nbc sunday morning book review

Bill's Books

Bill's books: spring novel picks.

A new season is a great time to pick up some new books to read.

Bill's Books: Bill's mid-March recommendations

Bill's books: early march book recommendations, bill's books: black history month, bill's books: adding to your january reading list.

Bill Goldstein is back with two more books: one a gripping thriller, the other a biographical novel on Maria Callas. 

Bill's Books: Start 2024 on the right page

Bill Goldstein is back in 2024 with his book recommendations to start to the new year off on the right page. 

Bill's Books: Best picks of the year

Bill Goldstein joins us to share some of his favorite books from this year. 

Bill's Books: Great gifts for readers

Bill Goldstein recommends tons of titles for the readers on your list.

Bill's Books: Favorite books of 2023

Bill Goldstein talks about his favorite books of 2023

Bill's Books: November recommendations

Bill Goldstein recommends three books that are perfect holiday gifts.

Bill's Books: November picks

Bill Goldstein recommends two books that will make perfect to gifts for the holiday season.

Bill's Books: Labor Day reading picks

Bill Goldstein with two great book recommendations.

Bill's Books: Two Books for Holiday Weekend

Bill Goldstein with a novel and biography you should add to your book collection.

Bill's Books: Picks for Mom

Bill Goldstein has the perfect Mother’s Day gifts.

Bill's Books: Two Books to Read Ahead of King Charles' Coronation

Bill Goldstein with two books on the Royal family’s rich history.

Bill's Books: ‘The Great Reclamation' and ‘A Living Remedy'

From one of this year’s most anticipated memoirs about family, class and wealth, to a coming-of-age novel about love, exploration and history. Bill Goldstein is back with new reads in the book world.

Bill's Books: National Poetry Month

Bill Goldstein explains Knopf’s “Poem-A-Day” program.

Bill's Books: Two Novels and a Festival Honoring a Great American Author

Bill Goldstein with two new book recommendations and a celebration of Philip Roth.

Bill's Books: Two Great Books to Cozy Up With

Bill Goldstein recommends a novel about a friendship that spans decades and a murder mystery novel that takes the main character back to her high school.

Bill's Books: Great Reads for Black History Month

Bill Goldstein has recommendations of influential Black authors and their works.

This week on "Sunday Morning" (March 24)

The Emmy Award-winning "CBS News Sunday Morning" is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET.  "Sunday Morning" also  streams on the CBS News app  beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET. ( Download it here .) 

Hosted by Jane Pauley

COVER STORY: Husband of U.S. journalist detained in Russia: "I'm not going to give up"

For more info:

• Alsu Kurmasheva, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
• Committee to Protect Journalists

ALMANAC: March 24

BOOKS: Christian Cooper, the "Extraordinary Birder" Christian Cooper made national news in May 2020 when, while birdwatching in New York's Central Park, a white woman called 911 to report that an "African American man was threatening her life" after he'd asked her to put her dog on a leash. His recording of their interaction went viral, just as the country was rocked by the George Floyd murder. Since then, he has hosted a National Geographic Wild series, "Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper," and written a memoir about growing up a closeted gay teenager on Long Island, titled "Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World." Nancy Giles reports.

• "Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World" by Christian Cooper (Random House), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon , Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• "Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper" on National Geographic Wild
• Follow christiancooperbirder on Instagram

HEADLINES: Death toll rises in Russia terror attack In the aftermath of Friday's terrorist attack at a concert venue outside Moscow (when armed men in combat fatigues opened fire and then set the place ablaze), the death toll has now climbed to more than 130. Although ISIS claimed responsibility, Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed a finger at Ukraine, a charge Ukraine flatly denies. CBS News foreign correspondent Debora Patta reports.

HEADLINES: PR expert on what lessons royals have learned from Kate's cancer news After months of speculation about her condition, Princess Kate, wife of the heir to the British throne, announced Friday that she has cancer. Correspondent Holly Williams talks with Julian Payne, a former spokesman for the King and Queen, about what lessons the royal family may have learned after Kate's withdrawal from the public for medical reasons led to rumors and dizzying conspiracy theories.  

BOOKS: Doris Kearns Goodwin's personal history in "An Unfinished Love Story" Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's latest book is devoted to her late husband, Richard Goodwin, whose speeches for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and Senator Robert F. Kennedy produced some of the most memorable phrases of the era. She talks about her upcoming book, "An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s," with CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa, and about how history and politics shaped their lives together. Goodwin also explains why she believes people who choose to tune out from participating in this year's critical presidential election are "cowardly."

