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With the Oscars days away, Melissa Block chats with writer Bruce Vilanch, who has been on the Academy Awards staff for 20 years. The host, Jon Stewart, has his own writers from Comedy Central furiously working on his material. But other writers are coming up with copy for the presenters — and will be rewriting as the show goes along.

Juno, a film that tells the story of a pregnant 16-year-old in search of a worthy adoptive couple for her child, didn't start out as a teen-pregnancy movie, says screenwriter Diablo Cody.

An economics professor finds a young couple, victims of a real-estate scam, living in his New York apartment. He lets them stay. The film's a touching story of a budding friendship laced with biting commentary on U.S. immigration policies.

Writer-director Roland Emmerich, who is responsible for Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, has taken audiences to a lot of strange places. Not one of them was as strange as his 10,000 B.C.

Sleepwalking through his days, a widowed New York economics professor finds an unlikely friendship — and a way back toward happiness — with an immigrant who teaches him how to play the djembe drum.

Producer Thomas Lopez presents another installment of the series he calls 2 Minute Film Noir. In this episode, we hear the story of Jake, the snake.

In her home studio in East Hampton, New York, illumination artist Ellen Frank is working to revive the atelier, a workshop where apprentices learn the skills of a master by working with the artist on his or her original works.

Nearly 40 years ago, funny, smart, neurotic Alexander Portnoy burst onto the public stage. Philip Roth's fictional hero was racked by guilt — promoted by an over-protective, self-sacrificing mother and by an obsession with, er, loving himself too much.

Fresh Air TV critic David Bianculli reviews HBO's new series John Adams, produced by Tom Hanks.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected to leadership following 14 years of civil war. A new documentary, Iron Ladies of Liberia, explores the evolving role of President Sirleaf and the women helping her to lead the country. The film's directors, Daniel Junge and Siatta Scott Johnson, talk about the film.