Today's Entertainment

April 4 - 10, 2022 Page 3 ACROSS 1. "Ordinary __" 4. Curry & Robbins 8. Actress Joanne 11. Overnight lodging 12. Middle East nation 13. Charged atom 14. Role on "NCIS: Los Angeles" (2) 17. Suffix for Vietnam or Nepal 18. Play on words 19. Camry & Civic 21. Actress Patricia 24. "__ Astra"; 2019 Brad Pitt movie 25. French article 26. Gym class, for short 27. Prefix for large or lighten 28. Actor Sean 30. Lina of "S.W.A.T." 32. Clumsy fellow 34. "People Are Funny" host 35. Actress on "CSI: Vegas" (2) 41. Actress __-Margret 42. 2001-07 series about a single mom 43. Certain vote 44. Cobb & Burrell 45. Maxine __; role for 35 Across 46. 90 degrees from NNW DOWN 1. Peanut butter brand 2. "Snakes __ __ Plane"; 2006 movie 3. "__ the Dragon"; film for Bruce Lee 4. "No __ to Die"; 2021 movie 5. Retirement account 6. "__ With a Plan" 7. Lose it 8. Role on "Cheers" 9. Rosalind Russell, to friends 10. Prefix for form or cycle 15. "This __ __ Tap"; Rob Reiner film 16. Herman, Lily & Eddie 19. "Chicago Fire" role 20. "Zip-__-__-Doo-Dah" 22. Actor Guinness 23. Most famous Jay 29. People, places & things 31. Phillips, once of "Dateline NBC" 33. Actor on "M*A*S*H" 34. "Cast __"; Tom Hanks movie 35. O'Brien or Morita 36. "__ Given Sunday"; Al Pacino film 37. Prefix for natal or classical 38. Recede 39. "Last __ Standing" 40. Pupil's place Solution is on page 2. CoverStory By George Dickie To many, Ben Franklin was a name on the Decla- ration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, a bespec- tacled statesman whose inquisitive though skeptical gaze resonated through the centuries on portraits in museums and government buildings across the country. But to Ken Burns, he's a man of contradictions whose monumental accomplish - ments and all-too-human foibles make him the quint- essential American, as he posits in his latest filmmak- ing effort for PBS. In "Benjamin Franklin," a four-hour documentary that airs Monday and Tuesday, April 4 and 5 (check local listings), Burns brings forth the human side of arguably the most consequential U.S. figure of the 18th century, a diplomat, philosopher, writer and publisher as well as a groundbreaking scientist and inventor who is credited with being a chief architect of freedom and democracy. But while he was deeply committed to the ideals of the Enlightenment, always looking to improve himself, his community and humanity at large, he also could be shrewdly calculating, preju- diced and unforgiving. And though he became an aboli- tionist later in life, he had at least six slaves. Burns brings to life Frank- lin's story through comments from writers, scholars and experts, paintings and period texts read by narrator Peter Coyote and Mandy Patinkin, who voices Franklin. It's a story, the filmmaker believes, still resonates more than 200 years later. "Working in history, you really have a sense that you have the possibility to speak not about past events, but you're always speaking — because human nature doesn't change — about the present," Burns says. "So, there is a kind of continual conversation that takes place between the human beings that we think are anachronis- tic and different — they have powdered wigs, they dress funny, all of that — and who are exactly the same as us. Therefore, I think the study of history offers us a dispas- sionate and at the same time an incredibly focused, mes- merizingly focused view on what's going on now. ..." "And I think that it is pos- sible for us to go back as distant in American history as we can with this film and feel that on every page, ev- ery frame, that we are rhym- ing, as Mark Twain would say, with the present." As for Patinkin, whose ac- complishments include three Tony nominations, seven Emmy nods and one win, taking on a voice from the distant past like Franklin's was a daunting task but one he took on with excitement. "I consider getting to be his voice ... one of the priv- ileges of my artistic life," he says. "I really just focused and learned that some of it almost sounds like a foreign language at times, but I wanted to understand what was being said, what were the ideas at hand." A founding father gets the Ken Burns treatment in PBS' 'Benjamin Franklin' The identity of the featured celebrity is found within the answers in the puzzle. In order to take the TV Challenge, unscramble the letters noted with asterisks within the puzzle. InFocus "The First Lady" (Show- time — series premiere, April 17) This new history anthology drama reframes American history through the lens of the extraordinary women at the heart of the White House. Much of the headline news may come from the West Wing of that building, yet some of history's most world-changing decisions took place hidden from public view in the East Wing, the domain of the first ladies. Among the formidable actresses spot- lighted in the series are Viola Davis as Michelle Obama, Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford and Gillian Anderson as Elea- nor Roosevelt.

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