• "An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s" by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Simon & Schuster), in Hardcover, Large Print, eBook and Audio formats, available April 16 via Amazon , Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• doriskearnsgoodwin.com

Photo of Richard Goodwin and President John F. Kennedy by Jacques Lowe, courtesy of the Jacques Lowe Estate

      PASSAGE: In memoriam

WORLD: The long struggle to free Evan Gershkovich from a Moscow prison

• Evan Gershkovich, The Wall Street Journal

BOOKS: Writer Percival Everett: "In ownership of language there resides great power" Author Percival Everett has challenged the schism of race in such satirical novels as "Erasure" (basis of the Oscar-winning film "American Fiction"). His latest, "James," re-tells the story of "Huckleberry Finn" from the point of view of Huck's enslaved friend, Jim, for whom language becomes a shield, and an avenue toward freedom. Everett talks with correspondent Martha Teichner about his writing, his artwork, and his penchant for privacy.

READ AN EXCERPT:   "James" by Percival Everett

• "James"  by Percival Everett (Doubleday), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via  Amazon ,  Barnes & Noble  and  Bookshop.org
• USC Dornsife College of Letters Arts and Sciences
• Thanks to  Vroman's Bookstore , Pasadena, Calif.
• Percival Everett at Show Gallery , Los Angeles

TV: Steve Martin: Comic, banjo player, and now documentary film subject The comedian known for being wild and crazy is now the subject of a documentary on Apple TV+, titled "STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces." Correspondent Tracy Smith talks with Steve Martin, and with filmmaker and longtime fan Morgan Neville, about telling the 78-year-old legend's life story, from his comedy records and "SNL," to walking away from standup, to playing a mean banjo.

To watch a trailer for "STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces" click on the video player below:

• "STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces" debuts on Apple TV+ March 29
• stevemartin.com

BOOKS: Fareed Zakaria decries the "anti-Americanism" in America's politics today As host of CNN's "GPS," Fareed Zakaria dives into global issues with scholars, presidents, and the occasional celebrity. An optimist, Zakaria is nonetheless concerned about what he characterizes as a darkness in America brought on by people "who feel that they are not benefiting from all the changes in society." He talks with "Sunday Morning" contributor Kelefa Sanneh about his new book, "Age of Revolutions," in which he writes about how societies both embrace change and resist it.

READ AN EXCERPT:  "Age of Revolutions" by Fareed Zakaria

• "Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present" by Fareed Zakaria (W.W. Norton), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available March 26 via Amazon , Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• "GPS" hosted by Fareed Zakaria on CNN

NATURE: Birds of Costa Rica

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Violins of Hope (YouTube Video) Amnon Weinstein, a luthier who died on March 4, 2024 at age 84, honored the memories of those who perished in the Holocaust by restoring dozens of string instruments that were played by Jewish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. In this "Sunday Morning" story that originally aired December 6, 2015, Serena Altschul talked with Weinstein about his mission, and reported on a special concert by the Cleveland Orchestra performed on Weinstein's "Violins of Hope."

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Steve Martin's love of art (YouTube Video) Steve Martin is not just a talented comedian and Hollywood movie star; the actor also collects art, which he writes about in his novel, "An Object of Beauty," a story of ambition and deceit in the New York art scene. Rita Braver reports. (This story was originally broadcast December 5, 2010.)

GALLERY: Notable deaths in 2024 A look back at the esteemed personalities who've left us this year, who'd touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.

The Emmy Award-winning "CBS News Sunday Morning" is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. Executive producer is Rand Morrison.

DVR Alert! Find out when "Sunday Morning" airs in your city  

"Sunday Morning" also  streams on the CBS News app  beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET. ( Download it here .) 

Full episodes of "Sunday Morning" are now available to watch on demand on CBSNews.com, CBS.com and  Paramount+ , including via Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon FireTV/FireTV stick and Xbox. 

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You can also download the free  "Sunday Morning" audio podcast  at  iTunes  and at  Play.it . Now you'll never miss the trumpet!

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The Morning

Behind the book review’s best books list.

A conversation with the editors about the painstaking process of selecting the 10 Best Books of the year.

By Melissa Kirsch

This past week, The New York Times Book Review published its list of 100 Notable Books of 2023 . On Tuesday, a handful of those titles will be named the Review’s 10 Best Books of the year. The list is a closely guarded secret, the product of many months of passionate closed-door debate presided over by Gilbert Cruz, the editor of the Book Review, and Tina Jordan, his deputy.

Because I cannot bear to be in close proximity to a secret that I am not in on, I have, in a nonchalant — some might say devastatingly subtle — fashion tried my damnedest to get Gilbert and Tina to slip and tell me the five books of fiction and five of nonfiction their team has chosen.

They’re not easily entrapped, these two, and who can blame them for keeping the fruits of their painstaking labor secret? The nominating process begins in October of the previous year, when Review editors begin reading the books slated for publication the following January.

Come March, the staff starts meeting monthly to discuss potential titles. The books discussed in these meetings must be nominated by a staffer and have at least one other reader seconding that nomination.

Some people come with prepared speeches in support of the book they’re nominating. Others speak extemporaneously. The debate is spirited. By the conclusion of each meeting, it’s clear which books are garnering support and which are losing steam. “What you’re trying to do at that early stage,” Gilbert said, “is nominate books, but then also weed out books and keep the strongest ones so that they keep moving through the process.”

