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Mark Olsen and Will Scheffer are writers and producers for Big Love, the HBO series that follows the complicated family dynamics of a man and his three wives.

The idea of a Cabinet-level official for the arts has gotten some buzz lately. After all, many other countries have ministers of culture. High-profile artists such as Quincy Jones think it's necessary in the U.S., but not everyone agrees.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Reborn: Journals & Notebooks, 1947 – 1963, the newly published intimate ruminations of Susan Sontag.

The current issue of Entertainment Weekly announces on the cover that "Obama Is Changing Pop Culture Forever." Newsweek correspondent and News & Notes co-host, Allison Samuels, sat down with Sean Smith, the Los Angeles Bureau Chief of Entertainment Weekly, for a conversation about how he thinks this change is coming.

The show, created by The Second City comedy troupe, tracks the former Illinois governor's rise to power — and sets it to music. Kelly Leonard, one of the show's creators, says the cast is confident Blagojevich will attend.

It's hard to talk about museums these days without discussing the effect the recession is having on them. Funding of all kinds is being cut, and many museums are laying off staff, postponing exhibitions and looking for new ways to raise money.

Comedic actor Danny McBride scored two major roles last year in the films Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express. Sunday night, he stars in the new HBO comedy series Eastbound and Down, about a washed-up, foul-mouthed Major League pitcher who takes a job coaching gym at his old middle school. McBride talks to host Jacki Lyden about the series, co-produced by Will Ferrell.

Hollywood's biggest night --- the 81st Annual Academy Awards — is just around the corner. This year's nominees represent a broad range portrayals, from growing up in India's poorest areas and a man who ages backwards, to a mother who is facing an unthinkable family tragedy. Author and film historian Esther Iverem takes listeners inside the race for the Oscars, and looks at nominees of color.

The new Showtime series United States of Tara couldn't be more of a sure thing. Besides the promising premise of a comedy about a mother with multiple personality disorder, it boasts Steven Spielberg as executive producer, Oscar-winning Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody and respected actress Toni Collette. Yet critic Andrew Wallenstein says "Tara" is a disappointment.

David Potter's gripping, enigmatic writing for TV made him one of British culture's defining figures from the 1960s through the 1980s. Critic-at-large John Powers reviews the new DVD collection Dennis Potter: 3 to Remember.