Lucky Luciano

Here at Friday @ 5, we're no judge of the context in which you consume your cocktails. This writer, for one, happens to enjoy mixing a good drink while watching television. So when we found out that HBO's Prohibition-rooted "Boardwalk Empire" returns...

It's fall on PBS, when the big documentary blockbusters heave into view; and nobody builds them bigger than Ken Burns, whose name always seems to be part of the title, even when it isn't: "Ken Burns' Baseball," "Ken Burns' Jazz," "Ken Burns' Civil War."...

Late in the pilot of "Boardwalk Empire," Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) peers into a fortune teller's shop, watching her read someone's palm. The camera frames him through the glass front door, the writing on the door standing out in front......

For the over-60 crowd, making gangster movies is like Viagra. It just keeps the creative juices flowing. The younger generation of moviegoers has only the spottiest of interest in mob stories, since the last actual gangster to even remotely capture......

One of the things that's really working for me on "Boardwalk Empire" is the fact that the show is so fearless about showing people in their most private of moments. Aside from a couple of big mob moments in Sunday......

The SAG Award nominations are out, and the Actor's Guild did its usual bang-up job of recognizing films filled with fine performances. Natalie Portman, Jeff Bridges, Colin Firth, Melissa Leo, Hailee Steinfeld (“TRue Grit”), Amy Adams, all very...

The awards season routine established before the Golden Globes held true last night as “The King's Speech” picked up best ensemble and best actor (Colin Firth) prizes, Natalie Portman won best actress, Melissa Leo best supporting actress and...

THEATER REVIEW: "Lady X" ★★½ Through June 19 at Mary's Attic, 5400 N. Clark St.; Running time: 2 hours; Tickets: $15-20 at 800-838-3006 or www.brownpapertickets.com Aesthetic life for David Cerda, the grand maestro of Hell in a Handbag Productions,...

When "Boardwalk Empire" creator and executive producer Terence Winter called Steve Buscemi to tell him that he had landed the lead role in HBO's new epic series about Atlantic City in the 1920s, the highly respected actor didn't believe it;......

New Oscar nominee Michael Shannon is taking a stroll on the "Boardwalk" with HBO. Shannon, whose scene-stealing performance in "Revolutionary Road" earned him a best supporting actor nomination last week, has joined the cast of "Boardwalk Empire" at...

Before Tony Soprano or Don Corleone or Tony Montana there was Lucky Luciano -- the real-life patriarch of modern organized crime. Luciano was the Sicilian immigrant who rose to power in the Mafia in the U.S. in the 1920s and transformed it into a...

As a child growing up half wild on a remote Arizona ranch, Andrew Earle looked forward every summer to his family's annual trip East. Cowboys would take Andrew and the rest of his family--mother Cynthia, brother Tony, two adopted children from Central...