Live Wire

James Benning,

the filmmakers latest film,Twenty Cigarettes is a collection of living portraits,in which 20 smokers,all friends of his,face the camera for the time it takes to consume a cigarette,it is both an homage to Andy Warhols fabled screen tests and a quintessential film for Benning,68,a giant of American experimental cinema. For Twenty Cigarettes,all his subjects were left alone with the camera after Benning had framed the shot,and asked simply to smoke a cigarette. Some go from lighting up to stubbing out in under three minutes; others take two or three times as long. And all of them,Benning said in an interview,release a feel of who they are amid the drags and puffs of smoke.

Seth Gabel,

the 29-year-old actor whos best known for his roles in Nip/Tuck 2004 and in Dirty Sexy Money 2007-2009 is now back on season 4 of Fringe,a science fiction series. Gabel originally signed on for a single episode back in Season 2. He appeared as the alternate Lincoln Lee,a Fringe team leader,in the second-season finale,Over There,Part 1. Gabel also went on to play the alternate Lee several times in Season 3. There arent a lot of great sci-fi shows out there,and Im a huge science nerd. So getting to show up every week and explore all these strange scientific concepts that are literally on the fringes of what science is capable of thinking of nowadays,its a real thrill, he says.