It's no longer sufficient to dismiss Martha Stewart as a control-freakish middlebrow tastemaker. She's bigger, much bigger. Coming to terms with an emblematic figure of our times.

Where have all the macho Super Bowl commercials gone?

Years and years of cleaning up after Bill Clinton have turned the First Lady into a problematic figure. Does one applaud her sense of purpose, or cringe at her compliance?

There might be something, after all, to Woody Allen's insistence that his art isn’t imitating his life: Lately, in fact, it seems to be imitating Philip Roth's.

Martha meeting Busta, Ellen finding her inner Winkler, and practically everyone talking to Larry King: Some '97 moments to remember . . . with alarm.

TV's newest Oprah-beater is a tough-talking former Family Court judge from Brooklyn who likes to take the high moral ground. Is Judge Judy the anti-Springer?

TV's newest Oprah-beater is a tough-talking former Family Court judge from Brooklyn who likes to take the high moral ground. Is Judge Judy the anti-Springer?

The Jerry Springer Show is the most voyeuristic, violent, obscenity-laden program on TV. But if you disapprove, that's not Jerry’s problem. “Hey,” he says. “That’s America.”