Marcia Gay Harden’s Short List

This star of TV, stage and film–and Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress in Pollock–is currently playing an in-your-face lawyer on the critically acclaimed FX series Damages. In March she returns to Broadway, joining James Gandolfini, Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis in a production of Yasmina Reza’s play God of Carnage. It’s only fitting that this versatile actress has tastes ranging from landscape painting to Silly Symphonies.

Frozen River Saw this first in Sundance and fell in love with the beyond-powerful performances by Melissa Leo and Misty Upham. A gritty, suspenseful tale of two women who engage in smuggling immigrants over the Canadian border.

Justin Thompson This guy plays like Django Reinhardt, croons like Chet Baker and writes like Fats Waller. Swinging out of Nashville, he is the rowdy Harry Connick Jr.

A Soldier of the Great War, by Mark Helprin One of my favorite books, which I’m rereading. This gorgeous tale unfolds in Umbria as an old man walks–for three days–with a young boy and recounts his experiences in World War I, a war that the boy knows nothing about. The language is exquisite, the imagery powerful, and funny.

Larry Horowitz Breathe deeply! A landscape painter who uses the brush to make poetry. In his use of color and observations of nature, he reminds me of the glorious, magnificent world in which we live. His book lives on my desk.

Comedy on the Computer Laughing a lot at comedy shorts on websites like ucbcomedy.com and seriouslunch com Laughing with my kids at Disney’s Silly Symphonies on YouTube.