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President Obama turns 50 today. Host Michel Martin discusses what it means to be age 50 with More Magazine Editor-In-Chief Lesley Jane Seymour and Rolling Stone Managing Editor Will Dana.

For centuries, Venice maintained strong economic and social ties with the Islamic world. The city's art and architecture bear the mark of this vibrant exchange.

Actor and writer Ricky Gervais is best known as creator and star of the British TV comedy The Office, which was adapted into a U.S. hit starring Steve Carrell. Gervais also stars in Extras, which airs in the U.S. on HBO, and writes the Flanimals children's books.

Natasha Trethewey was recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry collection Native Guard. Trethewey grew up bi-racial in Mississippi, and her mother was murdered by her stepfather; these, along with the South, are recurring themes in her poetry.

An American Idol-style contest to choose the stars of Broadway's latest Grease revival wasn't exactly a ratings smash. But hefty advance ticket sales means that the NBC series may have been a success in a different way: as a marketing gimmick.

Fresh Air's film critic says Adam Shankman's candy-colored teeny-bopper parable feels fatuously energized, with the songs all blaring at one manic pitch and a heroine whose delusional optimism has peaked by the end of the opening number.

As a reporter for Ebony and Jet magazines, Simeon Booker chronicled some the biggest social and political events of the 20th century. For 50 years, Booker's coverage of the civil rights movement was a fixture in many homes.

Artist Edward Hopper is best known for provocative, shadowy oil paintings of people in urban settings — diners, offices and bedrooms. But the work that put Hopper on the map is a watercolor of an elegant, light-drenched house in Gloucester, Mass.

Despite some darkly inspired moments, the fifth of seven Harry Potter movies feels like — well, like the next to the next-to-last installment in a series that's taking its time.

Fresh Air's critic-at-large reviews a new DVD set featuring two masterpieces by French filmmaker Chris Marker: 1962's La Jetee and 1984's Sans Soleil. The first is a science-fiction story set in a post-apocalyptic Paris; the narrator of the brilliantly perceptive Sans Soleiltells viewers about the letters she's received from a globe-trotting friend; her monologue is accompanied by footage from around the world.