His visitors may be well-known, but are not always of global significance: the past fortnight brought Bill Cosby, an American actor, Gloria Estefan, a Cuban-American singer, Britain's Princess Diana, and Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.

ECONOMIST: South Africa

The director discusses why he chose the actors he did for his six Dylans, including Cate Blanchett as the "electric" Dylan who alienated so many fans and Marcus Carl Franklin, an African-American actor who plays a younger Dylan.

NPR: Film Provides Kaleidoscopic Portrait of Bob Dylan

The most obvious flaw is the ardent young man, Tom Fennel, an Englishman in Maugham's book but now an American played, perfunctorily, by an English actor named Shaun Evans.

WSJ: All About Annette

He had named himself after seeing a photograph of the actor Morgan Freeman in an American magazine.

NPR: An Outstanding Name for an Outstanding Student

As an actor, he was the handsome all-American good guy, which in his case required knowing his lines and being himself.

CNN: President Bush: 'Our whole nation grieves'

The indefatigable Werner Herzog has made a brilliant documentary about an American saint and fool Timothy Treadwell, a failed actor and California surfer who fell in love with the grizzly bears in Alaska and who spent a dozen summers with the bears, usually alone and always unarmed.

NEWYORKER: Grizzly Man

Our Reader Comments of the Week come from a story about actor Alec Baldwin, who apparently freaked out on an American Airlines flight when an attendant asked him to turn off his mobile device.

CNN: Tech Check: The Apple Store's secrets, the Web goes .XXX

Los Angeles (CNN) -- An American Airlines pilot booted Alec Baldwin off a flight Tuesday because the actor refused to turn off his cell phone after the plane's doors were closed for departure, the airline said Wednesday.

CNN: 'Rude' Alec Baldwin fled to toilet, booted from plane