Even a cursory glance at the numerous articles following the death, at age 85, of Shirley Temple Black reveals a fact we may not have known: America’s sweetheart was an actual sweetheart. Witness the following: despite her fame, which made it impossible for her to have a normal child’s life, she never felt entitled. Unlike today’s child stars or children of stars—the ones with the very memorable first names, the super-fly hairdoes and

Actor Shia LaBeouf cannot handle Germany's climate--there's something in the air there and it's gone to his head. At the Berlinale, which ends tomorrow, he's shown up at his film's premiere wearing a paper bag (which reads "I'm not famous anymore") over his head (while wearing a tuxedo, no less) and stormed out of a press conference after dribbling some nonsense about sardines and trawling. And then there's that L.A. performance art project

The character of The Tramp, played by Charlie Chaplin, turned 100 today. He was born on February 7th, 1914 in the short film by Henry Lehrman called "Kids auto races at Venice, Cal." Sir Charles Chaplin performs the character that would make him famous for the very first time. In the film he is seen wandering randomly in the middle of a car race and starting--as would be predicted--all kinds of shenanigans, provocatively walking in the middle of traffic

Of course we like them, we love them, we are grateful to them, these stage and film actors who give us so much. When we occasionally hear bad news--an overdose, an accident, an unforgiving illness, a suicide--as the case may be, we’re surprised at how young they were or how untimely their deaths--Heath Ledger comes to mind. All we can do is keep the memories and have a warm thought for them when we come across an image or hear their name.

Let’s face it, French president François Hollande is rather . [...]

Best hairdo: Bobby Canavale's nape in "Blue Jasmine." Best scene: Greta Gerwig running in "Frances Ha" to David Bowie's "Modern Love." Best newcomer: Barkhad Abdi in "Captain Phillips." Best acting award: New York City in "Inside Llewyn Davis." Best documentary: "The Act of killing." So much to gloat about this year. Here are my favorites among those films which had an official U.S. release.

"The Auteurs of Christmas" video is making the rounds of Facebook profiles and Twitter feeds this week. What if Scorcese, Allen, Herzog or Michael Moore did a featurette about the morning of Christmas? The people at video production outfit Fourgrounds Media imagined, and then filmed, one of the most familiar takes on family life around the holidays, that is, Christmas morning, as would be seen through the eyes of our most popular