Today's Entertainment

April 11 - 17, 2016 Page 3 ACROSS 1. __ Brown of "Blindspot" 4. Sitcom set during a war 8. "Peter __" 11. "Message __ __ Bottle"; Kevin Costner movie 12. Actress Chase 13. Lincoln or Vigoda 14. Actress on "The Big Bang Theory" (2) 17. Nineteenth letter 18. "__ Fly Away" 19. Role on "Bonanza" 21. Actress Redgrave 24. Initials for Sheriff Andy Taylor's portrayer 25. Toodle-__; casual fare- well 26. Singer Rawls' initials 27. Q followers 28. "__ on Me"; hit song for Bill Withers in 1972 30. "__ of Thrones" 32. "Harry's __" (2011-12) 34. Taft's monogram 35. Role on "Chicago Med" (2) 41. "People __ Funny" 42. Arkin or Thicke 43. "__ __ Lay Dying"; 2013 James Franco film 44. Laura __ Giacomo 45. "In __"; 2011 Justin Timberlake movie 46. "A Gifted __" DOWN 1. Curved edge 2. "__ Life to Live" 3. Actor Christian and his family 4. "Little __ Sunshine"; 2006 Steve Carell film 5. Molinaro and Roker 6. Music from Jamaica 7. "Mata __"; Greta Garbo movie 8. Actor and comedian Shore 9. "Nightline" network 10. Old Testament book 15. "This __ __ Tap"; 1984 Rob Reiner movie 16. "Up __ __" (2011-12) 19. Monty or Arsenio 20. Villain 22. Role on "Cheers" 23. Feature for Rudolph or Jimmy Durante 29. Steve or Tim 31. "The __-__"; 1983-87 adventure series 33. "__ I Like About You" 34. Vane letters 35. "How the West __ Won" 36. Paul's cousin on "Mad About You" 37. Actress MacGraw 38. On the __; fleeing 39. "Not __ __ Stranger"; Frank Sinatra film 40. Clamor Solution on page 2. CoverStory By George Dickie © Zap2it A pivotal recent mo- ment in American culture and history is revisited this month in a new HBO Films presentation. "Confirmation," premier- ing Saturday, April 16, recalls the 1991 confirma- tion hearings of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas (Wendell Pierce, "Treme"), an African American jurist who was nominated by President George H.W. Bush to fill the seat vacated by the retirement of Thurgood Marshall earlier that year. Near the end of those September 1991 hearings, after an FBI interview with Anita Hill (Kerry Washington, "Scandal"), a young African American lawyer and academic who worked for Thomas at the Department of Education, was leaked to the media, Hill was called to testify, and she testified that he had subjected her to com- ments of a sexual nature, and accused him of sexu- al harassment, allegations that he denied. The hearings captivat- ed the nation's attention and set off a national conversation on sexual equality in the workplace, a debate what would for- ever change the way we look at and treat the issue, both inside and outside the workplace. The film also stars Greg Kinnear ("Heaven Is for Real") as Sen. Joe Biden, who presided over the hearings as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Jeffrey Wright ("Casino Royale") as Charles Ogletree, Hill's lead attorney during the hearings; and Jennifer Hudson ("Dreamgirls") as Angela Wright, another Thomas accuser who was never called to testify. As the film's protag- onist, Washington, who was 14 at the time of the real hearings, told a recent gathering of TV critics in Pasadena, Calif., that she took inspiration from Hill's story. "I'm really inspired by the difference that a per- son can make in Wash- ington and the kind of cul- tural shift that happened after the events that take place in our film," says Washington, who is also an executive producer of the film. "I think it's really inspiring to think about how much changed, how we were all transformed by these events in terms of our language changing around sexual harass- ment, around victims' rights, around how we think about the workplace, how we think about wom- en, how we think about race, how we think about power." In preparing to play Thomas, Pierce had to check his prejudices about man at the door and find his humanity. "(I) had this wonderful epiphany studying the man," he says, "and re- alized how much we had in common. His family coming from Pin Point, Georgia; my family from Assumption Parish in Lou- isiana. My grandfather had a saying. 'Can't die three days before the creation of the world, so don't ever tell me you can't do anything.' His grandfather said, 'Can't is already dead. I helped to bury him.' And his grandfather was some- one who is a hero of his. ... And I realized that the only way that I was going to be able to play the man was to be authentic and true to his humanity and his experience. "And the situation just gives you a wealth of things to play," he contin- ues. " 'What did I do? Do I even remember it?' 'At the pinnacle of my career, something comes from my past that challenges it.' And so that is something that we all can understand and put ourselves into." Washington hopes "Confirmation" continues what she calls the "global conversation" on the is- sues raised. "That is an outcome that we all felt was really important," she says. "... And yet some of the is- sues are still rearing their head in terms of gender and in terms of race and how we understand those things. So I think, real- ly, the outcome of what happened was that the conversation began and we want to make sure that that conversation contin- ues." Wendell Pierce stars in "Confirmation," Saturday on HBO. Clarence Thomas' 'Confirmation' recalled in HBO film

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