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Fresh Air TV critic David Bianculli reviews HBO's new series John Adams, produced by Tom Hanks.

Victoria Wood wrote and starred in Housewife 49, a film that follows one woman's life amid the challenges of wartime England.

Sleepwalking through his days, a widowed New York economics professor finds an unlikely friendship — and a way back toward happiness — with an immigrant who teaches him how to play the djembe drum.

Nearly 40 years ago, funny, smart, neurotic Alexander Portnoy burst onto the public stage. Philip Roth's fictional hero was racked by guilt — promoted by an over-protective, self-sacrificing mother and by an obsession with, er, loving himself too much.

This weekend, Hollywood's biggest movie release is set in 10,000 BC. But two other "period" movies — The Bank Job and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day — prove more interesting. Both play with movie styles that have mostly gone out of fashion.

Several zoos across the country now sell paintings done by animals. The Houston Zoo, for example, offers a $500 experience, in which you can sit and watch an orangutan make a painting just for you. Gigi Allianic, spokeswoman for Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo, talks about animal art.

The Washington Post won six Pulitzer prizes, including the public service medal for exposing shoddy treatment of America's war wounded at Walter Reed hospital, and the breaking-news award for coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre.

Fresh Air TV critic David Bianculli previews season two of the FX series The Riches, staring Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard.

Ratatouille, an animated film about a rat who becomes a chef in a Parisian restaurant, is nominated for five Academy Awards, including best animated feature. Director/writer Brad Bird and comedian/actor Patton Oswalt chat about making a believable fantasy film.

In Paul Thomas Anderson's film There Will Be Blood, the young actor Paul Dano plays a rural preacher at odds with the oilman (Daniel Day-Lewis) at the center of the story. Dano previously appeared in Little Miss Sunshine, playing the teen who was an elective mute.