Lyle Kanouse

A structural engineer (Anthony Hopkins) and an ambitious young district attorney (Ryan Gosling) become locked in a deadly battle of wits when the former is found innocent in the attempted murder of his wife in director Gregory Hoblit's tense tale of courtroom mind games. Ted Crawford (Hopkins) is an engineer who lives with his wife, Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz), in the couple's lavish Southern California home. One day, after carefully planning out the details to ensure that there is no way he can be convicted of murder, Ted shoots his wife in a blatant attempt to kill the woman. When head hostage negotiator Rob Nunally (Billy Burke) arrives on the scene to speak with Ted, he is shocked to find that the victim of the shooting is in fact his longtime lover. Though Jennifer survives the trauma of being shot in the head at close range, she hovers comatose between life and death as star prosecutor Willy Beachum (Gosling) reluctantly accepts the case while preparing to leave the Los Angeles criminal court system behind for a more promising career at a posh private law firm. Though the DA (David Strathairn) vehemently resents Beachum's lofty plan for departure, the hotshot young lawyer remains convinced that he can expedite the apparently open-and-shut case and be on his way to greener pastures in one week's time at the very most. Beachum's swelling ego betrays him, however, as his future boss Nikki Gardner (Rosamund Pike) begins to turn up the heat and fracture mechanics specialist Ted chooses to represent himself at the trial knowing well that a career spent spotting structural flaws in aeronautical systems has instilled him with just the kind of argumentative skills needed to riddle the swaggering young lawyer's "foolproof" case with doubt. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

As Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) lies unconscious, Angel (David Boreanaz) and Connor (Vincent Kartheiser) pay homage to her otherworldly spawn (Gina Torres), who promptly disappears. The awestruck pair carry Cordy back to the hotel, where she remains in a coma for the rest of the episode. Wesley (Alexis Denisof) and the others express dismay at both father and son's seeming devotion to the being who manipulated Cordelia into giving birth to it. That all changes when the being itself arrives, and again, all present fall to their knees. The being, who appears to be a serene and beautiful woman and eventually takes the name Jasmine, explains that she was one of the original powers who walked the earth before demon or man appeared. She has now arranged to be reborn on this plane so she can end the madness and destruction that reign. Gunn (J. August Richards), Lorne (Andy Hallett), and the rest of the fang gang quickly become her acolytes, ridding the city of vampires and demons even as Jasmine accumulates numerous followers merely by appearing before them. After initially expressing frenzied devotion, however, Fred (Amy Acker) grows disturbed by a momentary vision in which Jasmine's face is replaced by a maggot-infested monstrosity. When Fred connects with another L.A. citizen who appears immune to Jasmine's spell, he begs her to destroy the otherdimensional guru. But Fred's assassination attempt fails and she's forced to flee, her former friends hot on her trail. Originally broadcast April 9, 2003, on the WB network, "Shiny Happy People" marked season four, episode 18 of the supernatural soap opera. Gina Torres, who played Jasmine starting with the previous episode, is a refugee from Angel creator Joss Whedon's canceled space Western, the short-lived FOX series Firefly. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

The life and sordid, untimely death of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane are explored by director Paul Schrader in this biopic, which marks one of the few times the filmmaker has not scripted his own film. Auto Focus chronologically traces the meteoric rise of Crane's show business career, beginning with his early success as a jokey deejay on Los Angeles morning radio in the early '60s. A devout family man, Crane lives in Southern Californian comfort with his wife Anne (Rita Wilson) and their young children, relishing the modicum of celebrity his job provides him. His life begins to change, however, when his agent Lenny (Ron Leibman) proposes that he take a breakthrough role on the CBS POW-camp sitcom Hogan's Heroes. Initially reluctant to take the job, Crane signs on with the production and, to his and everyone else's surprise, the show becomes a smash hit. With celebrity comes a new set of friends, and Crane falls in with audio-visual guru John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe), a Sony sales rep who spends his days setting up home entertainment systems for the Hollywood elite, and his nights cruising strip clubs for anonymous sexual encounters. Already a pornography buff, Crane starts using his fame to secure him and Carpenter an endless parade of affairs, which they videotape and then obsessively review. It isn't long before Anne demands a divorce, and Crane marries his Hogan's co-star Patti Olsen (aka Sigrid Valdis, here played by Maria Bello), who's more accepting of his escapades. When the sitcom is canceled, however, Crane has trouble securing acting jobs, and recedes further and further into his life of amateur porn with Carpenter. Auto Focus premiered at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals before its art-house run in the fall of 2002. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Linda Marsh (Mary McDonnell) may have been hoping for a surprise on her 16th wedding anniversary, but she certainly doesn't welcome the news that her school-principal husband George (William Russ) has been carrying on an affair with the teacher of the Marshes' daughter! The breakup of Linda and George's marriage is quite a shock for the small town in which they live--almost as shocking as Linda's subsequent actions as she grimly embarks on "a search for a new life." As part of that search, Linda has enlisted her kids in her campaign to land a "replacement" head of the household. Wavering erratically between broad comedy and sentimental slush, the made-for-TV Replacing Dad was based on a novel by Shelley Frasier Mickle, and first aired March 14, 1999 on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide