Big eyes are appealing on anything -- babies, cartoon characters, Jake Gyllenhaal. But our fondness for big eyes is the work of nature, not Disney. Studio 360’s Eric Molinsky found out how evolutionary psychology muscled its way into pop culture.

One hundred years ago, in January 1908, the composer Gustav Mahler made his American debut at Carnegie Hall. A year later, he was leading the New York Philharmonic, turning it into a world-class ensemble. But Mahler soon fell out of favor in New York, and died suddenly.

Ben Affleck’s directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, opens this week. It’s set in a rough-and-tumble Irish neighborhood in Boston -– the same setting as Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. Studio 360’s Eric Molinsky looks into why his hometown of ...

Though Hollywood was slow to portray the war in theatrical features, now a whole batch of Iraq movies are set to come out –- including Paul Haggis’ In the Valley of Elah. But as cultural critic Laura Miller tells us, one of the first, most surprising attempts to deal ...

In the movies, computer-generated effects make impossible fantasies seem totally real -– but as Studio 360’s Eric Molinsky discovered, that means actors have to work harder than ever.

Painter William Utermohlen was old-fashioned - and completely unknown for most of his career. But the self-portraits he made while he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease made him a star. Studio 360’s Eric Molinsky traces the history of an artist who was always a little out of ...

Four years after Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended, creator Joss Whedon has resurrected his cult hit TV series in a very surprising fashion: as a comic book. Produced by Eric Molinsky.

The Woody Allen film Annie Hall was released 30 years ago today, on April 20th, 1977. Even though it was a romantic comedy, the depth and poignancy of the movie marked a departure for Woody Allen, who was known for making outright farces.

Annie Hall won over critics and created ...

David O. Selznick was a major Hollywood mogul, the producer of “Gone with the Wind” and “Spellbound.” He was also a workaholic micromanager who recited endless memos throughout the night. Selznick tried to dictate every detail – from the size of Rhett Butler’s collars to Alfred Hitchcock’s camera angles. ...

With his new ballet, English choreographer Matthew Bourne brings Tim Burton’s 1990 movie Edward Scissorhands to the stage. For him, it’s a classic story about the American suburbs. Produced by Eric Molinsky.

In the 1960s and 70s, Hollywood turned to the Western to depict the racial, moral, and military issues of the Vietnam War. Today, directors and screenwriters are again grappling with war indirectly, through genres like fantasy and science fiction. Critics Lisa Schwartzbaum and Laura Miller show ...

The actor F. Murray Abraham is currently starring in two plays that are notorious for their depiction of Jews. William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, and Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta. The plays run through March 11th at Theater for a New Audience. Eric Molinsky takes a look at ...

Andy Kaufman's blend of comedy and performance art involved making up strange, annoying characters and staying in character, even beyond the walls of the TV studio. His routines bewildered audiences in the '70s and '80s. But with performers like Sasha Baron Cohen, Stephen Colbert and Sarah Silverman, the world has ...

The Bush administration has boosted the careers of many liberal comics and commentators like Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. But a familiar voice of the old left has been unusually quiet during the last six years: Jules Feiffer. Studio 360's Eric Molinsky ...

The stateside arrival of My Name Is Rachel Corrie, which transfers from London to New York this week, is generating a lot of buzz, mostly because of the tricky politics attached to it. The play has a distinctly pro-Palestinian viewpoint, but it isn’t about Israelis and Palestinians. It’s the true ...

Big eyes are appealing on anything -- babies, puppies, cartoon characters, Jake Gyllenhaal. But our fondness for big eyes is the work of nature, not Disney. Studio 360's Eric Molinsky found out how evolutionary psychology butts into pop culture.

The movie Crash, by writer-director Paul Haggis, is one of the big contenders for Best Picture at this weekend's Academy Awards. Crash follows a diverse group of strangers in Los Angeles who literally and figuratively crash into one another, altering their lives forever. That premise will sound ...

Studio 360's Eric Molinsky has been following Aimee Mann's career since he was a kid. He had a chance to speak with Mann when she visited our studio to perform songs from her new album, The Forgotten Arm.

Recently the Walt Disney company announced it will stop making hand drawn animated movies and to focus solely on computer animation. Studio 360's Eric Molinsky looks at the intricate art form Disney helped to create and then abandoned.

A lot of us grew up with GI Joe and Princess Leia action figures. But today's selection of tiny plastic dolls isn’t limited to movie and comic book characters. Super heroes worked hard to make our democracy safe. So it naturally follows that we can now customize our ...