Arts

Women make up half of movie viewers, and yet they are underrepresented on the big screen. Many more films are made by, for and star men, according to surveys by the Annenberg School. So as Hollywood changes and evolves, can this disparity be fixed?

Lego introduced a line of characters and sets that helped the company reach girls successfully. But some question what's wrong with girls playing with plain old Legos, and what this line is telling them.

In the golden age of the circus, aerialist Lillian Leitzel captivated crowds around the world with her effortless, high-flying stunts under the big top. Dean Jensen's new book, Queen of the Air, chronicles Leitzel's difficult but glamorous life, and the lives of her performing family.

Writer-director Paul Feig could watch the James Bond film Casino Royale a million times. "Daniel Craig really embodies Ian Fleming's James Bond," he says.

Alfred Hitchcock is best known for suspense films like Psycho and Vertigo, but the British director actually began his filmmaking career during the silent era. The Hitchcock 9 is a collection of his silent films, and the only way to see them is the old way — going to the theater.

A randonnée is a long-distance, self-supported bike ride. There are time limits — you can't go too slow or too fast — but it's not a race. It's about camaraderie and doing it yourself — and this approach to cycling is catching on in the U.S.

The author admits he was once weary of e-book publishing, but when he found himself writing a novella — too short for a book, too long for a magazine — he decided to test it out. He says he's happy with the experience, both economically and artistically.

Kevin West, author and blogger, takes NPR's Lynn Neary to a farmers market to choose the summer's best produce for canning. "You take this experience ... and you put it in the jar. And six months from now we will re-experience that moment," West says.

Director Paul Feig and writer Katie Dippold have found a perfect pair of leads for their cop comedy. Critic Bob Mondello says Oscar winner Sandra Bullock and Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy turn out to have enviable comic chemistry.

Neda Ulaby looks at a new summer drama about foster families, which — perhaps surprisingly — strikes real foster kids as getting a lot of things right.