The meetings ramp up to once a week when fall arrives. Sometimes the discussions last as long as two hours. Other weeks, everyone in the room seems to quickly agree that the book up for discussion is, or is not, going to make the cut. Gilbert and Tina take anonymous straw polls of the assembled staffers: “If you had to pick three of these five books, which would you choose?”

By early October, they stop adding new books and start looking closely at the selections in relation to one another. The goal is to arrive at a list that reflects the year and is balanced — so it doesn’t have, say, two histories that cover the same time period.

“There’s sometimes an assumption that we are trying to send a statement with the list,” Gilbert said. But both he and Tina were adamant that the list is not political, and the only statement they’re making is “these are the best books of the year and you should read them.”

“We’re not engineering the list in any way,” Tina clarified. “We’re not saying, ‘Oh, gosh, at least three of the books on the fiction list need to be by women.’”

A recent study found that less than half of adults had read one or more books for pleasure in the previous year, which Gilbert called “depressingly low.” He hopes that when the Book Review’s list is published on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern, people will find something they’re excited to read. “If The New York Times can be a guide to anyone who cares about books, about the one or two books that they should be reading out of any given year,” he said, “that is a smashing success.”

The 10 Best Books from each year since 2004 .

In 2021, The Book Review asked readers to choose the best book of the previous 125 years .

Nine new books our editors recommend this week. (These titles were published too late in the year for Tuesday’s list; they’ll be eligible for the 10 Best list for 2024.)

THE WEEK IN CULTURE

Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” opened this week. Here’s what to read, listen to, eat, watch and visit before — or after — you watch the movie . ( French critics have panned it .)

Aardman Animations, the studio behind “Wallace and Gromit,” dispelled the rumors that it was running out of clay for its stop-motion films.

Shakira settled a tax evasion case in Spain on Monday before it went to trial, agreeing to pay a fine of over $7 million.

The N.F.L. star (and world-famous boyfriend) Travis Kelce explained how he and Taylor Swift met in an interview with The Wall Street Journal .

Suki Waterhouse and Robert Pattinson announced they are expecting their first child , NBC News reports.

The comedian Matt Rife faced criticism for a joke about domestic violence in his recent Netflix special, Variety reports.

BMI, the licensing agency that represents songwriters including Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar, sold itself to a private equity firm .

The TV series “Fargo” returned for a fifth season. Here’s a refresher on the previous four seasons.

The rapper ASAP Rocky will stand trial for shooting a former friend in 2021. He faces up to 24 years in prison, Pitchfork reports.

Jamie Foxx was accused of sexual assault in a new lawsuit, CNN reports.

THE LATEST NEWS

Hamas freed 13 Israelis, 10 Thais and one Filipino who had been held hostage in Gaza in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners on the cease-fire’s first day. More than 130 aid trucks reached Gaza.

“It’s only a start, but so far it’s gone well,” President Biden said of the cease-fire, adding that “the chances are real” that the two sides will extend it further .

Derek Chauvin, the former police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, was said to have been stabbed in an Arizona prison .

A growing number of Chinese citizens, frustrated with harsh Covid restrictions and Xi Jinping’s government, are entering the U.S. from Mexico .

An advertiser backlash after Elon Musk endorsed a post accusing Jews of “hatred against whites” could cost X $75 million .

CULTURE CALENDAR

By Andrew LaVallee

📺 “Faraway Downs” (Sunday): Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman star in this six-episode series about an Englishwoman struggling to protect her ranch in the Australian outback with the help of a rugged cattleman. If this reminds you of the 2008 movie “Australia,” there’s a reason: Baz Luhrmann created this new show from footage shot for the nearly three-hour maximalist original, which our chief film critic Manohla Dargis once described as “a testament to movie love at its most devout, cinematic spectacle at its most extreme, and kitsch as an act of aesthetic communion.”

🎬 “May December” (Friday): This movie is loosely based on the life of Mary Kay Letourneau, a woman convicted in 1997 of raping a 13-year-old boy, whom she later married and had children with. Julianne Moore plays Gracie, a woman in a seemingly tranquil marriage. Natalie Portman, playing an actress hired to portray Gracie in a new film, comes to study her. The film is sometimes disturbing and sometimes unexpectedly hilarious. Our pop culture reporter Kyle Buchanan called it the most fun movie at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

By Melissa Clark

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Now that Thanksgiving is over and December’s upon us, it’s time to shift our thoughts away from turkeys and cranberry sauce and toward cookie season in all its sweet glory. Baking a batch of peanut butter blossoms is a fine way to kick it all off. A classic recipe first popularized by a 1957 Pillsbury Bake-Off, these are simple enough to make with pantry staples and a bag of chocolate kisses, and even easier to devour, one chewy blossom at a time. You can substitute other nut butters for the peanut butter: Almond butter mixed with a few drops of almond extract makes for a delightfully fragrant variation.

