Culture Maven

The 92nd Academy Awards is Sunday, Feb. 9.We don’t know if “Joker” will sweep all 11 of its nominations. We don’t know if Scarlett Johansson can win in…

With a cardigan, a pair of tennis shoes and some hand puppets, Fred Rogers set out to make the kind of children’s programming he felt kids deserved.…

Remake is a word with power in Hollywood. A glance at what’s playing at your local multiplex shows that everything old is new again as Hollywood’s close,…

Editor’s note: This story is part of a special episode of GLT’s Sound Ideas focused entirely on autonomous driving. It aired Nov. 21. Read more stories in…

Is just being an actor enough to play the role of a gay or trans character?This past summer, actor Scarlett Johansson was cast to play a trans man in the…

"Rosemary's Baby" is not your everyday monster-on-the-loose kind of horror film. Actually, it may not even be a horror film at all.That's the take from…

Criticism regarding the lack of racial and gender diversity in the nominees for the Oscar has dogged the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for…

Shari Zeck, GLT's Culture Maven and Illinois State University's interim dean of Milner Library, came away from seeing the new "Star Wars" film with a…

Kevin Spacey. Harvey Weinstein. And now, Matt Lauer and Garrison Keillor.The news and entertainment industries are embroiled in ongoing sex scandals that…

Twenty years ago, the life of an intriguing royal and humanitarian came to an end in a devastating car crash. Yet the impact of Princess Diana can still…