KCRW's The Business

New music from pop star Ben Folds, popular novelist Nick Hornby and William Shatner. Plus, we check out those star maps that point out houses of the rich and famous. And what can we learn about today's shrinking A-list from a book about one of yesterday's biggest stars?

We go behind the scenes and into the control room of American Idol.

If we've learned anything from the Leno/Conan debacle, it's the value of a well written contract. We talk to one entertainment lawyer and find out exactly what he does to earn his 5 percent. Plus, the author of About a Boy and High Fidelity didn't write the movies based on his novels, but he did write the script to An Education. Nick Hornby tells us why.

The television business is crazier than ever. We try to make sense of it all with two veteran TV journalists. Plus, a look at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival with the fest's new director, John Cooper.

It's a new year and the Oscar race is in the final stretch. We go behind the horse race with two industry veterans.

The year 2009 was a crazy year for the business, and 2010 should top it. This week, its the Hollywood year to be with Cynthia Littleton of Variety and John Horn of the Los Angeles Times.

We look at the ups, the downs, the all-arounds of the Hollywood year that was with Cynthia Littleton of Variety and John Horn of the Los Angeles Times.

Pixar scored big with Up! this year, and now they're seven for seven. We chat with a member of the company's original brain trust and the director of Up! about Oscars, 3-D and making movies that almost everyone loves. Plus, James Cameron's Avatar cost hundreds of millions to make. How much green does it need to earn to put Fox in the black?

We look at the crazy story behind the new movie Crazy Heart. It's got Oscar buzz now, but it almost didn't make it into theaters. Plus, Twilight has made hundreds of millions at the box office, but a lot of other people have been riding on the cape tails of everybody's favorite vampire movie.

James Cameron's Avatar isn't just a hugely expensive sci-fi adventure ? it's a titanic bid to transform movies. We get inside the mind of one of Hollywood's biggest players with Rebecca Keegan, author of the new book The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron.