News Briefs

• LA Times writer and new blogger Patrick Goldstein talks to the diva of HBO docs Sheila Nevins who was recently admitted into the Academy.
  

• Kristin Scott Thomas will make her Broadway debut this fall as Arkadina in a new production of Chekov's The Seagull (Broadway World)

• Podcast Interview with Lisa F. Jackson, director, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo (Zoom-in-Online)
  

• Tovah Feldshuh will star in the world premiere of “Irena’s Vow,” a new play by Dan Gordon about an unsung wartime heroine in Nazi-occupied Poland, opening Sept. 22 at New York’s Baruch Performing Arts Center. (Variety)
  

• Natalie Portman talks about her work for FINCA International, how she balances her activism with her career as an actress, and her advice on making a difference. (Huffington Post)
  

• Helen Mirren received the career achievement prize at the second Roma Fiction Fest this week. (HR)
  

• The Secret Life of Bees directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, and starring Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo will world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
  

• The Duchess starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes about Lady Georgiana Spencer will also premiere at the Toronto Film Fest.