Our guest this week is now appearing on movie theater screens in The Color Purple, recreating the role of Sofia that she originated in the Broadway revival. But as you’ll hear, that is just her latest achievement in an ever-growing body of work on stage, screen and television. Fans of Orange is the New Black knew her as Taystee, and followers of the recent series Peacemaker could see yet another facet of her boundless talent. A graduate of Juilliard, she is riding high during this awards season but Leonard and Jessie agree that we’ll be watching her in every medium imaginable for years to come.

Danielle Brooks

Legendary film critic Leonard Maltin and his daughter Jessie are the ultimate movie fans. They love talking about movies, especially with people who share their enthusiasm—from living legends like Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Quincy Jones to such contemporary artists as Amy Adams, Viggo Mortensen, Laura Dern, and Bryan Cranston. You’ll meet all kinds of interesting people and hear their recommendations of unsung movies you ought to know...

TV & Film

Comedy

Avy Kaufman’s name should be familiar to anyone who reads credits, as we do. She has cast scores of films and television series, from The Ice Storm to Succession, and launched many a career along the way. You can hear the pride in her voice when she recounts how she brought young Haley Joel Osment to meet the star and director of The Sixth Sense. Recent credits include some of the most talked-about television shows of our time: Mare of Easttown, Under the Banner of Heaven, Billions, and Fellow Travelers, which could earn her a fourth Emmy Award. (She has three: one for Damages and two for Succession). Avy wears her passion on her sleeve and that makes for great conversation.

Avy Kaufman

There’s only one Mira Sorvino—Oscar winner for her unforgettable performance in Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite, costar of the enduringly popular Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, Harvard grad (cum laude), mother of four, and daughter of the celebrated actor and singer Paul Sorvino.credentials are pretty amazing; then you talk to her and discover what a quicksilver mind she possesses. To limit our conversation to film, we discussed directors she has worked with, from Spike Lee to Robert Redford, and she had something interesting to say at every juncture. Leonard and Jessie were impressed, to put it mildly. THE IMAGE OF YOU released In Select Theaters and is available to buy on Digital on May 10th, 2024. 

Mira Sorvino

Marc Wanamaker is a walking encyclopedia of Hollywood legends and lore. He grew up in the community and soon realized there was history all around him. He began to amass a collection of rare photographs which eventually numbered in the thousands. Marc has been an invaluable resource for authors, scholars, documentarians, and even the movie studios themselves. His newest book, written with Steven Bingen, is called Hollywood Behind the Lens: Treasures from the Bison Archives. Leonard conducted this interview without Jesse but luckily Marc never runs out of things to say about his favorite subject.

Marc Wanamaker

If you only think of Clint Howard as Ron Howard’s kid brother, it’s time to reassess. He and his older sibling recently wrote a joint autobiography called The Boys which explains their loving relationship and points to their actor-parents as lifelong role models. Early on, Clint embraced his destiny as a young-ish character actor. There’s almost nothing he hasn’t done in his sixty--some years in show business, from the original Star Trek to The Cat in the Hat (one of many Ron Howard movies in which he appears.) He still lives in the San Fernando Valley not far from Leonard and Jessie, because he’s just folks—like his parents.

Revisiting Clint Howard

Frank Marshall’s chance meeting with Peter Bogdanovich launched a career that led to him producing Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Jurassic Park movies, among many others, often in partnership with his wife Kathleen Kennedy. Now he’s released a record album that returns him to the world his father Jack Marshall inhabited: a long-forgotten session featuring two gifted jazz trumpeters. Chet Baker and Jack Sheldon In Perfect Harmony: The Lost Album. It’s a treat to hear, on CD or limited-edition vinyl from Jazz Detective. Leonard and Jessie loved mining Frank’s memories of learning the film business from the ground up. Like many people of vast experience, he’s excited about the next project—and the one after that. Yet he can still spin an Orson Welles anecdote with aplomb.

Danielle Brooks

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