Robert Redford

In 2010, a blond-haired girl with a sweet smile stood before the "America's Got Talent" studio audience and millions of TV viewers. The 10-year-old proceeded to sing about asking her daddy to grant her request. So far, so normal. But if the words had an appropriately childlike nature, the music was anything but juvenile - it was the aria "O mio babbino caro" from Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi," ordinarily sung by sopranos who have at the very least reached their late teens, and who have gone through years of operatic training.

In 2010, a blond-haired girl with a sweet smile stood before the "America's Got Talent" studio audience and millions of TV viewers. The 10-year-old proceeded to sing about asking her daddy to grant her request. So far, so normal. But if the words had an appropriately childlike nature, the music was anything but juvenile - it was the aria "O mio babbino caro" from Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi," ordinarily sung by sopranos who have at the very least reached their late teens, and who have gone through years of operatic training.

"To the outside world, it's a big fat market where you have people like Paris Hilton going to parties. ... I think the festival is close to being out of control." Robert Redford commenting on how the Sundance Film Fes tival has changed since he cre ated it AP quoting Newsweek

Even when Robert Redford was a new-style superstar, he was old-school in the way he maintained his privacy. He brought a cool, laconic electricity to American movie acting and maintained a public reticence to match. He espoused causes without bullying his listeners or inserting his life too far into the national conversation. He has always advocated for the arts straight from the heart. But as he displayed in a recent interview with The Baltimore Sun, he's now willing to reveal more of himself to help an aesthetic crusade.

Gibsonburg, Ohio. -- Women want to see more naked men in the movies. On the screen, not in the seat next to them.Recently, Glamour magazine polled 2,000 women between the ages of 18 and 44, asking if they felt exploited by excessive female nudity in the movies. Two-thirds of them said yes. Eighty-six percent voted to turn the tables and undress the men. Payback time, I guess.But wait a minute. Are we sure this is the way we want it? I decided to take my own survey. ''Are you in favor of gratuitous male nudity in the movies?

Even when Robert Redford was a new-style superstar, he was old-school in the way he maintained his privacy. He brought a cool, laconic electricity to American movie acting and maintained a public reticence to match. He espoused causes without bullying his listeners or inserting his life too far into the national conversation. He has always advocated for the arts straight from the heart. But as he displayed in a recent interview with The Baltimore Sun, he's now willing to reveal more of himself to help an aesthetic crusade.

Somewhere in "Sunset Boulevard," silent-screen queen Norma Desmond bitterly dismisses these new-fangled talkie movie stars, saying, "We had faces then."Memo to Norma: See "Up Close & Personal." There are some faces left.And if you love faces, you'll probably love "Up Close & Personal," which gets into such dramatic magnification of the iconographic, mythological beauty objects Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer it should be called "Up Close & Nasal."In other departments it's sadly lacking, both undernourished dramatically, over-nourished politically, fatuous, meretricious and not even very entertaining after the first hour or so. It drags.

He is haunted by silences.It's a WASP thing, so don't ask: the reticence, the sense of shyness, the careful control, the unwillingness ever to put things into words or ever to confront those messy hormonal squalls called emotions and instead the channeling of every last rogue mote of emotional energy into either work or play but never life its own self.The silence of the WASPs."I know," says Robert Redford. "I was raised in silence. I'm comfortable with silence. My screenwriter was a Jew and he kept saying, 'Why don't you guys just talk about things?

"The Horse Whisperer," which Robert Redford has adapted from the best-selling novel by Nicholas Evans, recalls a common description of war and parenthood: interminable boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.Clocking in at a posterior-numbing three hours, "The Horse Whisperer" is a long, slow travelogue of gorgeous natural and human scenery punctuated by deeply troubling scenes involving a tormented horse. That's entertainment?Granted, it only looks like torment: The production notes take pains to assure us the American Humane Association was on hand during all the animal scenes, so we can at least rest assured that in real life, these beautiful beasts were treated just fine.

