Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon appears in a TV movie Sunday about a woman stuck at the South Pole, which may be exactly where her critics would like her. Although Sarandon's portrayal of Dr. Jerri Nielsen, who must perform a biopsy on herself in Antarctica, stands with some of Sarandon's best work, the attention this week is on the actress' opinion of the war in Iraq.

Don't be fooled into thinking that "The Big Wedding" is about the fetching young bride and groom. This is gross-out humor for the senior set. With raunchy comedies all the rage, I guess it was inevitable that sooner or later someone would go for the AARP crowd. FOR THE RECORD: "The Big Wedding": A movie review of "The Big Wedding" in the April 26 Calendar section misspelled Colombia as Columbia. - "The Big Wedding" is unabashed and unashamed, though its cast of top-tier talent should be, starting with Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon.

Susan Sarandon and hotelier Andre Balazs sit side-by-side watching Pasadena's 16-year-old Olympic pingpong prodigy Erica Wu battle her opponent in a heated game of table tennis. Their eyes follow the tiny white ball, back and forth, back and forth. A breathless announcer in a tacky gold jacket tells the crowd, “It takes a royal couple like Andre and Susan to make this thing happen! I've never seen this in the history of table tennis!” Indeed, this is a rare moment for pingpong, which until a few years ago was associated with dank basements and cheap beer.

In “The Company You Keep,” the new film directed by Robert Redford, the Oscar winner also stars as a onetime political radical who has lived for decades as a fugitive from justice under a false identity. When the quiet, stable life he has created for himself is jeopardized, he is set back on the run to clear his name once and for all. The film, which opens Friday, has an impressive cast that includes Shia LaBeouf, Anna Kendrick, Brendan Gleeson, Brit Marling, Stanley Tucci, Terrence Howard, Richard Jenkins, Chris Cooper, Sam Elliott and Nick Nolte.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Sept. 9 - 15 in PDF format This week's TV Movies CBS This Morning Author Deborah Kenny. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Ryan Seacrest's interview with Justin Bieber; Seth Meyers; Sarah Ferguson; Dr. Drew Pinsky. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA Good Morning America Susan Sarandon; Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian; Oprah Winfrey; Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Good Day L.A. (N)

For someone in the midst of a professional crisis, Susan Sarandon is the picture of calm as she sips tea in a private Greenwich Village club. A head of curls is tucked under a newsboy cap, and her delicate porcelain features are remarkably ageless. You could almost imagine her living as long as the character who is presently torturing her: Queen Marguerite in Eugene Ionesco's "Exit the King," the "ruthless cow" and abused consort for 283 years of the titular Berenger the First.

A compelling book has become a less compelling, though interesting, TV bio-pic. The difference in dynamics is reflected in their respective titles. The book: "Ice Bound, A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole." The CBS movie: "Ice Bound: A Woman's Survival at the South Pole" (9 p.m. Sunday). This true story is nothing if not dramatic.

Thanks to Craig Modderno for his insightful views on our recent production in North Carolina ("Can Orion Hit and Run with 'Bull Durham'?" Jan. 17). You'd never know it by the article, but we had a swell time making a wonderfully funny and engaging motion picture. While the interviews and portions of the article were clear and to the point, the location reportage leaves a mistaken impression of Susan Sarandon. Modderno wrote that she appeared cool to cast and crew. That's the trouble with relying on appearances--and brief ones at that--when reporting or doing anything else.

Call it the Meryl Streep Syndrome. Here you are, an actress capable of umpteen emotions, and you suddenly get pigeonholed as a drama queen. For Streep, the vicious cycle was finally broken with three lighter movies: "Defending Your Life," "Postcards From the Edge" and "Death Becomes Her." But Streep isn't the only esteemed actress with a desire to break free from the shackles of pathos and do something out of character. Take Susan Sarandon.

At 58, Susan Sarandon seems busier than ever. This season, the Oscar-winning actress ("Dead Man Walking") is starring in "Shall We Dance?" as Richard Gere's loving wife and the mother of two teenagers, who suspects he is having an affair after 19 years of marriage. She also costars as a stunning but ruthless businesswoman who enters into a heated affair with the womanizing "Alfie" (Jude Law). The Charles Shyer-directed remake of the 1966 classic opens Friday.

