A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs.

Readers often open a publication with an expectation of reading another short essay by a specific writer who offers a personal point of view. In some instances, a column has been written by a composite or a team, appearing under a pseudonym, or (in effect) a brand name. Some columnists appear on a daily or weekly basis and later reprint the same material in book collections.

In defining a column, Dictionary.com provides a breakdown of a few popular subjects covered by columnists:

A regular feature or series of articles in a newspaper, magazine, or the like, usually having a readily identifiable heading and the byline of the writer or editor, that reports or comments upon a particular field of interest, as politics, theater or etiquette, or which may contain letters from readers, answers to readers' queries, etc.^[1]

Radio and television[link]

Newspaper columnists of the 1930s and 1940s, such as Franklin Pierce Adams (aka FPA), Nick Kenny, John Crosby, Jimmie Fidler, Louella Parsons, Drew Pearson, Ed Sullivan and Walter Winchell, achieved a celebrity status and used their syndicated columns as a springboard to move into radio and television. In some cases, such as Winchell and Parsons, their radio programs were quite similar in format to their newspaper columns. Rona Barrett began as a Hollywood gossip columnist in 1957, duplicating her print tactics on television by the mid-1960s. One of the more famous syndicated columnists of the 1920s and 1930s, O. O. McIntyre, declined offers to do a radio series because he felt it would interfere and diminish the quality of writing in his column, "New York Day by Day."

Books[link]

FPA and McIntyre both collected their columns into a series of books, as did other columnists. McIntyre's book, The Big Town: New York Day by Day (1935) was a bestseller. FPA's The Melancholy Lute (1936) collected selections from three decades of his columns. H. Allen Smith's first humor book, Low Man on a Totem Pole (1941) and his two following books were so popular during World War II that they kept Smith on the New York Herald Tribune's Best Seller List for 100 weeks and prompted a collection of all three in 3 Smiths in the Wind (1946). When Smith's column, The Totem Pole, was syndicated by United Features, he told Time:

Just between you and me, it's tough. A typewriter can be a pretty formidable contraption when you sit down in front of it and say: "All right, now I'm going to be funny."^[2]

The writing of French humor columnist Alain Rémond has been collected in books. The Miami Herald promoted humor columnist Dave Barry with this description: "Dave Barry has been at The Miami Herald since 1983. A Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary, he writes about issues ranging from the international economy to exploding toilets." Barry has collected his columns into a series of successful books. He stopped writing his nationally syndicated weekly column in 2005, and The Miami Herald now offers on its website a lengthy selection of past columns by Barry.^[3]

In 1950, Editor & Publisher looked back at the newspaper columnists of the 1920s:

"Feature service of various sorts is new," Hallam Walker Davis wrote in a book, The Column, which was published in 1926. "It has had the advantage of high-powered promotion. It is still riding on the crest of the first big wave its own splash sent out." But Mr. Davis did think that in a decade or two the newspapers might be promoting their columns along with their comic strips. The World had started the ball rolling with billboard advertising of Heywood Broun's "It Seems to Me." The McNaught Syndicate was sitting pretty with O. O. McIntyre, Will Rogers and Irvin S. Cobb on its list. The New York Herald Tribune offered Don Marquis and Franklin P. Adams rhymed satirically in "The Conning Tower" for the New York World Syndicate. "A Line o' Type Or Two," Bert Leston Taylor's verse column in the Chicago Tribune, was now being done by Richard Henry Little. Other offerings: humorous sketches by Damon Runyon; O. Henry stories; editorials by Arthur Brisbane; Ring Lardner letter; "Rippling Rhymes," by Walt Mason; literary articles by H. L. Mencken.^[4]

Magazines[link]

In at least one situation, a column expanded to become an entire successful magazine. When Cyrus Curtis founded the Tribune and Farmer in 1879, it was a four-page weekly with an annual subscription rate of 50 cents. He introduced a women's column by his wife, Louise Knapp Curtis, and it proved so popular that in 1883, he decided to publish it as a separate monthly supplement, Ladies Journal and Practical Housekeeper, edited by Louise Curtis. With 25,000 subscribers by the end of its first year, it was such a success that Curtis sold Tribune and Farmer to put his energy into the new publication, which became the Ladies' Home Journal.