In the cluttered, hyperactive Spy Game, Robert Redford employs the same hilariously enigmatic expressions he used in his hipster youth in movies like The Candidate (1972). And they're even better here, because he does it with supreme knowingness. As a 30-year CIA man who spends his last 24 hours before retirement trying to rescue a former protege (Brad Pitt) who has gone rogue and been arrested in China, Redford plays the smartest, most righteous man in the agency. He pulls it off with a quick, dry grace.

SO, shall we expect to see Tom Cruise, his business partner Paula Wagner, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep yukking it up in costume and singing silly songs, in the wake of the disappointing opening of Lions for Lambs? Well, Miss Streep has just completed the movie version of Broadway's Mamma Mia! so there are colorful clothes and ABBA tunes galore in her future. I don't know that Tom, Paula or Redford are quite so lucky. They all had a lot of high hopes riding on Lions for Lambs, it being the initial Cruise/Wagner project out of their United Artists deal, and it is Redford's first directorial effort in seven years.

The problem with Lions for Lambs isn't its political engagement but its cinematic disengagement. Robert Redford directs and stars in this ambitious talkathon, which would have been more effective as a radio play. Redford is all flashing teeth and conscience as a professor intent on pushing a gifted but complacent frat boy in his political-science class (Andrew Garfield) into some commitment to our civic life. Tom Cruise is all flashing teeth and cunning as a hotshot Republican senator shopping a scoop about a bold strategic change in Afghanistan to a seasoned journalist (Meryl Streep)

AN UNFINISHED LIFE / / Miramax / $29.95 A bitter dad. A hot mom. A plucky kid. A wise friend. A bad boyfriend. A good cop. And a 500-pound bear. Introducing the cast of An Unfinished Life, director Lasse Hallstrom's story of family and forgiveness set on a Wyoming ranch. It stars Robert Redford -- finally looking his age -- and Morgan Freeman, who would be worth watching if he were just filling up his car. Retired rancher Einar Gilkyson (Redford) is still grieving the death of his son when his daughter-in-law (Jennifer Lopez)

"To the outside world, it's a big fat market where you have people like Paris Hilton going to parties. ... I think the festival is close to being out of control." Robert Redford commenting on how the Sundance Film Fes tival has changed since he cre ated it AP quoting Newsweek

Oprah Winfrey salutes Tina Turner. Quincy Jones and k.d. lang honor Tony Bennett. Paul Newman, Willie Nelson and Glenn Close pay tribute to Robert Redford. There's no lack of star power in the 28th edition of The Kennedy Center Honors, television's classiest awards show. CBS tonight will presents the program, which was taped Dec. 4. A network release explaining the event suggests CBS has another winner. For the third year in a row, Caroline Kennedy hosts this celebration of career achievement in the arts.

In the cluttered, hyperactive Spy Game, Robert Redford employs the same hilariously enigmatic expressions he used in his hipster youth in movies like The Candidate (1972). And they're even better here, because he does it with supreme knowingness. As a 30-year CIA man who spends his last 24 hours before retirement trying to rescue a former protege (Brad Pitt) who has gone rogue and been arrested in China, Redford plays the smartest, most righteous man in the agency. He pulls it off with a quick, dry grace.

It's been said before (by me) and it will be said again (probably by me): In the cycle of the American film industry, two months plus a few days belong to the kids, the two months being December (from Thanksgiving, say, till Christmas) and June (from, say, May 15 through July 4). But those two months pay for the other 10 months, so perhaps we grown-ups should not begrudge them their fun.That also means that down-seasons, like early fall and late spring, belong to us, more or less, which is why in the next few weeks movies with John Malkovich, Robert Redford, Liam Neeson and Steve Martin dominate the film fare, rather than the 18-to-25-year-old mod squadders so beloved by our unruly children.

Anyone who doesn't understand that the 1950s-era blacklist was one of the most self-destructive chapters in Hollywood history need look no further than the career of writer-director Abraham Polonsky, who died of a heart attack at his Beverly Hills home Tuesday at age 88.Polonsky already had brought two classics to the screen, 1947's "Body and Soul" (as writer) and 1948's "Force of Evil" (as co-writer and director) when he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951.