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President-elect Obama has said he wants public employees to take back some of the work that the Bush administration has given to private contractors — and he wants to crack down on contractors' abuses.

But Obama could find it difficult to shake things up.

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Out gay politician Harvey Milk served just 11 months in office before his assassination 30 years ago. Critic Bob Mondello says Gus Van Sant's new movie biography is a portrait of a hero — and of his cause. (Recommended)

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What's fit to print? For Barney Rosset, the answer is an invariable "anything." His Grove Press was known for printing books other publishers wouldn't touch — and for legal crusades that changed American censorship law.

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At this point Republican incumbent Ted Stevens is behind Democratic challenger Mark Begich by just over a thousand votes.

Even if he's able to pull off a victory, Stevens still faces an expulsion vote in the Senate. His Republican colleagues put off a preliminary step toward one Tuesday — waiting to see what happens in Alaska.

One minute, actress Brooke Smith has a featured role on one of the hottest shows on TV. The next, she's abruptly removed from the cast.

But what ABC is deeming a "creative decision," hints of something else. TV critic Andrew Wallenstein says TV is sending the message that it is OK to be gay — just not too gay.

Iraq-war movies always seem to flop: Stop Loss, Redacted, Rendition, In the Valley of Elah — all were box-office disappointments.

But several plays about Iraq have been hits. Why does Iraq work on stage but not on screen?

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Her ticket may have failed to win the White House, but former VP candidate Sarah Palin hasn't faded from public view.

The Alaska governor, seemingly omnipresent on TV, isn't ruling out a move soon to the U.S. Senate — or a 2012 bid for the Oval Office.

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An adaption of Yasunari Kawabata's 1961 novella, Sleeping Beauties is a wistful erotic mystery centered around an eccentric German brothel.

Mark Jenkins calls it artful and delicate — but with an oddly tone-deaf ending.

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A familiar story — about cranky senior citizens running roughshod over an inexperienced rest-home manager at the holidays— is redeemed by a crop of thoroughbred actors who burnish the material to a warm glow.

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The big-ticket Broadway musical, based on the surprise-hit British film, has its opening night tonight. Jeff Lunden explains what's new and what's different — and how the story's focus expanded for the stage.

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