'Paul Williams: Still Alive'

Banter

The Banter ()

Kim Masters and guest banterer Michael Schneider, L.A. Bureau Chief of TV Guide Magazine, banter about some of this week's top Hollywood News stories. (John Horn is on vacation.)

- The Justice Department looks into whether cable companies are capping the amount of bandwidth being provided to homes in order to inhibit online viewing.
- CBS sues ABC for ripping off Big Brother in order to make the new show Glass House.
- Broadcast networks make their final upfront ad deals and don't come out ahead of last year.

Main Topic

Paul Williams and Stephen Kessler ()

Paul Williams was perhaps the foremost songwriter of the 70's and 80's. He wrote or co-wrote hits like "The Rainbow Connection" and the Oscar-winning song "Evergreen," which was the theme to the Barbra Streisand film A Star is Born. He was also a fixture on The Tonight Show and The Merv Griffin Show and made guest appearances in prime time and on game shows. But in recent years Williams has been largely absent from Hollywood. Stephen Kessler sought out his childhood hero expecting to find someone worse off than when he was at his peak. Instead he found a grateful man with nearly two decades of sobriety who looked back on his life in the limelight with a mixture of shame and good humor.  He documents it all in Paul Williams: Still Alive.

Guests:

• Paul Williams: songwriter, singer and actor
• Stephen Kessler: filmmaker