Types of columnists[link]

• Advice columnist
• Critic
• Editorial opinion columnist
• Gossip columnist
• Humor columnist
• Food columnist

See also[link]

• Food columnists of note

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up columnist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• National Society of Newspaper Columnists

John Lithgow
John Lithgow in 2007
Born	John Arthur Lithgow (1945-10-19) October 19, 1945 (age 66) Rochester, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Harvard College
Occupation	Actor, musician, poet, author
Years active	1972–present
Spouse	Jean Taynton (1966–1980) Mary Yeager (1981–present)
Children	Ian Lithgow Phoebe Lithgow Nathan Lithgow

John Arthur Lithgow ( /ˈlɪθɡoʊ/ LITH-goh; born October 19, 1945) is an American actor, musician, and author. Presently, he is involved with a wide range of media projects, including stage, television, film, and radio. He also has written and published several books of poetry and children's literature.

He appeared in the films The World According to Garp (1982) and Terms of Endearment (1983), receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for each. Lithgow is known for his roles as the Reverend Shaw Moore in Footloose, Dick Solomon on the NBC sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, the voice of Lord Farquaad in Shrek, and Arthur Mitchell on Showtime's Dexter, for which he won Golden Globe and Emmy awards.

On the stage, he appeared in the musical adaptation of Sweet Smell of Success, winning the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. He again appeared in a musical, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, again receiving a Tony nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical.

He has also recorded music, such as the 1999 album of children's music, Singin' in the Bathtub, and has written poetry and short stories for children, such as Marsupial Sue.

Early life[link]

Lithgow was born in Rochester, New York. His mother, Sarah Jane (née Price), was a retired actress, and his father, Arthur Washington Lithgow III, was a theatrical producer and director who ran the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey.^[1][2] Because of his father's job, the family moved frequently during Lithgow's childhood; he spent his teenage years in Akron and Lakewood, Ohio.^[3]

Lithgow attended Harvard College, and graduated with an A.B. magna cum laude in 1967, in history and literature. He lived in Adams House as an undergraduate. Lithgow later served on Harvard's Board of Overseers. Lithgow credits a performance at Harvard of Gilbert and Sullivan's Utopia Limited with helping him decide to become an actor.^[4] After graduation, Lithgow won a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Stage career[link]

In 1973, Lithgow debuted on Broadway in David Storey's The Changing Room, for which he received both the Tony and Drama Desk Award as Best Featured Actor in a Play. The following year he starred opposite Lynn Redgrave in My Fat Friend, and in 1976 he starred opposite Meryl Streep in Arthur Miller's A Memory of Two Mondays. He was nominated for the Best Actor Tony Awards for Requiem for a Heavyweight (1985) and M. Butterfly (directed by John Dexter, 1988).

In 2002, Lithgow won a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of J.J. Hunsecker in the Broadway adaptation of the 1957 film Sweet Smell of Success. In 2005, Lithgow was elected into the American Theatre Hall of Fame for his work on Broadway. He was also nominated for a Best Leading Actor in a Musical Tony for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

In 2007, Lithgow played Malvolio in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Twelfth Night, at The Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom.^[5]

In 2008 through 2009, Lithgow played Joe Keller in a Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons.^[6]

Lithgow starred alongside Jennifer Ehle in Douglas Carter Beane's comedy Mr & Mrs Fitch presented Off-Broadway by Second Stage Theatre from February 22, 2010 to April 4, 2010.^[7]

Lithgow returns to Broadway as Joseph Alsop in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of David Auburn's new play The Columnist, with previews starting on April 4, 2012.^[8]

Film career[link]

In 1979, Lithgow portrayed Lucas Sergeant in Bob Fosse's semi-autobiographical movie All That Jazz. The character was loosely based on the real-life director/choreographer Michael Bennett, best known for his work on Dreamgirls and A Chorus Line.

In 1983 and 1984, Lithgow was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances as Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp and as Sam Burns in Terms of Endearment. Both films were screen adaptations of popular novels. Lithgow originated the character of Dr. Emilio Lizardo/Lord John Whorfin, an Italian physicist inhabited by an evil alien, which he played in the 1984 cult film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. In 1984, Lithgow also played a pastor who condemns dancing in Footloose. He later played the role of American space engineer Walter Curnow in 2010, the sequel to the science fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

John Lithgow on the red carpet at the 40th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on August 28, 1988.

In 1983, Lithgow appeared in a remake of the classic Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" in Twilight Zone: The Movie as the paranoid passenger made famous on the television show by William Shatner. In 1991, he starred in the movie Ricochet opposite Denzel Washington as Earl Talbot Blake, a criminal seeking revenge against the policeman who sent him to prison. In 1992, he starred as a man with multiple personality disorder in Brian De Palma's film Raising Cain, and in 1993, starred as the villainous Eric Qualen in the Sylvester Stallone movie Cliffhanger.

