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The British comedian has made his name playing losers on TV. But he says performing stand-up in front of New Yorkers helped him really find his stride. He discusses his love of the U.S., his philosophy about comedy and his special, Out of England, which debuts Saturday on HBO.

Sometimes that 15 minutes of fame turns into an hour. Satirists Bruce Kluger and David Slavin present the promo for a fictional epic called Joe the Plumber — it's the story about the one man equipped to fix the nation's plugged up economy.

This year's Emmy nominations for Best Series include for the first time two shows on basic cable: AMC's Mad Men and Damages on FX. Matt Weiner, creator and executive producer of Mad Men, says basic cable's relatively small audience allows some "really cool shows to get made."

It might not be surprising that waterboarding, the controversial interrogation technique that simulates drowning, would become the subject of satire. But it was shocking to many when artist Steve Powers created an attraction called the Waterboard Thrill Ride.

Paula Felix-Didier of the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires, Argentina, discovered more than 20 minutes of missing film footage from the classic science fiction silent movie Metropolis in her museum's archives. German filmmaker Fritz Lang directed the film, and three reels have been missing almost since its premiere in 1927.

Fresh Air film critic David Edelstein reviews Reprise, the first feature film by Norwegian writer and director Joachim Trier. The movie tells the story of two aspiring authors whose adolescent idealism is crushed by literary success.

There are no velvet ropes at the Velveteria in Portland, Ore., where visitors can rub velvet — or velveteen — art, including portraits of Jesus, Elvis, Liberace and Michael Jackson.

The sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. intended for a memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is too "confrontational," according to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. The commission's approval is necessary for any monument or memorial in the capital. The commission says the sculpture needs to be reworked.

How can something look so bright, and move so fast, and still be so dull? Oh, right: The creators of The Matrix are involved.

Israeli writer Etgar Keret has a new short-story collection out (The Girl on the Fridge) as well as a film collaboration with his wife. The film, Jellyfish, won the Camera D'Or prize at Cannes in 2007. Keret talks about writing and moviemaking.