New York Times

Watching "Page One: Inside the New York Times" is like talking to a smart person with a severe case of attention deficit disorder: A lot of what they say is intriguing, but you wish they could stick to the point. Though it's blessed with a strong subject and some memorable characters and situations, the drawback of this fitfully engaging documentary is that it can't settle on anything even close to a single theme or line of inquiry. Rather, as directed by Andrew Rossi (who co-wrote and co-produced with Kate Novack)

NEW YORK - Who was Joseph Alsop? This question, this mystery drives "The Columnist," a new drama by David Auburn,Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Proof," about a star journalist who was as clear cut in his political views as he was opaque in his private life. The play, which opened Wednesday at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway in a production expertly directed by Daniel Sullivan, is more engrossing as creative biography than drama. (Factual events are fictionally processed and supplemented.)

NEW YORK - Who was Joseph Alsop? This question, this mystery drives "The Columnist," a new drama by David Auburn,Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Proof," about a star journalist who was as clear cut in his political views as he was opaque in his private life. The play, which opened Wednesday at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway in a production expertly directed by Daniel Sullivan, is more engrossing as creative biography than drama. (Factual events are fictionally processed and supplemented.)

A yearning for home, wherever that may be, is one of many themes that the late New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid so deftly touches on in "House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East. " Shadid, a Lebanese American who was born and raised in Oklahoma City, takes leave from his job as a Middle East war reporter in 2007 to rebuild the abandoned and war-ravaged home of his great grandfather in the small Lebanese town of Marjayoun. But even before he takes on the project, Shadid's idea of the Middle East as an ancestral home, a place that yields answers to personal and family questions, is challenged by what he finds during his years covering bloody conflicts in Israel (where he was shot in the shoulder by an Israeli sniper while reporting from the West Bank for the Boston Globe)

The New York Times reported Wednesday that four of its journalists covering the fighting in Libya were missing. The newspaper said it had received secondhand information that reporters Anthony Shadid and Stephen Farrell and photographers Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario had been picked up by government forces near Ajdabiya. "We have talked with officials of the Libyan government in Tripoli, and they tell us they are attempting to ascertain the whereabouts of our journalists," said Bill Keller, the paper's editor.

My Times in Black and White Race and Power at the New York Times Gerald M. Boyd Lawrence Hill Books: 402 pp., $26.95

New York Times Co. said Monday that it had reached an agreement for $250 million in financing from companies controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim Helu to help the newspaper publisher meet debt payments as credit markets dry up and the newspaper industry confronts plummeting ad revenue. Banco Inbursa and Inmobiliaria Carso will issue senior unsecured notes due in 2015 with detachable warrants, New York Times said.

David Rohde, a New York Times reporter who was kidnapped seven months ago by the Taliban, escaped from a compound in Pakistan by jumping over a wall, the newspaper's website reported Saturday. Rohde, 41, recounted to his wife shortly after gaining his freedom Friday night that he and interpreter Tahir Ludin escaped their captors in the North Waziristan region but that their driver, Asadullah Mangal, opted to remain behind. The three were abducted Nov.

Reporting from New York -- Anthony Shadid, a journalist who gave voice to those muffled by the turmoil around them — from Iraqi families enveloped in civil war to young Libyans spurred to take up arms against a dictator — died while doing just that: reporting from Syria in defiance of official attempts to limit media coverage of the bloodshed there. Shadid, who died Thursday at 43, was stricken by an apparent asthma attack while preparing to leave Syria with his New York Times colleague, photographer Tyler Hicks.

Tom Wicker, a former New York Times political reporter, columnist and Washington bureau chief who covered President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas and became part of the news as a mediator during the 1971 Attica prison riot in upstate New York, has died. He was 85. Wicker, who was also the author of fiction and nonfiction works, died Friday of an apparent heart attack at his home in Rochester, Vt., according to his wife, Pamela. A native of North Carolina, Wicker decided while in high school to become a journalist and worked as a newspaper reporter in North Carolina before joining the New York Times in 1960.

