By SHARON WAXMAN

After many years of sticking to midrange budgets and lesser-known stars, Paramount Pictures is on a mission to turn things around.

By CAROL VOGEL

The painting was confirmed to be by Johannes Vermeer after years of study and will go on the block this summer, the company announced on Tuesday.

By JACQUES STEINBERG

Air America, which makes its debut on Wednesday with Al Franken at the microphone, intends to challenge the hegemony of conservatives on commercial talk radio.

By FRANK J. PRIAL

Alistair Cooke was the urbane and erudite British-born journalist who was a peerless observer of the American scene for almost 70 years.

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

The performances of Deborah Voigt and Jane Eaglen demonstrated how great vocal artists can take you to the core of a character regardless of how they look.

By DAVE KEHR

At first glance this Japanese documentary looks like a simple sentimental paean to a vanishing way of life, but it turns out to have something more on its mind.

By ALAN RIDING

A new retrospective on Joan Miró at the Pompidou Center in Paris focuses on his struggle to find his own artistic identity.

By STEPHEN HOLDEN

Mr. Bey's cool, resonant voice and lingering phrasing evoked a mood that was beautiful yet tragic at Le Jazz au Bar last weekend.

By A. O. SCOTT

Kim Ki Duk, in this exquisitely simple movie, manages to isolate something essential about human nature and at the same time to comprehend the scope of human experience.

By D. J. R. BRUCKNER

The mournful history of Tibet in the 20th century gradually emerges from this soul journey by Ernest Abuba at the West End Theater.

By NEIL GENZLINGER

Mark St. Germain's study of two F.B.I. agents who are monitoring John Lennon seems written for people who were visiting Mars during the 1970's and 80's.

By MICHAEL KAZIN

Susan Jacoby sympathetically recounts the efforts of secular rebels against spiritual authority throughout American history.

By JESSE McKINLEY

To avoid another strike on Broadway, Actors' Equity and the League of American Theaters and Producers have to come to terms with the problem of non-Equity tours of Broadway shows.

By JACQUES STEINBERG

Clear Channel Radio will begin to syndicate Mr. Jackson as the host of a weekly broadcast, where the Reverend plans to examine contemporary issues.

By ALLAN KOZINN

Derek Bermel's "Soul Garden," a work that was excerpted in an earlier performance, was enjoyed in its entirety on Sunday.

By WOLFGANG SAXON

Art James was a host and announcer for television game shows such as "Say When!" and "Family Feud Challenge."

By CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT

John Sack was a pioneer of New Journalism who was best known for his reporting from Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.

By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Emily Morison Beck was the self-described literary archaeologist who edited three editions of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.

By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

Legal dispute on movie screeners settled; New Yorker critic becomes dean of Parsons; Jack Black to star in new King Kong movie.