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.

Kulap Vilaysack discusses her Seeso reality TV spoof “Bajillion Dollar Propertie$” and the documentary she's making about the search to find her biological father. Variety's Brent Lang reports on why and how the directors of the Han Solo spinoff movie were fired. And The Frame contributor Tim Grieving visits with the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet at Walt Disney Concert Hall to hear how they're reinventing what percussion is and could be.

'Time: The Kalief Browder story' recounts the tragic life and death of a teenager who was held a Rikers Island for years without being tried of a crime. The series' writer-director Jenner Furst puts his story into a larger context. Was Gal Gadot underpaid for starring in the smash hit “Wonder Woman?” The internet thinks so. Vulture's Kyle Buchanan helps us sort fact from fiction. Common Sense Media which rates movies and TV shows for language, violence, sex and drug use now assesses for gender stereotypes.

The new documentary, “Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press,” uses the Hulk Hogan/Gawker lawsuit to highlight the importance of freedom of speech — even when it’s tawdry; Singer/guitarist Benjamin Booker was in a rut in New Orleans, so he went to Mexico City to record his new album, "Witness"; Bloomberg entertainment reporter Lucas Shaw talks about Apple, Vice and Snapchat's plans to make original scripted programming.

Sofia Coppola has remade the 1971 film, "The Beguiled," which is a Civil War-era story set at a girls' boarding school in the South (starring Nicole Kidman); "Thumbprint" is an opera about a Pakistani woman who sought justice after she was gang raped in her village.

When Judd Apatow learned that Sony was releasing "clean" versions of R-rated and PG-13 movies — including two he produced — he was not happy. He tells The Frame why these edited films should have the filmmakers' consent; The Secret Sisters return to making music with their new album, "You Don't Own Me Anymore"; and we go for a run with the people in the new L.A. Film Festival documentary, "Skid Row Marathon."

Former Bravo network executive Andy Cohen now hosts two shows and has become a reality TV guru; corporations are being extra cautious about advertising in an age when opposition campaigns can quickly gain traction; after a long hiatus, the band Fleet Foxes is back.

Gabriela Cowperthwaite, who directed the documentary “Blackfish," moves to features with “Megan Leavey,” the true story of a Marine and her service dog; how the Los Angeles Film Festival distinguishes itself through a commitment to diversity; a music industry gathering in Mexico where talent from across Latin America gets showcased.

New York's Public Theater is getting heat over its production of "Julius Caesar" that depicts the Shakespeare character as Donald Trump; Tony Award-winning composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul talk about their songs for 'Dear Evan Hansen'; director Lucia Aniello talks about her raunchy comedy, "Rough Night."

It's a rarity for a woman to direct a big budget, comic superhero movie, but Jenkins has torn down the walls with her critically-acclaimed box office smash.

Broadway will honor the best in theater on Sunday night at the 71st annual Tony Awards. But there's one group of performers who will not be recognized, despite the fact that they often make up the majority of the cast in a musical. The Ojai Music Festival highlights an arts collective from the South Side of Chicago that launched 50 years ago by giving the west coast premiere of an opera about the collective titled "Afterward."

“Beatriz at Dinner” is set at a dinner party in a Southern California mansion. The filmmakers and long-time collaborators open up about how they sought to use the setting as a means to unpack "casual racism," and comparisons between John Lithgow's character and Donald Trump.

Movie trailers are both art and advertising. A co-founder of the annual Golden Trailer Awards breaks down what goes into the making of a trailer and why they honor the best and the worst each year. And filmmaker Trey Edward Shults says that dealing with his father's death and his own fear of dying informed his new thriller "It Comes At Night."