silent retreat; the bro-centric Spike TV channel is re-branded as The Paramount Network; composer Gabriel Kahane took a cross-country train trip and the result was a song cycle about Trump-era America.

Matt Ingebretson and Jake Weisman's "Corporate" is a workplace comedy that heads into some very bleak territory; Rachel Morrison was behind the camera for "Mudbound" and "Black Panther"; Harvey and Bob Weinstein are reportedly pushing for their former studio, Miramax, to buy The Weinstein Co.

“GLOW” (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) is a new Netflix series loosely based on women’s wrestling from the 1980s. Creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch reveal some behind-the-scenes stories from the set; Kirsten Tan's debut film, "Pop-Aye," is a road movie where the buddies on the surreal journey are an aging architect and his long lost elephant.

Filmmaker Edgar Wright has made an action movie that revolves around an extensive playlist of pop, rock and R&B songs; the National Geographic channel presents "Earth Live," a real-time special broadcast from six continents.

Writer-director David Lowery had a tiny budget for "A Ghost Story," but he managed to attract Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara to the cast; Errol Morris is known for his serious documentaries, but he switches gears with The B-Side," a profile of photographer Elsa Dorfman.

Jay-Z's new album, "4:44," may be a hit, but the business model behind his music streaming service Tidal is in question; Two leaders of Outfest — the Los Angeles LGBT film festival — discuss how far has event has come and the history of queer cinema in Hollywood; How the New York Times became an outlet for documentary filmmakers.

Comedian Hasan Minhaj is doing more with his stand-up act than just making people laugh. He’s representing a vision of America. With the release of the album "The Hamilton Instrumentals," super fans like the people behind Hamiltunes LA get their wish. And keyboardist Benmont Tench, plays his ode to LA in the backseat of a car.

Two music supervisors who work on TV shows like "Fargo" and "Breaking Bad" say they love what they do but they discourage others from going into the field. And 50 years later, a new book looks at the legacy of the Summer of Love.

This year, the Emmy Awards will finally recognize music supervision. In the first of a two-part interview, John Horn chats with Maggie Phillips (“Fargo”) and Thomas Golubic (“Breaking Bad”) about their work; Andrew Jay Cohen makes the leap from writing to directing with “The House,” a comedy starring Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler.

“The Big Sick” tells the true story of how comedian Kumail Nanjiani and writer Emily V. Gordon became a couple; The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited a record 744 actors, writers, directors and other movie industry workers; Ginnifer Goodwin and Allen Leech star in “Constellations," a play that combines a love story with physics.

Writer-director Jeff Baena turned a series of 14th-Century novellas set in a convent into a bawdy sex comedy; The Kronos Quartet is expanding the repertoire of contemporary music for string quartets; American movie studios benefit from taking on Chinese partners.

Paul Dano stars in “Okja,” the story of a seemingly benevolent conglomerate working to help feed the world through genetically modified animals. Dano speaks about the issues raised in the film, and about working with director Bong Joon-Ho; The Arroyo Seco Weekend attracted about 24,000 people for each day of the two-day music festival on the grounds of the Rose Bowl. Two L.A. Times music writers have different takes.

Broken Social Scene wants to make music memories. They talk about their love of festivals and bringing music "to the people." And Pasadena City Councilmember Steve Madison says why he wanted to bring music to his city with the Arroyo Seco Weekend. And where are all the film scoring jobs going these days? Two people in the industry tell us why California needs to include film scoring in its production incentive program.

Coal magnate sues John Oliver for defamation just days have the HBO host's scathing "Last Week Tonight" segment. The tumultuous love story of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera is now a bilingual opera called "Frida." And two of the lead actors in the play "The Pride" open up about the personal and political reasons they wanted to tell this story of gay men in love.