In 1987, Lithgow starred in the Bigfoot-themed family comedy Harry and the Hendersons. In 2002, he narrated Life's Greatest Miracle, a documentary about human embryonic development, while in 2004, he portrayed the moralistic, rigid father of Alfred Kinsey in that year's biopic Kinsey. In 2006, Lithgow had a small role in the Academy Award-winning film Dreamgirls, as Jerry Harris, a film producer offering Deena Jones (Beyoncé Knowles) a film role.^[9] He starred in a lead role in the science fiction film Rise of the Planet of the Apes.^[10]

As a voice actor, Lithgow is well known for his role as the evil Lord Farquaad in the Shrek movie franchise. His appearances as Farquaad include Shrek, Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party, Shrek 4-D which was originally Shrek 3-D and used as an amusement park attraction, and Shrek the Third. He also was in Confessions of a Shopaholic as Edgar West.

Television career[link]

In terms of his television career, Lithgow is probably most widely known for his starring role as Dick Solomon in the 1996–2001 NBC sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in each of the program's six seasons and won three times, in 1996, 1997, and 1999. His son Ian regularly appeared alongside him as Leon, one of his physics students.

In 1986, Lithgow received a Primetime Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series for his appearance in the episode The Doll of the Amazing Stories anthology series.

Additionally, Lithgow has been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special for The Day After (1983), and two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Special for Resting Place (1986) and My Brother's Keeper (1995). Lithgow was approached about playing Dr. Frasier Crane on Cheers, but turned it down. Lithgow starred with Jeffrey Tambor in the NBC sitcom Twenty Good Years.

Since 2006 he has starred in Campbell Soup Company's commercials advertising their Campbell's Select premium soup brand.

On March 5, 2009, Lithgow made a cameo on NBC's 30 Rock, in the episode "Goodbye, My Friend," with several references to his role in Harry and the Hendersons.

In September 2009, Lithgow joined the cast of Dexter as Arthur Mitchell, a serial killer and Dexter Morgan's nemesis.^[11] He won a Golden Globe Award for this role,^[12] and won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series.^[13]

He guest starred on How I Met Your Mother in the role of Barney Stinson's father, Jerry.^[14]

Children's entertainment[link]

Lithgow reading a book to children in 2007

Lithgow has done extensive work for children, including several books and albums. Some of his book titles are Marsupial Sue, Marsupial Sue Presents "The Runaway Pancake," Lithgow Party Paloozas!: 52 Unexpected Ways to Make a Birthday, Holiday, or Any Day a Celebration for Kids, Carnival of the Animals, A Lithgow Palooza: 101 Ways to Entertain and Inspire Your Kids, I'm a Manatee, Micawber, The Remarkable Farkle McBride, Mahalia Mouse Goes to College and I Got Two Dogs. He also appeared as a guest on the Canadian children's program, Ants in Your Pants.

Lithgow launched into a career as a recording artist with the 1999 album of children's music, Singin' in the Bathtub. In June 2002, Lithgow released his second children's album Farkle and Friends. It was the musical companion to his book The Remarkable Farkle McBride, which tells the story of a young musical genius. Farkle and Friends features the vocal talents of Lithgow and Bebe Neuwirth backed by the Bill Elliott Swing Orchestra. In August 2006, Lithgow released The Sunny Side of the Street, his third children's album and first with Razor & Tie. This album features versions of classic songs from The Great American Songbook including “Getting to Know You” and “Ya Gotta Have Pep,” with decidedly animated performances geared towards children. Produced by JC Hopkins (Victoria Williams, JC Hopkins Biggish Band featuring Norah Jones), the album features guest appearances by Madeleine Peyroux, Wayne Knight (Seinfeld's Newman), Broadway's Sherie Rene Scott (Aida, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and cabaret star Maude Maggart. Lithgow also makes occasional appearances on stage and television singing children's songs and accompanying himself on guitar.

Podcasts[link]

On October 1, 2010, Lithgow appeared on Doug Benson's podcast Doug Loves Movies, along with fellow guests Paul F. Tompkins and Jimmy Pardo.

