Live Wire

Vera Farmiga,the 38-year old actress,who has to her credit films such as the The Departed,Up in the Airwhich earned her an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actressand Source Code,has now made her directorial debut with Higher Ground. It is a decades-spanning period drama about Corinne,a Midwestern farm girl who lives in an evangelical Christian community and veers between embracing that community and questioning her faith in the Lord,in the evangelical church,in herself and in her love for her husband,Joshua Leonard. Farmiga plays Corinne as an adult,while her real-life younger sister portrays the teen version of the character. The film,which has earned high praise at film festivals during the past year will open on August 26.

Chris Tucker,the actor and comedian,who ascended from the low-budget comedy Friday to the blockbuster Rush Hour franchise before an abrupt vanishing acthe didnt appear on screen for four years,says all the questions he gets about his hiatus are probably a sign that he took one without realising it. It doesnt really feel like it,until people say,Hey,where you been? Ill be like: Ive been here. Ive been living. He says nothing was specifically responsible for his detour,except disappointment with the roles offered to him. Tucker,who on Friday began his own cross-country comedy tour in preparation for what he says will be bigger things to come,is confident he can pick up exactly where he left off. Friday became a cult hit. But he declined to participate in any of its sequels. People are loving it,and why mess with it when they love it? Let that just live on, he says.

Gloria Steinem,the most familiar face of the feminist womens liberation movement in the 60s and 70s,will now be seen in an HBO film on Monday. The story of her life will be recounted in one of the channels occasional series of biographies told in the subjects own words,illuminated by extensive archival footage. The executive producer of Gloria: In Her Own Words,Dyllan McGee,40,says,A lot of people in my generation dont know who Gloria Steinem is,yet its a story that is so integral to who we are today. Its a tale that begins with Steinem as a young journalist from Toledo,Ohio,who wore a bunny suit for an early exposé on the harsh working conditions at a Playboy Club,came to feminism in New York in her 30s,helped found Ms. Magazine and emerged as one of the idols of the womens movement.