REAL ESTATE

Storybook endings: How a Hallmark channel screenwriter secured her dream house.

What you get for $550,000: A midcentury-modern home in Sheffield, Ma.; a two-bed, two-bath condo in Chicago; or an Italianate townhouse in Richmond, Va.

The hunt: Rather than accept a rent increase, a sales representative decided to buy a studio apartment. With a budget of less than $450,000, which one did he choose? Play our game .

Christmas in September: A week after the first day of fall, the new holiday shop from the retailer John Derian started coming together.

“A gateway flaw”: Stretch marks are becoming ubiquitous in lingerie marketing . Some find the strategy disingenuous.

Don’t be that tourist: Learn from these readers’ travel mistakes .

A different kind of proposal: Brides and grooms are asking friends and family to be part of their wedding party with gifts.

ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER

We’re in the midst of the biggest gift-shopping weekend of the year. As senior editor of Wirecutter’s gift coverage, I can attest that the only thing better than scoring the perfect present for someone on your list is getting it at a discount. Wirecutter has already done some of the legwork for you: Our editors have spent the year vetting sweet, silly and sentimental gifts, and many of our picks are on sale right now . And if gifts aren’t on your mind quite yet, we’ve got you covered with the best early Cyber Monday deals to browse for yourself. — Jennifer Hunter

For vetted deals sent straight to your inbox, sign up for Wirecutter’s daily newsletter , The Recommendation.

GAME OF THE WEEKEND

No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 3 Michigan, college football: Apart from the national championship, this is the biggest game of the season. The rivalry between Michigan and Ohio State is as ancient and fierce as any in college football, and it’s even better when the teams are undefeated, as they both are this year. These are two of the country’s best defenses — Ohio State allows the fewest passing yards of any team, and Michigan gives up the fewest points — so one big play could decide this one. 12 p.m. Eastern on Fox

Michigan’s head coach, Jim Harbaugh, won’t be on the sidelines today as he finishes a three-game suspension over his team’s sign-stealing scandal .

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee . Yesterday’s pangram was factotum .

And here are today’s Mini Crossword , Wordle , Sudoku and Connections .

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox . Reach our team at [email protected] .

Melissa Kirsch is the deputy editor of Culture and Lifestyle at The Times and writes The Morning newsletter on Saturdays. More about Melissa Kirsch

Watch CBS News

Book excerpt: "Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions" by Ed Zwick

Updated on: March 3, 2024 / 9:41 AM EST / CBS News

We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article.

Writer, director and producer Ed Zwick, co-creator of the TV series "thirtysomething," and who was behind such films as "Glory," "Legends of the Fall," "Shakespeare in Love," and "Blood Diamond," recounts four tempestuous decades in the business in his entertaining new memoir, "Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood" (Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster).

In the excerpt below, Zwick discusses the creation of his Emmy Award-winning TV drama "Special Bulletin," which was presented as a fake newscast in which a terrorist group's nuclear device is detonated in Charleston, S.C. Not everyone at the network was thrilled about it.

Don't miss Luke Burbank's interview with Ed Zwick on "CBS News Sunday Morning" March 3!

"Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions" by Ed Zwick

Prefer to listen?  Audible  has a 30-day free trial available right now.

From Chapter Three: The Year of Loving Dangerously   

The year I turned thirty everything happened at once. Love, illness, success, tragedy. Throw in marriage, friendship, pregnancy, and therapy and you begin to get the picture. The problem about opening yourself to the improvisation of life is having to admit you aren't in control. Especially when life is coming at you head-on like a speeding truck in the wrong lane and there's no way to avoid the collision.

I almost forgot the fatal car accident. That happened too.

It was 1982. My career was going nowhere. After the ridiculous good luck of getting the chance to produce a network TV series at twenty-seven, I had spent the next four years writing scripts no one wanted to make and directing TV that wasn't worth seeing. It was as if there was this chasm between what I intended and what ended up on the page and screen. No matter how determined I was to be daring and original, the work came out ordinary and inauthentic. In the years since film school, Marshall and I had become inseparable. As we struggled to assimilate what they had tried to teach us in class, we became each other's scourge as well as best friend. If you find one person in your life who can always be counted on to tell you the truth, you're lucky. If you can find him in Hollywood, you've won the lottery. We were then and remain each other's first reader. After finishing a new script of mine, he would get this compassionate yet anguished look in his eye, and I knew he agreed that it sucked. To this day, fifty years on, his casually withering criticism occasionally makes me want to murder him. He'll look up from a page and say, "This part makes me tired."