Other appearances[link]

Lithgow voiced the character of Yoda in the National Public Radio adaptations of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. He provided narration for the IMAX film Special Effects: Anything Can Happen. He hosts Paloozaville, a children's Video on Demand program on Mag Rack based on his best-selling children's books. He appeared in the most recent Campbell's SelectSoups commercials, portraying a restaurant waiter serving "customers" in their own household. He often delivers commencement addresses at American universities. Lithgow also appears in Books By You, a children's computer game, and guides them through the steps to finish a pre-designed book.^[15]

In 2005, he became the first actor ever to deliver a commencement speech at Harvard University.^[16] He was featured at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 4–6, 2009 for performances of Mozart's Requiem with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He narrated some letters written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, some poems, and sections from the Book of Revelation in certain parts of the performance.^[17]

In 2011, he performed a dramatic reading of a Newt Gingrich press release on The Colbert Report^[18] and mistakenly called in to apologize on Colbert's yearly Atone Phone.^[19] He also voiced a South Carolina TV ad for Colbert Super PAC humorously attacking Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.^[20]

In September 2011, Lithgow was featured in a one-night only production of Dustin Lance Black's play, '8' — a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage — as Attorney Theodore Olson to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights.^[21]

Awards and nominations[link]

Lithgow has won five Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, an American Comedy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.^[22] He has also been nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.^[22][23] He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for his appearance as Arthur Mitchell on Dexter.^[24]

Work[link]

Filmography[link]

Stage[link]

• 1973 The Changing Room (Tony Award – Best Featured Actor in a Play)
• 1974 My Fat Friend
• 1975 Trelawny of the \"Wells\" (revival)
• 1976 A Memory of Two Mondays
• 1976 Boy Meets Girl (revival)(Director) and Secret Service (revival)
• 1976 Comedians
• 1977 Anna Christie (revival)
• 1978 Once in a Lifetime (revival)
• 1979 Spokesong
• 1980 Division Street
• 1982 Beyond Therapy
• 1985 Requiem for a Heavyweight (Tony Nomination – Best Actor in a Play)
• 1986 The Front Page (revival)
• 1988 M. Butterfly (Tony Nomination – Best Actor in a Play)
• 2002 Sweet Smell of Success (Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical)
• 2003 The Retreat From Moscow
• 2005 Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony Nomination – Best Actor in a Musical)
• 2007 Twelfth Night, Royal Shakespeare Company
• 2008 All My Sons
• 2010 Mr. &Mrs. Fitch, Second Stage Theatre
• 2012 The Columnist, Manhattan Theatre Club

Discography[link]

• Singin' in the Bathtub (1999, Sony Wonder)
• The Sunny Side of the Street (2006, Razor & Tie)

Bibliography[link]

• Remarkable Farkle Mcbride (2000, Simon & Schuster)
• Marsupial Sue (2001, Simon & Schuster)
• Micawber (2002, Simon & Schuster)
• I'm a Manatee (2003, Simon & Schuster)
• A Lithgow Palooza (2004, Simon & Schuster)
• Carnival of the Animals, (2004, Simon & Schuster)
• Lithgow Party Paloozas!: 52 Unexpected Ways to Make a Birthday, Holiday, or Any Day a Celebration for Kids, (2005, Simon & Schuster)
• Marsupial Sue Presents "The Runaway Pancake", (2005, Simon & Schuster)
• Mahalia Mouse Goes to College, (2007, Simon & Schuster)
• I Got Two Dogs, (2008, Simon & Schuster)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Lithgow

• Official website
• John Lithgow at the Internet Broadway Database
• John Lithgow at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• John Lithgow at the Internet Movie Database
• John Lithgow at the TCM Movie Database
• John Lithgow at FEARnet
• Profile of John Lithgow – Downstage Center
• American Theatre Wing – 2005 interview
• 2006 bio article on Lithgow
• Razor and Tie Artist Page
• Razor and Tie Media Page
• TonyAwards.com Interview with John Lithgow
• John Lithgow speaks at the Oxonian Society November 15, 2007
• NYPL gallery of selected stage production photographs, 1967-1988

Grace Jane Gummer (born May 9, 1986) is an American actress.

Early life[link]

The daughter of actress Meryl Streep and sculptor Don Gummer, Gummer grew up in Los Angeles and Connecticut with brother, Henry and sisters, Mamie Gummer and Louisa.

Career[link]

After graduating from Vassar College with a degree in Art History and Italian, Gummer made her stage debut in 2008 in Lukas Bärfuss's The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents.^[1][2] She starred as Anna Moore on the TeenNick show Gigantic,^[3] which premiered October 8, 2010.

