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Filmmaker Jamsheed Akrami is a scholar of Iranian film. His two documentaries are Dreams Betrayed and Friendly Persuasion: Iranian Cinema After the Revolution. Together, they explore Iranian filmmaking before and after the 1979 revolution. In Iranian films, male and female characters are not allowed to touch, ever, and women must be veiled at all times. Despite these and other limitations, Iranian cinema has garnered international critical acclaim. Akrimi is an associate professor at William Paterson University.

Michael Pollan is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. To learn more about the meat industry in the United States he bought a calf, and then followed the process from fattening to slaughter. His article, "Power Steer," is the cover story of the March 31, 2002, issue of the New York Times Magazine. Pollan is also the author of the book, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World in which he maintains that plants and humans have developed a reciprocal, co-evolutionary relationship.

Actor Michael C. Hall plays David Fisher, the gay brother who co-runs a funeral home on the HBO hit series Six Feet Under. The American Film Institute has nominated Hall for Best Male TV Actor-Drama for his role in the series. Hall comes to TV from the stage. Most recently, he was on Broadway as the emcee in Cabaret. Prior to that role, he was in a number of off-Broadway productions.

Ugandan Aids activist Noerine Kaleeba. She works with UNAids, a United Nations organization in Geneva. Shes also on the Ugandan committee on Aids, and founded The Aids Support Organization in Uganda. Kaleeba lost her husband to the disease; four of her siblings are HIV positive as are a number of their children. Kaleeba is also author of the book, We Miss You All: Noerine Kaleeba - Aids in the Family (Women & Aids Support Network).

Actor Michael J. Fox got his start acting as a teenager in the popular sitcom Family Ties. He has appeared in many movies, including Back to the Future, The Secret of My Success, and Doc Hollywood. In 1998 he announced that he had Parkinson's disease and he now heads The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. He has a new memoir, Lucky Man, (Hyperion).

Porn film director Wash West. His newest is The Fluffer, set in the gay porn industry. As compared to the films of Iran, Wash West's movies are all about touching. His other films include Seven Deadly Sins: The Gluttony, Naked Highway, Animus and Toolbox. West is much-honored in the field, with several Adult Video News Awards and Gay Erotic Video Awards.

He has over sixty film scores to his credit including the recent The Lord of the Rings, also The Fly, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, The Silence of the Lambs, Ed Wood, and Philadelphia. Shore was also one of the original creators of Saturday Night Live, serving as Musical Director from 1975 to 1980. His chamber music is featured on the CD Reel Life The Private Music of Film Composers Vol. 1 (arab

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews new albums from The Buzzcocks and Paul Weller, the frontman from the band The Jam. The album titles are Buzzcocks and Illumination.

His new book is “Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces And Feelings To Improve Communication And Emotional Life.” Ekman describes how facial expressions work. For example, he can tell the difference between a fake and a real smile by mapping the muscle movements of both. Ekman is professor of psychology in the department of psychiatry at the University of California Medical School, San Francisco. He frequently consults for government agencies like the FBI.

Tom Fontana is executive producer and writer of HBO's Oz, the realistic drama about life in an experimental unit of a maximum-security prison. Fontana also created Homicide: Life on the Street and the 1980s hospital drama, St. Elsewhere. The new DVD box set Homicide: Life on the Street collects the show's first two seasons, and includes special features.