Flushed with early success on Family , I had bought a little house I could no longer afford and desperately took whatever work I could to pay the mortgage, such as a low-budget indie about the Kentucky Derby where I never got to attend the race, nor go to Kentucky for that matter. Meanwhile, Marshall wasn't doing much better writing for such unchallenging fare as CHiPs (California Highway Patrol) and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers . He finally had to borrow money from his father to write an original script, promising to pay him back with interest, should it sell. It didn't. Every afternoon, when we could no longer tolerate another fruitless day of writing, one of us would call the other and we would meet at a video arcade and pour quarters into a road-racing game. Afterward we would lie on the living room floor of the house I was about to lose, whining and moaning. During one such sob session, I told him about a terrifying dream I'd had the night before about seeing TV news of imminent nuclear annihilation, and how I woke up, sweating and unable to breathe, still believing it to be real.

"We should do it!" he said.

"Pitch it as a movie!"

"I'm talking about an anxiety attack, not a development deal!"

"I'm serious," he said. "What if we were to tell a story on TV but we did it only through what you would be able to see on the news."

"You mean, like Orson Welles's War of the Worlds ?"

"Except not about aliens. We'll choose something more plausible and terrifying."

"Like nuclear annihilation, you mean."

"And we'll create all the news footage ourselves."

"Like The Battle of Algiers ?"

"Never heard of it."

And so it began.

I won't try to describe the labyrinth we had to navigate before getting NBC to agree to pay us for a script. Had they not been languishing at the bottom of the Nielsen ratings, I'm convinced they would never have given us a chance. The moment we began writing, though, it was as if fortune's wheel had turned, and our names spun to the top. We couldn't believe our luck. I imagine the movie gods gazing down on our giddy optimism, chuckling, So they want to disrupt the universe? Let's see how much disruption these two geniuses can handle ...

Here are some of the things that happen that year, 1982:

The day after we begin writing, I meet a girl in the parking garage of the old Santa Monica mall. My battered car is in the shop. I've borrowed a friend's car and can't remember where I'm parked. She is driving a beater from Dave Schwartz's Rent-A-Wreck and can't remember what it looks like. We chat as we wander from one level to another. I manage to get her number before she finds her car (which has a copy of Pascal's Pensées on the front seat).

I tell Marshall about the girl in the parking lot, rhapsodizing about her beauty, wit, and intelligence and that I think I could fall in love with her. He says, "What else is new? You say that every other week. Let's get back to work." The next day I call her, only to learn she is living with someone else. I have no choice but to get back to work. Days later, Marshall learns his now-wife Susan (yes, they had gotten back together, for now, at least) is pregnant with their first child. He's too distracted to work. The following week, the girl from the parking lot, whose name is Liberty, calls to tell me she has left the man she'd been living with. Now Marshall and I are both too excited to work. We all spend an idyllic summer watching Susan's belly grow. I ask Liberty to marry me. She says yes. Marshall and I finish a first draft.

In September we hear the network likes it. The next day Marshall gets a call that his father has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. The prognosis isn't good. He flies to Philadelphia to see him. Afterward, he joins us on Liberty's farm in rural Pennsylvania to be my best man. The day of the wedding we hear the network wants us to come to NYC to observe NBC News. After the ceremony, Susan returns to L.A. while Liberty, Marshall, and I head to Manhattan for our honeymoon. The next morning, we begin observing at NBC News.

By mid-November, the rewrite is done. Two weeks later, the network gives us the go-ahead, and everything speeds up. We begin prep in L.A., casting unknown actors since the premise only works if the audience doesn't recognize them. (This is how we first get to know David Clennon, later to become the infamous Miles Drentell on thirtysomething .) During rehearsals, I operate the video camera myself as if I am the news cameraman in the scene. When I review the footage, for the first time in my life the work is exactly as I imagined it. That night I am too excited to sleep, believing I might have a future as a director. The next day at the production office, my sister calls to tell me my mother has been killed in a car accident. I collapse in Marshall's arms.

That night I fly home to Chicago to help my sisters prepare for the funeral. Their lives had already been buffeted by my parents' messy divorce, but now they are shattered. I'd like to be able to give them the support they need, but the truth is, I am a wreck myself. On the morning after my mother is buried, I fly to Charleston, South Carolina, to meet Marshall and scout locations, burying my grief in work, not the last time that charming habit will serve me. We begin production in January. It's a grueling shoot with challenging material made even more emotional by the tumultuous events in our lives. On the first day of shooting, something is wrong with the lead actress. Whether it's nerves or a medical condition, she has a vocal problem that makes her sound nothing like a professional news anchor. Marshall and I huddle in a corner. We realize we're going to have to fire her. I've never fired anyone in my life. So, while I continue shooting, knowing everything we do will have to be redone, Marshall is on the phone with the casting director frantically looking for a replacement. We decide on Kathryn Walker and send her a script at 7 p.m. She reads it by 9 p.m. Arrives on set the next morning at 4:30 a.m. Goes on camera at 6 a.m., letter perfect and brilliant. Kathryn Walker is a goddess.