The past is a puzzle that resurfaces in bits and pieces for Robert Redford in "The Company You Keep. " The political potboiler's producer, director and star still leans left, but in telling this fable about 1970s radicals grown older and wiser, Redford's gotten nostalgic. The movie marks Redford's first time back in front of the camera since 2007's "Lions for Lambs," his preachy take on the government's handling of the war in Afghanistan. No doubt the character of former radical Jim Grant, a role that calls for an equal share of heart, quiet heroics and politics, influenced his decision to act again.

Susan Sarandon and hotelier Andre Balazs sit side-by-side watching Pasadena's 16-year-old Olympic pingpong prodigy Erica Wu battle her opponent in a heated game of table tennis. Their eyes follow the tiny white ball, back and forth, back and forth. A breathless announcer in a tacky gold jacket tells the crowd, “It takes a royal couple like Andre and Susan to make this thing happen! I've never seen this in the history of table tennis!” Indeed, this is a rare moment for pingpong, which until a few years ago was associated with dank basements and cheap beer.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Sept. 9 - 15 in PDF format This week's TV Movies CBS This Morning Author Deborah Kenny. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Ryan Seacrest's interview with Justin Bieber; Seth Meyers; Sarah Ferguson; Dr. Drew Pinsky. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA Good Morning America Susan Sarandon; Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian; Oprah Winfrey; Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Good Day L.A. (N)

Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter once wrote of JP Morgan Chase executive Jamie Dimon, "For a banker, he's nice-looking. And he's got that head of fluffy white, unbankerish hair. " In the new thriller "Arbitrage," which opens Sept. 14, Carter pays Dimon another kind of compliment - he plays him, more or less, in the role of a mysterious banker named James Mayfield. The feature directorial debut of documentarian and writer Nicholas Jarecki, "Arbitrage" follows hedge fund manager Robert Miller (Richard Gere)

The addled but amiable comedy of "Jeff, Who Lives at Home" messes around with the "out of the mouths of babes" idea of wisdom coming from innocents. The babe in this case is a 30-year-old pothead/man-child named Jeff, played by the also amiable Jason Segel, who seems to be staking his claim on just about any sweet, clueless character that comes along. He should be more discriminating. Jeff does indeed still live at home, in his mom's basement, drawing most of his murky understanding of the ways of the world from M. Night Shyamalan's spooky film "Signs.

It didn't take long for Geena Davis to realize the impact of "Thelma & Louise" after it opened in May 1991. "On the opening weekend, women would stop me in the store saying that 'The movie changed my life,'" recalled the Oscar winner ("The Accidental Tourist"). The women would tell her, 'You have no idea what that movie meant to me. My friend and I are going to act out the trip.'" "Thelma & Louise" was an anomaly among that year's summer movies; the majority of the box-office hits were testosterone-driven action films such as "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" or comedies such as "City Slickers.

Susan Sarandon's career has been laced with empty-headed characters. Until "Bull Durham," she seemed to be on her way to becoming a leading example of the performer whose good looks rule out the brainy parts. But now the critically acclaimed romantic comedy may be changing all that. Set around a North Carolina Class A baseball team, "Bull Durham" is about a hotheaded young pitcher (Tim Robbins), a slightly over-the-hill catcher (Kevin Costner) and the eccentric woman they both love (Sarandon).

Susan Sarandon is what you might call a walking oxymoron. She "has a special knack for harmonizing contradictions," a movie critic once wrote. "She can be larger than life, and yet always seems to have a grip on reality," says a producer who has worked with her. "She is reality based," a best friend says, "and at the same time magical." This makes for a life that is wonderful but not always comfortable.

Here's a look at four fascinating film matriarchs and the actresses who admire them "Lolita" (1962) The magnificent mom: Blowsy and deluded, Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters) didn't realize she was raising the archetypical jailbait ? and lost her daughter to an obsessed older man. Seal of approval: "Shelley Winters was brilliant ? she brought a subtle edge to that role, which became both terrifying and touching. " ? Sally Hawkins ("Made in Dagenham") "Tootsie" (1982)

There are three intertwining streams of interest in the unfortunately, if aptly, titled "You Don't Know Jack," a new HBO TV film about Jack Kevorkian, the assisted-suicide man. There is Kevorkian himself, played by Al Pacino, and the imagined private life of a figure known mostly in news bites, all around the single issue of euthanasia and his hands-on crusade to gain it legitimacy — the man behind the myth, the usual draw of the biopic....