After a huge amount of publicity and hype, “The Big C” premiered on Showtime last night. The show is a comedy about something a lot of people don't like to talk about, let alone laugh over: cancer.

Laura Linney plays a middle aged woman who’s just been diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma, and given about 18 months to live. In the first episode, Linney's character, Cathy, confides her diagnosis to just one entity: the neighbor’s dog.

"I'm living the dream!" she shouts. "I'm here all year! Performing at Stage 4! Oh come on, come on, you gotta give it up for me a little bit. It's kind of funny? Death comedy." She laughs. And then starts to cry. 

In honor of “MacGruber,” which hits theatres nationwide today, we look at the best and worst movies based on Saturday Night Live sketches – from "The Blues Brothers" (quite successful) to "It's Pat" (called "shockingly unfunny") and ask: What makes for a good SNL movie? The story? The characters? The acting?

Not even today’s otherwise somber Nobel Peace Prize ceremony will prove immune from the trappings of a big award show: marquee names will introduce over-the-top performances by acts that inconceivably and incoherently share the regal Norwegian stage.

Past performers have included Sinead O’Connor, Yusef Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), A-HA, The Cranberries ... Tonight’s show is the 16th Annual Nobel Peace Prize concert. It will be hosted by Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, and will include Wyclef Jean, Toby Keith, Donna Summer and more.

Joining us now to explain some of those choices (and to expound on the award show phenomenon) is our culture critic, Mary Elizabeth Williams.

A government-backed physicians' group, the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force, recommended this week that women delay their yearly breast exams until age 50. (Previously, 40 was the suggested age to begin screening.) The recommendation has quickly sparked a national debate. People intuitively feel that more tests are always better, but health economists and doctors practicing "evidence-based medicine" say that some screenings aren't worth doing as often: They don't actually help many patients, they expose millions to risks from radiation, and they can lead to expensive, unnecessary treatments for patients who wouldn't otherwise get sick.

Mary Elizabeth Williams is The Takeaway's culture critic and a writer for Salon.com. She's been getting mammograms for years even though she's noticeably younger than the new recommended cutoff age...but she has no plans to stop. We also talk to Michael Chernew, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. Economists like Chernew run the numbers that lead to some of these controversial suggestions. And Dr. Gerald Andriole, professor and chief of urology at Washington University in St. Louis, does prostate screenings – yet another preventive-care practice now under scrutiny for its evidence-based results.

The children’s entertainment super-giant Walt Disney Corporation announced on Monday that it's acquiring Marvel Inc., the home of such superheroes as Spiderman, Iron Man and Captain America. The $4 billion deal would see Mickey Mouse on the same corporate team with the likes of the X-Men, The New Mutants and other yet-to-be-blockbuster movie action fare.  

The question now is: was this a bold and brilliant example of corporate synergy or an ungodly pop-cultural mutation? We ask Takeaway contributor Mary Elizabeth Williams, culture critic for Salon.com

 

It's back to school time, which means that while parents head to stores to outfit their kids for a new school year, schools need to refresh their supplies as well. Some economists say that the recession is easing, but both schools and parents are still feeling the financial squeeze. With us today to talk about how the retail market is doing is Louise Story, finance reporter for The New York Times, along with friend of The Takeaway Mary Elizabeth Williams, culture critic for Salon.com.

Girl Scouts start selling their best-selling cookies — Thin Mints and Tagalongs — each December. But this year, the Scouts’ annual cookie sales, which add up to $700 million a year, may not be so high. That’s because giant Wal-Mart will start stocking its shelves with its own Great Value brand Fudge Mint and Fudge Covered Peanut Butter Filled cookies next month. Some bloggers who were at the women's BlogHer convention where Wal-Mart debuted its desserts last week are crying foul, saying the retailer is trying to steal the Scouts’ sales. We discuss the cookie war with culture critic Mary Elizabeth Williams and her 9-year old daughter, Lucy, who is, in the interest of full disclosure, a Girl Scout and a darn good little saleswoman.

"I'd rather get a stimulus than a recovery."

"Look at this mob. It looks like a Will Smith movie here."

"Don't forget this is the city that greenlighted a trillion-dollar bailout and two days later couldn't figure out where the money had gone."

"Log cabin republicans? There are six, and they all hate themselves."

Watch Mary Beth Williams' collection of images from the Inauguration.

As the Bush administration fades in history, so will the little town of Crawford, Texas. The equivalent refuge in the Obama administration isn't really known. Obama is from Chicago...but he's also from Kahului, Hawaii.

Takeaway culture correspondent Mary Elizabeth Williams looks off the beaten track to find you some of the coolest Christmas gifts around.

In these last few days before the election, many of us are furiously surfing the Web looking for the clues to the outcome. We electoral-vote.com. We 538. We Gallup. Maybe we check out some goat entrails. But we're American. We vote with our wallets — especially when there's a delectable sweet or a meat lover's pie thrown in the deal.

The most accurate polls around might be a little on the unconventional side: Halloween mask sales, schoolchildren, coffee cups, and cookies.

Mary Beth Williams hits the streets of New York to look at this year's "Xtreme" polls:

New numbers show that, while everyone else is in the red, spending on breakfast foods has actually increased. What does the nation eat when times are tight?

In the world of fashion, you get what you pay for, and that’s exactly the point Britain’s House of Lords has taken issue with. Clothing chains like H and M, or Forever 21 epitomize this trend of “Fast Fashion”- where it’s in one day and out the next. Does this simply foster a culture of irresponsible waste- or is this what being “fashion forward” means in the year 2008. The Takeaway talks to their own personal shopper of sorts, The Takeaway contributor Mary Elizabeth Williams.

It’s been a year and a half since Amy Winehouse caught the ears of American listeners. Now, there’s a new crop of young singer-songwriter-types tapping the well of old- and new-school sounds. If Amy was already a throwback, what’s so new about this latest crop?

Joss Whedon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and Seth MacFarlane ("Family Guy"), two of television's most powerful showrunners, are taking their brands online. Whedon's "Dr. Horrible" will be an on-the-cheap supervillain musical. MacFarlane's "Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy" will be distributed by the advertising juggernaut Google, who just might be reinventing TV...

A new exhibit at New York City's PS1 art gallery is created from the camera-phone photos of visitors. Other artists are painting on buildings overlooking the Thames. The Takeaway's culture critic, Mary Beth Williams, talks about the disappearing lines between artist, art and audience.

I've seen the future of television, and its name is Ian Ziering...

Nobody, not even an earthy, teenage girl from Tennessee, gets her picture taken for Vanity Fair by Annie Leibovitz by accident. A multiplatinum-selling, world-famous, near-billion-dollar industry unto herself certainly doesn't.