When we finish production, the network informs us they need our movie— now called Special Bulletin —on the air in six weeks. There is no such thing as a video editing system that allows for the kind of elasticity used in film editing, nor are there any film editors trained on video editing systems. That means we must cut the movie online, with little help from a news editor unfamiliar with narrative. Marshall and I hunker down in a facility in Burbank, essentially making final decisions about each sequence, one cut at a time, in sequence. And then tearing it apart when it doesn't work and beginning again. Midway through the process, Susan goes into labor. Two days later, sleepless beyond recognition, the proud father of a baby girl, Marshall stumbles back into the editing room to do the offline cut of the "news packages" to be dropped into the final cut I am finishing.

The show is due to air in two weeks, but before that can happen, Reuven Frank, the head of NBC News, insists on seeing the movie and goes berserk. He calls Brandon Tartikoff, the president of NBC, demanding that it not be aired, fearing the depiction of a nuclear event, shot as if it were really happening, would not only cause widespread panic but also bring the news division into disrepute. When we get word that the network is seriously considering not putting it on, we call Howard Rosenberg at the L.A. Times and John O'Connor at the New York Times to tell them what the network is thinking of doing. They ask to see the film. Following Werner Herzog's adage to ask forgiveness and not permission, we send it to them without the network's consent. All hell breaks loose. The controversy plays out on the front page of every entertainment outlet in the country. Everyone wants to see the movie the network won't air. Tartikoff has no choice; he must air it. But to pacify the news division, he agrees to run a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen coming out of each commercial break. We aren't happy about it, but nobody seems to notice them when they air because they were too busy raiding the refrigerator during the commercials.

The velocity of events is relentless. Rave reviews are followed by six Emmy nominations, including best movie, writing, and directing. Two days before the ceremony, Marshall's father dies. He returns from the funeral in Philadelphia barely in time to put on his new tuxedo and accept an armful of Emmys. Days later, Liberty tells me she is pregnant. I am undone with happiness, but also stupefied. Dazed after yet another acceptance speech—it could have been the Writers Guild, the Directors Guild, the Peabody, we won them all—Marshall and I find ourselves sitting on the curb outside the Beverly Hilton, clutching our little statuettes. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I turn to Marshall, or maybe it was Marshall turning to me, and affecting a comic Yiddish accent, "So, nu ... ?"

It was more dark than funny, but soon we are laughing so hard that tears pour down our cheeks. Passersby stop to stare at the two bearded guys in ill-fitting new tuxedos doubled over in paroxysms of hilarity and grief. For an entire year, no sooner had we managed to internalize one overwhelming event than we were overwhelmed by another. Was this what adult life would be like from now on? It was Newton's third law of motion made flesh: For every success there is an equal and opposite trauma. We were learning that in life it is never one thing or another, it is always one thing and another. That phrase would soon become a kind of mantra for our creative lives.

From "Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood" by Ed Zwick. Copyright © 2024 by Edward Zwick. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All Rights Reserved.      

Get the book here:

Buy locally from  Bookshop.org

For more info:

• "Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood"  by Ed Zwick (Gallery Books), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats

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Kristen Welker says her new role on NBC's 'Meet the Press' is 'the honor of a lifetime'

Kristen Welker's big moment comes Sunday, when she replaces Chuck Todd as the moderator of NBC's venerable Sunday morning news show "Meet the Press." Her first big "get": an interview with former President Donald Trump as he seeks reelection in 2024 amid four criminal indictments, to be taped Thursday at Trump's Bedminster, N.J., home.

Welker, 47, has been NBC's chief White House correspondent since 2011, and first worked at the network as a "Today" show intern in 1997 while attending Harvard University. She capably wrangled the candidates in the final presidential debate of the 2020 election and is only the 13th host of "Meet the Press," TV's longest-running show, which premiered in 1947.

She's also the first person of color to host a Sunday morning public-affairs show, and the first woman to moderate "Meet the Press" since co-creator Martha Rountree left ‒ in 1953. Todd has been a polarizing presence at the table for nine years, and will remain at NBC as chief political analyst.

"We are in full preparation mode," she says in an exclusive interview. "I'm taking the baton from Chuck at a pivotal moment in our political discourse. So it's a huge responsibility and a huge honor, and we're ready."

Welker and executive producer David Gelles are also plotting a new segment that would feature diverse voices that influence politics outside of Washington, including people from sports, science and entertainment.

After canvassing voters and elected officials this summer, Welker discusses her role, motherhood, and the fractured political climate (edited and condensed for clarity).

What does it mean to you to become the first person of color to host a Sunday morning public affairs show?  

Kristen Welker: I'm a political junkie, so this is the honor of a lifetime. It is incredibly humbling. And I think that if you asked my mother, she would tell you that the fact that I am the first person of color taking over the moderator's chair is significant for me. I am going to be focused on continuing the great legacy and mission of "Meet the Press," which is to make sure that we are holding our elected officials to account, holding their feet to the fire, making sure that I'm asking tough questions.  

What sparked your interest in covering politics? 

