Going Clear: How to make tax-free billions in the religion business

September 9, 2015 | 9:36 am

The Binge
By Jessica Zafra

L. Ron Hubbard was a prolific science-fiction writer of the 1940s and ’50s who wanted more than the dollar per word he was paid for his pulp novels. It occurred to him that the fastest way to gain fame, fortune and power was to start his own religion.

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Vicious: Revered thespians behaving badly

September 9, 2015 | 9:31 am

The Binge
By Jessica Zafra
Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Derek Jacobi are two of the most esteemed British actors of stage and screen. Theirs are the careers that young thespians aspire to. Between them they have played Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, Uncle Vanya, Cyrano, Alan Turing, Magneto, Claudius, and Gandalf. They have played just about every great role we can think of, and now that they’re in their 70s, what is left for them to do? Well, they can play two flamboyant old queens who have carried on a love-hate relationship for 50 years.

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The raw truths and heart-rending hilarity of Transparent

September 9, 2015 | 9:21 am

The Binge
By Jessica Zafra
In the Pilot of Jill Soloway’s amazing series Transparent, the former Mort Pfefferman prepares to come out as a trans woman to his three grown children, Sarah, Josh and Ali.

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The Fourth Wall

September 8, 2015 | 1:05 pm

In theater, “the fourth wall” is the artificial boundary that separates the actors from the audience. In this spread, fashion and film collide with the help of Ang Larawan’s stellar cast.

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Four poems

September 6, 2015 | 5:54 pm

Cirilo F. Bautista, National Artist for Literature.

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From fantasy to reality: 10 films from the Gallaga-Reyes tandem

September 4, 2015 | 6:32 am

The beautiful history of the Gallaga-Reyes tandem summarized in 10 films.

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Of stages and screens

September 4, 2015 | 6:32 am

“It takes a lot of heart and integrity to be a singer. It must be rough to be compared to somebody who just got in the business and is forced to sing.” – Nanette Inventor, who was paid to “ghost-sing” for another actor.

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PriMadonna

September 4, 2015 | 6:31 am

“She embraces every moment of her life and everybody else just watches her. … She’s a Renaissance woman, I find.” — Cherie Gil on Madonna

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The unsung, ignored half of the Gallaga-Reyes movies

September 4, 2015 | 6:29 am

“No matter how highly I think of myself, it’s humiliating to be ignored.” — director Lore Reyes, who has been accused of “ruining” Peque Gallaga’s career.

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Science fiction: a ghetto

September 4, 2015 | 6:29 am

Real science fiction involves (quoting Brian Aldiss, who attempts to describe the literature): “the search for a definition of man and his status in the universe which will stand in our advanced but confused state of knowledge (science), and is characteristically cast in the Gothic or post-Gothic mould.”

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