Most people know Cherie Currie as the lead singer of the '70s all-girl rock band The Runaways, but it turns out that she's had at least a half a dozen other strange and dazzling careers since then, including writer, retail clerk and chainsaw artist.

Have former governors Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee chosen to forgo politics in order to cultivate their celebrity status? That's the view of our guest, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, who writes in an op-ed this week that both candidates chose to cash in on their celebrity following the 2008 elections, instead of working towards wider policy and governing experience. We also speak with Cindy Gallop, an advertising consultant and former chair of the advertising agency BBH.

A dinner bowl, a pair of sandals and eyeglasses belonging to Indian nationalist leader Mohandas Gandhi fetched a price of $1.8 million in a New York auction. The auction was marred by controversy with the Indian government demanding the halt of the sale. The Takeaway talks to the New York Times' Jennifer 8. Lee who covered the story.

Add your comment on the segment below, or call 1-877-8-MY-TAKE, as this listener from Montclair, N.J. did.

"The Australian Tourist Ministry is really looking at this as a feature-length advertisment, in the hope it will replicate the 'Crocodile Dundee Effect.'"
--Nick Bryant on Baz Luhrmann's new film, "Australia"

With just four days left until the election, early voting and new polling numbers are dominating the headlines. But comedian and satirist Harry Shearer doesn't want voters overlook the legacy of President George W. Bush and his administration. His new CD is "Songs of the Bushmen."

The Sports world perplexed at the recent announcement that Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson has legally changed his name to Chad Ocho Cinco, which is the Spanish translation of his number 85 jersey. Ocho Cinco certainly isn’t the first famous person to have a change of heart about his given name.

Seventy-five years ago, on July 28, 1933, Sheila Barrett became the first woman to make a national broadcast on BBC Radio. The anniversary got us here at the Takeaway thinking, how have American women shaped the tone and distinction of the radio waves?

President Bush summed up America's recent economic woes this week with four cool words: "Wall Street got drunk." The Takeaway asked you for more catchy crisis slogans.

The thing I remember most vividly about beginning my internship at TransAfrica Forum, the foreign policy lobbyist group founded in 1977 to pressure the U.S. Government to do right by Africa and the African Diaspora, was that I didn't want to be there.

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...

Today, Christie's auctions a memento from John Lennon: his scrawled lyrics for “Give Peace a Chance.” Lennon gave the page to then-16-year-old Gail Renard in 1969 after she and a friend climbed up a fire escape to see him and Yoko Ono during their Montreal “bed-in.”

Contributor's notes: It's not easy being Kobe

“There can only be one,” reads the tagline of the NBA’s 2008 playoff marketing campaign, splitting the faces of top players to emphasize that no one gets a participation award. Yet, the Los Angeles Lakers Game 5, 103-98 victory over the Boston Celtics, ...

Selected films:

• Michael Clayton (producer/actor, 2007)
• Sketches of Frank Gehry (director/producer/cinematographer, 2005)
• Cold Mountain (producer, 2003)
• The Firm (director/producer, 1993)
• Out of Africa (director, 1985)
• Tootsie (director/actor, 1982)
• Absence of Malice (director, 1981)
• Three Days of the Condor (director, 1975)
• They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (director, 1969)

View a slideshow of Sydney Pollack's life in movies, produced by The New York Times.