I grew up in Philadelphia, the bedrock of our democracy in many ways. My mom ran for city council, and so politics has always been a part of my DNA.  

You've been on the White House beat for 12 years, but some viewers may be unfamiliar with you.  What should they know? 

I am a reporter at heart. I spent 10 years in local news: Redding, California, and Providence, Rhode Island, and Philadelphia before I got to the network. So I am approaching this job as moderator as a reporter; I want to make sure that we are bringing new and relevant information to our viewers every Sunday. I'm also a mom, and I'm so proud of my Margot, and that is arguably my greatest role in life. And I'm just someone who loves to talk about politics, and so it's a huge responsibility and honor. 

You've been open about your struggles with infertility. (Welker's daughter was born via surrogacy.) Why, and what has that experience taught you? 

I wanted to share my experiences because honesty is so important. I wanted people to know the extraordinary journey of how Margot got here, and I also wanted to send a message to other families who are struggling with infertility that they're not alone. I cannot tell you how many people I've heard from who've said, "We've been going through infertility for years and the fact that you've opened up about what you've gone through has helped us." If we're open and honest about who we are and what we're going through, we have a deeper understanding of each other, that brings us closer. 

How is Margot doing? And does she know about her mom's big moment? 

Well, she's only 2! She is doing so well. She is talking up a storm. She's maybe the one person who out-negotiates and out-debates me. We've talked about this moment to her. I'm not sure how much she truly understands. The important thing is that I'm there to put her to bed every night, and it's just the joy of my life to have her, frankly, and and it puts everything in focus.

What are you most and least looking forward to about the 2024 presidential election? 

I'm least looking forward to a lack of sleep, but other than that I am just game on, excited to dive into this new role for our viewers so that they're getting the critical information that they need breaking through everything that's been discussed throughout the week. It's important to have a civil political discourse.  

Assuming we have another Trump-Biden contest, how is that going to go? 

It's a fascinating moment, because this is unprecedented. We haven't seen an ex-president run for office again in over 100 years, and so that adds an element of excitement to this potential rematch, and there are going to be obviously outside elements that make this rematch very different than what we saw in 2020.  I've really studied these two leaders, so I feel very prepared. 

You won praise for moderating a much calmer second presidential debate in 2020. What is your appetite for a repeat round – assuming there is one – if you're asked, and what's the best advice that you can offer a future moderator? 

It was a huge honor to moderate that debate (and) a huge responsibility. I worked around the clock for weeks on end with an incredible team here at NBC. We didn't want to miss a beat, and I'm going to approach every Sunday as a mini debate. So of course if I get asked again, I would be honored. My advice for any future moderator: Prepare, prepare, prepare. I was surrounded by people who could tell me, "That question needs work. Let's go back and find a sharper way to ask it." And when I sat down, I felt so confident in the questions I had before me. I was excited to ask them because I thought that the American people really needed to hear the answers, and that's the bar for every question that I will ask on Sunday, and every question that I'll ask at any future debate.  

But is it enough to just ask the right questions? What's your secret, with a candidate like Trump, for preventing it from going off the rails?

Someone gave me great advice when I was preparing for that debate, which was you want to have control in the moderator’s chair from the very moment you sit down. So that was really a guiding principle for me, and it guided the tone with which we opened the debate (and) the way in which I asked follow-up questions. It's a great piece of advice, and it's one that I frankly take with me whether I'm moderating a debate or doing an interview.  

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A vocal revolt: MSNBC personalities object to NBC News’ hiring of Ronna McDaniel as a contributor

Ronna McDaniel, the outgoing Republican National Committee chairwoman, gives her last speech in the position at the general session of the RNC Spring Meeting Friday, March 8, 2024, in Houston. McDaniel is succeeded as Chairman by Michael Whatley, who won by unanimous voice vote. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

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NEW YORK (AP) — The internal furor over NBC News’ decision to hire former Republican National Committee head Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor spread Monday, with MSNBC personalities Rachel Maddow, Jen Psaki, Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid, Lawrence O’Donnell and Joe Scarborough all using their shows to publicly object.

Maddow, MSNBC’s most popular personality, compared it to putting a mobster to work in a district attorney’s office.

“I find the decision to put her on the payroll inexplicable and I hope they will reconsider that decision,” she said on her weekly program Monday night.

There was no immediate comment on Monday from NBC News or McDaniel about the extraordinary public revolt against network management that began with former “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd a day earlier. Todd said that many NBC News journalists were uncomfortable with the hiring because of McDaniel’s “gaslighting” and “character assassination” while at the RNC.

MCDANIEL WAS HIRED QUICKLY AFTER LEAVING THE RNC

The network announced McDaniel’s hiring on Friday, two weeks after she stepped down as the RNC leader, saying McDaniel would add to NBC News’ coverage with an insider’s perspective on national politics and the future of the Republican Party.

