The Wachowski brothers have tumbled into a matrix of their own with “Speed Racer,” one which has rendered them completely out of touch with the outside world.

The term “best reality TV” could be considered an oxymoron.

What would “American Idol” be without Paula Abdul’s flighty flubs, Simon Cowell’s snarky frankness, Randy Jackson calling everybody “dawg” and Ryan Seacrest being, well, Ryan Seacrest?

The toughest, coolest, most ruthlessly ambitious driver in motorsports was born in Richmond, resides in Chicago, doesn’t have a driver’s license and is more familiar with the nuances of Hamlet than those of Denny Hamlin.

When Marilyn Marks was in elementary school, playing the violin was just a fun thing to do.

At 38, she’s making news, playing loose and enjoying herself

Katie Couric went from being America’s morning sweetheart to being another anchor who couldn’t fill Walter Cronkite’s shoes.

Got no talent, but still want to be a celebrity?

William Gardner leads a double life. By day, he is a high school senior at Liberty High School. However, when the final bell sounds, the 18-year-old immerses himself in his bedroom-turned-recording space and dives into his world of music known as Jupiter’s Incense.

An “American Idol” will serve as grand marshal of this year’s Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival. Festival officials announced that Fantasia Barrino, the winner of the third season of the Fox TV show, will be the celebrity marshal for the Grand Feature parade on May 3.

Over his years of teaching at the University of Virginia, professor and historian Gary W. Gallagher has noticed that his students’ understanding of history tends to be influenced primarily by Hollywood.

—WHEN: 7 p.m. tonight, Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday
—WHERE: Heritage High School
—TICKETS: $10. This is a dinner theater show, so tickets must be purchased by 4 p.m. on the day of the chosen performance. For the Sunday matinee, they must be bought by 4 p.m. Saturday. Ticket outlets are the Heritage main office, Robertson Drug Company on Fort Avenue and Givens Books/Little Dickens on Lakeside Drive.
—INFO: (434) 582-1147

—WHEN: 7:30 p.m. April 15-19
—WHERE: E.C. Glass High School’s Alumni Studio Theatre
—TICKETS: $8. Tickets can be purchased at the Glass Box Office Lobby on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 10-18, or at the door one hour before the performance.
—INFO: (434) 522-3712

—WHEN: 7:30 p.m. April 10, 11 and 12, and 2 p.m. April 13
—WHERE: Lynchburg College’s Dillard Fine Arts Center Theatre
—TICKETS: $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens over 60 and $5 for students. Box office opens April 7, and hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and the half hour before show times on weekends.
—INFO: (434) 544-8380
—SYNOPSIS: An 11-member cast will perform this sophisticated comedy, written by actor Steve Martin. It’s set in 1904 Paris at the Lapin Agile, a Bohemian cabaret-type gathering of artists, writers and musicians. One evening, a young Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso meet and spar about science, art and other topics. The show has mature themes and language.

—WHEN: 2 p.m. Sunday
—WHERE: Academy of Fine Arts Warehouse Theatre
—TICKETS: $21 for adults, $18 for seniors and $13 for students. Tickets can be purchased by phone at (434) 846-TIXX, online at http://www.AcademyFineArts.com, or at the Academy Box Office, which is open from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

NBC is bringing back “Knight Rider,” keeping “Friday Night Lights” and adding a spinoff from “The Office.”

Retirement.
Toss out the alarm clock. Book a cruise on the recliner, and sail away at your own pace. Read books. Paint pictures. Do whatever comes to mind.

Just when you think the last Western movie has been planted in Boot Hill, along comes someone to give the genre another go.

The Little Dinner Theater Players are taking their latest production on tour.

After Lynchburg native Paul Fitzgerald auditioned for the HBO miniseries “John Adams” last year, he says he forgot all about it.

Rhonda Vincent’s collaboration with Keith Urban on her latest CD, “Good Thing Going,” almost didn’t
happen.

Ready. Set. GO! Christian pop band the Newsboys are coming to town Feb. 15, a show that’s part of the second leg of their nationwide “GO” Tour.
They’re playing at 7:30 p.m. at Liberty University’s Vines Center.

Tom Peloso is hunched over his Fender Jaguar guitar, playing to a sparse backdrop of piano and bass. He pauses, lifts his head and peers into space, wrapped in the cocoon of the moment.

1930s: Soap operas first begin airing on the radio with WGN’s “Painted Dreams,” a 15-minute soap about an Irish-American widow and her daughter.