S Epatha Merkerson

The last time this writer looked in on August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson" was last May at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. It was then a feisty, ebullient, exuberant play in search of an ending. Except for Carl Gordon replacing Paul Butler as Doaker, the "Piano Lesson" that opened Thursday at the James A. Doolittle Theatre is the same production, beautifully directed by Wilson's longtime mentor and associate, Lloyd Richards, with one very important difference: It has found its conclusion. Amen.

A tale of two cowboys who fall in love, a biographical drama about Truman Capote, a historical look at TV journalist Edward R. Murrow, an intimate deconstruction of divorce and an offbeat western about a ranch hand determined to do right by his murdered friend received best feature nominations Tuesday for the 21st annual Film Independent's Independent Spirit Awards.

The new series are under way and the baseball preemptions are finished: It's time to get serious about the fall television season. The November sweeps begin Thursday--one of those periods when the ratings of every TV station in the country are on the line and the networks roll out their biggest programming weapons to garner the largest possible audiences.

It's not every TV series that can count itself a close friend of struggling theater actors. During its 20-year run, NBC's "Law & Order" provided countless New York stage actors with a paycheck, employing them in bit parts, supporting roles and guest appearances. The series came to be regarded among stage thespians as a rite of passage: spend years building up your theater credentials, get cast in an episode of "Law & Order" and finally be able to pay your rent on time. The recent launch of "Law & Order: Los Angeles," which starts airing on NBC in late September, means that Southern California theater actors will have a shot at working in the popular TV franchise for the first time.

It's another big movie weekend on television with the premieres of a new version of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," a four-hour drama from the pen of the late Alex Haley and a thriller using characters from NBC's "Law & Order." The new adaptation of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" stars Whoopi Goldberg as a computer researcher whose experiment lands her back in the days of King Arthur.

Accolades were once again heaped on "Brokeback Mountain" and George Clooney on Thursday as two of the movie industry's top guilds announced their award nominations -- with the lion's share going to small, independent films instead of major Hollywood productions. The nominations for the Directors Guild of America Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards bring into sharper focus the potential contenders for the Academy Awards.

Asked whether being black or being a woman is the more defining element for Lt. Anita Van Buren, the no-nonsense officer on "Law & Order," actress S. Epatha Merkerson, who plays the role, didn't miss a beat: "I don't think you can separate the two. Both define who the character is, and how she lives in the world. "Blacks see the world differently than whites. Women see the world differently than men. Neither is more defining than the other. And that's true for me as a person as well."

'Diary' movie gets sequel Fox 2000 has greenlighted a "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" sequel, based on the second book in author Jeff Kinney's bestselling prose/comic series. The production will work from a new script from Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, who wrote the shooting script of the first movie, and will take a fair amount of input from Kinney himself. Star Zachary Gordon will come back too in a plot that finds Greg Heffley back for a second year in middle school. -- Steven Zeitchik ABC News lays off Betsy Stark ABC News has laid off business correspondent Betsy Stark as part of a wrenching series of cuts in the news division that will ultimately see the departure of a quarter of the staff.

The fall season not only heralds new series, but also returns old ones with a few changes to keep the veterans fresh and audiences tuned in. Here are the highlights of what's new in established series and their return dates. ABC "Coach": Christine (Shelley Fabares) becomes a morning talk-show host. Luther (Jerry Van Dyke) is offered another job. The series moves to Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday .

WHEN IT comes to pursuing the bad guys, few actors move mountains like Tyne Daly. For years on television she huffed and puffed after crooks as a New York City cop on "Cagney & Lacey." More recently, as a social worker on "Judging Amy," she battled for needy children while making sure her own gavel-pounding daughter never lost sight of what was really at stake in her courtroom. But playing Clytaemnestra in the Getty Villa's new staging of Aeschylus’ “Agamemnon” brings this righteous fury to what can confidently be called its tragic apex.