Maddow said she’d been told that MSNBC management had signed off on the hiring, but that when staff “expressed outrage,” it was made clear that McDaniel would not appear on the cable network, which appeals primarily to liberal viewers. Since then, she said there’s been an effort in other parts of the company to “muddy that up in the press” and make it seem like that’s not what happened.

“I can assure you, that is what happened at MSNBC,” she said.

Maddow told her viewers — and presumably her bosses — that “it is a sign of strength, not weakness, to acknowledge that you’re wrong.”

The on-air MSNBC rebellion stretched from pre-dawn to late in the evening, starting with “Morning Joe” hosts Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski promising viewers they would not see McDaniel in her NBC News capacity. Brzezinski said it’s fair to seek Republican voices to balance election coverage, but “not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier.”

Wallace said that with the hiring, NBC has said to election deniers “not just that they can do that on our airwaves, but that they can do that as one of us, a badge-carrying employee of NBC News, as a paid contributor to our sacred airwaves.”

Said O’Donnell: “There is an easy way to avoid the controversy that NBC News has stumbled into. Don’t hire anyone close to the crimes.”

Psaki said she decided to speak up because, as a former press secretary to President Joe Biden, her name has been used by McDaniel supporters to point out that a former Democratic political appointee was hired by MSNBC without internal objection.

She said that for a television personality, that kind of experience in government “only matters and only has value to viewers if it is paired with honesty and good faith.”

One of those GOP critics was U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who mentioned Psaki among several others who switched to news after working in politics for Democrats, including the late “Meet the Press” moderator Tim Russert.

“But NBC hired a Republican??!!” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “It’s the end of the world.”

In a social media posting on Monday, Todd said that those who are trying to make it an issue of left vs. right were being intentionally dishonest. “This is about whether honest journalists are supposed to lend their credibility to someone who intentionally tried to ruin ours,” he said.

The “Morning Joe” hosts aired an exchange from McDaniel’s interview the day before on “Meet the Press” with current moderator Kristen Welker, who wondered why the former RNC chairwoman didn’t speak up earlier after saying Sunday she disagreed with Trump’s contention that people jailed for their part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol should be freed.

“When you’re the RNC chair you kind of take one for the whole team, right?” McDaniel said. “Now I get to be a little bit more myself, right? This is what I believe.”

THERE’S A HISTORY OF POLITICIANS AS COMMENTATORS

It’s not unusual for television news outlets to hire politicians as analysts and commentators. One of McDaniel’s predecessors at the RNC, Michael Steele, is an MSNBC contributor who hosts a weekend news program there. CBS News faced some backlash for hiring two former officials in the Trump administration, Reince Priebus and Mick Mulvaney, as analysts. Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former White House communications director during the Trump administration, became a CNN political commentator.

But McDaniel’s tacit endorsement of Trump’s false claims that the outcome of the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent makes her hiring even more sensitive, given the continuing legal and political ripples of the Jan. 6, 2021, siege at the U.S. Capitol that was an outgrowth of the fraud allegations.

David Bauder writes about media for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder

NBC News Executives Expected to Decide Ronna McDaniel’s Fate in Meeting

By Brian Steinberg

Brian Steinberg

Senior TV Editor

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Former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel has only appeared once on NBC News programming in her new capacity as a political news contributor, and already, senior executives are gathering to conduct a review.

There are some people who think NBC News may have to renege on its contributor deal with McDaniel, because the growing internal outcry about her hire means many producers and anchors will be loath to book her on their programs. Others think NBC News could stand by its decision.

NBC News spokespersons did not immediately respond to queries seeking comment.

Journalists are a quarrelsome lot and often disagree with the editorial mandates of the companies for which they work, but the backlash to the decision around McDaniel has resulted in uncommon displays of rancor. On Sunday, Todd told “Meet The Press” moderator Kristen Welker that “You got put into an impossible situation, booking this interview, and then all of a sudden the rug was pulled out from under you, and you find out she’s being paid to show up?” He added: “It’s unfortunate for this program, but I am glad you did the best that you could.”

Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow capped off a day of demonstrations on MSNBC as a parade of prominent anchors made their dislike of the decision known. Maddow delivered a half-hour monologue on her Monday evening program — commercial free, to boot — likening McDaniel to others who have tried to undermine U.S. democracy and instill authoritarian rule.

McDaniel’s hire, seen as a bid to gain access to the thinking of the current Republican party, was announced by Carrie Budoff Brown, the NBC News executive who oversees “Meet The Press” and political coverage. But Budoff Brown reports to Rebecca Blumenstein, president of editorial for NBC News, and has little say over how McDaniel might be incorporated into “Today,” MSNBC, “NBC Nightly News” or NBC News Now, the company’s streaming outlet.

Other networks have tested similar hires. CBS News’ 2022 decision to hire Mick Mulvaney, a former Trump White House chief of staff, drew scrutiny, and CNN’s 2019 effort to bring aboard political operative Sarah Isgur, a former spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice under Jeff Sessions, generated pushback after executives proposed using her in a managing editorial role.

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