Gummer made her feature film debut in the 2010 film Meskada, in which she played the role of Nat Collins, before playing Abby in Bashert with Paulo Costanzo. Grace Gummer also had a small role as a student in Julia Roberts' class in Larry Crowne, which was directed by Tom Hanks.^[4]

In the spring of 2011 she performed the role of Chloe Coverly in the revival of Arcadia by Tom Stoppard at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York.

Gummer appeared as Katie Rand on the hit NBC television series Smash on March 26, 2012, in the episode entitled "The Coup". Katie Rand is a humanitarian attempting to bring peace to her divorcing parents. It is not known at this time if this will become a recurring role for Gummer.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Grace Gummer at the Internet Movie Database

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Syed Zaiduzzaman Hamid, better known as Zaid Hamid, is a Pakistani security consultant and political commentator.^[1][2] His byline in newspaper articles has been Zaid Zaman.^[2]

Early life and education[link]

Zaid was born in Karachi, in 1964. His father, Col. Zaman Hamid (Retd), served in the Pakistan Army. Zaid spent his early life in Karachi. He received a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree in Computer Systems Engineering from NED University, Karachi in 1980's.^[3]

Political views[link]

Through his TV programmes, Hamid has claimed that a nexus between India's RAW, the CIA and is responsible for the destabilization of Pakistan. He also claims that the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, were part of a plan hatched by "Hindu Zionists"", and that it was an attempt by the Indians to stage an attack just like the Americans executed the September 11 attacks.^[1][2][4][3]

Criticism[link]

A number of noted Pakistani journalists, writers and Islamic scholars^[5] have criticized Hamid and have described his views on politics and security as conspiracy theories.^[6][7][8][9]

References[link]

External links[link]

• BrassTacks website
• Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid

Dana Timothy Milbank (born April 27, 1968) is a columnist for The Washington Post.

Education[link]

He is a graduate of Yale University, where he was a member of Trumbull College, the Progressive Party of the Yale Political Union and the secret society Skull and Bones.^[1][2] He is a graduate of Sanford H. Calhoun High School in Merrick, New York.

Career[link]

Milbank covered the 2000 US Presidential election and the 2004 US Presidential election. He also covered US President George W. Bush's first term in office. After Bush won the 2000 election, Karl Rove asked the Washington Post not to assign Milbank to cover White House news.^[3] In 2001, a pool report penned by Milbank which covered a Bush visit to the US Capitol generated controversy within conservative circles.^[4] According to Milbank, the nickname given to him by the president is "not printable in a family publication."^[5]

Milbank writes "Washington Sketch" for the Post, an observational column about political theater in the White House, Congress, and elsewhere in the capital. Before coming to the Post as a political writer in 2000, he covered the Clinton White House for The New Republic and Congress for The Wall Street Journal.

Milbank was criticized for a July 30, 2008 article^[6] in which, in part by using snippets of quotations, he portrayed Barack Obama as being presumptuous.^[7][8] A few days later MSNBC's Keith Olbermann stated that Milbank would not be allowed back onto his show, which Milbank had appeared on since 2004, until Milbank submitted "a correction or an explanation." ^[9] However, Milbank had apparently already left Olbermann's show for another show on CNN.^[10] Milbank stated that he has been dissatisfied since he was criticized by Olbermann's staff over making a positive comment about Charlie Black, a McCain senior advisor, and as a result had already been negotiating with CNN.^[11]

Milbank and Chris Cillizza appeared in a series of humor videos called "Mouthpiece Theater" which appeared on the Washington Post's website. An outcry followed a video in which, during a discussion of the White House "Beer Summit", they chose new brands for a number of people, including "Mad Bitch Beer" for Hillary Clinton. Both men apologized for the video and the series was canceled.^[12]

Personal life[link]

He has been married since 1993 to Dona Lynn DePasquale.

Books[link]

Milbank is the author of Smash Mouth: Two Years in the Gutter with Al Gore and George W. Bush—Notes from the 2000 Campaign Trail. A new book, Homo Politicus: The Strange and Scary Tribes that Run Our Government, was published by Random House in January 2008.^[13]

In 2010, Doubleday released Milbank's polemic biography of conservative pundit Glenn Beck: Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America,^[14] which a review in Milbank's paper, the Washington Post said was a "droll, take-no-prisoners account of the nation's most audacious conspiracy-spinner."^[15]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Dana Milbank's Web site
• Dana Milbank discusses his new book - January 2008