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In the final part of Morning Edition's series about Shakespeare, co-host Renee Montagne examines the theory that the Earl of Oxford — not the man from Stratford — is actually the bard and author of the world's most famous plays.

This year's Emmy nominations for Best Series include for the first time two shows on basic cable: AMC's Mad Men and Damages on FX. Matt Weiner, creator and executive producer of Mad Men, says basic cable's relatively small audience allows some "really cool shows to get made."

Fresh Air's TV critic has a look at the new HBO miniseries, created by The Wire's David Simon and Ed Burns. Generation Kill focuses on a unit of Marines during the first 40 days of the Iraq war.

Fresh Air film critic David Edelstein reviews Reprise, the first feature film by Norwegian writer and director Joachim Trier. The movie tells the story of two aspiring authors whose adolescent idealism is crushed by literary success.

Hard-boiled is the phrase most often used to describe Raymond Chandler's quintessential private eye, Philip Marlowe. The truth is: It isn't Marlowe who is hard-boiled, it's the world he lives in. For "In Character," our series exploring famous American fictional characters, NPR's Mike Shuster examines the PI who was created in the 1930s and has gone through several incarnations in radio, film and television.

The 31st Annual O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships occur Saturday in Austin, Texas. Scott Simon talks to the organizer and takes him on in a couple of rounds of the Punslingers competition.

In the Japanese anime series Death Note, high school student Light Yagami is in possession of a super-powered notebook that allows him to kill anyone, simply by writing down the victim's name. Critic-at-large John Powers offers a commentary.

The sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. intended for a memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is too "confrontational," according to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. The commission's approval is necessary for any monument or memorial in the capital. The commission says the sculpture needs to be reworked.

How can something look so bright, and move so fast, and still be so dull? Oh, right: The creators of The Matrix are involved.

There are no velvet ropes at the Velveteria in Portland, Ore., where visitors can rub velvet — or velveteen — art, including portraits of Jesus, Elvis, Liberace and Michael Jackson.