Reporting from New York -- Anthony Shadid, a journalist who gave voice to those muffled by the turmoil around them — from Iraqi families enveloped in civil war to young Libyans spurred to take up arms against a dictator — died while doing just that: reporting from Syria in defiance of official attempts to limit media coverage of the bloodshed there. Shadid, who died Thursday at 43, was stricken by an apparent asthma attack while preparing to leave Syria with his New York Times colleague, photographer Tyler Hicks.

Who knew yoga could be so dangerous? Or is the risk overblown? A woman falls asleep in seated forward fold and damages both sciatic nerves. A man sits on his heels for hours (over a period of days or weeks) and deadens nerves in his lower legs. A woman practices Kapalbhati — forceful exhaling — and collapses a lung. A woman attempting the wheel — essentially, making the body arc like a croquet wicket — balances on her head, bends her neck backward and suffers a stroke. Author William J. Broad, a yogi since 1970 and the chief science writer for the New York Times, remains devoted to the practice.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Wednesday. 50 Cent tells his fans on Twitter that "I don't think I'm gonna live much longer. " ( Rap Up ) Meanwhile, Chris Brown kissed his new girlfriend on New Year's Eve and Rihanna has let loose with an angry tweet. Is this really going to play out in public? ( The Sun ) Taylor Swift will star in the film of "Les Miserables. " Surprise face! ( Huffington Post ) "Bridesmaids" picked up a PGA nomination and an ADG nomination.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Wednesday. George Clooney plans to star in a staged reading of "8," a play by Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black about California's Proposition 8. ( Los Angeles Times ) Bert Schneider, one of the great Hollywood producers of the 1970s, has died. ( Los Angeles Times ) "The Help," "Bridesmaids" and "Midnight in Paris" led the way at the SAG Award nominations. ( Los Angeles Times ) Slamdance has announced its own lineup of films for January.

Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky said he never spoke with Joe Paterno about any suspected misconduct with minors, the New York Times reported Saturday. Sandusky has been charged with 40 counts of molesting eight boys over 15 years and is free on bail while awaiting a preliminary hearing Dec. 13. A grand jury investigating Sandusky said in a report that some of the allegations occurred in the team showers, including a 2002 allegation in which a graduate assistant coach testified he saw Sandusky assaulting a young boy. University trustees fired Paterno on Nov. 9, four days after charges were filed against Sandusky, amid mounting pressure that school leaders should have done more to prevent alleged abuse.

Tom Wicker, a former New York Times political reporter, columnist and Washington bureau chief who covered President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas and became part of the news as a mediator during the 1971 Attica prison riot in upstate New York, has died. He was 85. Wicker, who was also the author of fiction and nonfiction works, died Friday of an apparent heart attack at his home in Rochester, Vt., according to his wife, Pamela. A native of North Carolina, Wicker decided while in high school to become a journalist and worked as a newspaper reporter in North Carolina before joining the New York Times in 1960.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Walt Disney, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99/$49.99 There's a distinct "hanging around town after graduation" vibe to "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," the fourth installment of the billion-dollar Disney franchise. With Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley and director Gore Verbinski all out of the picture, Johnny Depp is left to shoulder the bulk of the swashbuckling as Capt. Jack Sparrow, with some help from Penélope Cruz as Blackbeard's daughter (and Ian McShane as Blackbeard)

Jill Abramson had me at "woof. " How could I not read something titled "The Puppy Diaries"? But I was also prepared to feel seduced just by a puppy-porn-adorable cover photo of Scout, the heroine of "The Puppy Diaries. " What if the book turned out to be nothing more than an oochy-coochy paean to the author's pup? Any dog parent could write that. Maybe this one had made it between hard covers only because Scout's "mom" happens to be the new executive editor of the New York Times.