Table for Two

If not for her wisdom and polished charm, you'd never believe that Sienna Miller has been working in Hollywood for two decades. The New York-born British actress, former model, and perennial tabloid fixture is not only conspicuously ageless, but she possesses an unflappability that, coupled with her improbable ambition, has assured her success in switching from film to television to stage...

The historian Douglas Brinkley has written over 20 books on everything from the American space program to Rosa Parks. But more than any other subject, his work has touched on the environment—Teddy Roosevelt’s pioneering preservation work, F.D.R.’s under-appreciated efforts to protect America’s public lands, the fight to save Alaska’s disappearing wilderness, and so forth...

One would have an easier time charting the areas Rita Wilson hasn't excelled in than those in which she has. From early turns on television, on shows such as The Brady Bunch and Bosom Buddies—alongside her future husband, Tom Hanks, on the latter—to starring roles on the silver screen and Broadway stage, to her work as a producer (Mamma Mia!, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and A Man Called Otto), Wilson has left her fingerprints on classics both past and present...

For a span of eight years, Jon Hamm existed in the collective consciousness as one character, and one character only: Don Draper. So it may not come as much of a surprise that for a long time, casting agents exclusively offered him parts like the one he was already playing on Mad Men. What they didn't know, but have since figured out, is that despite possessing every bit as much charm as his most well-known character, Hamm is capable of so much more...

Emily Blunt relishes a challenge. Her career, from early stardom in The Devil Wears Prada to later roles in Marry Poppins, A Quiet Place, and, this summer, Oppenheimer, reflects a self-imposed desire for all things difficult, different, and daring. Not to mention that the British actress—who, despite living in Brooklyn, maintains her Englishness—is also a mother, raising two daughters alongside her husband, actor and director John Krasinski...

Sarah Jessica Parker stands alongside the most instantly recognizable actresses in the world. And yet, if you go out for dumplings in New York City’s Chinatown, or loiter in the Whitney Museum—two of Parker’s favorite pastimes—or even just ride the subway, you might well run into her...

After becoming Miss America and studying at Stanford and Oxford, but before spearheading the estimable nonprofit Lift Our Voices, Gretchen Carlson spent more than a decade as one of Fox News’s eminent hosts. The rest of her story is the stuff of legend: after being fired from network in 2016, the small-town Minnesota native helped bring down the network’s slimy chairman, Roger Ailes, on charges of sexual harassment by her and dozens of other women...

Leaping from Algiers, Louisiana to the Broadway stage and, ultimately, the top-tier of Hollywood, is no simple feat. In Patricia Clarkson’s case, it required a daring jump from her native New Orleans to Fordham University, and the fortuitous, essential mentorship of actress Debra Monk. But Clarkson never truly left the South behind, and in fact she relishes her upbringing there, recalling it fondly—especially her mother’s Creole cooking...

Though Matthew Broderick enjoyed watching his father, an actor, perform on stage, he had little desire to pursue the profession himself. That is, until he scored a small part in a high school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The laughter and applause of the audience relieved some of his pre-performance jitters and simultaneously kickstarted his career...

While growing up in Massachusetts, Mindy Kaling felt like an outsider. Yet the Tony-winning producer, actress, and comedian believes that her upbringing as the child of immigrant put an edge on the singular tone and wit that defines her projects, from The Sex Lives of College Girls, soon to premiere its third season, to the forthcoming Legally Blonde 3...